Hi, and welcome to 2018. I have high hopes for 2018 (not to be confused with “high expectations,” mind you). Last year set the bar pretty low, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think we’ll see at least modest improvement. In case you missed it, here was my tweet summing up the previous year:
It seems appropriate that I can do my 2017 recap as a tweet. Married life was and remains amazing. I lost my father in January. The President is an ignorant bully who makes everything he touches terrible. I think that about covers it.
There were some other good things, of course. We discovered the joys of keeping garden snails as pets (documented here and here). We got to visit Marfa again. I read some quite a few good books. In fact, the last two were among the best all year.
I’d never read any of Zadie Smith’s fiction, but I enjoy her essays and her debut novel, White Teeth, got some pretty terrific reviews. I didn’t know quite what to expect. Her style had been dubbed “hysterical realism,” which has to be one of the least-helpful descriptions I’ve ever heard. As it turns out, the novel is a very funny tale of three(-ish) families in England and…I wont’ try to describe it further, but I found her tangents and abrupt changes in perspective charming and entirely appropriate to the story-at-hand. I enjoyed it more than all but a handful of books I’ve read since I started reading during my commute.
Next, I picked up Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. I’d never read any Christie and figured this would be a good place to start. It wasn’t for reasons that are probably obvious to anyone who’s ever read it, but it was still a delight. Hercule Poirot is a delightful character and I’d probably enjoy reading “Agatha Christie’s Poirot Does A Crossword Puzzle While He Works Out What His Neighbor Is Planning For His Garden This Spring.”
Today, we did something that I hope will be the start of a tradition: We went to an old school arcade. I was triumphant, setting the high score on the Phoenix game as well as the Cyclone pinball machine. The old football game with the track balls and the x and o figures for the players was a bit of a bust, but it was just as painful as I remembered. To commemorate Texas’ new open carry law for swords, Nicole won enough tickets on the claw machine and skee ball go get me a nifty scimitar and eye patch (I assume we already have open carry on eye patches).
Above: Not a very good game
Turning in a bit early tonight on account of the fact that I’m absolutely knackered. Here’s hoping you and yours have a lovely year and that you’re safe and warm tonight.
-RK