Ho Ho ...(cough).. Ho!

Well, the holiday rush is over and I survived, more or less. I've got
another cold, although this one is a bit different than the bout with
laryngitis last month.I think I've got a slight temp and I'm a bit congested
in the chest. Took the day off from work
Fascinating, eh?
Cheryl and Peter gave me a DVD player for Christmas and the kids gave me
three DVDs to start me off. Phil and Wendy gave me a gift card for Best Buy
so I'll most like pick up some more this week. It didn't seem to work very
well on the old Curtis Mathes console in the parlor but hooked right up to the
portable in the bedroom and I watched "Pirates of the Carribean" last night on it.
The good news is this lets me keep the VHS hooked up in the parlor so I
still can watch the old VHS tapes as well.
All in all, a good Christmas. I didn't put out the ceramic tree this year.
It's broken and I should really toss it, but can't bring myself to do it.Maybe
I'll find a replacement on sale now that the holiday is over.
Last Tuesday (Christmas Eve Eve?) I was driving home from work around
9:30pm and was on Sycamore St. over in Holbrook. It is a long street with
suburban type houses but towards its end where it joins Rte 139 there are
woods leading to the bogs along the powerlines. I could see something in the
road ahead of me and I hit the hibeams, figuring it was dogs, and was amazed to see two deer..does...stop to look at the car before running off into the woods.
It seems the wild things are becoming ever more comfortable with the civilized.
Or perhaps the civilized are becoming wilder?

Stop the Madness!
Three more days until Christmas.
For the most part, the customers have been good natured and I've
not really encountered any full grown raging grinches as yet But there's
still those three days. One might surface yet.
While I can go full tilt for most of the day when I'm doing Customer
Service, I find a six to seven hour shift at register wears me down. Must be
all that standing in one spot.
That said, I do feel like I've been through a wringer tonight, so I'll close
this here and perhaps add more later today.

Bah, Humbug!
Working retail at Christmastime is chaotic. Most of the time, I like it.
It's a bit more exciting and challenging to find books for more folks as
quickly as possible. But working 7 1/2 hours on register is enough to
suck any enjoyment out of the whole thing.
Then there's the fact my finances are such that I can't shop too heavily.
This will be the second year in a row I give nearly everyone gift cards, but
I can better afford $200-$250 than $400.
Makes me feel like a Scrooge, though.

Wednesday Morning..not very close to 3am
Sorry..a Simon and Garfunkel reference there.
I just saw something on one of the mailing lists I am on. Someone
mentioned how he'd had a novel written in his head practically and all he
needed to do was just set it down in words.
Then something happened, and he lost the whole train.
Since most of my story ideas seem to spring into my mind with whole
sentences prewritten, it might pay for me to learn by that person's
experience and write them as soon as possible before they fade away on
me.

Later, that same day...
Anywho..we ended up with two ft of snow and the
Patriots won. I got my car shoveled out, it started, so all is
relatively right with the world.
Writing...
I think its an outgrowth of my love of reading, and then my love
of sf and fantasy. My first published story was a truly horrible allegory
about war in an sf setting. It was really, really bad.
I didn't try my hand at it again until I became active in fandom,
specifically the Darkover fandom through Lynne Holdom. But when I
started working in retail, I had less time for cons and writing, so I
let it drop.
It was 6 years ago I started up again, writing small posts to the
mailing list for the Statrchat channel #Camelot, and I've been doing it ever since.
I could go into more detail on what it means to me, but to be honest, its late, I'm tired, and I'd rather be more coherent when I do it. So, for now:
It frees me.

Catching up while knee deep(and other bodily parts) in snow

So..I have my money and my voice back.
Thanksgiving was a nice, relaxing day, and Cheryl and Peter sent me
home with an abundance of leftovers, so my tryptophan levels were high
enough to ensure me several nights of deep sleep.
Work is work. What more can one say? Nothing new there.
And today? Well, today..it snowed.
Actually, that started yesterday. And then last night..and today and tonight.
I mean...it snowed!
Work called and told me to stay home,that business was slow.
So I lolled about all day..wrote a new segment of HT for the Cams list.
I am enjoying this one because of the chance to put my own spin on the
Arthurian legends.Little mention is ever made in most modern versions
of the sons Arthur purportedly had, and Sir Kay is a peripheral figure if he
is even mentioned at all. So I have something new to work with.
I haven't really talked as much about my writing here as I wanted. I'll
remedy that later this morning, since its still snowing and the Pats are
not on until 4:15 or so.

