Hitting it hard...

I set the alarm for 6 am, but didn't realize I hadn't adjusted the time since leaving Houston, so when you factor in a couple of snooze cycles, I actually got up late about half an hour early. In the end, this is good, as I didn't really feel like shouldering my way through last night's fatigue.

The full force of having returned to Pagosa after having taken most of my translation tools to Houston is starting to be felt (for example, I'm going to have to go into the store to print out the PDF I received yesterday). In a way, it's as if I'm still "on the road" even though I'm home... kind of.

The plate currently holds about 2000 words, which I'm going to try to fit around store duty. Drew is going to Durango with Shannon in the afternoon to go see the doctor, so I am pretty much going to have to help out at the store. Hopefully, by then, I will have put a significant dent in the work.

Cheers...

Chalk up another one...

I survived the day, somehow. It turns out the French article is about twice as large as I expected it to be, which isn't much of a problem as I've done 4 of the 6 pages and plan to finish the rest tomorrow morning. The bag for the day is about 2200 words, which is not as much as it perhaps ought to be, but still not too bad given the circumstances. I spent about three and a half hours at the store, processing packages mostly. It was still tiring, though, and I recall thinking - as I processed yet another ambiguously written label - that in another couple of weeks, I'll be free of having to decipher atrocious penmanship and correct improper ZIP codes and city names. Small comfort.

Picking up one of my Moleskines today reminded me of a few things. First, the price of a small notebook at the Дом книги (House of Books) in Moscow is 485 rubles, or almost $19; the suggested retail price in the States is $9.95. The price of a large Moleskine notebook at the Barnes & Noble in Webster, Texas, is the suggested $14.95, but about $20 at the fountain pen store at the Galeria, not far from the place where Natalie and I had breakfast last Sunday. I got her a large notebook in Webster, with unlined pages, so she can jot down marketing ideas for the anime her company sells.

I don't know how things develop with others, but I often find myself formulating what appear initially to be crystal-clear plans that eventually lose their luster and fall apart - or seem to - in the execution. I don't know if this is simply an application of Clausewitz's dictum regarding battle plans and first contact with the enemy, the nature of the beast, or habitual short-sightedness on my part. Here, I have in mind the plan that involves moving to Houston for a while, a plan that has largely been implemented by moving a significant amount of stuff to Houston at, um, significant expense.

This is not to say that I've become convinced it's a bad idea and that it's necessary to go back to square one; just that what seemed to be a logical course of action doesn't seem so logical anymore, in the cold gray light after an intervening six-week period. All is still salvageable, though. The major impact will be, as usual, on family.

It rained today, apparently again. I noticed that the landscape was green on the way back home from Santa Fe on Sunday, and that there was some water standing in some shallow areas along the side of the road. Galina says it's been raining pretty steadily recently. If this continues, it may be the harbinger of a fairly good mushroom season around here, a season that we are overdue for by several years. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I still have about 800 words left of the article, but I'll take care of them tomorrow morning. Which reminds me... I need to adjust for the time zone on my alarm clock.

Cheers...