Almost a month later, including a trip to Europe, a difficult (and ongoing) battle with COVID-19 (unknown variant) and a birthday, and I've had a doozy of a time.
First, the health front - I managed to come down with something during my last two days in Paris on a business trip. Tests in France said not COVID, but as soon as I got stateside, I tested positive. (So I'm thankful I didn't have to stay in a hotel room for two weeks in Paris....) It was a tough go for a few days in terms of sickness, but nothing worse than a stomach bug on top of a bad cold. There was never a moment I thought I would need a hospital, thankfully, and as of now, about a week later, I'm feeling about 90% normal, and waiting for what I hope to be a negative test.
I wish that illness had just given me time to read and watch movies, but I'm not built that way - I worked through the week, and was actually pretty productive despite the fatigue and headaches. No trip to Europe would be complete without a movie, though, so I did get a chance to watch Platoon on the plane. I can see why it did well in the post-Vietnam environment, but I'm not sure it would stand up for the same acclaim today as it did back then. I also watched the silent movie Wings from 1929. A silent war movie about, well, slow motion war, and the people involved. I watched most of it while on my bike trainer, and I couldn't take my eyes off of it - if I had, I would have missed the dialogue. Did I mention it was silent?
Next up, the last of my war movie theme - the Deer Hunter. Then I move onto racism, with 12 Years a Slave, Driving Miss Daisy, and In the Heat of the Night, and then to relationships, including Ordinary People, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Terms of Endearment. That'll take care of most of the Spring.
On the novel front, I finished The World Jones Made, in which a man can see a year into the future, but is incapable of changing it, despite what power he has gained as a result of that knowledge. It was an interesting concept piece, and a bit allegorical from what my limited interpretative abilities tell me. It also serves as a reminder that each of us will come to an end someday - the best of us will make something of the time remaining. Or maybe that's what my study of stoicism tells me, and I'm just projecting.
After that PKD, I read A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles, at the recommendation of my wife. An excellent book, with superb writing, truly evoking the challenges of a man for whom the world is literally moving on around him without his direct knowledge of it happening. Allegories abound here as well, but in the end, it was mostly a character piece about a whole hotel - the lack of a plot for most of the book is irrelevant, as the writing was quite absorbing in itself.
And now I'm back to PKD, reading Eye in the Sky, which is yet another very different type of novel than the others I've read - set in the present, but in an 'alternate universe' type of motif. Interestingly, this novel seems a bit jerkier than his other ones, as if there were connections and fillers that he was going to go back and add in, but never did. At times, the narrative gets lost in the musings of the protagonist for no clear reason.....but, perhaps I should not criticize a book when only half complete.
On another plus side - being isolated for COVID did give me time to catch up on work reading as well, so a good bit of that is done. On the downside, though, my running and workouts have now suffered for two weeks (I didn't get much done in Paris for a week either), so my running volume has gotten crushed. I only ran about 8 miles this week, and 6 of that was this morning. My weight is in check though (my nutrition control is working okay), and hopefully the fatigue will pass in time, and I can get to my races later this month. Ideally, a marathon in the Fall and a 50K in January. Wish me luck (or at least, strength!)