Of voice and money
It's been quite a few weeks.
A week ago Thursday,I found quite a few envelopes in my mailbox with
the bank logo on them. When I finally opened them,I had all sorts of notices of overdrafts and charges.This puzzled me,since I knew I had money
in the bank.Then I opened the larger envelope with the monthly statement and found a check had been cashed for $639.00.

Panic ensued. Had someone forged a check?

Then I looked at my check book and found an entry for the same check but for $63.90,the minimum payment on my car insurance.
They'd cashed it for $639.00

I called the bank and the clerk I spoke to told me it was too late in the day
to do anything. He assured me he would notify the Research Dept and that they would call me back in a day.

They didn't get back to me on Friday..or Saturday.

I called the car insurance company. They told me they would research it as
well, and if there was a mistake, they'd get back the money to me in two weeks.
Meanwhile,after I deposited my paycheck on Friday, I had an available
balance of -$175.00. That's MINUS.
I called the bank on Monday and learned the Research Dept knew nothing at
all about my dilemma. The lady cashier I spoke with was sympathetic and told me they would get back to me by Tuesday, and agreed to send me a copy of
the check when they found it.I wanted it, because by now I wondered if I had made the check out incorrectly.
Upshot of it was I had written it correctly, and the bank replaced the money
on Tuesday. But I have to say I've never been as frantic as I was those four days in all the time since Ma died.
Meanwhile, I had a headcold, and by Wed. I had the start of laryngitis. On Friday, my voice was pretty much gone. It's only now, on Sunday, that it is
close to normal
Fun, eh?

Man, I hate the cold..and colds...
But guess I'm stuck with both at the moment.
I'm at one of those periods where I can't seem to write more than a
few sentences at a time in a story. This is not a good time for that to happen
since I'm supposed to be writing a 50,000 word attempt at a novel this month. Not a lack of ideas, mind you..just a lack of attention and energy.
Today was busy at work and I think it was the first faint stirrings of the
migration of the Holiday Shopping Hordes.
Lord have mercy on us all.

Tuesday Night
We had Mitch Albom in last night to sign books at the store. He drew
quite a large crowd and he seems like such a nice guy.Very down to earth.
I must confess I've never read either of his books.When his first book came out, my mother was dying of liver and bowel cancer.It was a painful
process for her,and it was hard to watch a woman who'd been active and vibrant become just a person lying in a bed, trying to hold onto life while she
endured pain I can only imagine.
The last thing I needed was a book to feel better about death.I never got
around to reading it.I still can't.
I'd like to believe there is something after life,but I'm not sure it would be
any different for me than this life has been.If there is something,I hope they
have a Suggestion Box up there so I can file a few complaints.

A Lazy Sunday
A rather pleasant one, actually. I slept in until around 1pm and then
returned a call from my sister. Cheryl and I had been talking about taking in
a movie the past two Sundays but circumstances had prevented it. But today
we got it in. She picked me up at around 4pm and we went to see the
Clint Eastwood film Mystic River.. We got there sort of in between shows and had nearly two hours to kill, so we went to the restaurant Ricks Place next door and had Greek Salad and pizza.
Cheryl paid since this was sort of a delayed birthday present.
The film, btw, is excellent.
Then back home here for a late dinner and some time on the internet.
The weather is definitely turned colder and most of the leaves on the trees outside the building have fallen.Temps in low 20's tonight,so I'm off to bed.

Just some stuff...
Some conclusions I've reached about customers:
1. It's near to impossible to pitch addon sales to someone who doesn't
understand or speak English very well.
2. Classical music customers are a breed apart. Not only do they want a
particular piece of music..it has to be done by a specific
performer or they turn their nose up at it. Picky, picky, picky.

I had three classical music customers in a row today and it was not the
most pleasant experience. It must have been an All Souls' Day vibe or
something like it.

In other matters, I signed up for the Nanowrimo novel writing and as the
second day of November dawns, I've yet to start..man, will I have a lot of
catching up to do.

A beautiful day today for November. Temps were in the 70's. And I was
inside the store working for all of it.

Yawn
Another day gone. Work has settled into a new routine, and
I find the day goes by really fast compared to what it used
to feel like in my management days.
I have to confess to feeling incredibly guilty. Well..not incredibly..
slightly guilty might be a better level. Compared to the
physical labor and paperwork I was used to before, the workload
is light. But it is demanding, since retail is a constant cycle of lull
and rush, and can be wearisome. It all balances out in the end, I suppose.

