October 2026

Books read:

On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima (translated by Michael Gallagher)

Trails walked:

Bluebird Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park (Oct 6)
Kruger Rock near Estes Park (Oct 16)
Manitou Incline and Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs (Oct 29)

Song(s) of the month: Favorite songs from 1976

Tom Traubert's Blues by Tom Waits
American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Do Ya by Electric Light Orchestra
The Pretender by Jackson Browne
Summer by War

October Summary:

I had so many ideas about what to write in my summary this month. I read this article recently showing exactly what I've been saying for the past 10 years: Basic things like education, housing, insurance and going to concerts are unreasonably unaffordable now and the rate of inflation does NOT explain it all away. But that sounds too depressing. Then I thought that it was about time I write another article bringing everyone up to date on the latest good news on climate change, but then I didn't want everyone deleting it once they read those two "C" words. My topic was revealed when I read an article about this month being the 50th anniversary of Bob Seger's Night Moves album. And that got me thinking that, wow, this is also the 50th anniversary of my high school graduation. I was never in touch with the reunion people, probably because back then I was a pot-smoking honor student nerd whose best friend went to a different high school; and probably because I lobbied for our senior song to be Jimi Hendrix' Purple Haze - our school color was purple after all. Anyway, all of this got me to thinking about how incredible 1976 was for music. OK, so more than likely everyone says that the music when they graduated high school was the best music ever. And there's a point to be made about that; 17 and 18 year olds are at that inflection point between childhood and adulthood and it seems that music has an outsized influence at that age. But hey, objectively, 1976 was a banner music year. Just take a look at this very small sample of songs that came out that year:

Hotel California, New Kid in Town, and Life in the Fast Lane - Eagles

Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac

More Than A Feeling and Long Time - Boston

(Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Öyster Cult (Will Ferrell on SNL anyone?)

Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones

Shake Shake Shake - KC and the Sunshine Band

Sir Duke and Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder

Night Moves and Mainstreet - Bob Seger

American Girl and Breakdown - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Carry On Wayward Son - Kansas

Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller Band

My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys - Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson,

Somebody To Love - Queen

Tonight's The Night - Rod Stewart

Livin' Thing, Do Ya and Telephone Line- Electric Light Orchestra

The Wreck Of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot

Cherry Bomb - Runaways

Hasten Down the Wind (album) - Linda Ronstadt

Get Up Offa That Thing - James Brown

New York State Of Mind and Prelude/Angry Young Man - Billy Joel

Back In the Saddle - Aerosmith

Tom Traubert's Blues and Step Right Up - Tom Waits

The Pretender, Your Bright Baby Blues and Here Come Those Tears Again - Jackson Browne

Boys are Back in Town and Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy

Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Mohammed's Radio and Carmelita - Warren Zevon

Hurricane, Isis and One More Cup of Coffee - Bob Dylan

Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading

2112 - Rush

Summer - War

Europa -Santana

Kid Charlemagne - Steely Dan

Shower the People - James Taylor

Miles and Miles of Texas - Asleep at the Wheel

Golden Years - David Bowie

Give Me Back My Bullets - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Long May You Run - Stephen Stills and Neil Young

Making Believe - Emmylou Harris

And I could go on and on. I didn't even list anything from two albums released that year from two ex Beatles or from the Rolling Stones or from Joni Mitchell. It was a great year to be 17 or 18. My favorite concert that year was Jackson Browne's The Pretender tour. I went with a girl I was dating at the time, and I'm pretty sure we "made out" during the entire show. Yes, I was one of THOSE people. Hey, I was 17 and my synapses weren't all connected at the time.

Oh yeah, it's been baseball playoff time this month. My favorite sports month of the year. World Series, NFL in full swing, college football in full swing, WNBA playoffs, NHL and NBA starting up. The highlight for me was watching the Milwaukee Brewers sweep the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers in four games. As the coach for the Brewers said afterwards, "They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we've got a bunch of gamers." Classic line. The Brew Crew went on to deservedly win it all for the first time in that team's 57 year history. Baseball is still great. Unfortunately greed will rule baseball this offseason as new collective bargaining negotiations threaten next year's entire season. Stay tuned. On a side note, one of The Athletic's best writers has a brilliant story on his least favorite commercials from the World Series. He mixes great humor with biting social commentary. You have to read it.

