We had a heat advisory today. The high temperature was 93 degrees. So, naturally I went to the gym to exercise after lunch. After five minutes of warm-up exercises, I was soaked. I also had the gym to myself. Go figure! I gave it my best, but I am glad to have the next two days off.
We took Toby to Lake Saundra in the go cart after lunch to walk in the shade. He's been eating a lot of grass, so our trainer said to give him frozen green beans to add some fiber to his diet. He loved that idea.
I was taking a picture of this squirrel eating a nut and just as I clicked, a bird flew into the frame.
Toby does a good job walking by wildlife. I don't trust him completely, but he rarely pays any attention to birds. A squirrel is another matter. But a timely "leave it" command will dissuade him.
The breeze was blowing about 2 mph in the 83 degree heat this morning on our causeway walk. It was a great day for paddle boarding and kayaking.
You can see beyond the barrier islands to the Gulf of Mexico from the tidal bridge.
A late afternoon shower cooled things down to 80 degrees before our last walk of the day.
Oops.
That's better. We sat in the golf cart inside the garage to watch the rain.
John took a Covid test this afternoon after being exposed to someone who later found out he had the virus. Our luck continues: negative.
Today's bike routes to the causeway drawbridge, Publix, and Weaver Park.
Today is Bloomsday in Dublin, Ireland, celebrating James Joyce's Ulysses. The main character, Leopold Bloom, is the focus of the novel, which takes place on June 16, 1904 in 703 pages. The novel is inspired by Homer's Odyssey (Odysseus is the name of the hero in Greek, while Ulysses is the name of the hero in Latin/English; different name, same man), with the major difference being that Bloom is a modern hero whose challenges are all internal. Instead of taking years to get home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, Bloom only has to make it through one day. Joyce follows the structure of Homer's epic poem, and cleverly repurposes titles and events for his own novel. Each of the 18 chapters relates to events in the original, and each chapter showcases an experiment in language (such as not using punctuation). Joyce was attempting to say that a modern hero is someone who can make it through the day, overcoming challenges, to make it home with his dignity and humanity intact. The wars that Bloom fights are the stuff of everyday encounters, temptations, betrayals, friendship, work, heartache, kindnesses, and forgiveness. Joyce's novel may be the most significant of the 20th century, but it is not an easy read. Most lay readers will use an "annotated" copy, which explains what Joyce is doing in each chapter. However, it can still be read and enjoyed on its own. Incidentally, the novel inspired the title for Pete Buttigieg's political autobiography, Shortest Way Home. (His father was a literature professor at Notre Dame who studied and wrote about Joyce.)
In my opinion, Joyce's greatest work is a chapter from Dubliners, called "The Dead." It is so beautiful that it is often read alone as a short story, and it is accessible to any reader. The main character is an English professor who arrives late with his wife to an annual Irish Christmas party as the story unfolds. As the night progresses, his oversized ego encounters three women who in their own way slowly bring about an epiphany. As is typical of 20th century literature, not much seems to happen plot-wise. Most of the drama happens internally, within the main character as he slowly comes to see the kind of man he is, rather than the kind of man he thought he was. The final scene in the hotel room where he and his wife go after the party is brutal and beautiful at the same time, and even funny. The language is as beautiful and powerful as in any poem. The ending is ambiguous enough that the reader has to decide what will happen next. I've always thought that Joyce was encouraging and challenging the reader to respond to his or her own epiphany. What will you do with this new information, he asks. For me, it's required reading and re-reading to learn from the dead how to live.
Miles walked: 8.2
Miles biked: 12.35
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