Why Red Sox Fans All Go To Heaven

Somewhere, sometime,somehow, the Red Sox will finally win the
Series and when it finally happens, the graveyards across New England
will be the sites of earth tremors as the deceased faithfull spin in their
graves.
Being a Red Sox Fan is the equivalent of some Olympian torture,
like endlessly rolling a boulder uphill only to have it roll back to the
bottom just as you reach the top.
And that's why all good Red Sox fans go to heaven.
We've already done our time in Red Sox hell.
And next spring, we'll be back for more.

Another day, etc...

Mid October already. Strong rains last night followed by gusty winds
today and a lot of the fall color's gone.
The Red Sox won Game 6 with the Yanks, with Game 7 for tomorrow night,
Pedro vs Roger. And I will be at work.
Bah.
On the more ominous side, the Cubs were eliminated, so there wil be no
Cus-Sox World Series as a lot of folks had hoped. A bad omen for the
Sox, maybe, for tomorrow night's game?
Speaking of work, my happy peasant status continues, even as the
murmuring among the rest of the peasantry keep on. One long time worker
was waiting on a call back from a prospective new job. A management type
spoke of perhaps finding a bank teller job as a form of escape. TBWMBO goes on like the Eveready battery rabbit, perhaps aware of the mood but not giving any sign of it.
Have half a Hundredth Tear segment done, but will have to wait until tomorrow night or Frday day to continue that.
The new Eddings book landed today. I may break down and buy it before my car breaks down (the strut bars are going) and I can't afford it.
Too many new books coming out that I want to buy at a time I can't afford to buy them all at once.

Cowboy Up

Well, it's time for the unique New England ritual known as Red
Sox Pennant Fever.It's hard to explain to those from outside the area
just how crazy it gets around here whenever the Red Sox are this close
to getting into the Series. It's fun, and exciting, and excruciating
It helps to have a slight masochsitic streak if you are a diehard Sox
fan, especially playing the Yankees for the right to go to the Series. Having
weathered the `75 and `86 and yes,`67 series, I know not to get my hopes
up to high.
And yet..and yet..man..wouldn't it be great to finally hear the end of all
the damn Babe Ruth Curse nonsense?

Fall Closing In
Things feel so different.
I no longer am in a position of authority at work for the first
time in nearly 20 years and three companies. While the lack of
stress certainly is refreshing, I sometimes have to curb my tongue
and stifle a remark about the changes now going on in my old area.
I have to remind myself its no longer my concern, that others will
have to deal with the consequences, or to be fair, successes of the
decisions.
At this stage of my life, I tell myself, its time to perhaps just go
with the flow, and pay more attention to those things other than money
and position. What good is it to try to earn more money to build up my
SS retirement checks if I die too soon to retire?
Let the younger folk enjoy the stress for a change.
Say, did I mention my car is acting up?
Again?

Simplify, Simplify
Nearly two weeks into the move down out of management
and I still find it a little hard to let it go. A decade of
supervising people is hard to shake off. But I do find it less
hectic and calmer, and no doubt it will be easier to accept it
as I go along.
Mind you, I don't know how calm I'll be when the first check
as a non-supervisor shows, but let's be optimistic, shall we?
At least I seem to fall asleep easier. At my age, that's a real
plus. And maybe I can focus more on writing now that I have
less distractions and frustrations eating at my brain.
We'll see, won't we?

Well, hell froze over

.Well, Hell Froze Over...

..and I am no longer in management. I don't know what this
is going to mean to my finances, but for the moment, the growing
relief is priceless.
Management positions are never easy, but the special challenges
this job presented were sapping my spirit. I won't go any further into
it, for now.
And I'll hope for the best. We'll have to see

Well, it's been a long,ugly Summer.
More on that later.
Oh, and the car problem was a thermostat.

Damn.I think the car is about to head for the
garage again. Radiator, this time..

I swear that whenever I reach a certain amount of dollars
in my bank account, some sort of cosmic conspiracy kicks
in to cut it back down to much less.

