Friday morning

While continuing to ponder the significance of a palm-sized tao (iTao?), I'm also continuing to struggle with the fleas. I'm dousing my ankles with Cutter about three times a day. I don't know what was in the flea bomb I bought, but I might as well have used distilled water.

While I was in El Dorado, I took possession of many of my father's and grandparents' personal possessions. These have no intrinsic value, but have some sentimental value for me. One item, for example, is the razor strop my grandfather used when I was a child. I think he had it when my dad was a kid, too. It's probably 80 years old, and might be a hundred. There's a lot of stuff like that. When I'm gone, there will be no one to inherit it, so I don't know what will become of it then.

I took all this stuff to the UPS store to have it shipped home, so by volume, 90 percent of what I'm unwrapping is foam peanuts. Getting rid of these is the biggest chore involved in unpacking. I'm going to buy some big trash bags today just to hold the damn peanuts.

I also took possession of my grandfather's paintings and one of my grandmother's drawings — the only one I'm aware of. I don't know where these will go. I will certainly hang one or two, but there are too many for the house.

KelleyO and sons have basically finished the stonework on the new patio. Josh is coming today to start work on the deck extension.

I have been reading Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, but it's been hard to focus. Too much other stuff going on, I think.