July 19, 2012
A post script
A dear friend just started a private blog and I had to log into WordPress to view it, which entailed visiting Write Bailiwick for the first time in years. It makes me consider starting a new blog. Some days I miss writing. I miss the craft and the small joys of finding the right words, especially the right verbs. (I am proud, though, that my new place of work regularly uses the term “bailiwick” in division of labor discussions, which I think originated with me.)
As I look over the old posts, I realize a new blog would be very different. For example, I didn’t own chickens in 2008 and I probably never thought I would own chickens. Chicken stories are probably more amusing than random words and legal musings. The tone of the older posts also lacks authenticity and maturity: qualities that I still lack, but at least am more consciously working towards. My role model would be here.
Of course, there are plenty of reasons not to start a blog. I don’t need something else tugging me towards the internet. I don’t have a name for the blog. (“Aiming for Purgatory”? A bit dour. “One Farmer’s Wife”? Taken.) It would need photographs and I don’t get along well with my camera.
If anyone is reading out here in cyberspace, what do you think?
March 20, 2008
Signing Off . . . At Least for the Time Being . . .
My extraordinarily ordinary life has experienced a few changes, as you might have guessed from the dearth of posts lately. (No worries, all is fine, just a few alterations in daytime routines.) At the moment, my priorities and allocations of time do not have room for posting. If I get more efficient, perhaps I will return to the blogosphere. Until then, you can join me in encouraging my Dear Husband to start a blog, which would undoubtedly be much cooler than these humble pages!
Thanks for reading and sharing this space with me for the past few months.
February 26, 2008
Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
My Little One just devours books (hopefully after the teething passes, we will work on reading them too), and one that we often choose is Dr. Seuss’s Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! (I admit I read this several times before realizing that Dr. Seuss thinks thinks, not things.) I thought I would share a few of the recent Google searches that brought readers to this modest blog. Oh the thinks you can think on the web!
“merry xmas in algonquin words” (Um, did I write about that?)
“oedipus the king bailiwick” (I wonder what this person was really looking for!)
“what does the word crapulous mean” (At least the blog may have helped somebody out there with this post.)
“work crapulous?” (Obviously, there must be a shortage of blogging on crapulous.)
and
“moose skullduggery” (I think that one was my dear husband trying to find a googlewhack for my blog. A googlewhack is a two-word search on google, without quotation marks, that yields a single hit.)
February 1, 2008
Rabbit!
Rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit! Of course, I got involved in the variant version that “involves an element of competition: Saying ‘rabbit, rabbit’ to another person on the first of the month entitles the speaker to the luck of the listener for the duration of the month.” I miss my fellow rabbiters!
January 23, 2008
A Bit of Levity
The past few posts have been rather serious. (Almost as somber as the time my mother and I went to Canada’s Stratford Festival and she let me pick the plays–we had a rousing weekend of Oedipus the King, Coriolanus, and Equus. I wonder why mom and I haven’t taken a trip there together since . . . .)
I have not yet figured out how to post videos, but here is a fun link. The whole site is rather interesting and these guys look great. I would love to see them perform live some day!
January 1, 2008
Happy 2008!
Welcome dear reader(s) to the 2008 version of The Write Bailiwick! (Ok, not much has changed yet; I still have not read the book on blog programming from Dear Husband, but our Christmas cards are almost done as the octave comes to a close today!).
In the spirit of the new year, I will be attempting to excavate to the bottom of my desk this month. (Any archaeology or anthropology students in need of a thesis project can contact me at the sidebar address.) Also, I share this link to the official, congressionally mandated free credit report website. I did this a few years ago, and checking it again is on my own annual “to do” list. We are entitled to a free credit report each year from each of the three credit bureaus. If you time your requests, you can get one every four months. Unfortunately, the reports do not provide your credit score. Beware of other sites that ask for credit card and personal data, in order to enroll you in an unnecessary credit monitoring service!
December 18, 2007
Observed Today
Earlier today, the UPS and FedEx trucks delivered packages on opposite sides of our street at the same time. The drivers, after returning to their vehicles, stopped to chat briefly through their windows. I wonder what insights they shared in this busy season! I have noticed school bus drivers wave to each other as they pass, but the notion of drivers for competing delivery services stopping to greet each other just seemed nice and appropriate for the season.
Tangentially, my Dear Husband pointed out to me a while back the arrow hidden in the FedEx logo. This makes it my second favorite logo, behind the old Northwest Airlines logo (which contains an N, W, and manages to point northwest in a compass!).
December 3, 2007
An Extraordinarily Ordinary Sunday: Through the Window
While looking out the window yesterday afternoon, my arms full with my favorite bundle, I noticed an elderly gentleman several houses down. His stooped figure methodically paced his driveway, carrying bags of leaves to the curb two at a time. With more than a dozen bags to arrange neatly at the end of his driveway, and with his painstakingly slow gait, this task took quite a while, and I could not resist watching. I perceived a steady, unrushed pace, a sort of devotion to his task on a chilly, damp autumn day, and a dignity with which he treated this chore. He did not appear frustrated or resentful of the leaves (as I might have been after so many trips burdened with the bags), and concluded his journey with a wave to another neighbor who was raking in her yard. I wondered if he were meditating or in prayer as he worked, perhaps reflecting on how many more times he would be able to see the leaves fall in this world. It reminded me that the ordinary tasks of this life are opportunities to offer what we have to God and to accept whatever role we find ourselves cast in this world. I should be more grateful for the simple tasks I have been given. Particularly as the Advent season begins, I hope to cultivate an improved attention (a non-anxious watchfulness), and fuller attentiveness to simple tasks. Only God knows which dish will be the last one we can wash for our spouse, the last diaper we can change, or the last bag of leaves to carry down the driveway of our home. And we never know who may be watching us through a window.
The Write Bailiwick 