Body, Soul, and Fingertips

Since the last blog entry, we’ve completed some more paperwork and done our LiveScan, where to the tune of $20 per finger, Ian and I sent our prints in to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (wasn’t one of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission report to get the intelligence agencies working closer together, and that’s why the department of homeland security was invented? And they can’t share my fingerprints?). I had this little fantasy that my prints would be matched to some unsolved cold case file, but no one’s come knocking on my door, so I guess I turned out to be not at least a known criminal.

The big expense still to come is putting a fence around the pool. We haven’t found anyone to do it for better than $2500, so that’ll be the one we’ll probably go with. Sure does suck to drop that dough before the holidays.

I will say that one result of this whole adoption home study is that I’ve become a much healthier person. Not only have I quit smoking, but as a result of my doctor’s recommendations (I had to go in to have a physical, and I hadn’t been to a doctor for anything in years and years), I’ve been eating better and exercising, and dropped 30 lbs. So that means I’ll be one of those slim, non-smoking dads? What fun are they?!

About the novel, I’ve finally gotten to a stage on the accursed Chapter 3 where it’s moving along. The tricky part is that I set it up that it is a series of flashbacks happening during a church service in January. I came up with a little sermon for my priest to give from the Second Letter to the Corinithians, Chapter 5 which would be appropriate for the flashbacks I wanted to give, and I got into the first of the flashbacks, and then I made the mistake of talking about the chapter to my brother and his wife, people who actually go to church. They reminded me that there are certain readings from certain chapters delivered at certain times of the year in the church calendar, at least according to the Episcopal church. I really hope that January is a fine time to read from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, or I can make the church a Presbyterian church or some denomination with a more relaxed view about when to read certain books of the Bible. I wrote to their minister for advice, but evidently she has more important religious duties than helping a non-religious novelist work out his Chapter 3 because it’s been a couple weeks and I haven’t heard back.

So, as usual, I assume it’ll all be fine and plod on.

Sometimes people mistake that for optimism when it’s just laziness.