I’ve now been in Oaxaca for two weeks, and retired for close to a month. Friday, I drove back with a new friend from an overnight with another new friend in San Mateo Rio Hondo (pics later). As I pulled over for the 3rd or 4th time to let a driver who was in a hurry pass, I remarked to my companion that it is nice to be retired and free of time urgency. I feel blissfully relaxed.  Each day passes as I want it to, and if something doesn’t work out, there is always the next day. Of course this is an attitude that shouldn’t require retirement to attain, but hey, I’m retired.

I have been writing five days a week at Convivio.  Usually I spend between 3-5 hours on the first draft of Ocean. 

I have also been devouring other people’s books.  So much so that I have reactivated my Goodreads account. I have an author page there, with a journal that I occasionally post to. You can follow or friend me over there if you want. If you have read Atmosphere, I would of course appreciate a rating/review at Goodreads as well as on Amazon. Here’s my latest Goodreads blog post:

I am beginning the last of four days away from Ocean. Naturally, I have read a lot. I just finished The Dali Lama’s Cat, a delightful look into the life of, you guessed it, the Dali Lama’s cat. I imagine it will introduce many cat lovers to the elementals of Buddhism. Before that, I polished off Peter Kuper’s sketchbook journal of two years spent in Oaxaca during and after the 2006 uprising. It was an interesting, thoughtful presentation. I also read Roman Blood, by Steven Saylor. It is your basic murder mystery/detective novel set in ancient Rome. It was OK, if formulaic. Unlike The Skull Mantra, by Eliot Pattison, which delved deeply into and relied on the culture and history of Tibet and the Chinese invasion/occupation, Roman Blood was only superficially dependent on its setting. Next up, Barkskins, by Annie Proulx.

As soon as I download photos from my camera, I’ll post some pics of San Mateo, et al.