With every inch of rain, our world gets smaller.  One inch Wednesday and I only managed to walk Lucy as far as the creek rather than our usual two thirds of a mile down the road.  Then another inch and a half yesterday and I only make it to the alligator swamp before turning back in search of dry feet.

But rain is good for making me settle down with the laptop and finally start plugging away on the natural history book I'm supposed to be co-writing.  I hope that beginning is the hardest part --- I spent seven hours yesterday writing version after version before finally settling on one page I like.  My usual rate is more like a page an hour for first drafts --- I'm putting the extra six hours down to figuring out the theme and tone of the book.  I hope....