The Summer of Gary Begins!
As does my struggle with Steve the Groundhog
On May 1st, I discharged the last of my teaching duties at the Columbian University in the City of New York. I love teaching. But I also love being me. Free-range Gary! Not a care in the world Gary! Each year I teach over a span of 100 days, what they call in the industry “spring semester.” And then I spend 265 days recovering from teaching, getting into all kinds of funny scrapes and going on crazy assignments all over the world.
This year, I have some real doozies in mind. I can’t tell you what they are yet, but let’s just say Daddy’s Little Meatball (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/05/royal-caribbean-cruise-ship-icon-of-seas/677838/) is up to no good on many fronts. Mwahahahahahaha.
Also, with a new novel coming out next year, I’m already thinking of the one to follow it. This means being holed up in my dacha, sometimes with family, sometimes by myself, walking, brooding, thinking, drinking. I don’t know how to cook, but I can prepare simple meals like the one below: white anchovies on bread with castelvetrano olives.
Life at my upstate place, however, means a constant battle with my archenemy, Steve the Groundhog. Steve has made a very extended appearance in my novel Our Country Friends.