Treading water, that is how life feels at the moment. No panic or fear of drowning, no movement forward, backward or sideways, just working hard to keep the present position.

Attila has worked every single day since early September. He seems to be keeping up with his sleep so far, but it is a challenge. We retire early, and arise early. If I did not get out of bed before dawn, I would not see Attila at all before our late dinnertime. We will both be very glad when this busy season is over. Winter is Attila’s favorite time of year, when he only works "business hours".

The Thanksgiving turkey is in the soup pot. Attila boils it down a bit in the mornings before he leaves for work, then it sits for 24 hours until the next morning, when he boils it down a bit again. It takes three or more days of this before he removes the bones and bits, and proceeds with the soup itself.

This week I cooked a roast overnight in the crockpot, and through the next day. I fill the crockpot with water, add a bay leaf and a half dozen peppercorns. It cooks on low through the night and on high through the next day. After cooking it I remove the meat and solids with a slotted spoon and cool the broth, so that the fat hardens to a top layer. The fat is then removed and in go herbs and lots of vegetables and barley. Twenty-four hours later, we have a large quantity of truly wonderful beef and barley soup.

Not to forget the roast, after it is removed from the crockpot, the fat and bone are discarded. Then it is cut cross-grain into slices, and baked with BBQ sauce, sometimes in the crockpot, and sometimes in the oven. This is a particular favorite of Attila’s; he is a meat lover.

I continue to play with the web site redesign. Having converted the site almost completely to CSS, the focus has now turned to MySQL, PHP, and web programming. I must say, just installing the server software is a challenge. After three days where I seemed to be running with one foot nailed to the floor, the software is installed and functioning. Now that feels good.

One of the most amazing things about the Internet is that some of the most generous people in the world can be found there. They frequent email lists and newsgroups and assist others who are just learning the ropes. Much of what they discuss among themselves is beyond my understanding. Eventually though, if one perseveres, and keeps reading, larger and larger bits of the conversations make sense. Then one day, presto, it all comes together. The unintelligible becomes a known language. It reminds me of learning to ride a bicycle, falling over, running into immovable objects, and eventually picking up speed and balance to fly down the road.

In my youth, I suffered great distress at not gaining an immediate understanding of things that I wanted to learn. The more distressed I felt, the more difficult learning became. Adding to the problem, I wanted to learn just about everything. I was never, ever bored. Over the years, I discovered that all that is really needed to succeed in learning is to keep trying. In addition, I have observed that anyone who makes you feel stupid, intentionally or not, is worth avoiding.

Back to the present, this entry needs to be posted. Lately it has been a challenge to find just the right image for an entry, I have few new photos to draw from. My camera needs new batteries. The ones I have stopped functioning properly after years of use. Buying batteries would require shopping. So far, the desire for batteries has not outweighed the aversion to shopping. Sigh. Perhaps I would like shopping more if it were not a matter of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Then again, perhaps not. It would be nice to find out though.

I think I will sit in the sunny living room with a cup of tea, and watch the sun dart leaves. I wonder where Mist is...