high water on the kaskaskia, i noticed as we drove up to st. louis- this was a couple of weeks ago, before i even went to new york city. it was my wife's conference, in the hilton above the stadium, where we watched the rain pour down on the fresh astroturf as the stadium guys fussed with the tarps and tried to protect it for opening day. you carry your stress with you- the kaskaskia was carrying its stress right up under the bridge as we drove into town. and, at the city museum, a huge fort-like place made from recycled metal and earth, an endless maze of pathways, very narrow and interesting, big enough for a two-year-old but a little squeezy for a fifty-three-year-old- that was stressful too. with all the rain, i thought, even a trip to new york would be a good vacation, get out of here, get away from all this stress.

in new york, walking down the avenue of the americas, talking to an old friend, a woman who lives in champaign, is sick of illinois, is going either to turkey or to the south pacific, i was looking for an address, a dinner i was having with the webheads. suddenly a bike messenger got hit by a car, virtually right in front of us. a deep bump, a bicycle flying, the guy jumps up, curses the driver, and throws the bicycle underneath the car. why? i still don't know. maybe so he wouldn't back up...maybe he had been through it before. i was alarmed; i hadn't seen it coming. i was going to just cross on the walk sign, like an idiot. my friend said it was the driver's fault. i wouldn't know.

back home, the rain started again today, the earth sodden and not holding any water. our own creek, rising up under its bridge. i rode my bicycle, got soaked, but that's ok, i have coffee, i'm giving a midterm, i'll be ok. i'm making time to blog. i have lots of stories to tell. the stress will come out one way or another- regular swimming, blogging, novel, i don't know yet. larry and his crew are building our house up in the center; this is a problem, that being how to put a new story on a house while a whole family including young children and sick dog are still living in it. it's his problem. mine is, when i'm not blogging, i'm grading.