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Lately, when people ask me what I’ve been up to, I’m a bit puzzled myself how to respond.  My wife says I should say “fine” and leave it at that, but it always causes me to think back and answer the question, at least in my own mind.

I’ve been somewhat busy, and I know I’ve gotten a lot done — including organizing a lot of odds and ends I’ve never gotten around to — but I can’t put my finger on any real achievement or result.  Optimistically, I see it as a slow crawl forward from the chaos of countless notes to-do lists.  Realistically, here is a more qualitative and quantitative breakdown.

I haven’t gone much done around the house.  In the spring, I finished the railings, which was a huge project, and I reorganized the basement pretty well.  Oh, and rolled some paint on the cieling in the library I installed earlier, along with rewiring the chandalier and installing the medallion.  But without a budget, I haven’t done much else and didn’t put the workspace to use, letting it get damp without a working dehumidifier.  However, this last week afforded several hot, cloudless days in which I was able to stain the back deck.  I didn’t realize how mottled and gray it was until I saw it a solid orange-red.

And I am pleased that I was able to introduce to Christina, by her own prompting, to carpentry.  We used scrap wood to build a magazine rack, nicely stained, and I showed her how to use various tools, hand and electric.

Other than that, projects and payments have been up-and-down as usual, but I recently landed an auction website project that should round out my year nicely.  I even had to cancel my first small claims court filing, with the client resuming payments.  Now I just have to find an alternative to BNI, since they don’t seem conducive to my joining a chapter, even if a good one with my category open was available.

I think one of the reasons this summer is a blur is the amount of time I’ve spent on Facebook, especially in questionable debates, such as the “ground zero mosque” controversy.  At the least, it prompted me to do a lot of research on Islam and related modern geopolitics.  It also fine-tuned my skills at sifting past propaganda to get to the truth.  But I’ll write about that somewhere else, meaning the new home for my “Think, Think Again” blog at www.considerReconsider.com.  I’ve also helped Alb3rt start using Facebook, but unfortunately that means managing FarmVille farm on a daily basis.

Today, it’s almost like an autumn day, cool and windy.  It makes me realize I’ve had enough of summer, and Fall is my favorite time of year, as is Merry’s.