May 29: Ferris Wheel, My Book Bag, "Winter by Degrees"

As they passed the Ferris wheel, Fern gazed up at it and wished she were in the topmost car with Henry Fussy at her side.

Fern is growing up.  Instead of sitting around Wilbur's pen at the Fair, she dreams of riding the Ferris wheel with Henry Fussy.  She yearns for something she can't, at the moment, have.  The Ferris wheel and Henry Fussy's company.


I know I always fall victim to this habit.  As I drive to work in the morning, I dream of being back in bed.  As I'm working at my new job, I'm dreaming about being at my former job.  Or teaching at the university.  Or playing tag with my five-year-old son.  Anything.  It's a bad habit, always yearning for something better but out of reach.

If I could simply be satisfied with my life, I think I would be a much happier person.  Unfortunately, at the moment, I find myself very dissatisfied with my life.  I miss teaching.  I miss having my Fridays off from work.  Tomorrow morning, I have to be at the office at 7:30 a.m. for a department meeting.  Yes, I will be on the clock, but I will be thinking about being off the clock.  Plus, I just found out that I have inherited the late shift in the business office.  That means, for the moment, I will be working from 8:45 a.m. 'til 5:15 p.m., Monday through Friday.  I  am not thrilled.

Speaking of being thrilled, I am currently reading a book by John Smolens.  Winter by Degrees was his first novel, and it's wonderful.  Gritty, hard, and cold.  It's sort of a mystery.  A man disappears, and the narrator has to figure out what happened to him.  The victim may have fallen through black ice on the Merrimack River and been swept out to the Atlantic.  Or he may have been murdered by the narrator's brother.

I haven't finished WBD yet, but it's gripping.  It has all the elements that make John Smolens such a great writer.  Strong, complex characters.  A moral swamp for a plot.  The narrator is a divorced father who forgets about his ten-year-old son's hockey games, drinks heavily, and can't seem to hold on to a steady job.  Yet, Smolens makes me care about this man, despite all these flaws.

I can't provide any spoilers for you.  I haven't finished the book yet, but I know I'm not going to be disappointed.  John Smolens' work never disappoints.

Saint Marty needs to get to bed now.  He's got an early meeting tomorrow.

Everybody has a Ferris wheel to dream about