Later That Day

I just went to retrieve my daughter from her friend's house, where she'd spent the afternoon swimming. I really don't want a pool, but admit that times like that, I think passingly of how nice it'd be. The Plan, such as it is, is that if we ever build a house, we'll have an indoor pool, possibly one of those motorized ones that are about twenty feet long and ten feet wide. Not sure about that.

The afternoon has been placid. We went to the store for groceries, and I picked up some flicks at Blockbuster. I find that exercise is way easier if there is guy-type video on, so one of the ones I picked was the most recent Casino Royale. But then I had to go sit down for a while, because I was feeling a little dizzy. I've been having a problem on occasion where my blood pressure drops -- it was about 95/50 when I'd checked it before going out -- and I have to walk slowly and take deep breaths. Makes me feel old, I can tell you -- in fact, I went to sit down in the grocery store, and the bench was in use by an elderly woman with a walker. Not quite there yet. I think its partially because I've eatten so little today -- I tried a piece of sausage this morning, and that went very poorly -- five hours later, my jaw still ached! -- and I'd not had lunch. So when we got home, my wife made me something to eat, and then I more or less collapsed into bed and snoozed for about an hour. I just looked, and now its about 99/60, which is better, diastolically, anyway.

I'm well into that Donna Leon novel. She really has a wonderfully evocative style -- one reviewer said that Venetians (most of her novels are set in Venice) have a private, personal style that they don't share with others, let alone tourists, and these novels make you feel as if you're privy to some of that style. The books are not, as a rule, shoot-em-ups, but languid and careful novels about police investigations (I think that the style is called 'procedural'). I normally like faster paced fare, but for these, I'll make an exception.