The Silken Tent -- Dwelling in Possibility

May 1, 2004 Saturday So if you're tired of the same old story, Turn some pages. — REO Speedwagon I took a walk around the neighborhood today. The trees seem to have come into leaf overnight. The neighbors across the street have a new mailbox stand, an elaborate brick pillar that is actually prettier than their house. The people at the corner have a new fence made of that bright white resin material that looks dazzling from down the street but more on the plastic side when you get up close to it. A new roof is in progress on the house two doors up from the brick mailbox pillar, and the house beside that has a new front door, with a building permit showing in the window. We got a new front door last fall (visible in the picture of Lynn and company in my last post), and Ron want a new garage door this summer. My walk was initially a response to Skinnykat's challenge to "get moving in May." I landed on her site off a search for "patron saint of weight loss." Evidently, there is no official saint assigned to this concern. Margaret of Cortona is recommended as a possibility, since she had a lot of trouble resisting temptation, although her problem appears to have been feeding the flesh with something other than food. Skinykat uses a tool called Movable Type, a program that all the cool journalers are using now. It's something that you have to install (or have installed) on your server, and it takes some time to learn how to use it. I'd like to start using it, since I am dissatisfied with the look and feel of this journal, and if I'm going to continue with it I need to bring it into the new century. Learning a new technical tool won't happen this month, however. Starting Monday I'm working full time, 8:00 to 4:30 or 5:00, as a reader for the company that is processing and scoring the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) fifth grade reading test. I did it last year too, and at the beginning of April I worked for the same company on the similar test for Minnesota children. I'm a "team leader" this year, so I'm getting $13 an hour. Three weeks of this, plus the two weeks last month, buys a lot of summer gallivanting. This morning I made a chart of the things I hoped to accomplish in May, broken into the categories of my Six Goals of a Quality Life (lose weight, declutter my house, develop as a fiction writer, make new friends and reconnect with old ones, get back to handcrafts, and get some other details of my life in order). I know that my goals must be modest, almost a hope merely to stay in place instead of losing ground, since physically my time will be taken up with work, and emotionally with getting ready for Lynn's graduation. I'm turning pages, albeit slowly, and making some home improvements. Watch this space!

May 1, 2004
Saturday

So if you're tired of the same old story,
Turn some pages.
— REO Speedwagon

I took a walk around the neighborhood today. The trees seem to have come into leaf overnight. The neighbors across the street have a new mailbox stand, an elaborate brick pillar that is actually prettier than their house. The people at the corner have a new fence made of that bright white resin material that looks dazzling from down the street but more on the plastic side when you get up close to it. A new roof is in progress on the house two doors up from the brick mailbox pillar, and the house beside that has a new front door, with a building permit showing in the window. We got a new front door last fall (visible in the picture of Lynn and company in my last post), and Ron want a new garage door this summer.

My walk was initially a response to Skinnykat's challenge to "get moving in May." I landed on her site off a search for "patron saint of weight loss." Evidently, there is no official saint assigned to this concern. Margaret of Cortona is recommended as a possibility, since she had a lot of trouble resisting temptation, although her problem appears to have been feeding the flesh with something other than food.

Skinykat uses a tool called Movable Type, a program that all the cool journalers are using now. It's something that you have to install (or have installed) on your server, and it takes some time to learn how to use it. I'd like to start using it, since I am dissatisfied with the look and feel of this journal, and if I'm going to continue with it I need to bring it into the new century. Learning a new technical tool won't happen this month, however.

Starting Monday I'm working full time, 8:00 to 4:30 or 5:00, as a reader for the company that is processing and scoring the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) fifth grade reading test. I did it last year too, and at the beginning of April I worked for the same company on the similar test for Minnesota children. I'm a "team leader" this year, so I'm getting $13 an hour. Three weeks of this, plus the two weeks last month, buys a lot of summer gallivanting.

This morning I made a chart of the things I hoped to accomplish in May, broken into the categories of my Six Goals of a Quality Life (lose weight, declutter my house, develop as a fiction writer, make new friends and reconnect with old ones, get back to handcrafts, and get some other details of my life in order). I know that my goals must be modest, almost a hope merely to stay in place instead of losing ground, since physically my time will be taken up with work, and emotionally with getting ready for Lynn's graduation.

I'm turning pages, albeit slowly, and making some home improvements. Watch this space!