1986-10 (October)

Wednesday, October 1st[1986] Call from T.L. Russel at MSU giving schedule for Mon-Tues of next week: Mon. 10:30, workshop; 1200 buffet lunch; dinner with him. Tues. 10:30, Q & A session; 12:00 lunch; 8pm reading in XXXXX lounge. Then I’m through, + get my $2000.In afternoon, got VHS of “Stranger Than Paradise” from Video Magic. Began reading Schlesinger but alas am finding somewhat random, if not spotty; a sort of grabbag. Hard rain, plus taking gwyn to pick up her car, precluded my walk.“Stranger than Paradise” good experimental movie, obviously made on a shoestring but all the better for it; black [illegible].

Thursday, October 2nd[1986] Resumed Schlesinger, which improved with chapter 2. Returned VHS cassette but didn’t get another since this will be our regular Thurs. night out for dinner.After a three-day layoff, walked 2.5 in just over 39 minutes. Cool morning, but climbs over 90 in afternoon. Hot walking, in part because there’s no breeze.Dinner at La Tourelle. Bilibi, scallops, liver, apple tart, bottle of California red.

Friday, October 3rd[1986] Digital clock on blink after overnight power failure. Took it to [illegible] for repair but not possible; changed bedside timepieces—the german quartz on from the bathroom. Skipped walk; went to Seesseel’s, got a three-pound longbone sirloin + a Friday lemon-miringue pie. Cooked steak on grill, made French fries while gwyn concocted a broccoli tomatoes-over-garlic dish; bottle of chateau Las comtes, Bombay afterwards. Best meal in months.

Saturday, October 4th[1986] Slept past 7, cereal + coffee; then finished Schlesinger’s Cycles of American History. Enjoyed parts of it, others less. Ate the rest of the lemon pie in the course of the day. Walked two miles; got caught in the rain for only about the third time in three years. Lean Cuisine for dinner—almost welcome, after two days of over eating.

Sunday, October 5th[1986] Cool weather, after yesterday’s rainstorm. Read book I of Wordsworth’s Excursion;a patience-testing simplicity--+, perhaps, a foreboding of what Hemingway may come to in the years ahead; that is, if he too lasts the 150 years that Wordsworth has. At noon (while Gwyn rode out to Lucy Fisher’s for lunch) I Watched the David Brinkly report, then ran the cassette of my 1978 TV interview + re-read the “Novelist as Historian” pamphlet, both in preparation for the MSU appearances tomorrow + Tuesday.Read acts I-III of Shakespeare’s Henry V.