I Am Back and in One Piece

This is always awkward. The long pause between posts. How do I break such a pause? I wish I had a great story to tell, a fabulous anecdote to post, or like Robert Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance, which is about neither Zen or motorcycle maintenance but instead about his descent into madness, a life-changing, profound realization. However, I have none of the above. All I have to offer is a short description of house painting, as exciting as watching the paint itself dry. We are almost finished with the porch, which is the most tedious part with the columns and the trim. I hope to finish it tonight. The inside of the porch is finished, but the lattice work around the base of it, and the trim work up around the top on the outside still need to be done. Once the port is done there will three stories of boards to scrape, wash, and paint. Good thing I have all of next week off to do it. I am also hoping to get some work done on it during the week before classes, but at some point I have to write my syllabus, the thing for Debbie, my course website, and order my books. Augh. It never ends, does it?