Stacking Stones

Hours after the sky has grown dark, I like to walk with my dog down through the woods and onto the dry creek bed. I let her loose to run along the smooth layer of limestone the absent stream has laid open to the sky. I walk on this strange pavement, missing a step where it undulates or splashing where it holds pockets of rainwater, and my attention all the while is fixed to the large stones that stand alone in the middle of it. These stones have an air of mystery about them, sitting out there as if deliberately placed. I mean, I know the water set them there, but even so the sense of mystery remains. They please me, and I can't leave them be.

So under the cover of night I stack them. Almost every night, yes, I stack stones. Am I mad? Well, yeah. But I love their heft and their smoothness. I love especially the deep knock and quiet rasp of stone being placed on stone. I admit I also like playing the wood sprite who sets up strange sights for the morning amblers.

Tonight was an especially good night for stacking stones. The sky was clear, the moon was bright, and the local screech owl (who often turns my fun into a ghost story) was elsewhere. It was just me, the dog, the moon, and the crickets.

Archaeologists wonder why the Celts (or someone before them) stood their stones on end so many millennia ago, but I don't.

If I only knew how to carve...

A Sort-of To Do List

Today was the first day of my pedagogy classes. So far, so good. Nothing earth-shatteringly new was learned today, but I like having started. I have to admit that I'm nervous. I want to be a good teacher, but I realize how easily I could fail my students in so many different ways. I never worried this much about IT projects or insurance crap. I guess I care.

Anyway, I have a few things I want to write about, but don't have a lot of time at the moment. First order of business is a new restaurant review; I found good Thai food in Austin! Madam Mam's is the best I've had outside of CA and deserves the full treatment. This will come in the next post.

I've also been contemplating the wild swirl of contradictory ideals, beliefs and tendencies that is my life and how best to make sense of it all. The pseudonym has given me a lot of freedom, which I've reveled in, but of which I haven't made much productive use. My mind wanders, I waffle about what to post, and then up posting nothing. So, in the name of self discovery, I'm going to quit searching for a guiding theme and let this blog reflect me a little better. Hopefully this will result in more posts.

I also want to discuss the Texas and Oklahoma phenomenon known as the sausage kolache. This monstrosity needs its own post, too. Also up for future discussion are recent energy and economic issues (these should really be on a revived Dilettante Blog but to hell with it) I'll try to keep them brief.

I'm going to try to add some sort of structure, too, but more on that later.