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1/23/07-Twisted pain pretzel like in crossed legs under weight the right hip strained fresh whiskers a massive nightly bacterial tooth coating mechanical sounds replacing hand washing water surges the buckets loading pouring the long walk to pond or stream for dipping impatience in evidence on so little sleep coffee brown and searing hot through a clear plastic straw old man with gray beard and black cowboy hat carries in a wire mesh laundry basket cold inside despite the warm driers my book drama city an easy read so too the expedition story the endurance an ironically apt name for the party's doomed vessel the twenty-eight men at times half insane surviving on the ice more than four hundred days then in lifeboats later at the mercy of majestic raw nature on frigid elephant island a lengthy open boat quest to find rescue their leader ultimately successful all saved despite vast odds if back in civilization doubtless most would have perished in the then ongoing great war their ordeal itself surely would have killed most any group of modern men the achievement of persisting amid such extremes one of the more remarkable feats of human genius a few months afterward shackleton who had led them all to safety would succumb himself to heart failure...
1/13/07-The old earl wondered who would fix his breakfast but the house was empty as was the larder his purse as well and he had never used a telephone without operator assistance he did not know what to make of a dial tone much less the buttons...
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