63. Weather

I guess my favorite insult-du-jour (that's French for 'insult of the day') is 'jerk'. For a while it was 'jackalope', and then it was 'jerkalope' - you can see the evolution. I also use it as a generic noun of description. If I call something a jerk, you can't be quite sure if I'm using it as an insult or as a generic noun. If such a situation arises - e.g. if I call you a jerk - please ask for clarification.

Days in Missoula lately have proceeded thusly: fog, sun, nighttime. It's been pretty interesting. I rode my bike to campus yesterday morning just for fun, just for old times' sake, and got covered in mist. Some of the mist was from my breath, but most was from the fog.

My last radio show, after almost five years, was in August. I went to the station and saw a couple shifts that I could fill this weekend, but I realized I have absolutely no inclination to play music over the air right now. What in the world would I even play? I thought maybe drinking some yerba mate would help me, but I've done that a few days in a row now and ain't nothing changed at all.

Missoula, I moved back to you five years ago. We've been good to each other - I've been good to you, or tried to be (I pick up garbage when I see it, occasionally), and you've been good to me (although you can be very difficult at times). (I can be difficult too - I'm not laying all the blame on you - I do acknowledge my own culpability.) But... I wonder if this situation has outlived its usefulness. Don't flip out - I'm just thinking about it. (I've been thinking about it for five years, though.) But do know that I am thinking about it.

Periodically I get this overwhelming feeling of wanderlust, difficult to ignore. Right now I'm feeling the urge to go to Hawaii for a few weeks - find a room to rent for a month, take a suitcase and a few books, and then move back home and open a bakery (which will fail miserably after a few days because I have neither business acumen nor common sense). Probably I will do neither, but I might do something.

Regardless of our future, Missoula, I will say that this summer was quite lovely despite its late start and my slow half marathon, and I will look back on it with fondness, as I will all the summers I've spent here (even though I have a very hard time living without a lake).

Maybe I wouldn't like Hawaii, because now that I think about it I don't really like the ocean, and mountainless horizons freak me out... Maybe New Mexico? I don't know.

Please send job prospects to me regarding the following: garbage picker-upper, editor, mower of vast lawns, philanthropist, tastetester (I don't like: spicy foods, brownies), person who works with paper (I enjoy cutting paper into shapes, writing onto paper, etc.), doughnut shop, furniture maker. Also I am a retired housekeeper and would consider re-entering the field (for an offer lucrative enough to support my habits).