Among this weekend's relatively tame plans, I have new books to read: two by Sir Steven Runciman, Mistra: Byzantine Capital of the Peloponnese and Byzantine Civilization.
Readers from 2023 may remember that we visited Mistra (Mystras) during our trip to Greece (here, here, and here). I had never heard of it before then; it is a wonderful slice of previously unknown history to me, the sort that fills a historian with joy. The Byzantine Civilization book was originally printed in 1933 (this is the third printing, 1948). Both a history book and an old book.
My cup runneth over.
I also, for the first time in my life, purchased a book on the day of its release: Rod Dreher's newest book Living In Wonder.
Dreher has become a favorite of mine; he publishes a Substack here and occasionally has viewable posts (they are well worth the look when they are unlocked; to make it easy you can join the mailing list and only get notified when those posts appear). I have reviewed his previous books The Benedict Option and Live Not by Lies (and a reconsideration of both from earlier this year here). Dreher has become one of my favorite modern writers, and he considers this to be the final volume in what he has come to understand is a trilogy: The Benedict Option, Live Not by Lies, and now Living in Wonder.
This is a "read uninterruptedly on the plane" book. I am eagerly anticipating it.
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The next week begins a rather tumultuous two month period which (more or less) sees me essentially skidding to a halt just before the end of the year. I travel next Thursday through Sunday to The Master Sergeant's funeral and some general family time, then return the following weekend to The Ranch with The Ravishing Mrs. TB for a re-culling of items and what is likely to be the final acts in the settlement of the estate. I am back in New Home 2.0 for a weekend (including my first volunteer event for a local rabbit shelter), then back again to The Ranch. The week after is Thanksgiving: The Ravishing Mrs. TB, Nighean Bhan, and Nighean Dhonn are flying in to spend the holiday with me.
December is mostly spent here, with a volunteer project from the men's group I am a part of and my first company Christmas Party since 2015 (with The Ravishing Mrs. TB). This is also the time when the head of my sword school with be in town for training - no idea what the schedule will be, but at least three days a week through Christmas. I fly to New Home on Christmas Eve and return the following Saturday; I am trying to figure out if there is one more trip to be made to The Ranch before the end of the year (likely it would be a single day trip; I think I can make that happen). With that, we would stumble into the New Year.
I am spending New Year's here, alone with Joy. Likely I will be in bed by 2200.
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The relocation of The Ravishing Mrs. TB remains somewhat still up in the air.
Her position has been posted, but there have been a minimum of candidates apply, and none of them qualified. On the one hand, her still having a full time job there is a financial boon and if it could continue through February or so, that would be amazing. On the other hand, she has mentioned that she is sort of at a point that she is simply ready to be done. I understand that.
One thing that is likely to happen whenever she relocates is that she likely going to do what I did for four years: take up to 1 week long visits to her mother. One reason is to help her with the settling of things post Master Sergeant; the other is that her mother has some health issues that she can finally address as up to this point she has been The Master Sergeant's primary caregiver. We are much closer, so it is an easy enough nonstop flight (I assume; we will see what the airline industry looks like next year).
It will be nice to have her here. I am sure Joy the Rabbit is tired of being my only conversational partner.
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I feel I should apologize a bit for my writing over the past month or so. I do not really feel like it has been my best effort. To be openly honest, I have been dragging the last month or so for reasons I do not fully understand. I can tick off any number of things that it might be the case, but in point of fact I continue to almost feel some kind of block in writing. It is not that I have nothing to write of; based on the list above I have a great deal. It seems to be more of a matter of reminding myself that writing is as important as any other activity I do (more so, in some cases). Writing in the morning is pretty much defunct at this point due to needing to be at work, so writing now occurs in the evenings and in some cases is "bunched up" for several days (for example, likely I have 1.5 weeks worth of material to write between now and next Wednesday night).
I am sure I will find my "rhythm" again. I really need to, both for my own sanity and the fact that there is a lot coming up to write on: 2025 is promising to be a year of adventure.
As always, thanks for your continued and kind support.
I have been there and done that and sympathize with you. After the birth of our first child, my spouse decided her career wasn't going in the right direction and wanted to refocus back on the old path that she was on when I met her. That meant a three year separation of about 120 miles and me raising an infant by myself and holding down a full time job. Weekends were spent traveling, she or I, to the other place for a day and some hours of together. It was exhausting. But in hindsight, I think it allowed us to work on our communication skills which have been very beneficial since. I hope that we never have to do it again just the same.
