What a Freakin' Week...

It's been one of those weeks (or two) for me. You know, those ones where if things are going to go wrong, they do. I tend to get leery when things go too well for too long; I imagine that the bottom will soon fall out from under me and the house of cards will collapse (a mix of metaphors, I know).

The trials of being a landlord were in high form this month. A leaky toilet and a broken drier. I went to fix both, was unable to do the drier (is it spelled "dryer"?) and was only able to do a half-assed job on the toilet (that figure of speech is quite accurate since, when I replaced the toilet, the new seat was too small and the toilet wobbled). And then, I was to discover a major drain leak emptying all the contents of the washing machine into the basement. To add to all of this, I had just been diagnosed the day before with bursitis in my left shoulder, this "out of the blue" swollen tendon that made even buttoning my pants hell.

And that brings me to the whole "bursitis" thing. With all do respect to people who actually suffer from these things (and are older than I am), but this is the first condition that my brain, which is frequently obsessing about age lately, has attached the label of "old person's diseasae." I'm expecting bunions, gout and osteoporosis next. Bursitis?? All I know is it hurts somethin' fierce and I didn't do anything that I know of to bring it about. I know, get out the tiny violins...

So anyway, I'm repairing (or not) the items in our duplex and, of course, everything that requires an ounce of muscle is on the left side, so I'm pretty much useless. Time to call in the professionals and open the valve on my bank account. And then, in the same week, our hot tub breaks down (I hesitate to even say that since I never dreamed I'd even be able to have a hot tub, much less a really nice bathtub) and our propane tank runs dry. With fuel prices through the roof, it cost us 20% more to fill the thing up.

I'm jonesing for a better August. My next posting, when I get to it, will be must less ranting and more wise musings, I promise.

Here I Am!

I'm in week two of the Puget Sound Writer's Project, an intense 4 week (with a half dozen Saturdays over the coming school year) of writing, reflecting, learning, sharing, etc. with about 20 other participants. We're all teachers, and we're all writers. It's been great. I've been riding my bike to and from the UW (from the ferry dock--about a 45 minute ride through the city) and it's been wonderful to have a good sweat twice a day that doesn't involve sitting in an overheated car in the middle of traffic. The class runs from 8:30 to 3:30 each day and, even though I'm not lifting bags of cement or scraping paint from the side of a house, I come home exhausted each day. But I love it. The enviroment of the university, academia, shirtless hackysack players...I mean...academia. Yeah, that's it.
:)

I'm glad to have a quick moment to update this blog because I've not had time at a computer, really. This weekend was a productive one for my current novel. I was able to crank out upwards of 30 pages and they're not completely horrible, so that's good. My goal is to have a draft ready for revision by the end of this summer and I think I may make it. Fingers crossed (and typing).

I dreamed the other night that I was lost in Italy, and I wasn't even afraid. In fact, the only thing that stressed me about it was that I was worried I wouldn't catch my plane home and I didn't have a sub to start the first day of school.