Glad to hear you will be back at home soon. As for me, I have not been paddling lately. Have been trying to work on my book but mother nature, rotten buildings, an abcessed tooth, a malfunctioning furnace, an old car and too many dates have all conspired to seriously detract me from my literary efforts.

Job #1: Last month a good sized chunk of the ceiling in my rental house fell down during a rain storm. Seems the roof had leaked enough to soak the old plaster and lathe enough to cause it to bulge down and finally fall. I always wondered why the ceiling bulged down when I first moved in, have never seen that before. I had to reshingle the roof. While I was working on the roof I decided not to remove the old rotten cedar shakes. My foot almost went though certain sections of the roof and I figured that if I removed them then I'd have to rebuild the roof. I left them. Check. Done.

Job #2: Last winter my little 1982 Toyota Tercel never really did get warm coz the heater core was blocked up and the vent controls were jammed due to corrosion. I had take dash the apart after getting a rebuilt heater core(ca-ching $$$), figure out where new heater core goes, install, try to remember where all the cables connect, repair a loose power source connection for stereo while down there and hope to hell it all works. Check. Done with only 7 screws left over.

Job #3: go to the dentist to discover why my jaw hurts so much even though there are no apparent cavities. Turns out that I need a root canal. I spent my birthday (October 27) stoned on Tylenol 3's and taking the dash of the Toyota apart. I go in for the root canal in two weeks. No check yet.

Job #5: My antideluvian dinosaur of a furnace (ancient gravity type)mysteriously stopped working two weeks ago. I froze my duff for a week (weather turned cold that week) while I used my severely limited time to sort out why it wasn't working. I bought a new thermostat and installed it. The furnce fired up fine. Next day it stopped working again. Reconnected thermostat - nothing! I decided to check the wiring - no power, so I replaced the wiring. No effect! I figured that the gas control must be F$*#@d so I spoke with my landlord about getting the part replaced. To test it I connected the wires sans the thermostat to see if the furnace turned on. BooF...she fired up immediately. Ok, the gas control is fine. Must be the new thermostat. It has a stupid chip in it that must have been fried some how. I bypassed the thermostatic control and now turn the furnace on by attaching the wires manually to close the circuit. I'm going to buy a punch button and control it manually for the winter. Check. Done.

Job #5: Since becoming divorced, I have been inundated with women who want to show me some love. I also happen to work afternoon shift and they all work day shift, so you can guess how little time I have to do repairs and such, not to mention writing. Interestingly enough, women love kayakers, especially the ones who go out into the wilderness and then write about the adventures. You know, as a single man, spending the weekends alone isn't high on my list of things to do - I have a rubber arm so I date often enough (every weekend no less). What activity suffers as a result: the writing. The dating won't stop for obvious reasons so I will have to get everything else fixed to make time for writing. No checks - ongoing effort.

I am positive that there are other things I could have mentioned, like the night heron s&g I want to start building this winter. I have had the plans for a year but have not had the time to get them out of the tube and imprinted onto the plywood. This winter I have high hopes that I can work on it during those long dark winter weekend days. I have till April to get it done, I am going to India for one month in April. I hope my car survives the winter.

Robert N(o time) Pruden