archy

Where have I been?
You may or may not have noticed that posting has been a bit sparse around here. The usual excuses apply: life, family, and work have conspired to cut into my valuable goofing off and blogging time.

Clever Wife's long battle with her teeth came to a triumphant conclusion last week when the dentist fitter her with her permanent choppers. For two years she has been unable to bite. She can chew but, before anything could go into her mouth, it had to be cut into tiny bits. And chewing hurt. All this was fixed with her new teeth. For weeks she had been anticipating all the foods she hadn't been able to eat: crusty bread, bacon, caramel, whole nuts. I was, of course, jobbed with figuring out how to make a meal out of this. I was leaning toward carameled pork ribs on a baguette with a whole hazelnut garnish, when nature came to my rescue in the form of a massive head cold. Her first dinner with the new teeth was homemade chicken soup.

I have been training into a new job for the last few weeks. My boss is leaving and all of the duties of our little three-person team have been redistributed. I have been learning one job, while training someone else into my old job, and fending off the rest of the company who unreasonably expect us to do some work during the transition.

The Northwest rainy season chose this exact moment to stop, so I have also been trying to catch up with some of my homeowner duties. I'm doing a rather slovenly job of it, but the house does at least look inhabited again. On the first dry Saturday, I woke up to the sound of lawn mowers and weed wackers all over the neighborhood. I staggered to the kitchen to make some coffee and thought to check out the blogs while it brewed. Before the computer could even warm up, I spotted my neighbor, John (another John from Alaska), getting out his yard equipment. By this point in time, John and I owned the second and third worst yards on the block. Oho, I thought. His plan is to cut his yard first and leave me as the bad neighbor. I would have none of that; I rushed caffeinless to the yard and we cut our yards together. Literally, together. The neighbor between us is in his late eighties, so we Alaskan Johns have divided up his yard and each take care of a part of it.

So, while all of this life stuff has been going on I have been neglecting my blogging duties. I feel bad about that, not so much because I feel a sense of duty toward the blog or its audience, but because I enjoy it. I enjoy writing. I enjoy the social element of blogging (that's you). I believe I think clearer if I try to put my opinions into words that others can follow, not that most of these exercises ever make it onto the blog. The problem, of course, is that there are other things that I want to do or that need to be done and never enough time. I want to take care of my wife. I want to spend quality time with the new kitten and the older cat. I want to putter about the yard and house. I want to take a nap every afternoon. These things get in the way of blogging and working for a living gets in the way of all of them. I gladly give up the blogging for family and home. Although I would gladly give up the job for blogging, that option isn't on my table. I'm not alone in this; whining about not having enough time is our real national pastime.

Fortunately, our forbearers saw fit to create a day in July when we can exercise our freedom to goof off, a day devoted to doing whatever we please, eating food that's bad for us, and making noise. I choose to make my noise on line.

PS - Weekday blogging will probably continue to be sparse while I ease into my new job. I'll try to make up for it with some good weirdness posts on the weekends.