Dateline: above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 21 March 2005
A strange transition day, with Vonne and her mom returning from their 3 nights and five plays in NYC around midday, a bunch of errands, a bunch of paperwork and scheduling for varous trips (speeches and Esquire assignments), and a whole lot of training Bailey on the invisible fence, which I reactivated today. Got him a big-dog collar, threw the little flags in the ground and set about it.
I must admit, I don't drag it out as long as the manual says. Short story being, after drilling him several times on coming back in toward the house as a rule, I let him wander past the flag for his first shock. As expected, he came right back to me a bit scared and confused, although you could see him recognize something bad was coming on the basis of the sound emitter in the collar just before the shock. Later (we went out about 8 times today) I let him chase a car . . . right up to the flags, and I let him decide he was going to see the big dog in the yard behind ours (also on the IF) . . . right up to the flags. Last time out just now he caught the sound twice and immediately jumped back in from the flags, showing a lot of care to remain juuuust inside the marked barrier.
Within a week I bet he'll be able to go out alone, which he'll love, because he loves to sniff around for as long as you let him, plus he can chew on the playset (we have a very large one I built years ago) and dig in the pea gravel that surrounds it.
Last four days have been very nice, actually, very much a matter of immersing myself in parenthood in a way that can only happen when you're pretty much it as the single parent. Nice break for Vonne, nice reconnection for me. Audiences are great, but the appreciation of your kids--while they're still your little kids--is impossible to beat. And it was nice to feel all that in abundance.
Long talk with Mark Warren today about the book and the projects for Esquire. He had sent me Chapter 2 last night but it never made it into my Hotmail, so I connected him to my new account and I'll dig into it first thing in the morning. Tomorrow will be a long day in the dark basement again--just me and the word. I will break, though, for a business lunch on Goat Island just off Newport. I have a senior exec from a national lab coming to meet me and discuss future possibilities, at his request. That'll be a nice break in the day.
Some good stories today, but nothing I feel compelled to blog when I feel so tired. It really is exhausting mentally and emotionally to be around such highly-charged kids 24/7, inevitably sleeping with one or two of the youngest. They're just in your face or on your chest and pulling at your arms basically all the time.
I now know what my wife means when she says she's tired. I knew that before, but you tend to forget, so this weekend was good.
I have several days in a row now to work on the book and then I have a couple of days on Esquire stuff, so the focus has to be laser-like for now, even as I start some conversations with key trusted friends on one Esquire project, take this lunch tomorrow, have the painter come to do some more tomorrow night, get the healthcare set up, review details and planning on this "New Map Game" with Alidade that we're set to do at the end of May, and continue plotting various other endeavors. Plus train the dog, get the house finally ready to show, and review listings from our realtor in Indiana.
I'm just glad I'm not totally on the hook for the kids for the rest of the week.. .
Check out the New Map Game website ("The New Map Game: Investigating War and Peace in the 21st Century"). The opening is pretty cool. We're having a fascinating email discussion on the countries we're going to pick for Old Core, New Core, Seam State and Gap (we'll have four teams of 25-30 players distributed across those four categories, so deciding the ultimte mix is key--and fun to spin out in your head).
Off to work out. Getting to be a real selfish prick on that score, but I feel it is essential as a self-employed breadwinner for six.
