MORE POTPOURI

A STRANGE BOOK

I finally finished reading "The Island of the Day Before" by Umberto Eco. The book was translated from the Italian by William Weaver and has to be one of the weirdest books I ever have read. Eco, the author of the best-seller, "The name of the Rose", tells the story of a man trapped on a ship-wreck just a short distance from an island that he believes to be set on the meridian that separates today from the day before. In telling his tale Eco wanders back and forth in time and across the face of the globe. His story is a mystery, a romance, a comedy, full of science and philosophy. You hardly ever know where the story will take you. In the end it just sort of slips away. There were times when I was tempted to give it up and other moments when I couldn't wait to turn a page. I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll read it again. Better try "The Name of the Rose", if you want to read Eco/

Now I'm on to Joseph Ellis' "Founding Brothers", a book about the major characters of the American Revolution. I've only just begun, so I can't say much about it, other than that the first couple chapters are quite interesting. Ellis was on PBS the other night with David McCollough and others talking about John Adams, who gets his share of attention in this little book.

SKIN CANCER

My doctor has me treating my skin cancer with a cream application called Efudex. It has me feeling like Kramer in the Seinfeld episode in which he looks in the mirror and exclaims. "I'm horrible!" The cream causes your skin to erupt in the places where the sun has damaged it. It requires at least a couple weeks of application and several weeks after for getting back to normal. I should have listened to my mother when she warned me to "stay of of the sun".

THE ROBINS ARE BACK

Our morning walks usually take us out to some vineyards on the north side of town. The road out that way is lined with bushes and trees. I caught this fellow sitting in a bush the other morning. He let me get fairly close, but there were still some branches in the way, so the picture isn't great:




Today we walked in another direction and this horse came over to greet us as we wandered by. She's a friendly animal, a little on the elderly side, I think:

That's all for today!