ReplyDeleteWow Ed. That is quite a story. Ours has never been that extreme: a two-three month separation (within 120 miles) when I first started in the industry in the mid-1990's, a second 2-3 month separation when we moved in stages to New Home in 2012 and this one - which has been the longest by far; if everything holds on track it could be anywhere from 9-12 months.
DeleteThe odd thing - for me - is that I am in a position of both establishing a schedule and habits and trying not to establish them too deeply with the knowledge that upon The Ravishing Mrs. TB's arrival, things will likely change again.
No need for apologies for your writing. I am amazed at the longevity of blogs from people with the responsibilities of families - homes - jobs and still find the time to compose their thoughts and write them. And then continue to accomplish this for months - years.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU for continuing your effort to do this.
Thank you Anon. In some very meaningful ways, this has become both my counseling outlet and my support group. And it does give me an outlet for frustration or just random thoughts when I often have no-one else to share them with.
DeleteConsidering all the changes in your life TB small wonder you feel your writing has suffered some. Offering an apology is appreciated yet I for one don't see the need, taking care of family first, job second are more important than we social media participants. Where else can I find out about Greece, Turkey and the pharmaceutical industry all in one blog?......... :) Good luck on the upcoming frequent flyer miles.
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - One of the nice things about being a polymath is knowing a lot about a lot; one of the less nice things is that you constantly find yourself pulled in multiple directions at the same time. At least I am almost never bored...
DeleteThe frequent flyer miles are nice, but I have to confess the whole thing has become exhausting - by the time I leave for the airport, park, get shuttled to the airport, get through security and walk to the gate, actually fly, then undo the same process, it is easily a four hour process (plus the hour to get up and out). It almost has the sense of a job at the moment.
Moving is like breaking in new boots. It's uncomfortable for a while. Pinches in places, rubs in others. Eventually, it'll settle out. With the sked you have outlined, you don't have a rhythm. More like a syncopated, spastic-bombastic jazz drum solo. Your personal Gantt chart looks like pickup sticks in a blender. It's a great time for humor injections to keep spirits from flagging.
ReplyDelete"Your personal Gantt chart looks like pickup sticks in a blender." This may be the most profound description of my life at this moment that I have read. Thanks STxAR!
DeleteIt is odd. Even in finding a rhythm now with work (pretty well established at this point: up at 0500, out the door by 0745, work from 0800-1630 to 1700), and in bed sometime between 2130 and 2200 (I am trying to fine tune my sleep: less than 7 hours is not enough but if I go to bed too early, I wake up early), I still "struggle" to get things done. And by "things" I mean "my things" - beyond simple meal preparation and caring for Joy, I have no other claims on my time.
I am impressed with the amount you do write, TB. And the wide variety of topics you write about. You may be feeling some sort of lull in writing, but from this side of things, your writing is pretty perky. I can't keep up, in fact. But that means I always look forward to whatever new thing you've written since I was last here. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Becki!
DeleteIt is nice to know people feel the level of content has not suffered. Perhaps it is just the way I feel when I am writing now - but this, too, shall pass.
TB - I too bought Rod’s Living in Wonder day of. I’ve been a fan of his since Crunchy Cons. I hope that you find the book a worthy successor to Benedict Option and Live Not by Lies (both of which I need to re-read; fortunately, they’re not super-lengthy tomes).
ReplyDeleteBJennings - I discovered The Benedict Option as a recommendation from somewhere in 2021; maybe it was when he was writing at The American Conservative? Since then, I have sort of been moving both forward and back on his timeline, having read Live Not by Lies that same year and then this year picking up How Dante Can Save Your Life. Knowing what I know now of his life, it makes for a sort of peculiar reading (especially the earlier versions) as what he faces now seems implicit in his book on Dante. I think the only two I am now "short" is The Little Way of Ruthie Lemming and Crunchy Cons. Likely I will pick them up at some point; his writing is so good.
DeleteI am excited about Living In Wonder; having my copy all set for my plane flight this weekend. He is also the first author I have ever thought of actually paying to subscribe to (one, he has a tremendous output; two, he is simply always good and his suggestions for a reading list have filled my own).