I'm about ready to resume normal programming. I think. What can I say? February happens.

February's always been my least favorite month. By the time it rolls around here in the northeast it seems like winter's been tormenting us forever, and yet there's still a solid three or four weeks left to endure. This year winter barely got started until the middle of January, which made the cold wave which blew in then feel even worse.

There's no pleasing some people.

Today the temperatures have risen above freezing for maybe the second time this month. Icicles keep falling past the window and crashing onto the sun porch roof a couple feet away from my desk. The first time it happened I thought the cat had fallen off the bookshelf.

A friend in the midwest reported that his pipes had been frozen for ten days thanks to failed heat tapes he couldn't afford to replace. Just worrying about that possibility had me practically prostrated all month. I feel embarrassed.

In the past two months I've finished up a long legal encyclopedia article, got three quarters of the way through another legal editing assignment, done two "final" rewrites/polishes on the mystery novel and collaborated with Mary on a short story for an anthology.

I think I will be able to reduce my work schedule to merely frantic rather than crazed. Which will allow me to get back to blogging a few times a week. Particularly if I try to shame myself into doing so by announcing it publicly.