I've been preparing to go away to start a new book and I've been preparing for it, reading and culling material I've been collecting for over ten years. And boy, have I gathered grist for my blog mill. I'll take that folder with me; it will feed me/you for some time. I've had hints as I study, teetering on the edge of creation, that this book may be a life-changing experience. Bit daunting, that, considering how old I am and with not much life left to live - but long enough, I hope, to do what I still have to do. Well, all life is change, or should be. Life is a verb, in fact. My blog is not supposed to be a report, but rather a speculation, a spinning out of my thoughts, in short a cobweb-blog. I have always been a tangential speaker and I can still return to the point of departure, the point where I took off on the tangent, without losing my way. I was going to use the metaphor of thread and that made me think of the Minotaur, but I'm not going into that labyrinth today. Anyway, a blog is a kind of tangent to one's life, I suppose, a sidelight and a footnote to the ongoing activity. Right now there's too much peripheral activity, which is why I'm going away. Too many tramlines confuse the thought process. Eastend Saskatchewan, where I'm going, will not have tramlines. Anon, anon.