echsdoc

"We may say that the hour of death is uncertain, but when we say so we represent that hour to ourselves as situated in a vague and remote expanse of time, it never occurs to us that it can have any connection with the day that has already dawned, or may signify that death -- or its first assault and partial possession of us, after which it will never leave hold of us again -- may occur this very afternoon, so far from uncertain, this afternoon every hour of which has already been allotted to some occupation. You make a point of taking your drive every day so that in a month's time you will have had the full benefit of the fresh air; you have hesitated over which coat you will take, you are in the cab, the whole day lies before you, short because you have to be at home early, as a friend is coming to see you; you hope that it will be as fine again tomorrow; and you have no suspicion that death, which has been making its way towards you along another plane, shrouded in an impenetrable darkness, has chosen precisely this day of all days to make its appearance."
Marcel Proust

Today was the end of the road to the state championship game, and the Salt Mine for the first time ever went this far. They faced Kamiakin and lost a thrilling game 3-2. Either team could have won, but an errant throw here and a HBP there and a running mistake at third was enough to do them in. The pitcher pitched another beautiful game, but their pitcher did the same. There really was not a full run's difference between the teams. I think this is likely to be my last chance to follow the Salt Mine and see them get this close to a state title, though next years baseball team looks to be sterling. There is just too much that can go wrong in baseball. This was truly a fun team to follow, though, and even to write about, though I know any readers I have could care less about such things. I will return to my normal philosophical observations now.

"If nature had been comfortable, mankind would never have invented architecture, and I prefer houses to open air. In a house we all feel the proper proportions. Everything is subordinated to us, fashoned for our use and our pleasure. Egotism itself, which is so necessary to a proper sense of human dignity, is entirely the result of indoor life. Out of doors one becomes abstract and impersonal. One's individuality leaves one. And nature is so indifferent, so unappreciative. Whenever I am walking in the park, I always feel that I am no more to her than the cattle that browse on a slope, or the weed that blooms in the ditch. Nothing is more evident than that Nature hates Mind.""
Oscar Wilde

I am going to put down another sports entry. Today the Salt Mine played in the semi-finals for the state championship. All four semi-final games were on the web, so I could watch as much baseball as i wanted, and I watched the 3A games, naturally. The SM game was quite a show. Kelso got the first run; then SMHS put up three in the fourth. It stayed 3-1 until the seventh inning, then the roof fell in on Kelso. SMJS sent fifteen men to the plate and scored ten runs to coast to a crushing victory of 13-1. It really was an unparalleled game, and I have seen many many SMHS games. The SM pitcher held Kelso to three hits and pitched another complete game, as he had done last Saturday against Mount Vernon. What does this all mean? Tomorrow at four o'clock SMHS will play Kamiakin for the state championship. Kamiakin had defeated Bishop Blanchet 7-5 in nine innings after catching up in the seventh and wiping out a 5-2 BB lead. It was a good day for prep sports.
SMHS has never played in the state championship game, to say nothing of ever winning the championship. We will see how it goes tomorrow, but second in the state is the worst they can do. I am proud of them.

"How does a man live who has written a masterpiece?"
Malcom Cowley

Today my wife caught up to me again birthday-wise. I have a five month head start each year, but on this date she catches me. It is a much nicer time of the year. This May 24th was cool but mostly sunny. We took it mostly easy, until supper time, then went over to Zayda Buddy's for pizza with the daughter and the g'son. As usual the food was terrific. K****n dived into the cheese curds in an unprecedented way, perhaps extra hungry because he had come from his yoga class. We each got six dollar personal pizzas, which are two toppings and eight inches. An excellent buy. I am enamored of their thin crust Minnesota-style, and the pizza goes perfectly with Wisconsin Leinenkugel Summer Shandy beer. It all went nicely, everybody feeling pretty good and chatty enough, along with news enough to share with family. The only negative was coming home to see the Mariners lose to the Angels, but that is to be expected. I polled my facebook friends on their preference for thin or thick crust pizza. Thin won the ballot hands down.

"Alone in distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn, I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that cold and solitude are friends of mine. I come to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I wish to forget, a considerable part of every day, all mean, narrow, trivial men (and this requires usually to forego and forget all personal relations), and therefore I come out to these solitudes, where the problem of existence is simplified. I get away a mile of two from the town into the stillness and solitude of nature, with rocks, trees, weeds, snow about me. I enter some glade in the woods where a few weeds and dry leaves alone lift themselves above the surface of the snow, and it is as if I had come to an open window."
Henry David Thoreau

I ate with a friend tonight over at the new German restaurant over on 65th and 22nd, the Heidelberg Haus. With all the good and varied food here in Seattle, the city has never succeeded in sustaining a good German restaurant. There has never been enough of a German population here to demand it, apparently. The place was almost empty (which did not speed the service), but it was clearly a family enterprise. They came here from Cologne and are doing the work as a family, the grandmother in the kitchen. I had rouladen and BB had jaegerschnitzel. All the food was just super. I can't recall more tender beef; both of us cut out entrees with our forks. They also had homemade spatzle, red cabbage, etc. It is a bit pricey but just fine, no matter what reviewers might say. For me the special pleasure was that my maternal grandfather was German, so my mom had some food types come down to us from that side of the family (in spite of a dominance in cooking given to her by her Norwegian mother). I am always tempted by German food, therefore, and this restaurant met the challenge. No sauerbratten on the menu, though.

"Even if we have the sensation of being always enveloped in, surrounded by our own soul, still it does not seem a fixed and immovable prison; rather do we seem to be borne away with it, to break out into the world, with a perpetual discouragement as we hear endlessly, all around us, that unvarying sound which is no echo from without, but the resonance of a vibration from within. We try to discover in things, endeared to us on that account, the spiritual glamor which we ourselves have cast upon them; we are disillusioned, and learn that they are in themselves barren and devoid of the charm which they owed, in our minds, to the association of certain ideas; sometimes we mobilise all our spiritual forces in a glittering array so as to influence and subjugate other human beings who, as we very well know, are situated outside ourselves, where we can never reach them."
Marcel Proust

I finished my last classes for spring term today with the end of King Lear. It was a wonderful class once again, and this was a good ending for a while. I will not do any teaching until winter term next year, which gives me until January without thinking about teaching. I do love it, but it is a stress, to be sure. I told the class about my discovery of Miss Clemens' visiting card, and they were wowed and enthusiastic to hear and see it. It was my good luck that I got the card in yesterday's mail, or I would have no students to show it to!
I am undecided about what to teach next, should we continue next year. A majority of them voted to do a comedy next, rather than another tragedy, so I am leaning toward Twelfth Night, which I have not taught for quite a few years. They would enjoy it, too. If I go back to TR, I might do a repeat of Hamlet for them.
At least I don't have to set the clock to wake me at eight o'clock in the morning. Nowadays that is rising early.