End of summer celebration

Fun soccer game last night, 3-0 USA over Canada, could have been 6-0 without shots hitting the crossbar. We had great seats! 

An appropriate celebration for the end of summer. This was an especially good summer for me, despite the late arriving warm weather. Highlights of summer:

• Found the heart and soul of my novella in progress. A first draft, I tell my students, is the process by which you figure out what you want to write. If you're lucky, you can use a lot of what you write. I can. And I'm secure in the heart of my story now, right down to the ending. I've already written the last paragraph, and it's holding up. Still, there is just a huge amount of work left, new vignettes and major revisions of existing vignettes. But my head is clear about the story now.
• The preceding was possible because we stayed home. Only a couple short excursions out of town, no summer vacation per se. I prefer working well to vacations.
• Once the weather arrived, it was great, but always always always too short for me. I hope we have a hot October, as we sometimes do.
• Made a bit of progress on household chores, like repainting the deck. We still have a basement we have to clean out. Been several years now we haven't gotten around to it.
• I downsized my online life in major ways. Getting rid of every single domain I own, for example. Keeping some sites up, linked from my blog via the long address (a domain usually is a substitute for a long address). This was a major psychological change mainly, changing my sense of myself online. I also deleted my Facebook account. Now you see him, now you don't.
• More or less abandoned the banjo. Just don't have the enthusiasm for playing that I once had. Once I mastered clawhammer style, the challenge seemed to be over. Of course, I quit as a beginner, but if the passion isn't there, it isn't there. I have no desire to perform in public any more. Too bad, an old man singing Guthrie, for example, is always a cool thing, and if I resurrected my show, there definitely is an audience for it. But I don't get strokes from doing music any more. Interesting. But true. I get strokes from writing well, more than anything else. And I give them to myself, though of course it's always nice to hear someone shares your sensibilities. But I know when I'm cooking and when I'm not, and I get a real charge when I am. Moments in the novella -- but not yet the whole thing, not even close yet, but I have confidence I can make it work.
• I am ready to return to teaching. In fact, each year I seem to look forward to it more. Also interesting. But I have a real sense of doing something useful and practical when I teach. I know the craft of screenwriting, and I know how to share it.

And I look forward to college football tomorrow, part of my fall ritual.