Day 6 - The Mighty Octagon

Carpenter's Octagon

It hasn't started raining yet but it is supposed to tonight. I feel blah because the day has been perfectly cold and dreary. We walked to a restaurant down the street for breakfast and it was freezing. I was just wearing shorts and a short sleeved top. Any moment I thought it was going to start raining but now it is almost 6pm and it still hasn't started yet. Special K and I did some odd jobs around the house. That, if the truth be told, I did not want to do because,well I thought we were on holiday. However, it is very satisfying to do some of those odd jobs. There were workman here for the neighbours and for us. We are still having our windows done. There was a lot of wood cutting going on. Everything out back, and indeed inside, because the screen door was open all afternoon, is covered in a thin layer of sawdust.

The small girl from next door came over again, and together we explored the mysteries of the octagon, which, as it turns out, I have a talent for drawing with my eyes closed. She is five and while she understands that a octagon has eight sides, she is unable to grasp the technique (at least the technique I showed her) for drawing the figure. It is the angles of the required lines, I think, that confound someone so young. I promised her that by the time she is six, she will no doubt have mastered the drawing of an octagon, probably sooner than that. This seemed to bring on melancholy and she put her head in her lap. Special K came outside and asked her what was wrong. "Nothing", she remarked, "just that I cannot draw an octagon." So sad, we agreed. But we are confident that this is is a problem with a definite solution.

We thought we might hang the blinds and dispense with the sheets hanging over the windows but it's not going to happen. We bought take out sushi from the supermarket and are now watching "So You Think You Can Dance" which I am finding very painful to watch. Why make those poor young people who actually do have talent feel like they don't.