This weekend I finished the Gilgamesh section of the Impossible Read by watching the "Darmok" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation with Eldest. I'm glad that I watched it with them because we paused the video many, many times to share context, discuss insights, and ask, "what was that last line again?" It was an incredibly moving episode — one I had not seen when the series was new — and Captain Picard said something the final segment that underscored why I'm doing my Impossible Read in the first place.

First of all, I hope this post looks okay. On my end it's not showing up with the usual font or even in the usual size; I have made some adjustments so that I can better see it as I type. Maybe that won't make a difference on your end at all. Maybe it WILL. But the words should be the same.

I'm composing this in a state of mild exhaustion after having shoveled the driveway between two rounds of un-forecast snow in my area. I had to drive yesterday morning to do grocery shopping and I must drive tomorrow to spend the day with friends I haven't seen since their wedding two summers ago, so today was the day the shoveling had to be done.

It's been a whirlwind of a week as I completed another house-sitting stint. Because I used my lunch break to drop in at my own house to pick the next day's clothes (as well as anything I had forgotten to pack), I ended up driving in figure eights all week long. What was left of my free time after driving that many miles was used up by reading and journalling, after spending the working hours looking at papers and screens.

Last week I watched all of the Lord of the Rings extended editions, which I had purchased one by one many years ago — from Walmart, if I recall correctly, which I might not. The second and third sets were still in the shrink wrap, and after unwrapping them I found that I had just missed out on an offer to purchase a custom slipcase for the three sets for only $5, by about twenty years.

I have come to the end of Return of the King — and with it, the Lord of the Rings saga. Somewhere in the middle of the saga I realized that I had never actually read beyond the first book or so, so the actual ending of the story was new to me. After the book concluded I took a break for about 24 hours, then slowly made my way through Appendix A and some of the rest of the histories of Middle-Earth.

I'm a little under the weather this weekend, and will try my best to take it easy this week. But I just had to show you the (ahem) vintage typewriter that I recently acquired. It's a late 1965 Royal Safari, probably celebrating its 60th birthday about now, and it's hard to believe the good condition it's in. The seller didn't know anything about its history or its former owner, but it seems to have been used lightly, tucked back in its case and set aside for several decades, then put out as decor just long enough to attract some dust to the type basket.

I'm please to share that today I started reading Return of the King for this section of the Impossible Read, and I hope (hope hope hope) it's not too early to predict that I'll be able to finish the book and start watching the movies over the holidays. A friend suggested that, as I watch the movies, I keep track of the number of sins of omission (i.e., things in the books that were left out of the movies) and the sins of commission (i.e., things that were changed no no reason or for poor reasons).

About halfway through this semester of sitting in on a calculus class, I realized that the first time I took a calculus class was exactly forty years ago. First of all, let me be clear that I'm not sure how that is even possible. Second of all, I actually didn't need to take it then to fulfill my university math requirement and I didn't need to take it (or revisit it) now.

I must admit that in the last week I have not made much progress on my research project. However, I can report that my knee is healing, my house is slightly more organized, and everything seems to be going well at work. Who could ask for anything more? Over the weekend I have added more small "wins" to my total. I have completed a knitting project (see below), fixed a broken coffee machine, and...done a lot of household chores?

It was a productive weekend in all sorts of ways, except for the amount of pleasure reading — sorry, Tolkien. But I am slowly making my way through The Two Towers. I'm not to Isengard yet, but a lot of folks are on their way. Most of the work I did this weekend was in the house. Earlier this year — spring?

My banged-up knee is healing nicely a week later, at least as far as the skin is concerned. I have been avoiding stairs as much as possible but have been able to walk on level ground and some mild inclines. I never got a follow-up from Osteo or the physical therapy place as I expected, which I choose to interpret as a vote of confidence in my ability to heal myself.