Much,much later

Well, the car has not as yet collapsed on me.
It's most likely the best thing that's happened in this
past month. This has perhaps been the most frustrating time
I've spent at work, since The Manager Who Must Be Obeyed seems
to have made it a personal mission to make my life miserable.
I won't go into details. I've whined and bitched enough to co-workers,
and any specific information i put here might get back to TMWMBO and
cost me a job.
I know. If I am so miserable, why should I care?
You check out the job market lately, pal?

It's like some sick cosmic joke.
No sooner do I pay a bill but the car starts
showing signs of breaking down.
BAH!

Ennui
I find it so hard lately to get myself charged up
over anything.I don't know how to explain it, except
that it might be my old Spring fever mood returning
after a several years absence.
I have the sensation I should be doing something
but damned if I know what it is.

Just when you least expect it...
So, I went into work for 4 hours today on my day
off to sort down some books, and as I left, used my
employee credit to purchase Tad WIlliams' War of
the Flowers. It was a nice day today, so I did what
I haven't done for some time and stopped at a McDonalds,
bought some food, rolled down the windows of the car and
sat there and read for an hour.
It's a good book so far, but what really threw me for a loop
was the section detailing the hero's mother dying with cancer.
The description of the char's reactions and emotional state
was so dead on, it was like reading about Ma's last months.
I finished the chapter and then just sat there thinking before I
closed the book and drove home.

And a week and a half later, I return
So sue me.
Seriously, work and rp sort of cut into my energy.
But I will be more conscientous.
Really.
I promise!

Look, I try!
But I could try harder.
Can't believe it's been so long since the last entry.
What a maroon!
I will try harder.
I promise! Really!

Another Monday
I really mean to post daily! Really I do!
Ah well..the Road to Hell, etc.
Monday is laundry day, so off I went to the laundromat
on yet another cold windy day. I stopped for a cup of coffee
and sat in the car awhile after loading up the washers inside.
Trips to the laundromat for a middle aged bachelor are a
boring necessity, and I pass the time with a book. I took one of
George R.R. Martin's excellent Game of Thrones with
me and the time passed quickly. I have long desired to be able
to write as well as Ellison and DeLint, but I've added Martin to
my list now. His characters are so real, and Tyrion Lannister,
a dwarf fighting to keep his place in medieval nobility, is great.
Several times this afternoon, I found my self laughing at a line
Tyrion throws out at another character.
Good thing I was sitting in the car. I might have gotten a
few stares otherwise.
After a stop at the supermarket to buy food, I returned home
to be greeted by a loud thumping noise as I opened my door
After reassuring myself the building was not alive and
about to swallow me whole, I realized it was coming from the
apartment next door, the last one in the building. Apparently
The Phantom's sons were either running in place, bouncing
a basketball, or bouncing each other. A half hour later it
mercifully came to an end.

Of books and burners
No, it's not what you think.
The gas heat in the back stockroom has been
out of order since Friday, and I told one of the AM's
about it as soon as I realized the fan was not blowing
hot air out into the room. Given it was late Friday
afternoon, I was not overly amazed it was still unfixed
Saturday. But I returned to work after my days off today
and found it still unrepaired, and the room felt like
I was working outside.
I worked a good part of the day with my jacket, hat,
and hooded sweatshirt on.
Point about books: they get cold in transit during the
Winter.My fingers were cold all afternoon.
Ah well. I never liked the cold, and it's gotten more
so the fact with age.
I hope they fix it tomorrow

Wednesday
It's amazing how much one person can
make you feel miserable about your job and yourself.

Let the Madness begin
I hate Tuesdays. I never know what I am going to get
hit with once I walk through the door at work. Although
better than being there yesterday, when The Boss Who
Must Be Obeyed was apparently in high dudgeon.
The Boss was at a Boss Meeting today and won't be in
until tomorrow. (You will note, reader, I do not use
a descriptive pronoun. Pfft! Of course not.I'm not
that crazy!) Which means any unpleasantness I
might have wandered into unawares today is now put
off until tomorrow. The difference being I now have the
fun of anticipation...not..
No wonder I don't sleep well.

Monday
Amazing.Yet another phone call from work on my
day off. I rolled back over and went back to sleep
without answering it. I didn't want to deal with the
aggravation I knew the phone call would cause me.
In the process of re-reading Game of Thrones
Still holds up as a good read.
Ah well..at least I'll never run out of books to read
at the laundromat.

