Month: May 2020

Grey morning, with the sense that there had been recent showers (the overhang at Sainsbury’s protected dry pavement, but the unsheltered pavement was wet); I forgot to check the temperature, but I’d estimate that it was about 7°. My limbs were rusty, and the pollen medium, and I forgot to hit the button on my timer, so my guess is that my mile was around 9:50 or so. Morning, Office, hot breakfast, a morning spent with diffuse attention, Mass at St Michael and All Angels Croydon, lunch, and a bit of writing.
I did some reading and — well to be honest, no writing at all during the day. I think it was mostly one of those lost Plague Days. I’ll try harder tomorrow. Leftovers and Spooks; the end is in sight.

A lovely morning, 5° and breezy, but didn’t feel so bad. Medium pollen and harder breathing, but an adequate 9:51 mile. Hot breakfast, and I allowed myself a relaxing start to the day, with a view eventually getting a bit of writing done. Among the pursuits that enhanced my morning were selecting and ordering some ink and paper, and polishing several of my active-duty pens. I anticipated that the latter half of my afternoon would be consumed by Zoom meetings, so my expectations of productivity were low.
As it turns out, my expectations were vindicated, but that feels fine. The plague-tension (German Pestangst sounds right) won’t just go away, but if I can eke out some writing and reading in between spells of Pestangst-induced inanition, that seems reasonable to me. I defy productivity guilt! (This, by the way, is one reason I gravitate to making my PDF editions under stress-dominated circumstances. On one hand, it’s very definitely productive. On the other, it doesn’t require of me free, creative thought so much as persistent attention to detail, which soothes and gratifies me, and which results in the end in a useful result.
We ordered dinner form Majliss, and fought through into the final season of Spooks. If MI-5 is reading this, and if this series accurately reflects the work of the agency, just a word to say that you could hire Margaret and me, cos we hit on key ideas about the plot well before Section D does. (Apart from all the torture and killing, of course; we’re not in for that.)

The Home Office says that the pollen count today is ‘medium’, though I sensed that my breathing was rougher than it had become over the months, especially the last few weeks of daily running. The temperature was 8°, and the morning was handsome, but my legs were a bit heavy and (as I say) I didn’t feel as well oxygenated as on my besst days. Naetheless, my mile came in at 9:48, which is okay.

The rest of the day was pretty productive. I did some reading, and hammered out an outline for the beginning of my monograph. That is, I thought it was the beginning, but having given it an afternoon of thought, I suspect it needs a previous chapter that warms up the reader for the direction I’m heading, the presuppositions I’m challenging, and the perspective on the whole topic that I’m proposing. Anyway, it was very satisfying.

Pizza and Spooks. Oh, Lucas….