I've been trying to get back out to the woods for at least two weeks now without success. The weather and my own schedule have jointly conspired to keep me away.

However, as I looked at the forecast for this week, I noticed that the weather is supposed to get much more dry in the coming days, not to mention much more cool.

With highs around 60 degrees, the weather should be perfect for all kinds of hard outdoor work. That's a good thing for me, since I have lots of stuff to do that just hasn't gotten done, from cutting the weeds to clearing and harvesting the garden for the final time.

By now there isn't much left in the garden, but there are plenty of carrots, beets and maybe even a few tomatoes left here and there. But mostly there are weeds, lots and lots of weeds.

I mowed the grass the other day for what I hope was the final time, so maybe I'll have a few extra hours with that task gone to get some of this other stuff finished.

I did manage to spend a few hours the other evening, despite the wet weather, splitting wood with my maul and wedges. I really enjoy working with a maul and wedges, the sound of the wood breaking apart and the steel-on-steel ring of the impacts. I sometimes use my axe like a wedge, driving it through the wood with the maul and then following up with my two wedges. The easiest way to split wood is to smack it hard one time with the maul and break it apart, but these big pieces of green hardwood have been sending my maul the other direction on impact. I have had a few smaller pieces that I could break that way, but not many.

I can honestly say that it likely would take me 10 times as long to split everything by hand, but I might do it just for the sheer feeling of accomplishment and the tension-easing power of exercise. If I don't have heart attack first, that is. Someone reminded me the other day that Ronald Reagan worked on a huge fence during his early years as President to take his mind off his troubles. I can see how that might help.

Reagan often seemed bullet proof to his adversaries in both parties, not to mention that Hinkley fellow. Maybe Reagan was able to keep his wit so keen by taking a little time off with an axe and wedges. Or perhaps he was just another senile old man out trying to break pieces of wood because he had nothing better to do. I'd say it's a bit more complicated than that, but as for me, I don't seem to be doing a very good job of being witty or diplomatic lately.

Sometimes it seems that every time I say something someone gets offended. I can say with all honesty that I've not said anything in a long time with the purpose of offending someone, but I've been fairly successful over the years at doing so nonetheless.

I suppose my dry humor, which not everyone finds funny, should be kept on the shelf most of the time and reserved only for special company.

In fact, I know that's the case, but sometimes it just slips out. I'll say something that I know wasn't advisable and realize only after I'm greeted with an uncomfortable silence that something came out wrong again.

I usually don't know what it was that I said until I replay the conversation later from the tape recorder in my mind. Well, that or I hear about what I supposedly said from someone else. Sometimes I had said something that sounded different than I intended in what could be called a lapse of good judgment, but other times people seem to be looking for something at which to be offended.

But either way, my words and mannerisms often cause me grief. I sometimes wonder if I should be more like the robots I sometimes meet who guard every word and live most of their life behind a façade. However, being anything other than genuine isn't really in my nature these days. I find that every year I get older, the less likely I am to change what I think or what I say. I guess that's why it would be a good idea to go ahead and change things as much as possible now before I get too set in my ways.

My sense of humor, sarcasm and occasional joke are all a big part of my personality. In order to leave those behind, I'd have to part with most of the personality as well.

In some cases, that might work out just fine for everyone involved. After all, most people could care less about personality if they get what they want, right?

So long as what you want is on the button, that might not be so bad. But when you need something that isn't listed, even just a caring ear, it wouldn't be there. I suppose I still have the notion that most people still want to be friends, to get to know one another and really have a relationship that goes at least slightly beyond 'hello' and 'give me that.'

However, the longer I move forward, the more I realize that many people just want to get their needs met in life and they don't really care how. In fact, it might be easier for us all if we could just stop interacting with people altogether. We could just go up to the window and push the button for what we need, wait for it to fall out and leave. If we can't get it, so be it.

I'm sure our culture behind a computer screen has had an affect on us in that way. So many of us, myself included, spend so much time with a machine that we forget how to best deal with real people—with real thoughts and feelings.

If it is a problem, it likely will only get worse as our social structures grow more obscure. I hope they all have plenty of wood to split in their spare time.
 

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