Last week was going pretty well, up until Friday morning. Got up, walked the dog, got ready for work — then slid down the last foot of the ramp, pitched forward, and landed smack on my left knee. After I managed to get myself vertical again I knew I was going straight to the emergency room. Two hours and a few very painful x-rays later, I was free to go with my diagnosis of a contusion of the patella (AKA a bone bruise on the kneecap).

Slowly, slowly I have begun to work on my home library. After the near-collapse of a shelf of records a few weeks ago I started to focus on gradually eliminating the double-stacking on my bookcases, which were (and still are) headed towards the same fate. I combined the storage of books with cataloguing, and this afternoon I moved two paper cartons full of books to an out-of-the-way place upstairs.

This week featured much organizing and reorganizing. My life (and my house and my office) may not look any simpler or cleaner from the outside, but I feel as if I'm back on the right path. And I highly recommend finding a way to learn about calculus without taking any quizzes or tests. They are so stressful! The Impossible Read has been going well, and this weekend I read…

Last week, I just plain ran out of time to write a blog post. Since that time I have been looking at my priorities and realigning them quite a bit. The things that I was trying to do, while worthy, were taking away any time I might have had to work on my research project. As soon as I saw that clearly, I made a change that allowed me to re-center the project, relax, and feel happy again (instead of feeling so far behind that I might never finish doing everything I had added to my list).

I may not have mentioned it, but this semester I have been sitting in on a calculus class in preparation for re-enrolling as an undergraduate — again — and taking the class for real next semester. I frequently need to remind myself that the reason I'm sitting in is to find out in which areas I need to do more preparatory work.

It's been a fantastic and unprecedented week for The Impossible Read. Last Sunday, after watching a YouTube video on Beowulf from Overly Sarcastic Productions, I sat down and read the Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf. On Wednesay evening I saw the work performed on campus in an exciting one-man show. On Thursday I read Bea Wolf, a child-themed graphic novel that was faithful to the spirit of the original work (thanks, Brick, for the referral).

Last week I was house-sitting for friends, and just as I was wrapping up my stay and moving my things back to my car, I managed to accidentally lock myself out. This is actually not the first time that this has happened while house-sitting for these particular friends, but last time it happened in the dead of winter and the situation became a bit more precarious over time.

The new school year has come in like a tsunami, but by Friday most things had settled down a bit at work. This week will be the first full week of classes, and we'll see if we have built up enough stamina to sustain the pace. The departments are already checking the proofs of the Spring 2026 schedule, which always seems a strange thing to do when the Fall schedule has just barely begun.

The blog is fine; it's the house that is undergoing work this week. Last Friday a crew showed up to clean our house's metal roof and lay down a first coat of paint on the upper roof. This morning two crews showed up to... do something. We hadn't known they were coming, and it seems as if the first crew set up supplies for the second crew, who spent some time on the lower roof doing we-know-not-what and left.

This has been a weekend for relaxing and recovering, as I get ready for the final push of organization and "paperwork" before the fall semester starts next week. Two people are in the final stages of the hiring process. There are phones to set up, nameplates to install. Bookcases and books to move, and directories to update. And we haven't even started hiring the student workers yet; oh, joy!

After setting up what I call a "research area" in my TV room last weekend, I have been tempted to do the same kind of work in other rooms in my house. I accept that I do own more things than I am able to neatly display and store, and I affirm that clutter has taken over in a few key places.

No, really — this week, the images for this post depend upon whatever is generated by your imagination. My big research project got a big boost this weekend when I created a new workspace for it. Honestly, I hadn't meant to do this. But we had storms roll through the area at 5 o'clock this morning, and while I was sitting in the dining room consoling the dog (and having two cups of coffee) I started to take measurements and sketch out plans for a way to create a new layout in the TV room that would give me a dedicated space for research and writing.

July came to a close with some wild variations in temperature, humidity, precipitation, and windspeed. And for the last two mornings I have left the house and thought that the weather was "pleasantly cool." That isn't something I often think at the end of July, which does make me wonder if the late summer and autumn that are approaching will be anything like they have been before.