I must apologize for that unintended and longer-than-hoped-for absence.

The flu has now flown, but it seems to be hitting a lot of people all over the country, so hopefully you’re not one of those afflicted. Just remember – wash your hands. And then wash them again. 🙂

Work got a bit haywire for a few days, but I think that things have calmed down enough where I can get a few blog posts written up and completed. I’ve been reading (admittedly not in huge quantities), and so I’ll have some posts coming up.

The weather here in Texas is odd. It’s always odd when it’s in the Spring months, starting off in the morning rather cold (for around here) and then ending up usually rather warm by the end of the day. I call the Spring fashion “ski jackets and shorts” season, bc you’ll probably be using both of them by the end of the day!

For example, we had 90’s at the end of last week. (That’s really high even for here so early in the year). And then today is a high of 38 degrees or so with possible snow tonight and tomorrow. See? – ski jackets and shorts! 🙂

The last few weeks have been off in that I have just been milling around doing not much of anything, productively speaking. (Or not productively speaking, which would be more accurate.) I think I was having a block of some kind, but things seem to be moving along more smoothly now, thank goodness.

It’s African-American History Month in the U.S., a month that I usually mark with gusto and with themed reading, but my eye has been bothering me more than usual and so I’ve not been reading quite so much as would typically be the case.

However, the book that I have been reading is a selection of Great Speeches by African-Americans (edited by James Daley and in a Dover Thrift edition). It’s been fascinating, but slow going as the material can be very dense at times. (Those nineteenth century speakers were not very brief…) But it has been very interesting, and I’ve been enjoying it tremendously. Now that I’m a little more familiar with some of the main players of the time, the speakers mean more to me and I can place their perspectives in the historical moments of the time.

More to come on that, I’m sure.

I’m also deep in Hardy country with Tess of the d’Urbervilles, and then, to balance things out with a more modern read, I picked up Amy Krause Rosenthal’s latest book offering which was excellent. (Again, more deets to come, but suffice to say, I loved it.)

So I’m back. Thank you for your patience. What’s been going in your world?