These are stories, in the line of my TERMINAL VIBRATO, and meditations on life's various pastimes and concerns: about 15 of each. The stories are, by turns, funny and sad, and spring from subjects as various as snowflakes, day lilies, mosquitoes, war planning, and the melancholy of characters excluded from world fiction. The meditations range from the meaning of Kafka's asceticism to the love between a mother and son to preparations for the appearance of Elijah.