Late last night I was in bed, reclining against several pillows and completely engrossed in a book from the library. I didn't even notice the rather warm and humid air, the discomfort of which was ameliorated by a breeze from the west wafting through the windows above my bed.
Sue Prideaux is an English novelist and biographer who undertook the difficult task of writing a biography of Friedrich Nietzsche which bears the title "I Am Dynamite!". Prideauz's writing is erudite, slyly witty, and full of felicitous phrasing. The book is as much a cultural biography of 19th-century Germany as it is of Nietzsche himself. I'm not a big fan of Nietzche although I do enjoy his intermittently-brilliant writing style. He was also quite the aphorist!
I was roused from literary absorption by a sudden carnivorous commotion. My cat plunged down four feet to the bed from a high windowsill. I put down the book and saw a small kangaroo mouse scurrying across my sheet-covered legs. The cat seized the mouse and jumped from the bed. The usual feline catch-and-release game ensued, but the mouse got away.
Cats can be very patient when prey is involved. She perched on her chair and waited, tail gently lashing. I'm sure she eventually caught it for good, but I had resumed my reading and eventually fell asleep.
I'm certain the the kangaroo mouse came in through the hole in my screen. Gotta fix that this week!