Laboring at the Keys

It’s Labor Day and I actually observed it in a proper way. For most of the past few decades, I’ve used this first Monday in September to catch up on drywall work that didn’t get done in the waning hours of summer. (Well, actually I did spend some time on paper work at the desk, overdue invoices and estimates, but my fingernails have remained mud-free.)

So what’s the deal with me blogging today? Does this conflict with my attempt to actually be unproductive and restful on this special holiday? And if I sit at the keys, do I really risk the chance of developing carpal tunnel.

I’ve noticed too that it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything. The entire month of August 2006 will be missing from my now somewhat-long list of monthly links on the sidebar. A sort of black hole or gap between my two front teeth, a broken string, a missed at bat.

So why should I now step up to the plate? I’m rusty. I might strike out. Or worse yet, I could get a brush-back slider, or even a fastball to the thigh. It might hurt. I could write something that I might regret, something that my wife might read and REMEMBER and hold me to.

I guess part of the impetus for blogging today is a conversation I had this morning with a friend with a new computer (with a wireless internet connection.) He wanted to know how to find our blogs—my wife’s, mine, and this Canadian’s (a guy he met at Cornerstone.) (I’m sure glad there’s not a surcharge on parentheses. (I really should thank God more often for them.)) But anyways, he’ll probably actually show up at this site and only find two month old news and think the site is abandoned. I felt that I owed him a howdy do (or is that due).

The other reason for blogging now is to help myself remember (and help keep me accountable to) my thoughts and plans. As my blog has been sparse, so has my mind been full of thoughts and possible actions. As my writing has waned, my reading has increased. After long hours of physical labor, I didn’t have the energy to write or create, but I did manage to crack open a book or two (or actually about a dozen or more.)

(After all, I’ve seen every episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” so what’s left to watch on the tube? I haven’t caught the “24” bug yet, I’m not smart enough to figure out “Seinfeld,” and I don’t want to be tempted by any home remodeling projects that look, oh, so easy.)

But back to the books. Besides working my way through the book of Joshua (yeah, that one with the blood and warfare and prostitutes) with my Tuesday evening study group and Anne Rice’s latest novel on the early years of Christ with a monthly book club, I’ve tried to tackle a wide range of challenging books. I’ve dabbled in philosophy, sociology, psychology, theology, history, and biography often at the same time.

It’s been fun and it’s kept me inside, out of the nasty summer heat and humidity (and away from yard work.) However, I did actually get out there and mow today. With almost two straight days of rain even OUR grass is growing.

Well, lest I use up my allotted words for this month, I better bid my blog adieu and break the news to the Warden that yes, there is an actual entry for September. So there.