Just a Quick Note

Been buried with work for the Source and work on the book. Finished the third revision of Scurvy Dogs! at 4 this morning. I think it's good, but of course I do. I wrote it.

Tori is in NY visiting Millie and Ben, and I never sleep well when she's not here. This goes all the way back to when we first got married and once a year she took off for a women friends weekend at the Oregon coast. I just don't sleep.

So as long as I wasn't going to be asleep, I just kept going until I'd put "The End" at the bottom. From when I started at 11 a.m. Tuesday to 4:00 this morning, I wrote 4500 words, not counting about 600 I had to chop out when I had a better idea and backed up to take another run at it. I was off the computer for about 5 hours while Max played Minecraft. It was an idea I could have and should have had two years ago, but at least I had it eventually.

Of course I've been kind of a wreck all day. I will try to get some sleep tonight, but I'm not holding out much hope. Tori's not here, and I just don't sleep much.

She just texted that she and Millie and Millie's boyfriend Kevin just saw a matinee of a show on Broadway. Very cool. Tomorrow is Millie's birthday. She turns 21. There may be some drinking.

A Matter of Time and Timing

Max started high school today. We're all very excited. The best four years of his life (so far) coming up. I hope Tori and I can survive it!

But it led to a couple of questions.

Who the hell starts school this yearly? What happened to school starting at Labor Day? It was the same last year, we had no sooner moved to the area than we had to find a school for him? T.H. Harris Middle School was good for him, and now he's at Day One of his four years at East Jefferson High School. But the beginning of August What's up with that?

Bigger question. Who the hell starts the first day of school on a Friday? What is the possible pedagogic explanation for that? Is it so they can get a day in under their belts, then spend the weekend resting up and/or dreading Day 2?

I sent Millie the pic I took of Max heading out for high school and she said she was getting teary. "He's just a baby! How can he be in high school?" she asked. I replied, "Tell me about it." And of course, she's just a baby, too, but in a couple of weeks she turns 21. And of course I have a son, Jack, who is now 32. How the hell did that happen?