did a little weblog overview as i have a little time, overseeing welding classes that are basically not allowed to weld. hands off the welding irons, and the power, until the roof is fixed, they say. and i couldn't weld or teach them to weld, though i'd love to try. these poor students, six classes of high school welding students, will either be reassigned to other classes, or, have to wait until the roof is fixed.

the weblog overview shows that some people are in fact reading my weblogs. over a thousand read this one every month, and that's significant, though maybe not very significant. i'm not sure if i care that they aren't clicking on ordering my books, or impressed with my writing skill; after all, i keep lowercase in order to distinguish that i'm not even totally serious here. my professional weblog has better writing, but poorer presentation; in short, i haven't done much to keep them upgraded or current. the numbers I got, starting at about 1100 and going all the way down to 3/mo., 5/mo., etc., are probably low points caused by extreme neglect in the last few months.

time to revive them, i think. time to at least practice putting more writing on them; "refreshing" them makes them more desirable in Google's terms at least, and proves you're still alive. that's what my latest effort is all about.

in fact, i'm reviewing them as we speak, and, at the same time, working on various writing projects. i'm considering reviving the idea of a haiku novel, but also have two or three regular novels on the table, and two or three other writing projects: 1) autobiography; 2) historical story about the early Leveretts; 3) book on language as a self-organized system. i have to be in the mood to get fired up about any one of these, and as usual, in the lack of mood, drained state of running an idle welding class, i work on the weblogs.

old welding irons sit around, and kids fire them up if i'm not watching carefully. they also take hammers and brandish them around, etc., making it more, for me, like running an overactive daycare. big damage can be done to little people, so i'd better keep my eyes open, and hope they get out of here alive, and the welding equipment also survives. they are a little aggrieved to lose their welding teacher, not to mention some money put into welding equipment. some, however, already knew some welding, being from ranching families anyway, and already having the tools, just sitting around the barn. some, in other words, can weld a pretty mean fence without any supervision whatsoever. but i am sticking to my orders, which are, no welding allowed, as long as the roof is leaking.

meanwhile, will it rain? it's the rainiest october/november that anyone can remember. they let the bighorn sheep out into the sacramentos hoping they would survive and floursih, hoping they'd find a patch of wild mountain habitat where they'll get by ok. there are mountain lions out there and altogether it will be good, as it will keep the lions from coming down out of the mountain and pawing through the hospital's garbage.i drive by, every day, on my way to welding, and i'm thinking, this outdoor life is kind of beckioning to me. someday, i'll bump up against that lion, and ask him how's the food down yonder.