five things

1. Walking the dog in my neighborhood. We've lived here basically since Mardi Gras of 2005 and just now I am discovering nooks and crannies of my own neighborhood of which I would have been ignorant had it not been for the multi-daily ritual of the leash, dog and plastic bag. The other day we discovered an entire named street (albeit a small stub of one that basically turns into an alley, but with an official street sign and at least one house that has it in its mailing address) that I'd never seen before. If someone had told me they lived on ___ street it would have produced a blank stare. And I like to think of myself as attentive of things like that. I wonder what else is within bottle-rocket distance that I don't know about. Elephant in a cage? A yurt? Leper colony? Maybe someone opened that nearby bakery/cafe I keep trying to will into existence. There is a former vacuum cleaner repair place nearby that would be perfect for it.
   
2. Not working this weekend. This is the first weekend in ages that I have not had some pressing assignment that I should be doing or actually was doing. Writing a blog entry about it feels a little like fulfilling some ghost assignment in the place of actual work. If I thought about it, there is probably something I could be doing, but none of it has crept into the Should Be Doing arena.
3. Working less in general. This summer has been one of transitional overlapping employment that was supposed to be done lickety split and is dragging on, due to the bureaucratic nature of my new employer. Freelancing has its benefits and its rock 'n' roll aspects, but the hustle has become a grind and I'm looking forward to it flickering back into a glide with occasional shuffle. I mean, once in the last months I took a day off from Work to get some other Work done, which is messed up.
   
4. Not working on my book. This solid rock block of working has given me time to reflect on it and see ways to make it better, give it a bigger purpose than just it having been written. The few things that have reached the public have gotten both congenial praise and disparaging comments, so I think somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot. As of now I have 160 out of 200 ballpark pages written and am seeing now how they need to be rewritten. And its making me want to finish it so I can move on to write another book about something else.
5. Documenting my listening. According to the Google, about 45-100 of you daily slog through my narcissistic habit of writing about what I'm listening to. Every once in a while someone of note picks up on something and reposts it, which is nice. Its a little like my college DJ days - I like to think I'm talking to someone besides myself, even though I am generally the intended audience. So, thanks.