This month my rambling took me on a long hike to a beautiful lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, a short hike to a rock with a view, and to two jewels in Colorado Springs. My reading included an interesting book on trails, an entertaining read about creative ways single moms can provide financial support for their kids, and a classic Japanese novel from a fascinating author. Enjoy!

Things My Grandkids Say: One of the things my oldest grandchild, who's six, said this month is part of why I initially wanted to talk about economics in my summary. He asked, "Grandpa, why do people have to pay for houses?" It kind of took the breath out of me. I mean, just think about that from a kids perspective for a minute. He's probably thinking that everyone should have a home because everyone should have someplace to live. But if they cost money, then how do some people afford it? And where would they go if they couldn't? And why can't we just provide enough for everyone? I figured a lesson on Western Capitalism would be a tough topic for a first grader (or for a 67 year old grandpa), so we moved on to the more important topic of Minecraft. On a related note, the city of Denver seems to be providing some answers to homelessness. Check it out here.

Song(s) of the month: Favorite songs from 1976

Yes, that's me in my senior yearbook photo from 1976. You can barely make out the mustache. And the glasses had pretty solid facial coverage back then. I'm pretty sure my parents made me cut my hair for that photo because it used to be much longer. The plaid suit was pretty fly though, don't you think? OK so obviously this section had to have some my favorite songs of 1976 from that list above. It wasn't easy, but here goes.

Tom Traubert's Blues by Tom Waits - Waits released the album Small Change in September of 1976. Here's what he said about it, which describes it perfectly: "The album's called Small Change. It's all about ambulance drivers, night watchmen, ticket takers, street sweepers, tattoo parlors, stage door jockeys, shoe string hotels from New York City to Chicago, Buffalo, Los Angeles, all the way from Tuxedo Junction to swing town. Did it in five nights on the corner of Selma and Cahuenga. Recorded complete and direct to 2-track stereo tape." Classic Waits. I chose this song because it has one of the most perfect and descriptive lines I've ever heard in a song:

And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace

And a wound that will never heal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkOMiA_uGso&list=RDHkOMiA_uGso&start_radio=1

American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - This is an American classic rock and roll song and it was on his debut album! It's an upbeat song about a woman on the road to recovery after a breakup. What I remember most about this song however, is the scene in Silence of the Lambs, about 20 minutes into the film, where this young girl is driving her car, singing along to this song. The headlights behind her portend something bad about to happen; she parks the car and heads to her apartment. Then she sees a man struggling to load a sofa in his van and she decides to help. That man was Buffalo Bill, notorious serial killer. Bad decision, but great choice of song to precede that scene. Sample lines:

Well, she was an American girl

Raised on promises

She couldn't help thinkin' that there

Was a little more to life

Somewhere else

After all it was a great big world

With lots of places to run to

Yeah, and if she had to die tryin'

She had one little promise

She was gonna keep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7bAeH7iJFc&list=RDJ7bAeH7iJFc&start_radio=1

Do Ya by Electric Light Orchestra - ELO was one of my favorite bands in high school and college. I loved their mix of classical instruments with rock music. Similar to the Moody Blues, but with a bit more rock. This song comes from their breakout album A New World Record. I couldn't decide between this song, Telephone Line or A Livin' Thing, all great songs. I eventually chose this for the great guitar riff and the sort of psychedelic scenes described throughout. Sample lines:

In this life I've seen everything I can see woman

I've seen lovers flying through the air hand in hand

I've seen babies dancing in the midnight sun

And I've seen dreams that came from the heavenly skies above

I've seen old men crying at their own grave sides

And I've seen pigs all sitting watching picture slides

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1Y-rfbzmgY&list=RDp1Y-rfbzmgY&start_radio=1

