I am pretty sure that no one could tell that I hadn't slept at all the night before I taught today's class. No one in class, that is. The lady at Kinko's knows. Some other bad stuff happened: the coffeemaker broke, the gas station was out of regular gas, and when I pushed the button that was supposed to display my screen on everyone's monitors that is not what happened. But it is all behind me now.

On my neighborhood list, Tony asked, "Did any of you ever have a moment of complete bliss, where all was calm and beautiful. Me neither." Tony doesn't have much use for question marks. So a bunch of us were listing blissful moments. For some reason several people experienced theirs on or near railroads in the Alps.

I think the closest I have gotten was in Breckenridge, CO, one February. I have a brother-in-law who lives in Denver and the whole family loves to ski. Me, not so much. It doesn't help that we always cram a couple dozen Stavishes in a 2-bedroom condo for a long weekend each time we go. When I twisted my knee on the first day out, I turned in my skis and had them drop me off at the library the next morning. I spent the next six hours reading A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes while listening to the librarian scold patrons for using the computer to read email, which was expressly (and shrilly) forbidden.