~ a papier-maché sun i made; yes, green ~

8:30 a.m.
Started reading Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook last night after getting into bed. The author’s preface alone has got me excited about getting into the meat of the book.

“Nothing is personal, in the sense that it is uniquely one’s own. Writing about oneself, one is writing about others, since your problems, pains, pleasures, emotions — and your extraordinary and remarkable ideas — can’t be yours alone.”

“The other thing taught from the start is to distrust one’s own judgement. Children are taught submission to authority, how to search for other people’s opinions and decisions, and how to quote and comply.”

“What women will say to other women, grumbling in their kitchens and complaining and gossiping, or what they make clear in their masochism, is often the last thing they will say aloud — a man may overhear. Women are the cowards they are because they have been semi-slaves for so long. The number of women prepared to stand up for what they really think, feel, experience with a man they are in love with is still small. Most women will still run like little dogs with stones thrown at them when a man says: You are unfeminine, aggressive, you are unmanning me.
It is my belief that any woman who marries, or takes seriously in any way at all, a man who uses this threat, deserves everything she gets.”

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New leaves have popped out, kelly green, and yesterday’s rain has lushed up the grass. There are still stupendously large flocks of geese passing over. From two miles away you see them flying across and a mile beyond a road, and after you’ve passed it and gone another two miles, they are still coming from as far away as the eye can see. Astounding numbers.

And my sweetie should be home tonight!

7:15 pm
I’m trying to hustle so Barney and I can go down and watch The Three Amigos before it gets too late. He’s putting on his pyjamas and has yet to make his lunch for school tomorrow, and I’d like to get supper tidied up before, because I won’t feel like it later.

Don is still eating buffalo chicken wings. Of course. He’ll be at the table for some time yet.

We had just gotten set up to watch the movie last night, when the power inexplicably went off as I was talking on the phone with Loverboy. He suggested looking out the window to see if the lights were on at the other house. They were, so it was a bit of a mystery once I’d checked the breaker box and nothing was flipped, so L phoned Pa, who turned it back on by flicking the switch at the pole.

He phoned later.
“Kathy?” he always says. “If you thought it was a prowler, it was me in the bush trying to find what went amiss. Didn’t see anything. Maybe it was a fluke.”

As soon as the power was back on, I came upstairs to make popcorn. By the time I got back, Barney was asleep on the couch and not waking up when I spoke to him. I let him sleep, and ate popcorn by myself while Don did the same in their bedroom and listened to Dire Straits. He’s gung ho about The Walk of Life these days.

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This afternoon we went to the bargain store so the boys could shop. Don toured the aisles and finally got to see a former neighbour, after talking about her almost obsessively since we moved back. Barney found everything with a price sticker of 25 cents and loaded up on candied popcorn and such.

Then we headed to my home town, where a heavy lightning and thunderstorm was under way. Don sat it out, waiting in the van, while Barney and I hurried through the rain to sit in the living room with Grandma.

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It’s time for the watering and migrating of bedding plants. We went to the greenhouse yesterday, with a blank cheque in my pocket. Came home with tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, echinacea, and blooming pink petunias. The extravaganza has begun.