Saturday 3/7/2020
With the goddam taxes out of the way there is no further excuse not to work on the goddam novel. But it has been weeks. So I once again sat down to read the whole thing through, all 35,000 words of it. That took only a couple of hours; and again, as after previous readings, I was pleased with my work. There is a lot of good stuff there. I just need to finish the goddam thing. I have most of the elements of the finale lined up; I just have to decide what will actually happen: how the bad people will be exposed and humiliated, and what part of that my protagonists, who are kids, can realistically play in making that happen.
(In fact, since I’m writing this the next day I may as well say: I was obsessing over, half-asleep, endings for this from about 4am to 5am Sunday, and I think I know what to do.)
Around noon I decided to go to a Stanford baseball game, even though the weather was overcast and a slight mizzle was in the air. Stanford had announced, as part of COVID-19 precautions, that they would be limiting attendance at all sporting events to about 1/3 the capacity of the venue. But the baseball organization had emailed season ticket holders specifically to say that if you have season tix, you can get in. So fine, nothing else is happening.
I dried off my seat with paper napkins and, since a very light rain was still falling, hunkered down under my umbrella.
Note they certainly achieved limited attendance. The rain soon went away and the game was fine, Stanford winning 7-5.
At supper I opted for the newly-provided take-away option. Pick any combo from the menu and instead of putting on a plate the server puts it in a box to take back to your room. (Also, they have instituted a limited seating plan: no more than 3 people at a round table, where they used to set for 6, and no more than 2 at a square table. The dining room looks a lot like the above baseball seating.) One entree was a turkey-cheeseburger with sriracha aioli and arugula. That was my take-away, a box with a very nice burger, and a banana. The burger was really good, their spicy aioli sauce was excellent. I had it with a beer at my little cafe table.
At 8:30, it was time for the PAC-12 tournament semi-final, Stanford v. UCLA. The Bruins had won at Maples a few weeks earlier, in a game I didn’t attend because it was the departure day for my London trip. This game was close in the first half; then Stanford went on a 12-0 tear in the third quarter and put the game away. So the final Sunday will be Stanford v. Oregon.
A little grump: with the game in Las Vegas on Mountain time, it started at 8:30, ran to 10:30, on the night when we put the clocks ahead. Oh well, sleep is a luxury. See above about 4am obsessing.
Codgerville 