I think that was a weekend, but I'm not sure. It was kinda fast and blurry. I blinked at the wrong time, and suddenly it's Monday. When coming to work is a moment to relax and look forward to, you know you're doing something wrong. We're trying to slow it down, but it's a bit of an inexorable force.
Packing has commenced, along with the attendant de-cluttering and attempt to reduce the amount being packed. We haven't yet found a house, but there are things (like the library) that we can pack and do without for a month or too. Both the First Reader and I are anticipating that we will be tired and stressed, so the more I can do to prepare us, the better. We'd moved into the rental slowly, but moving out I'd rather not take a month as we did then. So we're planning ahead.
I'd asked on facebook about how best to go about the whole process of thinning and minimizing stuff, and it was fascinating to see how people approach it - some are all about the slow and gradual process to keep up with it, others wait until it's annoying them, then purge and binge on getting rid of it all. Universally, they want to keep books - although many, like me, are converting their library to ebooks and pitching the paper versions. I love my library, but when it comes time to move it all, I have to wonder about my commitment to collecting heavy things.
I haven't been reading much. Any spare time I've had has been... um. Well, ok, I can't remember spare time recently. The First Reader and I did take a lovely country drive on Saturday, winding our way down and back through the far side out Southwestern Ohio. We chatted while we drove, and he'd commented that he'd been working on reading a short story collection because it fit the reading time he had - ten or fifteen minutes at a time. Me, I listen to podcasts at work while my hands are busy, and when I have to drive alone in the car I hook the phone to the radio and play them that way.
This morning I woke up early and searched for podcasts to subscribe to a few new ones - if you enjoy true crime, Dark Poutine is a dry Canadian take with two narrators who have lovely accents and a very understated take on macabre matters. I listen to a lot of true crime, but not the 'big' stories, since this is one way I can gather fodder for my own fiction. Only there are cases I'd have to rewrite, because reality can be far too insane for a fiction reader to accept. I also listen to some happier stuff mixed in there, to keep it from making me gloomy. Ofttimes, I'll subscribe, and then unsubscribe - like I have done with Lore, because the narrator made me nuts. He covered interesting legends and myths, but the way. he. talked. was. so. so. annoying. (the periods are not a typo. He really talks like that.)
In no particular order, the shows I'm most likely to listen to and not delete a lot of episodes are:
Stuff You missed in History Class
The Dave Ramsey Show
Freakonomics Radio
Skeptic's Guide to the Universe
True Crime Garage
The Ken Coleman Show
Stuff You Should Know
A Gobbet 'O Pus
The Way I Heard It (Mike Rowe telling stories! Honestly, these are short and sweet and wonderful)
Once Upon a Crime
The History of the Cold War
Sisyphus Speaks
Casefile
So when you have some time to kill, can't read, can't make art, but you can listen, these are good ways to keep the brain engaged. I'll be going through a lot of them this coming week with all the driving I'll be doing!