There was no response to my email (dated 18th April) from Mustafa Ertek, the president of the Refik Saydam Hygiene Center in Turkey responsible for cutting horses’ throats for blood. I posted a letter.

I sprayed the rose bushes with some terrible insecticide to save them. But killed an entire ecosystem living on them.

Panos and I built a pergola.

I thought about the absurd.

I took Roger Morris’s Taking Comfort with me to a kiddie soccer game and read some more of it. The unrelenting rhythm of the narration soothed me and drew my attention away from gossiping mothers and tired fathers. I enjoyed the passages in which Rob (a marketing man) wonders about the correct words to describe a product. I thought about words and what they describe. Do words describe what they describe or do we manipulate words to describe things they way we want them to be seen. I wondered about a copywriter and a writer-writer.

My friend Alexia sent me photos, music, and video. My other friend, Angelike, found a home for a dog.

I exchanged email with Tracey, a friend from primary school, and discovered that kids I went to school with have grown up to be dead (of leukemia and heroin), thugs, bankers, and Olympic football players. She sent me a photo to remind me of me. I’m the one on the right.