Sundays
Sundays are my lazy days.That is if I've
got enough groceries to put off food shopping until
Monday or if I've done it Friday night on my way
home from work.I usually get home from work
between 12 and 1 am early Sunday night, and
then spend 2-4 hours online in rp or chat.Since
I rarely if ever fall asleep instantly, (last night was
an exception, btw..out like a light) it's close to
5 am by the time I fall asleep. So Sunday is the
big sleep-in day.
Today I was awakened at around 10am by the
phone. Whoever it was hung up when the
answering machine came on, but it was enough to
wake me. After a trip to the bathroom, I went back
to sleep only to be woken again twice by whoever it
was. Bastage!
At any rate..I finally was fully awake around 1pm
but being lazy I stayed in bed and turned on the tv.
Channel 44 has been running English mysteries on
Sunday afternoon.Today it was an Inspector Morse
story, The Wench is Dead. Excellent writing
and with the added hook of being a story within a
story.
Up at 2:15. Wash, dress, brew coffee and nuke
pancakes. Slip some cds on. Lunassa, Secret
Garden, Norah Jones.Seconds on coffee and
pancakes. Open a window a crack to let in
some fresh air. After the last month, 48 degrees
Farenheit feels positively balmy.
I bought some books last night at the store, so I
may just sit in the parlor and read later.For the
moment, I'm going to spend some time on line
and rp a bit.
No aggravations. No Boss Who Must Be Obeyed
until Tuesday.
Unless, that is, she calls me tomorrow about
some store matter.

A Day in the Life
9:55am I'm woken from a sound sleep(a rarity)
by the phone ringing. I can hear the voice of a co-worker
on the answering machine in the kitchen, so I grope
for the bedroom phone next to the bed. It's the store,
looking for a Special Order I received the other day.I
tell my co-worker to check the "to be called" shelf
and she thanks me. I can tell by her voice she is
not happy she called me and woke me up, but I
can't blame her. She was told to do it by The
Boss Who Must Be Obeyed. I roll over and go back
to sleep for a few more hours before I have to get up
and go in to work myself.

Work
Told you I'd get to this eventually.
I've been a bookseller for a number of years now, the last
few for one of the two major chains. What was once a job
that gave me personal satisfaction has lately become one
that is just a source of income. Yes, I know, that is what all
jobs are. But when I first started working in bookstores, it was
work, yes, but it was fun.
It's no longer fun all the time. There are occasional flashes of
gratification, but for the most part, the pleasure is gone, lost
in a sea of paperwork and nitpicking and inconsistent mandates.
An online friend of mine has said she could picture me running
my own small bookstore someplace, discussing books with
customers.
I can too. Unfortunately, the reality is I'm two or three decades
too late for that dream. The big chains are the future.

Did I mention I hate winter?
We got 27 inches here. I looked out my window
at 7:15am and saw the landlord hadn't cleared a path yet
and a peek out my door around the corner showed my car
buried by snow and the lot unplowed as yet. So, I called
out from work. It was going to take awhile to get out of this
mess.
When I went outside finally, I cleared my entrance walk and
waded out to the car. The snow had actually drifted on its roof
and extended out past it to form a ledge. The landlord came by
at this point with the plow but was unable to plow me out from
where I'd parked, so he sent one of his men over with the snowblower
and he cleared about 10 ft of driveway behind me so I could back
out eventually.
With my car moved, I helped a neighbor clear her car, then I
helped the elderly lady next door clear her walkway. Then I went
back in here, ate breakfast, threw some cds on the player and
napped for most of the day.
And that, for posterity, is my version of the Holiday Blizzard
of 2003

Everything fades into winter white
We may have as much as 3 feet on the ground when this
ends later today. I'm off to bed after snoozing a bit in the
parlor. I am fairly certain I will not even attempt to go into
work today. Not worth a heart attack shoveling snow.

Fimbul Winter
Damn, I hate winter.
It's 25 years since the Blizzard of `78, and Nature
has decided to celebrate with another one. We are
expecting 1 to 2 feet of snow with 5 feet of drifting
possible.Luckily, it's my day off, so I can huddle here
in my hobbit hole and try to ride it out. Perhaps I'll
stay home tomorrow if the storm is as bad as they say.
More later.

