A year ago I was in Eastend, Saskatchewan, in the Stegner House, and beginning to write the first draft of the book I am still struggling with. I'm on the countdown now of my second draft and I think it's better. I've been deterred by a mass of mind-numbing paper work but today I'll be back at it and that pleases me. We'll see how I feel at the end of the day.

As you know, I call my morning swim wet meditation and I solve problems while I swim: writing problems, people problems, menus, leftover plans, shopping, appointments and so on. But sometimes I am able to free fall. One of my games, then, is making words out of the words on the warning signs in the pool room. The signs read:

SHALLOW AREA (wallow, hallow,allow, aware, etc.)

NO DIVING (don, din, gin, nod, ding, etc.)

DEEP AREA (peer, pear, pare, rare, and so on)

It's a kids' party game, right? No, it used to be a kids' party game. Now they do everything on computer. Whatever happened to pencil and paper games?

Anyway, this one is quite nice and it takes a few lengths to list words in my head.

Here's another one you can play in an airport lounge, when your flight is delayed or cancelled. (Does that ever happen to you?) Think back as far as you can in time to what was in that space you are in, as far as your knowledge goes, from Pleistocene or Neanderthal or whatever, through time and history. Pile everything into that one space you are in now. Very crowded! It's time travel at its most comfortable because you don't have to go anywhere, except maybe to the ladies', slash, women's room.

Happy Day. Use it well.