The Tale of The Book That Didn’t Get Read on a Cloudy October Day

Hello, Dear Reader, and welcome to another stream-of-consciousness post in Bloggin’ On: A Certain Point of View, Too. It is now noon here in New Hometown, Florida, where the skies are cloudy and promising to bring showers to our neighborhood.

Right now, the temperature outside is 80˚F (27˚C) under cloudy skies. With humidity at 80% and the wind blowing almost-but-not-quite from the east at 12 MPH (19 KM/H), the heat index is 85˚F (30˚C). The cloud cover that I saw while I was outside was total; the sky was essentially a veil of white-gray that hid the sun from view, and the air was redolent with either geosmin or petrichor, i.e. the distinct aromas of rain in the air.

I went for my walk just a little over an hour ago; I showered, got dressed, brushed my teeth, put on my Star Wars: Film Concert Series baseball cap, and grabbed my house key, my wallet, smartphone, and a paperback copy of David McCullough’s The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914. The Caregiver was in her home office; The New Guy was asleep on the living room couch, and the three young adults were either sleeping or busy with college stuff,[1] so I simply walked out through the front door and locked it with my key.

I made my way to “my” bench in the park that I like to hang out at; as I expected, no one was there, so I sat down and attempted to read a bit from The Path Between the Seas. I say “attempted” because I haven’t sat on a hard bench to read since I was in my 20s and had to wait for the Metrobus on the way to and from Miami-Dade Community College’s South Campus back in the mid- to late 1980s. Since then, most of my outdoors reading was done on a comfortable – and adjustable – deck chair by one of the East Wind Lake Village’s two pools. And to be honest, as imperfect as deck chairs might be, they are far more relaxing and comfier to read on than a wood and metal park bench.

If the skies overhead had been clear, or at least not threatening-to-rain, I might have relaxed more and felt at ease where I was. Additionally, my back and backside might have gotten used to the bench and I would have read at least more than a paragraph. Alas, this wasn’t the case, and The Path Between the Seas went mostly unread by Yours Truly.

I still got a modest amount of exercise, and I was able to spend sometime outdoors, though there was enough humidity in the air that I could feel an occasional droplet of water against my skin. After 30 minutes or so of sitting on the bench – but not reading! – I snapped a few photos with my phone’s camera, put on my Star Wars: Film Concert Series cap, tucked my book under my arm, and walked back to the house. On the way back I saw a cute brown squirrel, but I had turned off my phone and put it in my trousers’ front right pocket, so I couldn’t snap a photo of the woodland creature.

Thus ends the tale of The Book That Didn’t Get Read on a Cloudy October Day. I’m going to the kitchenette to eat lunch. After that, Dear Reader, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll sit on my convertible sofa and read the pages of The Path Between the Seas that I didn’t read out on that park bench.

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[1] The Caregiver’s oldest was gaming at the ungodly hour of 4 AM: I could hear him talking to someone through the thin layer of drywall and insulation – and a bookcase – that separates his bedroom from mine.