Good books are evil--they can take over your will and lead you to spend the better part of an entire day reading them--until you finally come to the end and can do something householdey and useful.

The book I'm talking about is Tales of a Female Nomad, by Rita Gelman. I guess I started it yesterday or maybe the day before, but I read the second half of it today. It's really good. Rita Gelman's marriage ended when she was about 48, and she took off on her own. She lived among the people in Mexico, Bali, Indonesia, New Zealand--and probably a couple of other places I forget at the moment. I highly recommend it, especially for women past the age of 40. It shows that gradually advancing years are not a hindrance when you are determined to do something.

That took up most of today. It was sort of overcast and occassionally showery and was a good day to stay in. I did manage a couple of minor household tasks, but basically I was a bookworm today.

This evening a friend called me from Cincinnati. We used to have fairly regular coffee together when she lived here, but Katrina wiped out the lower story of their house near Lake Pontchartrain. They decided to resettle in Cincinnati, where two of their children live. Her news was that they had just signed the papers on a house. I passed along the tidbit that income taxes for Katrina people aren't due till August 28 this year. Of course, some people lost all their records--I don't know what the IRS will do about that.

I'm still working on the geek book--I think I'm about halfway through that one. I've got several mind candy books around the house and I'll need to settle on one of those for really idle moments.

Riverbend tells about the attack on the mosque in Baghdad.