I am new to the blogosphere, having tried unsuccessfully to get my own website going which just got to be too frustrating and time-consuming. So this is going to be my blog until I figure out how to do it on my own website, and possibly even thereafter.

I begin my blog on a beautiful January day looking out my kitchen window onto a view of evergreens and jacarandas and grass under a steel-gray cloud-covered sky. The dishwasher is chanting its churning song of soapy water and I realize how lucky I am because of all of the above. I notice the paint on my wrought-iron fence is peeling and that the flakes are daring me to sand them and paint the thing, and I am not accepting the challenge. Usually I have no excuse except that I am working, but today is Sunday and my best excuse is that it's too humid a day to paint. And besides, last week was my first week back to work after a three-week winter break, and the last thing I want to do at this point is anything resembling work. In fact, a walk is in order on a cool day like this with a blustery sky.