December 21

Friday December 21, 2007 6:15 am Lethbridge, Alberta

It is -9 C with a high forecast of -3 C. Sunrise 8:26 Sunset 16:33 Hours of daylight: 8:07

A. Morning Musings

6:05 am

Snow! The forecast was for a few overnight flurries but there is about 3 - 4 " of the white stuff outside. Beautiful.

For the first day since we returned home from Australia, I will not have a list of chores to handle. But I will need to shovel the sidewalk and driveway. Shovelling will be a good calorie burner. Even better, the forecast is for continuing sub-zero temperatures. We will have a white Christmas this year. Excellent.

I bought some special stationery yesterday. The idea is to begin a separate journal using my fountain pens. I have not been able to find a journal book similar to those that I saw in Australia so have decided to try using individual sheets which I will file in a looseleaf binder.

9:20 am

Immediate	Description	Time
Model Trains	Review of DCC and previous activities from early spring	2 hr
Literature	"Seven Types of Ambiguity " by Elliot Perlman	2 hr

B. Actual Learning Activities

9:20 am

The front sidewalk and driveway are clear of snow. The truck has been swept clear as well. My heart rate was 66 before I began, 88 while shovelling, and it is now back to 66. The 88 is on the low end of a suggested range for doing exercise. I was definitely not pushing myself.

There is enough snow now to go cross-country skiing in Nicholas Sheran park. That is rated as a "best" exercise. There is no excuse for not getting out.

I spent the first hour this morning practicing my handwriting while trying to write a more personal morning entry. I have a long way to go.

writing

Here is a scan of my first effort.

write

There is something faintly amusing about handwriting a page and then scanning it so it may be viewed electronically.

12:00 PM

A promotional brochure from Chapters described a new feature of their web site called a "community". It lets anyone who joins the service to read or write reviews, recommend books to friends, create and share my top 10 lists and it has a profile section where one can indicate what book they are reading at the moment as well a list of my all time favorites and a list of what I plan to read soon. One serious weakness is that the data base only includes books that are available from Chapters. I immediately lost interest in it at that point. But I was intrigued with the idea of writing a review, making a recommendation, indicating what I am reading at the moment as well as creating a list of my all time favorites and a list of books I plan to read soon. Let's see if I can set this up here.

Fiction
	I Just Finished Reading	"The Fugitive" vol 6 of "In Search of Lost Time" by Proust
	I Am Reading Now	Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman
	I Plan To Read Soon	Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
Nonfiction
	I Just Finished Reading	The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
	I Am Reading Now
	I Plan To Read Soon
Recommend
	Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life (2005) by Julia Briggs
	The View From Castle Rock (2006) by Alice Munro
	Passage to Juneau (1999) by Jonathan Raban
	A Spot of Bother (2006) by Mark Haddon
	Runaway (2004) by Alice Munro
	Baudolino (2004) by Umberto Eco
	The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy
	The Brothers Karamasov (1990) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
	Where Have All The Leaders Gone? (2007) by Lee Iacocco
	Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut
	Bel Canto (2001) by Ann Patchett
	Pushkin: A Biography (2002) by T. J. Binyon
	Kafka on the Shore (2005) by Haruki Murakami
	Howards End (1910) by E. M. Forster
	Since Daisy Creek (1984) by W. O. Mitchell
	A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2001) by Dave Eggers
	Three Dollars (1998) by Elliot Perlman
	First Love (1860) by Ivan Turgenev
	The Sound of One Hand Clapping (1997) by Richard Flanagan