The Pretender by Jackson Browne - Another great 1976 album. In addition to the iconic title song, the album included Here Come Those Tears Again, and Your Bright Baby Blues. Classics. This is another song with one of the great lines ever written (in bold below). And really nearly every line in this song is incredible. Truly some of the greatest lyrics ever penned. Browne had this to say about it, which he paraphrases in the video below: "...it's about anybody that's sort of lost sight of some of their dreams...and is going through the motions and trying to make a stab at a certain way of life that he sees other people succeeding at. So maybe it's a lot of people of a certain generation who sort of embraced a very material lifestyle in place of dreams that they had that sort of disintegrated at some point." Heavy stuff. Sample lyrics:

Caught between the longing for love

And the struggle for the legal tender

Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring

And the junk man pounds his fender.

Where the veterans dream of the fight

Fast asleep at the traffic light

And the children solemnly wait

For the ice cream vendor

Out into the cool of the evening

Strolls the Pretender

He knows that all his hopes and dreams

Begin and end there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xowaOsutxA4&list=RDxowaOsutxA4&start_radio=1

Summer by War - OK, so this is probably not considered a classic song by anyone, but it's kinda personal. War was my very first concert. I probably saw them 2 or 3 more times during high school and college. And when you see lists of best songs about summer, you will likely see this on some of those lists. I love the 8-track tape and CB radio references that date the song. I'm pretty sure the Beach Boys were pretty jealous that they didn't write it. Sample lyrics:

Ridin' 'round town with all the windows downEight track playin' all your fav'rite soundsThe rhythm of the bongos fill the parkThe street musicians tryin' to get a start

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRcT8nafaKU&list=RDsRcT8nafaKU&start_radio=1

On Trails by Robert Moor – Winner of the 2017 National Outdoor Book Awards, this interesting book by Robert Moor explores how trails have been created throughout history, starting with ancient sea creatures called Ediacarans. He went on a hike in Newfoundland with a paleontologist who studies the trails these creatures left behind on ancient rocks that used to be buried undersea. Subsequent chapters discuss how ants and tent caterpillars leave trails, then on to elephants and finally humans, among many other trail blazers. It’s not as boring as it sounds though. The story of how trails from animals, then Native Americans eventually led to the US Highway system seems farfetched, but that’s what happened. He adds fun stories about trying his hand at sheep herding on the Navajo Nation, and then he spends some time following a Forest Gump-like character who has spent most of his life just walking. These anecdotes, along with the evolution of how trails turned from means to find food and shelter to the recreational uses they are known for today provide some great food for thought. The book begins on the author’s through-hike of the Appalachian Trail and also includes his miserable hike in Newfoundland which had no trails at all. I can certainly relate and have done my share of on-trail and off-trail hiking, and believe me, off-trail hiking is not as romantic as it sounds. I loved this quote he had in the book: “It is impossible to fully appreciate the value of a trail until you have been forced to walk through the wilderness without one.” Having a trail to walk is so much more pleasant and can still get you to some of the most amazing views. Here are some lines:

Journalism, they assured me, was not the only field with dwindling resources. "Each year," said Liu, "university and government budgets for the dusty science of paleontology grew stingier." He smiled with resignation. "What I do is immensely important for understanding where we came from, but it has little wider social impact," he said. "It’s not going to solve climate change. It’s not going to boost the economy.”

Newfoundland is ideal for bumming around; it has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world, the people are generally congenial, and everyone seems to own a big automobile. Car ride by car ride, I made my way down to the island’s southeastern tip.

Consider the fire ant: Once a scout has found a food source, excited by its discovery, on its return trip it presses its stinger to the ground to release a stream of pheromone, like ink from a fountain pen. The more food it finds, the more pheromone it deposits.

Many African ungulates—zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, antelopes—tend to live in mixed herds, perhaps because the strengths of one species make up for the deficiencies of another. Zebras, for example, are nearsighted, but have excellent hearing, while giraffes and wildebeest have keen long-range vision. By herding together, they increase their chance of spotting (or hearing) the approach of a stalking lion.

One elephant, named Shirley, had created a trail that led to the grave of her former companion, Bunny. (Today, the caretakers call it “Bunny’s Trail.”)

