Had the air conditioning on in the car today. It’s January 17. 76 degrees here in Atlanta, according to our car’s gauge. A week ago, ice on the roads kept the workers away from finishing our house. I read last week that another big chunk of Antarctica has an 11-mile crack and may be about … read more A summer’s day
Tag: 1997
New Year’s Eve in Timbuktu
Dec. 31, 1996-Jan. 1, 1997 In Timbuktu, the world is sand. The streets are sand, the houses are sand, the hills beyond are sand. Timbuktu is ancient; it rose from the sand, the sand has taken the place of time. In the twilight, Timbuktu seems as though it could sink again into sand. I walk in … read more New Year’s Eve in Timbuktu
Driving Ms. Zoe
Sky, trees, sky, air, sky, sun, sky, road, sky, speed. There’s nothing quite like driving topless on an autumn day. It feels like it’s me who’s topless, as much as the car is. Liberated. Sun-kissed. A fast girl. Tom’s Z3, who is named Zoe because it suits her, will be 20 next year. Tom has … read more Driving Ms. Zoe
The World Series, part 2
[Continued…] I’m still not sure how my boyfriend Ed convinced a bunch of women at my newspaper to form a softball team. Maybe women just liked him. I’m also unclear how he convinced me to start lifting weights. He was a fanatic about that, too. I got a membership at the local YMCA. I swam laps … read more The World Series, part 2
Day 89: A place on Mars
In The Martian, Matt Damon is stuck on Mars farming potatoes. I seriously envied him. You may recognize the landscape of this movie from Lawrence of Arabia – or from other movies about Mars, as well as another movie by Ridley Scott, Prometheus. And if you’ve been there, you know that reddish rock cannot be any place other than Wadi Rum, in … read more Day 89: A place on Mars
Day 30: If I live to be 97
The phrase has been running daily in my head for the past month: “If I live to be 100…” Until recently it was simply a hyperbolic expression of the impossible, along the lines of “If I had a nickel for every time that…” It didn’t seem that living to be 100 could be possible. Or … read more Day 30: If I live to be 97