20 cents per mile

"Our achievements have become our atrocities." — Diarmuid O’Murchu, Quantum Theology (Crossroad, 2004)

This quote is apropos of nothing. Just found it among old material.

It's been about two months since I've posted anything, and I'll try to restart the habit. What I'm doing here so far is not talking about what I do for a living, but avoiding what I do for a living.

If I could get paid for the work I avoid, I'd be a rich man . . . well, until I started spending whatever I made, plus a percentage just to keep the stress level high.

The work I'm presently avoiding is an index for what ought to be a relatively simple book, and I'm only about 25 pages from the end of it. It's due tomorrow, and there's probably no more than about 3 hours of work remaining on it. Then a somewhat more difficult index follows it. At least I've already proofread the book, although of course I've largely forgotten the details. The theme has something to do with Christian sacrifice, and feminist approach to same, but it's a scholarly tome. At least I'll have the benefit of a tight deadline (two days) which will keep me motivated. That is the theory anyway.

I waste time by checking the Internet for unnecessaries. I waste time by reading nonessential emails. If I could bring these two addictions under control, my days would be much more productive. Simple enough to do: restrict my email checking to twice per day (say, 10am and 2pm). Read and respond to only the work-related stuff; save the rest of it for when the day's work is done.

Internet s/b on a need-to-see basis. Checking the weather forecast will not bring rain. And rain is important, because now I'm necessarily spending 3 hours a day watering the lawn, because it was just aerated and seeded, and I need to move the sprinklers around. There's no getting an index done when I'm standing up every 15 minutes to do that. I've got a book of devotionals that I need to be copyediting. Maybe that can be my sprinkler-moving diversion, but that's still not helping me get these indexes done on time.

And more travel time coming up in October/November. Good travel, but always throws the rest of the affected month into panic. The cabbie don't make money if the meter ain't running.