feeling really sluggish these days, though i'm in the middle of writing a book. i wake up in the morning and fear for my life as i start down the first step. i'm grateful that knees, ankles, feet all seem to work, though not smoothly or gentlly, and there's lots of people i see out there who are much worse off than i am. my nights are full of driving things out to my son's place (~3 mi) and driving kids home who are here. and shopping - i need to keep them supplied.

in the book i'm deep in the reign of king taksin of thailand which interestingly is at its peak right around the american revolution. i find a lot of parallels with modern times: his xenophobia, his obsession with religion, his declaration that all must pay obeisance to him - kind of an interesting situation. it's like i can write about the modern times, all the while appearing to write about ancient thailand.

my tale is simply three retellings of beauty and the beast, some of which have two beauty/beast combinations, making really a total of about six. not everyone gets along well with their beast. there is a little beast-swapping. the beasts think like we do but have these hairy bodies and all thoughts of bestiality, well, that's taboo, i shouldn't even mention it, should i? but then can i actually put in real sex scenes too, all steamy and all that? well as it happens i'm pretty squirmy about that kind of stuff and it's not coming out very easily. if readers are hoping for that well they might be a little disappointed. but i think the other books in this series (global beasts) will more than make up for it.

at home we really have two different things going on. one is making a house on holton street more ready to sell. it is really not looking all that great especially on the outside, but the inside is not so bad and my wife is applying herself to making it better. i've just finished cleaning some workers' debris and getting stuff out to the garbage. but now there's a heat spell and today i'm feeling, well, sluggish.

then there's the kids, shuttling them around. that never ends.