summer's about shot; i did the school supplies, and my wife is about to go out and do clothes shopping with the girls, which is probably the most difficult part. as i look around the world has got messier over the summer instead of more orderly; i am less ready for a new year. piles of dirt remain up at the gate, that i have to bring down to insulate the water pipes that broke over the winter; in short, there was a huge mess here, and there are still piles of rocks and dirt around. i was supposed to rake pine needles to keep down a fire hazard, and got about one little square done. out at our land it's the worst, though rain has made some grass pop up here and there and make it look like a green, bucolic paradise.

one good thing, and that is that i sit down to type this, and the puppy finds me right away and parks in my lap, between my two stretched out legs, and takes a puppy-nap in such a way that i can pet him as i write. we have spent much of the summer like this. i have played a lot of web boggle, and scrolled facebook, widening my horizons so that i now know more about the low-life of las cruces, for example, or the socorro democrats. reason i'm interested is political - if we were to get a lot of people out to vote, this district would flip to blue. and it would make a huge difference. but for me, it was a side diversion. i push against my writing - try to do two or three hours a day - and it just doesn't come that easily. i have to have a lot of different things going, so i don't end up down in the bog, just killing time.

one of the saving graces is that it's rained a lot here. down in texas, down in the valley (las cruces and alamo), it has not only not rained, but it's been hot - over a hundred, even over a hundred five. up here, we seem to stay in the seventies, and get an occasional shower, or even thunderstorm. the green stuff grows. we know this could be trouble for the fire people later, but, we like to see the green stuff grow. it makes the hillsides smell better. it gives the bear and the elk some cover.

tried to finish several big projects, and failed. one, the leverett book, about the puritans of early massachusetts - it's almost done. two - my autobiography, just passing through - it, too, is almost done, except that my life changes so dramatically with every turn, that i feel like starting over. and finally, my texas novel - which is called, so far, the turn and the river - and which, truth be told, was only about fifty pages done, and is now maybe a hundred. it has a ways to go, i guess, but, for a while, stalled on the other two, i was into it. i did finish the haiku and a book of stories earlier in the summer. i did get two different books of stories, the most recent, free range flash fiction, and a much earlier one, pile of leaves, put up on acx where they will now be audio produced and we should be able to see that in a couple of days or soon.

but what put a dent in the summer like the elk put a dent in my truck door, was a stepdaughter stopping by for a couple of weeks with a couple of young children, six and three, who fit right under my four in this tiny cabin making a lot of noise, getting up early, having demands, in short, being precious. what can you do? take them to the park, is the obvious answer. but we took them to the white sands as well, and their aunts and uncles did their best to entertain them to the fullest.

so, not a bad summer, really...tomorrow, an interview for a seventh-grade english position. this would change my life dramatically. but, if it should happen, i'll keep you posted. in the annals of public education, i suppose much can be said about such things, and i will definitely be in the front line.