Elephants’ feet could also detect the rumble of thunder from up to a hundred miles away. If so, this would help explain their mysterious ability to travel across vast distances to the precise location of newly rain-fed land.

As Seymour Dunbar wrote in A History of Travel in America: “Practically the whole present-day system of travel and transportation in America east of the Mississippi River, including many turnpikes, is based upon, or follows, the system of forest paths established by the Indians hundreds of years ago.”

While there, he took a workshop on how to climb trees and hang protest banners. A public radio reporter asked him if he was going to use those skills when he returned home to Alabama. “Oh hell no,” he replied. “If you climbed a tree in Alabama, they’d cut the tree down. If you chain yourself across a road they’ll run over you.”

Cherokee has seven cardinal directions that continually situate speakers in space: north, south, east, west, up, down, and (hardest of all for us outsiders to grasp) here.

The Western Apache believe the goal of life is to walk “the trail of wisdom,” in pursuit of three attributes Basso translated as “smoothness of mind,” “resilience of mind,” and “steadiness of mind”

We can travel at the speed of sound and transmit information at the speed of light, but deep human connection still cannot move faster than the (comparatively, lichenous) rate at which trust can grow.

Why do we hike? I have asked many hikers this same question, and I have never received a fully satisfying answer. It seems there are many overlapping reasons: to strengthen our bodies, to bond with friends, to submerge ourselves in the wild, to feel more alive, to conquer, to suffer, to repent, to reflect, to rejoice. More than anything, though, I believe what we hikers are seeking is simplicity—an escape from civilization’s garden of forking paths.

Shaving down one’s pack weight, he said, was a process of sloughing off one’s fears. Each object a person carries represents a particular fear: of injury, of discomfort, of boredom, of attack.

Bluebird Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park – Another long hike, this one around 13 miles. Why am I doing this to myself? I guess part of it is to see that I still can. Another part is my quest to hike as many trails in Rocky Mountain National Park as I can. And also, sometimes you have to hike beyond the maddening crowds to see great beauty. The Wild Basin area of the park is a lesser known area with relatively fewer crowds. It’s very popular in late May and early June during spring runoff when the waterfalls along Ouzel Creek are raging. I’ve been in this area during all four seasons, and the creek looks like a completely different animal during runoff. On this day the creek was very peaceful with the waterfalls gently falling over the rocks. It made for a very pleasant walk as I followed the creek to one of its sources at Bluebird Lake. The first 4.5 miles to the junction of the Ouzel Lake/Bluebird Lake trails climbs around 1,500 feet, but then the last 2 miles to Bluebird Lake climbs 1,000 feet so it gets a bit steeper. But nothing too difficult. One of the highlights, besides the final destination is about a half mile past Ouzel Falls when you gain the ridgeline. You’re still in the trees, but the views just explode all around you as the high peaks of the National Park rise above you in all directions. The trail flattens for a bit here and it’s very pleasant walking with great views. Bluebird Lake is gorgeous, just above the tree line. There were only two other hikers up here and we all gave each other that knowing nod that, yes, we hiked this far while the masses of people turn around after the first waterfall. I ate my lunch while basking in this beauty with perfect weather; temps in the upper 50s with no wind on a sunny day. No animals other than deer down low and some pikas up high.

Some fall color up here

Three young deer curious to see what I was

Sun lighting up the aspens

My destination is just below that middle peak (Ouzel Peak)

Ouzel Lake hiding in the trees

The last stretch before Bluebird Lake

Bluebird Lake under a bluebird sky

Bluebird Lake

Loved these naturally tiered gardens below Copeland Mountain

Pretty up here

Aspen-lined trail

Gentle waterfalls along the way

A sad version of Copeland Lake after the drought

Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe – In a switch for me, I saw the show before I read the book. The show, starring Elle Fanning and Nick Offerman was just OK. I honestly only watched it because I love Nick Offerman, who was great as Margo’s ex-professional wrestler dad. But after watching the show I was wondering why all the buzz about the book? It won some fiction awards and was nominated for others. Time magazine had it as one of their best books of 2024. The author, Rufi Thorpe’s previous novel (Knockout Queen) was shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award. I’ll have to put that one on my list because I really enjoyed her writing in this novel. As in most cases, the novel is so much better than the show. The endings were quite different, there was an entire critical relationship and character in the book that never made the show, and the book keeps you on your toes by switching from first person to third person narratives. She seems to use third person perspective when describing the bigger mistakes that Margo makes in her life; Margo did that, I didn’t.

