|
There is a strange story in the news around here. In Alta, a town in the next county, a man was standing in his living room when, without warning, a giant hole opened up under him and he was sucked in and killed. The hole is at least 20 feet deep, apparently, and the authorities believe the ground underneath the house (it was a modern house with a concrete slab foundation) was weakened by all the rain we've had this spring. The exterior of the house still looks unchanged. There was no warning, and the sinkhole only affected the living room. That was Friday night, and as of last night the man's body had yet to be recovered. This poor man had a wife who was pregnant with their first child.
Will it never end? We were supposed to have sunshine after two partly cloudy days on Friday and Saturday. Instead, Friday started out with sun, but gradually a thick, grey cloud deck blotted out the sky, and the sun has been gone since. For the past three days the sky has been colorless, dark, and low, It won't get better until at least Wednesday. I HATE spring. I always have. It's the most depressing season of the year. I'll never understand why some people wax poetic about it.
I am reading PERSUASION now. It doesn't seem familiar; I must have missed this one when I read her novels the first time. One of the most interesting things I found out about Jane Austen is that she declined a proposal from a very wealthy man at an age when she was rapidly approaching spinsterhood, for the reason that she did not love him! That shows some real fortitude of character. I don't think I could have done it, it the man was at all reasonable and tolerable. I probably would have said, "Sure, I'll take the mansion." Espescially since the fate of an unmarried woman was to be marginalized, and be forever dependent upon your relatives, a very demeaning way to live. Not all dependence is demeaning, certainly. But in her day and age, it would be very dispiriting, I think.
|
Comments