Last couple of days have been mostly consumed with travel prep, which I do not enjoy (that's opposed to travel planning, which I do). Lot of calling and pressing or saying 1 or 2 and holding and emailing and figuring and xeroxing and cleaning and running errands: dog food, dog meds, MY meds, various batteries, film, ziplock bags, car had to go in for a new radiator, etc ad nauseum. Oops I have mis-timed my meds and the insurance company must be called. Do laundry. Find the darn European plug adapter for the iPod. Forget stuff from the list and need to go back to Wally world (torture enough once). Lists, more lists. It all has to be done, and I'm slogging through, but it's just no fun. At least I've been able to punctuate with frequent stops on ST. Then there was (still is) the little matter of the conference paper. No matter how far ahead I get these things done, I rewrite a lot and ALWAYS the night before in the hotel room. I used to tell myself that's because I'm at the conference and I want to refer to things I've heard, but really it's just compulsive. I am very glad to be collaborating on this one, anyway: my colleague Jim got his half done, set the tone and the pace, and all I had to do was pick up the baton. I did way too much research on Grey Gardens for my half of a 20-minute talk, and I really should engrave the words "Sufficient unto the task" over my desk, but that's a compulsion I've had for too long ever to break, and sometimes it pays off. Anyway I got a draft done, still needs a paragraph to conclude, and then I'll rewrite it on the plane and again the night before, and that will be more than sufficient unto the task, as usual.
Time for the afternoon thunderstorm. Hotter than Hades here today. The temperature drops when it clouds over, but I'm still un-used to the way storms don't resolve in cooler dryer air down here. Afterward it just feels steamier. When the first drops hit, they will sizzle on the pavement.
Scout got his summer haircut today. He looks like a puppy again, or maybe a naked mole rat. They put a goofy green bow on him, but it seems to offend his dignity and he's spent much of this afternoon trying to destroy it. Last year we tried doing it ourselves, and he looked like he'd been chewed. So he went to the pros this morning.
I hate leaving the dogs. They know, they are watching me like hawks.
