Things are changing here and there.  I'll start with there.

There is here in my backyard where new landscaping and overall rehabilitation have, without my participation, or purpose of evasion (okay, maybe a little), found their own levels of moderation.  Lots of shunning: of trenches, of pipes, of tilling machines.  I'm actively avoiding the very real possibility of measuring once and cutting twice and then gluing.  With Viv back at work the mania of suburban renewal has subsided, replaced with a new obsession for me, a thing so wonderful I can hardly speak its name without breathy wonder.  Breathy Wonder.  Stripper outta Chicago.  You remember.

I'm digressing, yes, I know.  It's on purpose.  I do it to delay my announcement that I'm going away for a bit.  A long bit.  See, what's here is the sweet sting of a new bug, something that is like nothing that's ever buzzed my way before.

This fixation has inspired a new project and I'm jumping on that pony while she's fresh.

Shucks, here, have an agricultural metaphor too; you reap what you sow and I found me a bag o' Fun Seeds.  The planting begins immediately.

Full immersion in this new thing involves getting some appropriate equipment and learning a bunch of new stuff too.  This will take time.  So as I amass knowledge and gear, I'll also be wrestling the backyard into final submission at a more relaxed pace.

Is this all oblique enough for you?

Okay, the main ideas, the overall sitchiation...

I've been too busy to be satisfactorily present here.  So rather than live with the taste of undercooked entries, I'm turning off this frying pan and jumping into another fire.

But only temporarily.  I'm thinking a couple, three months tops.  Which, as I look along the journaling horizon these days, ain't all that rare.

I'm not telling you the exact nature of this new bug/project/obsession because when I return I would like to present it all of a piece with the project up and running, all fresh and surprising rather than trickled and nickeled and dimed.  This, in a sense, goes against the very nature of a journal, evoking even perhaps a whiff of betrayal.  To those who find some small offense at this I can only say it's time to relax.  Don't be a poopyhead.

Some of you readers who work with Viv already know about my new affliction because you were there when I burst into her office a couple of weeks ago to confess that this force was unstoppable.  Thank you for your encouragement.  I could sense you tuning in to my pangs.  Please remind my wife often that this... thing... will only turn her husband into a better man.

These days may be likened to that period of time when a caterpillar moves into its chrysalis form.  You will see only tiny twitches for a while.  Changes hereabouts in the next several weeks will be minor, the updates very tiny, very sporadic, and non-nutritional.  Not a log, not a blog, just quick droppings to let you know I am alive and still apologetic for the furtive nature of this retreat.

A break and an obsession.  I neeeeeeeed them.

If you'd like to be notified when I return in full regalia, let me know.

Thanks.

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