I know I haven’t said much around here of late. This’ll be short too, but I wanted to shake the crickets and tumbleweeds out of the blog briefly and ask you all how you’re doing.

What’s been up:

- The Raven had a week of vacation, much of which we spent offline or at least not writing
- I’m checking out a local writer’s group (in fact, I’m leaving in a few minutes for my second meeting of same)
- the months-long job search is starting to show, he said nonjinxingly, some results: i’ve been doing some freelance editing and have a couple solid leads for longer-term gigs, which is a huge sense of relief
- I built some Ikea furniture
- The Raven and I marched with a buncha angry people in West Hollywood over a California Supreme Court decision, and I thought for the first time in years about my Buffalo friend Ronnie Goralcyk, a disabled gay man who thugs killed some 32 years ago, as I laid a flower on a Matthew Shepard memorial
- went to see Up, which you should too
- following various melees and tempests in the blog world, many of which remind me uncomfortably of things like the Cultural Revolution, and have been shying away from writing online much as a result
- putting my online-writing energy into The Clade, which deserves more energy than I have been giving it, though see items one and three in this list.

How are you? What have you been doing?

1. 
   Larry Hogue 2009 06 10 at 6:56:26 pm

   My feelings exactly!

2. 
   Bill 2009 06 10 at 7:16:33 pm

   I’ve been piqued and haunted by your mussel elegy.  Thank you.

3. 
   arvind 2009 06 10 at 9:09:24 pm

   I’ve been feeling bad that I’m not as active at The Clade as I’d wanted to be.

4. 
   sherwood 2009 06 10 at 10:10:24 pm

   Oh, thanks!  Now I’ve got damn bugs and sticks all over my blog.  It’s all well and good for you to shake crickets and tumbleweeds out of your blog, but take care where they wind up next time.

   Jayzus.

5. 
   RobG 2009 06 15 at 3:47:48 pm

   I’ve been spending quality time with our barn swallows. It’s a different pair this year - older and crankier. They’ve got used to me, but the old fellow still gives me the gimlet eye now and then. My new familiar.

6. 
   Rachel Shaw 2009 06 18 at 1:51:49 pm

   I’m just back from the PNW.  I’m missing mountains and oceans already.

   Mostly, though, I’m trying to catch up on all the rest I didn’t get while there.  I’m surprised at how exhausted I am, after the fact.