Every-Other-Sunday (Evening) Post/Readathon Update

I have a meme on my phone that I should learn to send out here.  It has an adorable puppy on his back, paws up, saying, “Help! I’m running out of weekend!” Well, it is Sunday after 6 p.m., and I have run out of weekend.

My Better Half and I decided to run 12 hours of the 24 hr. Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. I set aside 13 hours, so I could include 1/2 hour each to heat up and eat lunch and supper.  We started promptly at seven, broke for lunch (although we snacked while reading, mostly trail mix and chocolate) around noon, put the dishes on to soak, and I started chicken marsella in the slow cooker.  Amid delicious smells we spent a rainy, warm afternoon reading relaxing either on the bed, propped up by pillows or in comfortable reading/rocking chairs in the living room. Around sixish, we had a pleasant supper and quit reading at eight to give ourselves the Dr.Oz recommended hour’s rest from screen time before turning in. Since I was subbing for our Sunday School teacher on Sunday, I had to put the “finishing touches” on the lesson, and we slept the best we had in a long time, probably because we had had such a stress-free, relaxing day reading.

My progress report:

I finished The Resurrection of Joan Ashby, which gave insights into the inner life and general life of an author in novel form (to be reviewed here soon). I had read approximately 1/3 of it going in, and since it was on my computer Kindle app, I read other things (like Friday’s and Saturday’s Houston Chronicle) to rest my eyes from the computer screen. I read about seven chapters from The Grouchy Grammarian, which I hope to give to a grammar-grouch like myself who teaches English in Lake Jackson, Texas.  I have approximately 24 chapters to finish, but they are mercifully short. I skimmed How to Write Haiku and Other Short Poems, looking for material to use in a lecture on poetry theory Thursday, but I should have been alerted by the Scholastic publisher’s label.  It is aimed at younger readers than college level. The basics are there, however, and I am keeping it as a reference book on the “basics” should I ever get to do my dream of teaching a poetry workshop. I began Jeanette Walls memoir, Half Broke Horses (I had read The Glass Castle) and ended on page 113 before quitting. All in all, I had a productive, most enjoyable day, and felt renewed and refreshed when I awoke around 5:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Today was a busy day, teaching in Sunday School, meeting a student for lunch at Starbuck’s to help with a poorly written do-over paper, attending a meeting of the Alvin Museum Society which featured the head of the Brazoria County Museum Society who brought artifacts and reproductions and discussed what the “usual” doughboys took with them into WWI. Much of the material was new to me, and the speaker was generous enough to let us handle the “souvenirs” of the Great War and ask him questions. Our Alvin Museum is doing a temporary display of items from WWI, and I plan to go see them next weekend.

After doing a set of papers and reading the Sunday edition of The Houston Chronicle, filled with the good news of our beloved Astros, managed by a home-town Alvin boy, Reid Ryan, I prepared supper (leftovers) and am seeing what I’ve missed in the blogging world in the past two days.  It has been a very good weekend!