Ride for a While

The bathroom book of the autumn season is “Of Human Bondage” by Somerset Maugham.  We’d stayed at a hotel he’d frequented in Venice during our anniversary and I’d read his “On A Chinese Screen” essays at the time and secured this larger novel along with it.  Philip has a hard luck upbringing.  His parents are deceased and his uncle is a vicar who wants him to spend time reading about Jerusalem rather than looking at the pictures of the Holy City.  He has a clubfoot and can’t play sports and has an even worse English boarding school experience that most.  He’s grown suddenly and is off in Germany, flirting with Germans, meeting Chinese and Americans, drinking with Englishmen, there at the eve of the Great War.

The Genius Bar is a smart place to go.  But not, perhaps if you’re Macbook Air is over five years old and out of warranty.  It doesn’t take a genius to know how that will play out.  After the wait, she’ll tell them it just sort of conked out, overlooking the mention of the glass of Valpolicella that fertilized the keyboard the other night.  They’ll look it over, and confirm that it is two years out of warranty and that it will probably cost just a bit more than half the price of buying a new one. 

Or you could head to Zhongguancun.  Dutiful readers will note that we were just over there a few days ago, getting games, replacing batteries.  “I’d take it there.  They’ll fix it on the spot and charge you a third the price.”  She makes a few calls and is soon on her way, leaving the house to the girls and myself.

With some persistence I manage to talk the younger one into a bike ride.  We almost go our separate ways when I insist that we are not going right, to the mall, but rather left to the river trail.  There’s a busy road to cross, but once we’re safely on the other side, one can ride for a while and pretend they’re not in a busy city.  The landscaping is lovely but the water is notably polluted.  I remember canoeing in the Housatonic River during camp as a kid.  We called it Housy-rot when we touched the water.  I would imagine it's a bit cleaner these days.   For now, I’d say they’ve done a nice job on this riverside park.  So glad there are no cars. 

Thursday, 10/05/17