For the first time this year I am sitting on our back deck. It is not yet six am, no sun shine though it lightens in the east. The current temp is 70 with an expected high in the 80s. Crickets are busy singing, a bird is waking up and the traffic noise is increasing. A train whistle can be heard in the far distance as it leaves town.

It has been quiet here lately. I hurt my leg (more and more convinced it was an IT Band injury due to excessive running) and have had to take a break for a bit. I am back at it once more, though I have slowed down and am doing a very light week this week.

I received an email from the school saying I have passed my comps, so one less hurdle to leap. I am still waiting on the paper that provides hard copy evidence of completion. Beyond that, I have a month of work left to do and this degree is complete. Job hunt is going slowly. So far no one has called me, though to be honest I have only sent out my resume to a few places. Tough times here at the moment with the budget cuts decimating education and libraries.

I have some photos on my desktop that I will try to upload soon. Hopefully my computer will allow me to do this (getting video card errors which I suspect are, in part, related to the monitor failure).

Garden is doing well even though it nearly froze earlier this week. Almost all the radishes are finished (likely replace them with okra rather than reseed), lettuce is doing well (have had two feeds from that already), swiss chard is into its second cutting, cilantro is doing well, and I need to find a use for a mess of parsley. Tomato plants are looking healthy having survived the early cool weather. Hopefully, there will be lots of fruit to collect in the next two months before the hot weather knocks them over.