I think, perhaps, sometimes a family is a lot less than people would like. Being alone has it's perks and trials, being in a couple has several to add and then it starts to go yoyo... On the good days, there's cakes and trips and sharing opinions, but on bad days... On bad days whatever kids one has feel like retarded parasites that only ever want to drain whatever you have to give, more and more; and elders and siblings seem to be so bored or frustrated or whatever, that they only ever wish to fight with everyone else, looking for excuses to hate and envy and be disgusted and millions apart... If I was a novelist, I would write a story or a book about someone crammed into a too small a space, with too many people, all moving in the same direction, like a boat - and then suddenly being given too much space, like setting out alone in space or over the ocean... It's how it sometimes feels. On bad days, at least...

         Had a neat walk, though. Although it was short, we tired the poor mutt by bowling apples down the river-side promenade and she probably sprinted something like 5 miles while we only walked two :)) The autumn floods wash down apples and rhubarb (love that word! LOVE it! Course I say it more like Robert and less like Rabarbara :D ) to the river bank, so we have plenty of material :))

          I've stumbled across a Japanese author that may be amazing, but I am very careful not to get myself kicked in to easily... I've gotten trapped in a mental washing machine twice before, reading something that seemed imaginative and neat, only to be led into a terrible ending and feeling not so much chatarsic as like a total shit, best off dead. (Sirens of Titan, for example...) Dude's name is Haruki Murakami and he's so famous that I've actually spotted his works translated in the library years ago.. His opus seems broad enough to cover just about any of my needs.. But like I said. I'll double check this will be pleasing to read. I've had it up to here with brilliant and manically depressing literature. Need perky stuff now. (That isn't Bryson. :))