Testing testing testing

I'm messing around again with my blog, trying different settings.

I'll be curious to see if this works. Until then ... carry on as usual!

My 25th anniversary: let me count the ways

I was married 25 years ago today. We've had our ups and downs, but we're still together and I think we will be, into the foreseeable future.

How do I remember this? Let me count the ways:

• 8 changes of address
• 7 job changes for me
• 9 job changes for him
• 9 pets (4 still with us)
• 16 books (me)
• 3 more college degrees (me)
• 1 college degree (him)
• 8 sculptures (him) + many pieces of furniture
• 2 fathers who died
• 4 nieces, 1 nephew, 1 grand-nephew, 1 grand-niece
• 50 lbs. gained; 40 lbs. lost (me). Sigh.
• 2 states lived in (PA and MN)
•  18 states visited
• at least 20 home computers (I've lost count)
• 2 total landscape make-overs
• 8 cars (3 still with us)

What does that all add up to?

A life with someone who knows me as I am and can still tolerate me.

Priceless.

Zip code stress

I am suffering from zip code stress.

I really noticed this time, when I came home from a visit to Mom in my home town. Just about the minute I entered that zip code, I relaxed. I slowed down. I laughed more. I didn't have to remind myself to 'be patient, take your time, don't let {whatever that is} bug you'.

When I got home (in my home zip code) I felt a bit of stress creeping in. I set myself some mental "to do" lists, I looked at what's coming up this week, I made a mental roadmap of how my week would work out.

When I got to my work zip code, it was as if my time away vanished. I was back to full blown stress: do this, do that, wedge this into your week, finish this, wrap up that, make time to do this.

I need to figure out a way to maintain hometown-zip-code relaxation with work-zip-code life. If anybody out there has it figured out, tell me, okay?

Back to work.

Yep. It's summer.

I'm in Iowa right now, visiting my mother. I grew up in this town and have visited here, off and on, for decades. There have been subtle changes but nothing major since I was a child.

The biggest change (to me) is the municipal swimming pool. Gone is the long rectangular structure, shaped like a truncated "L". The short bar was the diving end, the long bar was for swimmers. At the one end it was 8' deep, at the other it was 3'. In the diving part it was 12'.

Now there's 3 squarish pools. There's a kiddy pool, I think. Lots of young-uns and parents. And there's a pool with folks jumping around. And there's a diving area: diving boards and slides. I know that lap swims are allowed at certain times of the day (off-peak times), but for the life of me I can't figure out where a person could swim a decent lap.

Swimming has been on my mind lately. I grew up learning how to swim and I love doing it. I go to the pool at my local gym at least once a week to do laps. But it's been a long, long time since I just romped in a pool. You can't romp in hotel pools: they're too small. And you can't romp in the gym pool: it's too shallow. And it looks like I can't really romp in the municipal pool (it's too crowded! The temps are in the 90s here and high humidity, which means the pool is jammed).

Yep. It's summer. I'm thinking about how great a nice, long dip in the pool would feel...

Sigh. Back to the air conditioning.

New challenges

I'm starting -- SLOWLY -- to get my writing enthusiasm back. My new book is taking some unexpected turns, which happened once I threw out the initial draft (written years ago and truly bad) and started fresh. So I hope it will be fun to work on.

The new challenge? I'm working on a book of essay about Crap That Bothers Me. This is going to cover the gamut from the so-called "Zen" people I meet, to the wealthy who act like asses, to the publishing world. I figure if nothing else it'll make me laugh.

Traveling again tomorrow, but I'll be online here and there. Something like a vacation but not quite. I'm looking forward to a change of scene.