Roofing is not for the faint of heart. Nothing about it looks like it does in the sterile photos in the Do-It-Yourself Manuals. The construction trades should start publishing their own handy-person books, showing people doing the actual sweaty, dirty, hot work. Maybe even have some pictures of Ned, quadripeligic from a roof fall. Or Nancy of the four fingers, the others lost building a tree house for her daughter. People might be less likely to attempt crazy projects. There is nothing fun or satisfying about roofing. Even after Neils is finished with his place, I think the mix of horror and dread will eclipse the knowledge that he did it himself. Even now I look at other roofs as I'm out and about and shudder.
I realized when I was up in Iowa City how handy a journal, an online journal especially, would be as a personal knowledge management tool. I got a touch of scaly itchy scalp at the base of my skull, I suspect from being out in the sun all day and then sleeping in a sauna of a house, sweating all night. I know I've had that happen before in the past, and it would have been handy to be able to type in a couple search terms and find out about previous occurences and what happened. I've always thought of my journaling as a place to record what I consider meaningful thoughts, but as a result, I don't journal that much, not having that many thoughts I want to spend time writing down, new thoughts anyway, and I can't remember what books I've read or movies I've seen or even what thoughts I've already written down, given the inconsistency of my writing. I think my kids or grandkids would also be more interested in what I did with my days than my philosophizing.
Today, I turned off my alarm at 6:15am, as part of a dream discussion I was having with an older female black school principal, who was telling me I should balance my discipline with my aching body's need for sleep and healing. I slept until around ten, fed Loki and Snack (this would be a good place to enter links to sections on my blog detailing each of them), and started going through the barrage of e-mail I got while I was in Iowa City, deleting 99% of them without bothering to read beyond the subject line, so many of them were electioneering posts from the StLouist. I checked on my budget in Quicken, which worried me until I realized later that a big chunk of the outgo was into savings, and remembered that I could be multitasking by doing laundry while I balanced my financials. I glanced through the latest book on self discipline, checked mail, took Loki out long enough to get his poop sample for our visit with Ken Cohn. I like having a vet who is an advocate for the animals, as uncomfortable as I am fessing up to the fact that I'm not brushing Loki's teeth enough, or trimming Snack's nails. Plus, I don't have to worry about what Dr. Emma Parkinson might think of me if I ever asked her out. Both Snack and Loki have fleas, much to me surprise. I usually notice their fleas as a result of little ankle bites on me, but they both have flea dirt and are now on Frontline, despite it's six fold cost over Biospot. Responded to an inquiry from match.com, sending a copy of my insectben picture and a shot of me comparing bellies with a very pregnant Sarah and fortunately in worse physical shape than I am Scott and Jans, which makes me look almost lithe by comparison. The thing that intriques me about online dating services is that you can get past, potentially, all the little things and achieve some baseline connection. Friends who set me up generally base the connection on singlehood rather than anything else, which has resulted in some interesting dates but nothing more. I do with Match.com had an NPR listener box and pro-choice box. Then work, which, as always, was too much fun for the money I make. I had a 17 top, a group of people from Magellan Health Care. The leader of the group actually went around and asked everyone how well they were taken care of before determining the tip, which was awesome. They seemed to be a group that got along well, and that type of basic democratic decision making likely contributes to their esprit d'corp. Fortunately, they were all well taken care of, as largely my only table of the evening. Joe was asking about good movies we'd seen. I couldn't really remember what movies I'd been to lately, or books I'd read, hence the continued thinking about journal as knowledge management tool. Only I'd like to keep a separate list of those items. Maybe I'll ask Scott about that tomorrow morning - much more likely that I'll do so now that I've written that thought down. I've had enough carbs and not enough glycogen burning exercise over the past few days that I've fallen out of ketosis. Starting back on limited carbs today is like starting Atkins all over again, with the headache and sluggishness. I should have remembered how much more energy I had working landscaping on a limited diet, and not jammed so much food down my throat in Iowa City, especially the late night meals, my justification being that I needed the energy for roofing. It probably slowed me down.
12:17:00 AM 
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