1986-08 (August)

Saturday, August 16th[1986] Up at 7; cereal breakfast.Began Kafka’s Trial. Rain from 7a.m. to 3p.m. Walked 1.5 when it finally stopped.Sent Hugs a letter; also, separately + book rats, an everyman edition of Bleak Housewhich I’d bought him, second-hand, just over three years ago.Dinner at Country Club with Caroll + Richard Leatherman—his 60thbirthday. Fellow guests, Bobby + Billie Crenshaw. Home before 10.

Sunday, August 17th[1986] Continued Kafka’s Trial. Don’t enjoy it nearly as much as on previous readings; I seem to hear the machinery creaking—realistic details imbedded in dreamlike fantasies.

Monday, August 18th[1986] Up at 7. Isaiah back, cleaning courtyard. Weather fair + not too hot, after four days of off-+-on rain.Recorded 60-min. cassette—Mozart violin sonatas 6, 7, + 13; Completes three-cassette set. Finished Kafka’s Trial. Admiration increased through the final chapters, especially “In the Cathedral” + “The Execution.”Isaiah is nearing the end of the big clean-up. Tomorrow, the sixth, should be the final day. Walked 2.5 miles in exactly 40 minutes. Played Beethoven’s third.

Tuesday, August 19th[1986] Paid gwyn’s + Huger’s hospitalization insurances for ’86-87-$860 plus $337. Total, with my $693, came to $1,889. Whew!Isaiah due for final clean-up but couldn’t make it; called to say he’d come tomorrow. Clendennin (mr. Atertson) came by to say he will resume furnace-work tomorrow. Junk gathered came of removed debris from old furnace from driveway. Memphis State professor called with offer of $2,000 for two-day participation in Riverside Writers Program, Oct. 607; a lecture on Monday + a reading on Tuesday. Again walked 2.5 in exactly 40 minutes, including a half-minute stoplight wait.Austeen’s daughter came by + carted off all 128 volumes of the ORs, my old twenty-year companions.Began Conrad’s Typhoon, a very favorite.Bombay Bicycle for dinner.

Get Adams History,Roundtable Wednesday, August 20th[1986] Finished Typhoon; a true tour-de-force, as good as anything of its kind in any language. What it lacks in depth it more than makes up for in brilliance of surface. Round Table bookstore; got the two-volume used edition of Henry Adams’ History of the U.S. During the Administrations of Jefferson + Madison. I look forward to a good long read, perhaps not up to Parkman but in its way as good.Clendennin crew continued installation of boiler—mainly pipes. Isaiah completed six-day cleanup; did a good job of it, front + back.