it's friday evening in galesburg, illinois. a heavy storm appears to be coming in from the west; in fact, my wife's computer showed the weather radar, a big wide orange splotch moving right upon us. yet out my living room window it just appears that it's going to hang there threatening for a while. it could be one of those storms that twists and moves and doesn't really hit us. or, it could pound us like crazy in the next few minutes.

i've been read-marketing hard all day. sometimes i put off my own writing because i start reading first, thinking that i'll write as soon as i wake up better. but upon starting to read, i'm both engaged and occupied by what i'm reading, and impressed by the vast number of projects i've taken on, and i never really let up. the day gets along - today, i went to urgent care and then to peoria - and then, if i get a minute to sit down, it's back to reading again, because it's interruptable. i clearly need a new pattern.

i went to urgent care because i'm constantly getting wax backup in one of my ears, and they are the only people who can get it out. in peoria the hearing-aid people told me that my hearing aids were working just fine.

that for some reason wore me out, so when i got home i just sat and read some more. slowly i get my marketing back on track after a week on the road and a little while catching up on things. marketing is ok, it's the writing i'm totally neglecting. the kids are ok too though they are spending the summer somewhat despondent.

i wish i could just slip into a groove with one of the many things i've been writing and not finished, so that i could just finish something. it starts to wear even on the marketing, when i have nothing new to peddle. it would flow so easily if i could just get out there with something new. and yet, when i pick stuff up, i'm saddled with the expectations i started with, and the unfinished mess i've created. i don't quite know how to finish, otherwise i'd have never set it down.

now the reading stares in front of me, and frankly i'm a little tired of it, so i'm watching the guardians game on the side. the guardians are up, but they're slipping. texas is coming back ruthlessly and chipping away at the lead. the storm remains perched outside the window and my various reading has worn me out, to the point that i'd rather do this.

the blogs are the one area that i'm still way behind on, from the trip. i like to have my dozen different blogs entered by the fifteenth, yet that's tomorrow, and i only have four. this is one of them, but it doesn't count if i do it twice, and this entry as just a warmup for hopefully a few more i can do tonight if i can figure out what i want. that's easier said than done, though.

guardians are up again. no sign of rain at all outside of a few sprinkles. the humidity is like a too-warm blanket. i chose it though, the humidity, the green grass, the rain, the rivers with water in them, the whole thing. i won't complain. it's a slice of life, and i'm enjoying it, even peoria.