As the heat and humidity climb in Austin, I dream of escaping to the mountains and the sea.
On the bedside table this week
- Island in the Sound. Hazel Heckman. 1967.
- Choose the Pacific Northwest for Retirement. John Howells and Richard Harris. 1996.
- The Woman’s Retreat Book. Jennifer Louden. 1997.
The Woman’s Retreat Book
I don’t read self-help books very seriously, but I sometimes find them highly entertaining and The Woman’s Retreat Book has resulted in one of the funniest exchanges at our house in a long time.
“I decided to go into the bog for three hours [on Thanksgiving morning] and concentrate…I needed a shelter. I thought of a teepee and asked my husband, Herb, to help…All the poles I needed were lying there. We started standing them up, and after the third pole the teepee was standing on its own. Herb had to tie the poles together at the top, but otherwise I did as much of the work as I could on my own. It was a fine teepee. I called it the medi-teepee, as in meditation teepee. Herb called it the spirit teepee.” pp. 219-220
That Herb! He’s probably thinking, if I can just get this wacko out of the house for awhile, I can watch football in peace.
For the last three days, every conversation has ended, begun, or included these now infamous lines.
“I called it…medi-teepee.”
“Herb called it…spirit teepee.”