Long time no see.

The end of the summer has me seriously appreciating this list of “jobs I can do while wearing jorts.” I note that ‘archaeologist’ is not on there, but it’s definitely viable. This of course based on my own summer activities AND every photo I’ve ever seen of southwestern archaeologists from the 1970s (imagine a lot of trucker hats, aviators, mustaches, and jorts).

 

(Kalavasos dam, jorts not pictured)

Onto earworms. The beginning of classes, planning for exams, and trying to find all those things I packed randomly and then put away even more randomly has this Terry Malts song going through my head. Other music on endless repeat this summer: Bleached, Class Actress-Weekend (perfect for driving with the windows down [thanks to H-J]), and Mount Moriah’s Lament, which I heard almost a year ago and still can’t get enough of.

I need to get in the habit of writing more substantive posts, so I’ll ease into it by talking about how much I like this Roald Dahl story (The Landlady).  A friend sent it to me following a conversation about vaguely creepy short stories, and I’m so glad he did. It’s delightfully suggestive of sinister things; I can just imagine the cover art being done by Edward Gorey. The boarding house would have intricately hachured wallpaper, naturally, and the dog would not look as conventional as a usual dachshund. In a similar (although slightly less quirky) vein, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is still one of my favorite short stories.

That place on the edge of quirk and creepiness is very appealing to me, probably because I avoid things that are actually scary (It’s a low bar. When I was seven we went to see Hocus Pocus in the theater. IMDb categorizes it as a comedy. I was afraid to sleep alone/with the window open/without a ring of salt around my bed for days afterward. So.).  It’s just enough to make me shiver but not enough to keep me awake, or make me check behind the shower curtain every time I go in the bathroom, or have me thinking about the best way to keep marauding zombies out of my apartment.

I was also very glad to spend more time at the Cape this summer, even if I did have to get some reading done while there. It was nice to feel like I could sink back into myself (especially my sailing, swimming, clamming, knot-tying, bookworm self). The sunsets weren’t bad either.

So now to plan a September return before everything gets too crazy…..