Aside from good old-fashioned writer's block, neurological chaos has also conspired to keep me from being productive lately. Severe spasticity has prevented me from using my hands. As a result, I can rarely use my mouse. True, I use voice recognition software to write. But it ain't perfect and requires manual edits which require a mouse. It's all extremely frustrating and exhausting.

These changes understandably require that I take it easy for awhile. But after a long, deep breath -- usually lasting a couple of weeks or so, insurmountable problems become merely interesting problems to solve. And so I've set about solving this one. In a couple of weeks I have an appointment at a place in Berkeley called the Center for Accessible Technology. The aim is to come out of there with an alternative pointing device. Stay tuned. And in the meantime, thanks for continued friendship and support.

Now -- over the time that I haven't been writing, I have been doing a lot of reading and listening. So hang on, it's coming down the pike.

Expecting Rain has been running pieces about this all week. Pareles has it right.

My last post regarding Barry. I promise.

And while were on the subject, Mellencamp's latest album, "Trouble No More", is excellent. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's the best thing he's done since "The Lonesome Jubilee" and one of the best albums I've heard so far this year.