The book tells the story of Margo, a college freshman who has an affair with her married-with-children English professor. She ends up pregnant and after lots of agonizing thought and advice from friends and family decides to have the baby, even if it “ruins her life” like most of her advisors suggested. And for a while that decision does seem to ruin her life. She loses her waitress job because she can’t find child care, two of her roommates break their lease because the baby is up all night, and even her mom isn’t happy that she made this decision (even though Margo is alive only because her mom made a similar decision 19 years ago). So, she’s jobless, doesn’t have money to pay the rent, and she’s not getting any sleep. Then what seems like the answer comes into her life. Her estranged father shows up at her doorstep after completing a rehab stint (one of several he’s been on as he tries to deal with the opiates that alleviate the very real back pain he suffers due to his previous career as a professional wrestler). So, already we have the issues of college campus sexual assault (even if it was consensual, there was a very obvious power dynamic in place), the financial issues and social distancing faced by single moms, mother-daughter relationships, and opiate abuse. And we haven’t even gotten to the main issue in the novel, which is, the acceptability or not of a single mom starting an OnlyFans sex content website in order to pay her bills.

Her dad, Jinx, turned out to be the answer for her daycare and rent issues as he helped with those issues in addition to cooking and cleaning. This gave Margo the creative space to develop her OnlyFans character and figure out how to start making money. Just when she’s finally getting into a groove, some really bad things happen involving her dad relapsing, someone calling Child Protective Services and then a demand for custody of the baby from the professor-dad. It all eventually comes to a resolution thanks mainly to the ingenuity of Margo along with some help from her dad and a very good lawyer friend of his. As you can tell, the story itself is pretty interesting, and the author is so light and quick with her words which makes it a lot of fun to read. As the father of a daughter, I still find it hard to accept using sex content web sites to make a living. But I also understand that there are some situations that leave a woman with little other choice in their life. And there’s that supply and demand thing. So, who am I to judge? The issue was addressed nicely in this quote from the book: "If sex wasn’t shameful and being paid wasn’t shameful, then why was it shameful to have sex for money? Or sell pictures of your boobs or whatever? Where was the shame coming from? How was it entering the system?"

The author did such a good job of describing a 19-20 year old in all their bravery, brilliance, and stupidity. I loved this line in the book: “I want you to close your eyes and actually remember what it was like to be twenty. I want you to remember your house or apartment or dorm room. Whom did you have a crush on? How did it feel to be inside your body, letting your legs flop over watching TV? Think of how ridiculously, insanely, terrifyingly stupid you were, how many things you just did not know.” Here are some other lines:

After five minutes of straight panicking, she finally remembered she could just unfasten him, and after fumbling with the freakishly gigantic plastic clasp that went over his chest and pressing the stupid red button of the crotch buckle with the requisite superhuman strength (seriously, she pictured a family of rock climbers, used to hanging by their fingertips off cliffsides, who then decided to design baby stuff), she freed him, but then she had no idea how she was supposed to carry this tiny, fragile thing and also all her bags.

Aside from impregnating me and kind of ruining my life, Mark helped me a great deal with my writing.

From the hallway, she could hear one of her roommates throwing up. Probably Kat the Smaller, who was very much a puker. Things entered and exited her with a whimsy Margo could not imagine.

Margo and Shyanne were at the Goodwill hoping to find a used stroller that wasn’t unspeakably sad…the strollers at Goodwill were made of a brown floral fabric that bespoke another era or country, perhaps Soviet Russia, and crusted with the food of some previous baby who ate, by the look of things, a lot of egg.

Going to the store and buying fever reducer was so beyond my capabilities I actually started laughing. I texted Shyanne: Help! Bodhi and I have the stomach flu and I don’t know what to do. She texted back: You’ll get through it!

