it's a rainy night, on the edge of freezing, with fog which is also on the edge of freezing, and the fog drifts in and out of different patches of the city so that sometimes you can see clearly and other times, you can't see much. i know this because i went out earlier, and practiced music, but i'm back at home now trying to make sure an excited 10-yr-old goes to bed by 11 on a school night, and i reflect a little on a break largely poorly used, a tree gone dry and ready to remove.

the movie? i stopped, though i could probably finish it before break is over. the garage band song? stopped that too, because the cello was in such rotten shape and the tuning peg of the dulcimer snapped from brittleness and i ordered more pegs which i thought i'd install myself, and they haven't come yet. the linguistics project? today, mired in reading about the topic, my brain was overloaded and i had to give it up for a while; i wasn't ready to think. the cesl history project?...i at least got a start on it, got some stuff done there. my dad's photography? most of it is up & online, but i'm not sure if all of it is, and i know the family pictures aren't; i'm not sure if i'm ready to put pictures of me as a 1-yr-old up on the web yet. so, i'm kind of stuck on it.

i did get two books of stories and one book of poetry up on kindle where i can now advertise and push them; i'm wondering what makes people buy this stuff and whether advertising of any kind might make any difference. might try to find out. i know that none of my 500 or so facebook friends bought any, but i didn't exactly push them as i would if i were restlessly relying on this stuff to make a living. i did tell them that i had this stuff on kindle, but how many people are keyed into kindle, enough to actually want to buy stuff that's on it? my wife is, but she doesn't have to buy my stories, they're old news to her. and you, the reader, you know where to find them; they've been around this place for years.

sticks? i didn't move them out of sight, and they are looking like a pile of sticks in the back yard, maybe my next book will be pile of sticks...that or old man and the toilet assembly ha ha.

i did go to the gym, almost every day, including today, and worked out until the sweat rolled off my face and back, took a sauna, came home & limped around due to soreness and stiffness in joints i don't generally use so heavily. i did this almost every day, yet still gained two pounds, which is accounted for by the fact that, basically, i'm home a lot, and just eat when i'm hungry. who wants to go out when it's rainy and cold and bleak, and nobody's out there? the cats curled up near me and took naps as the sun shifted at the windows of the living room, and it seemed warm enough and all the time in the world, even though as you can now tell, i should have been making music or movies. my son comes out tonight, almost eleven, and wants to tamper with his movie, which isn't perfect, but which, as you know, is now on you-tube, is up, and, is getting "likes" from my friends and others. but it's almost eleven, and it's a schoolnight. i play the dad and intimidate him into going to bed. poor kid, a little ragged out by school, what he wants is to be the guy who has a youtube channel, and knows what to do with it.

january here means highly variable weather. some days it will be very cold, others very warm; it rains, or snows, but there are cool sunny clear days also. sometimes the birds honk overhead, confused, as if it's unexpectedly getting warmer as they fly north. i realize places in alaska are getting twelve feet; we haven't got more than a half-inch, but may get some tonight, or maybe some other night, since it's the season. if it's too balmy i think people will feel like they lost out, at least i will. if it's too nice, i'm obliged to put stuff down, go outside, and take in some fresh air.

but now, i'm tired. it's that gym, with all its musclebound gorillas, a few tired old geezers like myself treading around, women trying their hardest to keep a figure from going down. it wears me out. it might be good fodder for more stories, but i've been more into poetry over the break, written maybe a hundred of them, it's really about all i've got to show for it, but it's something. i'd rather do the novel, but i didn't even start that, or restart it would be more accurate, i didn't even pick it back up so to speak (it also is on the web, for free, like most of it)...

and school starts what, on tuesday. but doesn't get serious until, maybe, wednesday. wenny-densy...my time is running out. chou, i'm off to bed