Well, it is Friday the Thirteenth, you know...

And the madness has not let up. Perhaps I'll have to go back to bedtime blogging, in order to fit in a daily post. (And cut into my beauty sleep? Good God, man! What're you thinking?!)

I've got thirty-five feet of aluminum shade to get up on this beautiful, hot day, and family visiting from out of town to boot! Cut me some slack, now wouldya? How do you expect me to get the mortgage paid on time?! If it wasn't for all those bills, man, I'd be at Legoland all day.

Back again for curt, shallow, mentionings of my ant-like existence on Monday. See you at the makeover this weekend. (I hope someone brings beer. Please God, I beseech thee, deliver unto us... some beer. Even a paltry sip would suffice.)


~

And again.

Usually when I get stressed and overburdened with a workload, a bell goes off in my head and everything stops. It's like the cerebral version of the Blue Screen of Death, but instead of a blue screen you get elevator music and the execution of a simple meaningless task -the intent is to calm the senses and lend a feeling of "accomplishment". It rebuilds the levels of confidence to a point where you can get back to work on the Big, Necessary, And Important Stuff. In such episodes, I usually find myself picking up trash or getting out the Windex.

Yesterday the brain safety valves closed abruptly and I found myself just mindlessly copying photos from one computer to another. All the important things just got pushed off the desk and I obsessed over some nonsense of copying photos -a task of no immediate importance, and little accompanying challenge. Mrs. Ditchman saw it and admonished me. She said, "I'm going to admonish you: get out of the house and go to work." And so I did. Thank God for her.

It was the second such admonishment in a week. Last Wednesday a customer said, "Thank you for cutting those screws off with your metal cutting tool. Now I am going to admonish you: you should be wearing eye protection." Well, I had been wearing eye protection. I finished the job and packed everything away, and then he came around the corner and asked if I would be so kind as to cut a few more things off -outside the scope of the promised work. I obliged, since that's the way we do things in Ditchman Construction. It only took a minute. I had to run back and get my tools out of the truck. It was the end of the day and I failed to put the goggles on for a quick cut, then he thanked and admonished me. Just my luck: turns out he's an eye surgeon.

Anyway, I'm typing this right now and Mrs. Ditchman is standing behind me, welling up with more admonishment, about to burst. Look, none of this is my fault! Can't you see I'm a victim of circumstance?!

I'm also a victim of obligation, which, I suppose, is my fault entirely. I imagine Heaven as a place thoroughly lacking in obligations. Bring it on.


~

Did I say I was going to be back tomorrow? I'm not. I'm not back at all. I'm not even here.

It's like the old days of returning home from camp and finding your whole life in disarray -and with the same amount of pay! I'll try and actually put something in the blog-hopper tomorrow. It's no use with the false promises anymore.


~

Oh me, oh life. Oh blessed busy-ness, oh constant distraction. What good amid these? Oh me, oh life...

I noticed that I haven't posted much of anything here in weeks, and spent all morning catching up on the family business site. Also noticed the plants are dying, there's a hole in my fence, and the lights in the fish tank were on all night. This home needs some tending to, as utter and incessant neglect is taking hold. The cat looks angry. The tortoises, perplexed.

I'll be back in the fray tomorrow, so hold on, dear readers! I'm off to build a monster patio cover this week, and another the week next! Good. There are also neglected bills piling up. And I haven't read the news in a month (but I may be the better for it.)

God bless us, everyone.


~

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.
-John Buchan

Another excuse from me while TMST is down...

Going out of town for the weekend for some serious R&R.

Back and up and running on Monday!

If you're lucky, I'll post some pics from the road!

If I'm lucky, I won't be able to because we'll be in the middle of nowhere, in the Great Outdoors, away from the things of man!

P.S. Annabelle's Circle made the paper!


~

Still looking for me? Things have been upside-down lately. (Sorry!)

But I am still blogging at Annabelle's Circle, if you're wondering where I am.

Check it out!


~