Is the novel The Egg? If so, how far is it now? ... Wait; I have it bookmarked and can answer that second question myself... Whoa, you have up to chapter 4. I only read the first two, so that's two I need to catch up on. But the question still holds--is the novel you mention at the end of the post that one or another one?
Re: smoking, you're 1,000 percent self-aware about your motivations and the costs and benefits. You don't strike me as someone who settles complacently into any one stance--this essay is the opposite of complacent. You don't need anyone to interrogate you or call bullshit: you have that job well under control all on your own.
My best memory of a cigarette is a hyper privileged one because it involves travel. I was in Timor-Leste, traveling from the mountains down to the capital in one of those little busses where people bring chickens and so on with them. It was night. I had a jacket and other people had blankets--they got on the bus wrapped up in them and then went to sleep. (The bus was scheduled to arrive at like 4 in the morning.) The guy who had offered to escort me didn't have a jacket, but he said not to worry. "I'll smoke a cigarette to keep warm," he said. And that's stuck with me in the decade-plus it's been since that trip. Cool night. A cigarette to keep warm by.
I doubt you'll be able to keep it a secret from your wife, though. Might as well just tell her?
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Date: 2025-07-06 05:20 am (UTC)Re: smoking, you're 1,000 percent self-aware about your motivations and the costs and benefits. You don't strike me as someone who settles complacently into any one stance--this essay is the opposite of complacent. You don't need anyone to interrogate you or call bullshit: you have that job well under control all on your own.
My best memory of a cigarette is a hyper privileged one because it involves travel. I was in Timor-Leste, traveling from the mountains down to the capital in one of those little busses where people bring chickens and so on with them. It was night. I had a jacket and other people had blankets--they got on the bus wrapped up in them and then went to sleep. (The bus was scheduled to arrive at like 4 in the morning.) The guy who had offered to escort me didn't have a jacket, but he said not to worry. "I'll smoke a cigarette to keep warm," he said. And that's stuck with me in the decade-plus it's been since that trip. Cool night. A cigarette to keep warm by.
I doubt you'll be able to keep it a secret from your wife, though. Might as well just tell her?
Would enjoy heron photos as and when.