Dinkytown is the part of Minneapolis close to the University, and where I’ve spent a good portion of every visit to my father, since, like all college towns, it’s blessed with coffee shops, book stores, and good people-watching.
Like the colors and textures in this one. Taken in Minneapolis this fall.
Me: “Genbo, what’s 2 plus 2?”
Genbo: “22?”
I must have jinxed myself with yesterday’s comment about Genbo never getting sick, because last night he finally did come down with the flu. Today he stayed home with a fever over 100 and watched all the Curious George he wanted. Which is a lot.
Yesterday’s photo was backlit, so we’ll continue with that theme.
I can’t believe how fast January has passed. It certainly does not seem like four weeks since I last posted. Although things have been extremely, excessively, are-you-frickin’-kidding-me quiet on the work front, I have actually been pretty busy. Everyone in my family except for Genbo (who has a constitution of iron) came down with the flu at the same time. And, Maki is working at a hospital on the other side of Kyoto for the time being, which means she leaves earlier in the morning and comes home late. Zoe is now probably in her peak of difficulty, as she has very concrete desires and wants yet not nearly enough words to express them, which leads to frustration. And, she is for some reason waking up about five times a night these days. I think it is proof of evolutionary principles that babies are at their most cute when they are the most demanding; those who weren’t were simply abandoned on the African savannah by frustrated parents tearing their hair out.
And yet, despite the fact that I have not posted for a month, I have more readers than ever. I’ve noticed for a while now that readership grows when I don’t post, and declines when I do. This is a mysterious yet disconcerting trend perhaps explainable only by the hypothesis that people visit only in the hopes of not finding anything new here.
Well, I intend to post once every day for the next month. That should pummel my readership into negative territory.
Happy new year to everybody. I hope 2009 is at least as good as 2008.
The plaque below is a piece of pottery given to me by my potter friend Koji Kamada (鎌田幸二). The character is that of cow when used in context of the Chinese zodiac, because that’s what 2009 is. He gave me this plaque because I was born in the year of the cow three cycles ago. I think it’s quite beautful, like all his stuff, despite the fact that I cannot drink whiskey out of it.
Here is the plaque up on our dining room wall, with the detritus of 2008 showing beyond.
