I don’t have a journal left in the place. .I’m using the note-pages at the end of my appointment book.

I NEED A NEW JOURNAL.

So this morning when I finished looking at the news and the mail I didn’t write anything. I got hooked on something.

I watched a documentary about the making of FOREST GUMP, from the option, the many drafts, all the techie stuff with examples, to a panel for an audience of film students, with the director (Roberr Zemeckis) the final (?) writer (Eric ??) some of the tech persons and two actors( (Gary Siinise and Tom Hanks). Wow.

It wrecked my day. Not to say, my life, which is over.

Not qujte.

Years ago I did a little book (No Two Alike) for the United Church of cf Canada, a collection of 20 interviews, two per province, about their spiritual journey. One of my subjects was a retired minister living with his wife in an assisted living apartment filled with books. He had just begun to study Hebrew in order to add to his understanding of the Bible, old and new testaments. He said it was adding to his conviction that he would enjoy the after-life career waiting for him.

“Why else would I be studying a new language?” he asked me, without waiting for a reply. The answer was a given.

It’s not too late for me to learrn more about screen-writing.

I’m a paper person. A day isn’t complete for me without something achieved on paper. Well, this is not paper but it’s paper-oriented. I made bone broth yesterday, so my first task this morning was to strain it and let it cool (outside) so I can skim off the fat, and—still to do—turn it into soup. My current favourite add-on is orzo. Still to come.

I made six loaves of Amish bread today: 4 small and 2 loaf-pan size—my Christmas baking, so I have something to give neighbours for a Christmas coffee break or teatime. I didn’t do my usual poppy-seed lemon flavour.I I stirred in craisins and walnuts. Last year I began my baking in October. This year my arms and hands are not as strong. I got that message when my arms refused to lift my legs over the ladder rungs in the swimming pool and scraped them up the edges. Now I’m having trouble stirring. I wo’t lose any skin over this. I’ll just have stiff arms.

Sorry to go into such detail. I finished a journal yesterday and I have to find a new one, a Hilroy exercise book if necessary or something pretty (and expensive) made for more deathless thoughts than mine. I’m filling the gap with you.

This isn’t a blog, it’s a blap.