Time for an update... at long last.
I am now living on my own in Pipersville, PA, about 10 miles from where my wife and daughter are living, in Doylestown. This separation is preliminary to a divorce.
Be that as it may. My health problems are pretty much under control now. I have managed to get some good freelance and contract work to keep body and what's left of my soul together. I still don't have a full-time job but I continue t olook. In the meantime, I am working part-time in an upscale art gallery in Lambertville, NJ, doing sales and whatnot. Between freelancing, the gallery, and teaching, I am getting by. Of course, this first month or so on my own has been difficult in many ways, not the least being financially. Still, I have been able to face some truths about myself, which should result in an improved person down the road. Time will tell.
I was offline for about 6 weeks after I moved out of my house in Doylestown. I had to secure internet access at the libraries in New Hope and Doylestown. Considering that I had clients for whom I was doing webwork as well as design work in Quark, this was a major drag. I had to schlep files back and forth on CD and disk, and be limited to 30-minute connection times (in New Hope) and 60 minutes in Doylestown. Half an hour or an hour can fly by when you're dealing with clients, sending out resumes, and checking email (through Yahoo -- I had no access to my usual addy, als@alsirois.com, so I had to get one that I could check at any computer at whichI happened to find myself). But all that nonsense is over now, and I am connected here in my new apartment.
This place is small but not uncomfortable. It's a basement apartment that has a small deck out front, and that's where I was sitting this morning at about 7:30, drinking a cup of coffee and reading the latest Harry Potter. It's very quiet here... I live immediately adjacent to the Delaware River, along which is the canal/state park. I'm used to hearing little aside from birds at this time of day, but this morning I heard an odd whoosh as I sat with my coffee and book. I thought to myself, That sounds just like the stove in a hot-air balloon. These powerful devices are activated periodically to keep the air inside the envelope hot, and the balloon therefore aloft. There are a lot of balloons around here... it's delightful and strangely relaxing to see the things floating in the pellucid summer air of an evening -- or a morning. I looked up and sure enough I saw a large round shape moving through the trees down by the river. It was indeed a balloon, following the course of the Delaware, drifiting along at an altitude of about fifty feet above the water.
Very cool! And I thought that the event was worth recording here. So I guess I am moving out of my period of misery and self-pity and starting to communicate some random impressions of beauty and joy again. Good. With luck I'll start getting back into my writing from here on out... but more of that later.