Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans

December 8, 2006
It's that day. Nuff said. Moving on.

I’m sitting outside writing. Recently, the time of year, the place and the duration of my workday are all in alignment.

Here’s how it goes. I work in the office until it is nice and warm, do a few things like eat lunch, zip around on the internet a bit…
Then, head outside with the laptop and continue working, on battery power.
It still amazes me to no end, that with this 1 inch thick, 4 pound device, and a wireless phone on the marble table next to me, that I have an entire office – more powerful and capable than any office of even fifteen years ago.

The sun creeps over the hill around this time – 4:00‘ish and I’m at about 37% battery power. So, the sun, temperature and my laptop battery charge will all drop to uncomfortable levels around the same time.

Then, back inside. Whether I continue working or not is entirely dependent on my inspiration level – which lately has been pretty good.
However, the fact that I’m blogging when I should be screen-re-re-writing is not a good sign.
Wa-st-ing-pre-cious-bat-tery-on-bl-og…

This entry will not instantly be, ahem, published (I already told you – it’s their work, not mine) because I want to scan the cover of the latest book I purchased – and which just arrived in the mail. I’m very proud of it, as it is co-written by none other than my sister, Inez Avalos Heath!

Pause for battery/sweater/light….
Well, a birthday party and helping Marianne with a video edit caused that pause to go into another day. I’m back… Need to get a new scanner, so I’m temporarily using my still camera as a scanner. Crude, but it works.

ANYWAY –






















The Garden of Gold –El Jardin de Oro (Qori Pawkar) is a book my sister, Inez Avalos Heath (and Amanda Veliz Garagatti and artist Ciro Madueno Velasco) wrote about the lives of the Incas.
It’s a bilingual book plus – another language – Quechua, the language of the Incas.

She was telling me a little about the difficulties of doing a book like this. How things like proof reading for instance – not something I think about too much when I read a book (please no comments about that and errors within this blog) became Herculean, as this is a book in three languages, one of which is nearly extinct. Besides simply not wanting to have any errors with grammar or translation with English and Spanish, they had a responsibility of not screwing up any of the Quechua words. Would you know? I wouldn’t… but therein is the danger. Wouldn’t want future books about the Incas to say virgins when they meant raisins… Thats one of the huge issues with material that will eventually become a reference.

To add to the job, they wrote this book so that it would be good for children. Not that it’s a “childrens” book in my opinion, it just not your typical dry, reading. It’s good. You know, for kids.
Over the last several years, she’s been telling me bits and pieces about the research – a lot of traveling to Peru, going to places wayyyy off the beaten track (even for Peruvians). Minus the archeological thievery, she’s our family’s resident Indiana Jones.
So, I’m very proud to shamelessly plug her work.
Check it out. Buy a copy for someone.
It would mean a lot to her and to me, and you’ll love it.