April Blows in Like a ... Wildebeast? Marmoset?

Last night it was very windy, enough for me to get industrious today and begin hacking limbs aways from the cable and electrical lines that run into the house. The limbs belonged to ... vegetation, they weren't mine.

I, of course, have no idea what the names are of the plants I practiced my burgeoning tree surgery skills on, nor did I even put on either pair of my work boots, so I guess by that measure it wasn't really work. I did, however, use a ladder (one of the two), some long-handled thing that looked like the plant verison of a bolt cutter, and my little electric chain saw.

Now (and I know I've mentioned this before) I again wish I had a chipper. It will take me most of tomorrow to hack even a fraction of this to tiny pieces to put into the green "lawn trimmings" bin for pick up. I'm debating whether or not wear gloves. This may be an opportunity for me to get some blisters with the hopes of earning the callouses of the proletariat.

Speaking of: a sad cinema moment. In the remake of Cape Fear at one point Robt Dinero has the young girl suck his thumb. It would have been a great moment except I was completely pulled from the suspension of belief by his thumb, which looked to me to be manicured and as soft as mine. Out of character. This, like impossibly white teeth in just about any movie is something that irks me. The popular actors are so pampered and primmed that they have a hard time convinicing me they're the characters they portray.

But that's not the point. I meant to write about ritual, about plumbing, about my New Year's Resolution, but those will have to wait.


While baby sitting the plumber I wasn't comfortable being near my computer, not to do any writing or editing. I've been using my laptop for taxes, which (I know) is a waste of perfectly good processing power.

I did, however, get a lot of reading done, including Duras's The Lover, and read some more about revision.

More later.