dog daze

Supposed to be over 100 degrees today. Still early - beautiful morning so far.

Down in the computer dungeon, where it's plenty cool, but no work to do - waiting for clients to make some decisions and test out stuff I delivered last week.

Reading lots of blogs, but, more important, am absorbed in Gore Vidal's novel 'Julian', which I've read a couple of times over the years. It's about the 4th century Roman emperor, who was the last best hope of preventing Christianity from taking over. Every page has depth of both imagination and historical insight.

Before waking up this morning, I had a vivid dream that took place at my father's office, on West Water Street, in Elmira, New York. He had driven me downtown and, staying in the car, asked me to run in and get something for him. I walked thru that familiar door and into that familiar space, where I had seen him countless times.

The business was dissolved long ago. The building that housed his office was torn down after the devastating 1972 flood, and the site is now a park by the now-placid river. My father died in August 1982.

Today would have been his 95th birthday. Odd.

Our summer plans are coming together. This Friday, Karen's friend Barbra, who has been dealing with MS for several years, arrives from Napa. Karen's 96 year-old Mom arrives from Pasadena next Tuesday night. We all go to Manzanita for a week at the end of next week.

Then, we are home for a day (to take the out-of-towners to the airport), then we drive up to the Olympic penninsula for another week.

But today and tomorrow, it's going to be hot, and all I can think about is the billions of dollars we are flushing away in Iraq, and how the Roman Empire became so totally rotten.