charlottesville and friendship.

A welcomed cold spell blessed the first day of the fall semester. I woke up at seven, ate an American box cereal breakfast and read a hundred lines of Homer. Last night on the phone with Caroline I expressed some dismay at getting through his 48 books by the end of the year. "Wait, 48?!!" she said. "What are the other 46?" I'm glad we are friends. No one makes me laugh so hard. That's not hyperbole.

I biked to the spectacle shop to drop off my prescription and order new lenses before going to school. Hopefully I will be able to read accent marks by Friday. The UVA campus wasn't at all as dreadful as promised. Maybe the cold turn in the weather had something to do with that, curbing the influx of orange cheerleading shorts and flipflops. The students seemed rather reserved. Many of them were talking about church and god. Some of them were speaking French.

I like that time period just after you have relocated. When you don't know anyone, and no one knows you, and you can just wander around wondering. That's more or less what I have been doing the past couple of weeks. Well, and reading. But that moment is passed. Now I feel fairly well acquainted with the students and faculty in my department and many in philosophy, with whom we share a building, and a long standing kickball rivalry.

Laura got into town a couple of days ago. She is writing a mystery novel and a will. I am to inherit 2.5 percent of the estate. I promised that if she died, I would use the money to jumpstart my own mystery series. I'm glad I have a friend here. It's so much more work to make friends than to have them.