Winter Sleep

            On Friday morning I finished posting my translation of “Nicotine” by Serge Gainsbourg and memorized the first verse of his song "Dépressive.” I adjusted my translation of the first verse and I'll have to do the same to the others. In my initial translation I forgot that when French words with "e" on the end are sung in songs or recited in poetry they have an extra syllable. For example a word like “crime: would normally be pronounced as "cream" in French but in a song or poem it would be "creamah.” 

            I got sleepy around noon so I took a siesta. 

            When I got up at 13:30 I had kettle chips, salsa and yogourt for lunch. 

            After reading Google News I took a bike ride. It was a little wet outside because of the snow this morning but it wasn’t slippery. 

            I re-read “The Natural History of German Life” by George Eliot but when I was finished I felt sleepy again, so I took another hour nap. I sure am sleeping a lot lately. Maybe I have seasonal affective disorder. 

            I had a potato, a chicken breast and gravy for dinner while watching Andy Griffith. Whatever little story there was for this episode seemed to be just a makeshift life support system for a life lesson for Opie. An annual track meet for the boys of Mayberry is coming up and Opie is determined to win a medal. Barney helps him train but Opie comes in last. He is extremely upset about it and walks away without congratulating the winners. He then sulks about it until Andy tells him he's disappointed in him and that it's easy to be good at winning but the hard part is being a good loser. Opie finally comes around. Most of the show seems to be meant to showcase how comical Barney is trying to train Opie and what a bad loser Barney is when he doesn’t get a raise. 

            British actor Joan Cary is listed in the cast of this show. The only women in the story were just shown in the audience watching the track meet. She starred in a 1980 docudrama about astrology called Legacy of the Stars. 

            I re-read chapter 17 of Adam Bede by George Eliot. It’s an argument that the simple and the ordinary is also beautiful.