In the Dolomites

I go to WORD and bring up NEW BLANK DOCUMENT.

When the blank document appears I'm delighted that nobody's been there before me, but terrified by all the empty white space: the document looks at me as if I have something to say, and I don't.

I listen to my wife walk up and then down the stairs.

She says, "I walked up to the attic when I'd meant to walk down to the basement."

That's funny, not because we're both getting old but because we don't have an attic or a basement.

The electrician hasn't called me back. Why don't these people call you back when they say they'll call you back? Is there some sort of law among tradespeople that states they must always say they're going to call you back when they really mean they won't call you back? That you have to call them again so that they can say again they'll call you back and then not call you back.

There's a note on my desk. I think I wrote it. The note reads, Willa Cather. I've never read Willa Cather. I've read Edith Wharton and Katherine Anne Porter, but I've never read Willa Cather. At this point in my life I guess I could go on without reading Willa Cather, even though maybe I'd be missing something.

I seem to remember that Willa Cather didn't like paperbacks and forbade her publisher from issuing any of her books in paperback while she was alive. I don't remember where I got this information, but I'm pretty sure it's accurate. I do remember that when I learned Willa Cather didn't like paperbacks I liked her instantly and vowed to read at least one of her books in hardcover. 

I talked with a writer yesterday, I can't call him a friend but I can call him an acquaintance, who'd just had his latest book sent to the printer. I asked if he was happy with the book. He said, "it's worse than I thought and better than I imagined."

The painting I'm painting now is of squares, not like Josef Albers but like Brooks Roddan. The last painting I made was of circles. I worked on the circle painting for three months before it was finished; I've been working on the painting of squares for about six weeks. When I finish the square painting I'm going to do a painting of polyhedrons, and then move on to more representational territory.

Keep moving, that's what I say, whether or not the electrician calls you back.