“Wrestling is not fake,” Jinx used to say, “it is merely predetermined.”

This borders on sacrilege, but I don’t like crab or lobster really either. I won’t refuse to eat it, but I’d never be like, “Hmmm, let me pay forty dollars to wrestle two ounces of delicate, tasteless meat out of the carcass of this oversized ocean insect.”

On New Year’s Day, Margo was shopping at Target, which had become in the months since Bodhi’s birth a sort of spiritual home.

“You can’t tell me that if it was men, and a medical decision would result in their penis splitting open and them not being able to hold their pee for the rest of their life, they wouldn’t think that should be their own decision.”

I had always imagined my father as having these dark, unfathomable urges for sex, drugs, violence. It was better, in a way, to understand that what he really wanted and needed was for the pain and loneliness to ease. His behavior was still bad, but it was no longer so alien and frightening.

I was only asking him to drive from downtown L.A. to Buena Park, which someone should be willing to do for love.

Kruger Rock near Estes Park – This trail is part of the Hermit Park Open Space and requires a $10 entry fee. I’m normally not thrilled about paying for hiking when there are so many places to hike without paying a dime. But I’ve been curious about this area which I pass often on my way to Rocky Mountain National Park. I’ve had a string of double digit mile hikes lately and wanted a more reasonable distance on this day. It’s normally a 4 mile out and back from the parking lot to Kruger Rock, but I added another mile and a half along the Limber Pine trail just to explore it a bit. The open space here is beautiful. There are several campgrounds and cabins for rent, along with a few trailheads. It’s possible to access Homestead Meadows from here which I’d like to do someday. I’ve hiked Homestead Meadows several times from the Lion Gulch trailhead northwest of Pinewood Springs. I may have to spring for a $70 Larimer County senior annual pass which also includes access to other places I’ve avoided due to the $10 daily fee.

The rock is named for Adolph Henry Krueger (I guess they dropped the “e” when they named the rock) who ran a cattle ranch up here in the early 1900s. And the “hermit” was a German settler by the name of John Louis Jacobi (Dutch Louie) who homesteaded up here in the late 1800s. There’s an entertaining sign evidently written by the hermit at his cabin. The trail to Kruger Rock is just under 2 miles and around 1,000 feet of elevation gain from the parking lot to the top. So a decent workout, but not too steep. There is a bit of a scramble to get to the top of the rock, but it’s well worth it because the 360 degree views from here are gorgeous. You have Longs and Meeker Peaks looming very close to the southwest, Estes Park and the other National Park peaks to the west, and the foothills and plains to the east. I was lucky enough to have the rock top to myself the whole time even though there were several hikers before and after I reached the top. It’s a popular trail. There are views for most of the way up, so it’s enjoyable for nearly the entire walk. I decided to head north on the Limber Pine trail for a bit just to explore it and look for animals. I did see some deer on this lightly used trail. I also encountered a ranger riding a mountain bike, which was a new experience for me. Other than the Kruger Rock trail, all other trails allow mountain bikes. A really nice day in the foothills by Estes Park with great views.

You can see Kruger Rock up there, looking much smaller than it is

All the leaves are gone, but the sky wasn't gray

Nice views of Estes Park on the way up

Snow covered peaks

Meeker and Longs Peaks from top of the rock

Great views up here

See?

Looking east toward Hermit Park and Homestead Meadows

Getting to the top of Kruger involved some rock scrambling up this crack

Window with a view

Trail art

Hermit's cabin

Hermit's creative sign

Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima – The author’s story is far more fascinating than this novel. In his short life (he died at age of 45) he published 34 novels, 50 plays and 25 books of short stories, 35 books of essays, a libretto, and one film. He was also an actor, a model, and an expert at martial arts. He’s likely best known for his attempted coup in 1970 which ended in his ritual suicide where he committed seppuku (suicide by sword through the stomach). That’s a lot! Evidently Paul Schrader produced film about his life that I’ll have to find. This novel is the first installment in a four part series titled The Sea of Fertility. He committed seppuku shortly after finishing the last installment.

