Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Housekeeping 2007

This is vacation season in the US. Because traffic is usually low during July and August, many bloggers slack off during this time, too. Some actually take vacations themselves. I usually approach the slow seasons with a firm determination to be there for the readers. I plan to take advantage of slower news to work on some longer pieces and give people a reason to come here. Of course, it never works out that way. Something always happens to distract me from serious writing.

This summer has been a little worse than usual. A month ago, I had big plans to do some science writing over the summer. Since then my mother's chemotherapy regimen has changed twice leading me to go spend some time with her doctors to make sure I understand what's going on and whether this is a good sign or a bad sign (it's neutral). I've had my own health issues in the form of repeated migraines. This happens every summer, caused by heat and bright sunlight, but somehow I manage to forget about it and get caught by surprise the following year. Finally, we had a death in the family. An aunt, my childhood baby-sitter, died after a long decline. I had been braced for this for a long time, but even so, the real event takes a lot out of me.

So, posting has been shallow and light, but today the weather turned cooler and I suddenly felt interested in getting some words down again. A number of readers, including old friends Coturnix, Dum Luks, and the Farmer, have sent me news clippings about baby mammoths and mastodon DNA and Clever Wife has been nudging me to get back to work on the book. I'm looking at unfinished pieces and seeing what I can pull together. I'll start with the story of my trip to a mammoth excavation and then we'll see what I can pull together after that.

I might even get up the energy to update the blogroll. But I'm not making any promises.

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