Bob

 

November 15, 2025

What have I been doing instead of recording here? 

Visited DJ yesterday, measurably better than he was the last time I saw him. On the road to recovery.

Last night startled a quite black opossum on the east porch. 

Preparing my Dylan Thomas lecture for the ASC concert. This is an echo of the best that happened when I was a professor, real research and real revelation to people who are really interested.

Yard work today. Raking, thorough cleaning of the pond pump well, the stream now like a forest brook. 

Two big garbage bags of shirts and two boxes of books off to Goodwill. 

L tells me of a man named Bob who was the love of our mother’s life, who returned from WWII only to be killed in a tornado. I knew assumed she’d had boyfriends in her youth, but had no idea of anything of this specificity. L showed me a piece of beautiful brocade Bob sent to mom from some exotic place where he had been stationed. It had been kept in a box, with other keepsakes for more than 60 years, until dad gave the keepsake box to my sister. I wondered if he ever opened it. I wonder why people never tell me their secrets. Maybe they don’t think I’m interested. Maybe they’re afraid I’ll turn them into a story.