OK, so the novel. It’s set just after the Meiji period in the early years of the Taisho period in 1912. Eighteen year old Kiyoaki is a somewhat spoiled child who was raised in a wealthy household with tutors and maids. One of his tutors, Satoko, is a woman two years his senior. Both she and Kiyoaki are seen as extraordinarily physically attractive. They develop a strange relationship where it seems they both love each other, but so aloofly that it never seems to consummate. Kiyoaki has a school friend named Honda who, to me, seems like the only redeeming character in the book. Honda helps Kiyoaki when Satoko becomes promised to a prince of the royal family. They have a fling, she gets pregnant, and a national scandal has to be avoided. Kiyoaki and Satoko’s parents put together a plan to get her an abortion without anyone finding out. But those plans are scuttled by Satoko who, after the abortion, cuts off her hair and vows to become a Buddhist nun rather than going through with a marriage to the prince. So lots of romantic intrigue, much like a Jane Austen novel.

In between all of this, there are various other plots, like the visit of two Siamese princes, and some meddling by servants of both Kiyoaki and Satoko. It was all very fascinating learning about some of Japanese history and the Western vs Eastern influences at this time, just after the Russo-Japanese war. The translated prose was really beautiful, but the characters, other than the friend Honda, just didn’t capture my interest and so I didn’t care much about what happened to them. I probably won’t read another of his novels, but I really would like to find that Paul Schrader film about the author. Here are some of the beautiful lines:

The maple leaves here were especially beautiful, so thick as to blot out the white ribbon of the falls and stain the water at the edge of the pond a deep scarlet.

To feel myself dissolve into your beauty and freeze to death in the snow—no fate could be sweeter.

Since the death of his grandfather, his grandmother, with her masculine shoulders and no-nonsense face, had turned her back on the world completely, and ate little but a handful of rice a day, as though living in anticipation of the death she hoped was soon to come. As it turned out, however, she thrived on this diet.

It was that strange moment, poised on the edge of evening, when lights are still unnecessary, when even in the midst of a convivial gathering, one may be caught by a vague intimation of precariousness.

But it was the kind of experience—like death, like the glow of a jewel, like the beauty of a sunset—that is almost impossible to convey to others.

The path we’re taking is not a road, Kiyo, it’s a pier, and it ends someplace where the sea begins.

She belonged to a generation of women who had thought nothing of washing their dinner plates in a river while corpses went floating past.

Manitou Incline and Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs - My daughter had a radiology appointment for her baby in Colorado Springs so I met her at the hospital and then was lucky enough to spend some time with her and my latest grandchild at Garden of the Gods before she had to drive back home to Taos. Garden of the Gods is a Colorado Springs treasure. Miles of easy walking trails in the heart of the city among towering red spires and fascinating rock formations. We walked from the visitor's center to the central garden where we ate breakfast burritos while taking in the sights. We were also lucky enough to spot a bunch of big horn sheep bedded down near the trail. After my daughter and baby left, I checked out the visitors center which was really nice. Then I drove out to Manitou Springs which is a very eclectic little town west of the city with cute shops and restaurants. I left my car in the city park and took the free shuttle to the Manitou Incline (free reservations are required to do the Incline). I did this back in April of 2021 when I was five years younger and in better shape. It's a brutal climb; 2,768 steps and 2,000 feet of elevation gain in less than a mile. People (like me) were climbing on all fours towards the end. Back in 2021 it took me one hour and ten minutes to make it to the top. This time it took me one hour and fifteen minutes. I thought, well maybe I'm in better shape than I thought. Then I remembered that in 2021 I wore my 15-pound backpack, but on this day I decided to only carry my water bottle, no backpack. I was still happy that I can still do strenuous walks like this. By the way, the record time up is around 17 minutes; I can't even...Here's the official website for the climb; the video by Olympian Apolo Ohno at the end has some pretty shots of the incline.

Rather than climb back down the 2,768 steps, I opted to take the more gentle, but much longer (3 miles) Barr Trail back down. It was an enjoyable walk down even with my very sore calf and thigh muscles. I didn't want to see anymore stairs for a while.