max and shoes

it took me a while to get to sleep last night, in part because of this guy here. old man max. he just couldn't get comfortable. he would walk to his bed in our closet and start turning circles to lie down. he moaned with pain as he made his preparations and his moans became growls. it takes him such effort to lie down (or it could be he was paying more attention than i thought when over the weekend i watched boogeyman on cable - and was just scared of his closet). several times he gave up lying down and made his crooked way out of our bedroom and into the living room. at least he wasn't barking, but all the same it was painful to behold. thinking maybe he had to go potty, kara got up and let him out a few times, but he always came back inside quickly. she fixed his bed a bit and helped him onto it. finally, after an hour and a half or so of this, he settled down and was quiet.

still, it was another while before i got to sleep, with thoughts buzzing around my head. did i get enough stuff for kara for christmas, and further, is the stuff i got her any good? i thought about writing my essay about electrocardiographic reports, a source of consternation for many a transcriptionist in our group (myself included), and began formulating that in my mind. i thought about our christmas meal, turkey meatloaf (why not?), and planned that grocery store trip. my friend and colleague kristi is asking me for book recommendations (she gets the credit for the ecg essay idea) and mentally i went through my shelves. iris murdoch, connie willis, carson mccullers, paul auster, nicholson baker, james morrow, penelope lively. margaret atwood? haruki murakami? don delillo? these thoughts and those dodged hither and yon, as well as, where is rumble now? what is left of max's mind?

on the lighter side, yesterday afternoon i had another good walk. i wore these shoes, which i bought over the weekend. reeboks, neighborhood of $50. oh, they're white. they're very, very, very white shoes. i'm not really generally a white-shoe sort of fellow, but exceptions were made. i'll have to muddy them up. truly, they were much more comfortable than the older shoes i was wearing last week. i did, however, experience what could well be shin splints on my walk yesterday. i get them sometimes, shooting pains up each shin each time my foot hits the ground. i'm not sure what they are, but i walked through them. i took the pain. the shoes themselves felt good, though. and the weather yesterday evening was gorgeous. it was 45 to 50 degrees fahrenheit (7 to 10 degrees celsius) and crisp. the sky was huge and thin clouds held still high overhead. i walked for about an hour and it felt good. i hope the weather maintains and i can have a similar experience after work this afternoon.