Of the resumption of life, postBIOF

I promise, this is not a post about football, so please feel free to keep reading.

It's been over a month since I've inhabited the lighthouse. I can feel the return of creativity, and it is wonderful. Oma Nut recently asked me if I still believed that I HAD to write, and the answer was a quick and certain affirmative. After a rather long drought, there are tender shoots of ideas seeking light, ready to grow. The challenge will be to impose some discipline and resist the languor brought on by this outrageous heat and humidity so many of you are feeling.

The same holds for the routines of homekeeping. First there was the sumptuous banquet of the Beautiful Game that had us reclining on our couches rather than sorting, dusting, cleaning, baking etc. Only the necessary details of eating and taking out the garbage were attended to; only the very necessary clothes were washed; only the dirtiest bodies were bathed; and only when the cupboards offered nothing but stale, forgotten crackers did we leave the house (ie. the tv) for the shops.

We don't have that excuse anymore. Now we are dealing with extreme weather conditions which make roasting a turkey for 5 hours in the oven, or cleaning behind the fridge, or putting junk mail into the recycling bins seem like the most arduous and sweat-inducing tasks ever. I would walk 500 miles through snow backwards and uphill rather than exert myself in this weather.

It seems we have gone from the hibernation of winter to the hibernation of climate-controlled summer with only the briefest respite of active spring in which to plant gardens, paint houses or walk energetically to the mail box. Now we move slowly and only when absolutely necessary, hoping that the weeds will not kill the plants before September rolls around, when - God willing - the humidity will finally dry up and I will not have disintegrated like macaroni left in the water too long.

So, with these challenges in place, I shall attempt to develop a work ethic and partake in the activities of ordinary life (such as returning books to the library).

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying summer. Try to stay al dente, ok?