Ok..as I was saying...
Fantasy, you might ask. Why Fantasy?
Why, when there are so many mainstream books and
authors out there, do I read fantasy?
Umm..good question.
First off, I have read some of the more recent writers
of `serious' fiction and find, sadly, I just don't like them.
I like Tom Pynchon and Thomas Berger, and some of
John Barth,but for the most part there is little out there
that appeals to me. I read other genres,historical
fiction, mystery, horror, and nonfiction as well, but
as I said, no current mainstream fiction authors grab
my attention as Fitzgerald, Faulkner, or Thomas Wolfe
did when I was younger.
I should confess here I was a voracious reader even as a
child and worked my way through many adult writers before
I finished high school.I think I shocked my junior year English
teacher when I turned in a report on Wilkie Collins'
The Moonstone instead of the usual stuff she got
from us. I mention this to establish the fact that yes, I have
read other things besides what I read nowadays.
So? Why Fantasy?
It all began with Arthur. No, not the aardvark.
The Arthur. King Arthur and the Knights of the
Round Table, in the form of one of those kid's editions
that occasionally are sold at supermarkets in a set of
classics.It's still here on my bookshelf some 48 years
after my mother bought it for me, the only title left from
the set, sitting there alongside all the other books I've
bought on the subject over the years. Arthur led me to
Bulfinch's Mythology and Howard Pyle and
a host of other historical writers, and eventually, to
Tolkien.
Aha. So that's the how. What about the why?
That'll have to wait. I'll air more of my literary laundry
after a trip to the laundromat to clean the real life variety.

Later that same day:

First off, laundromats are a lot less crowded during snowstorms.
Secondly, editing a blog is a evil, evil, task. I just lost the first
attempt at this. I was not amused.
Ahem. As I was saying earlier, why fantasy.
I'm not one to avoid reality, but I do like to occasionally escape
from it. Think of it as a form of vacation from the tensions of the
world and work. (Believe me, I need some r &r after some days
there,and I will eventually get around to that subject.) A good
book or tv show can take us someplace else, take our minds
off stress for a few hours and then return us with a bit less
weighing our spirit down.
And I admit I am a bit of a romantic, not something a guy will
readily admit to, but I've always been drawn to history, myth,
and fantasy/sf.
Life is a Mystery, and there are countless Little Mysteries within it.
No, I'm not saying there are elves, or dragons, or aliens out there.
I'm saying there might be.
I'm open to the possibilities.

Gaaaaaaaah...
Just....gaaaaah...

Another day of vacation boredom.
I am working my way through FoTR this week, and to my
dismay I'm finding it slow going so far.Maybe it's because I
read it so many times since that first reading and the glamour
is gone. And by glamour, I mean the sense of wonder.
Yeah, I know, it's a cliche of fandom now, but it fits.
I'm on a Tolkien mail list, and I am in constant amazement
of the capacity of some people to nitpick and poke until they've
sucked the last bit of wonder from something like a marrow
from a bone.Case in point, the Peter Jackson movie, which
seems to be looked upon as the work of the Dark One.
One member actually used a stopwatch to time how long
it takes for the suit of armor to fall down the well in the Mines
of Moria.(I won't go into the other complaints about the scene.)
There are fans, and then there are fanatics. I think Tolkien
would be as horrified by some of his defenders as he might be
with Jackson's movie, and I'm realist enough to suspect he
might very well have been if he had seen it.
I, on the other hand, am in awe of the movie..and the book.
Enough. To bed.

And three weeks later or so, here I am.
Again. (I wrote this once already and it disappeared)
So..to reiterate.
About me: I'm 54, male, and live alone, with my books,
a computer, and other electronic means of amusement.
At present, my favorite is my one cup coffee brewer.
I have a degree in History, and my special interest is in the
Middle Ages.
I'm a life long reader of SF and Fantasy, and a lover of Celtic
Music. As I type this, I'm listening to an album by Solas.
I work for a major bookstore chain and at the moment, I'm on
my vacation. Nothing like vacationing when Fimbul Winter breaks out.
Can Ragnorak be far behind?
Hmm..what else?
I discovered on line rp about six years ago and some of the best friends
I have are those I've never actually met face to face.
I like to write and I hope I am as good as my online friends say I am.
And even though I have six layers of various and sundry shirts on,
including a hooded sweatshirt (with the hood up. The Mad Monk!)
that does little to keep my fingers warm.
Which is why the coffee brewer is my favorite thing right now.

Once more into the breach, folks.
I tried this once before, without much success. For one thing,
I lost my password and couldn't get it back. That gives you an
idea of just how un-adept I am in most computer things.
Any road, this is my latest attempt at a journal/diary/commentary on my
life, and on those things I find of interest.
More to come later.