Scattershot
Today I got together with my friend Karen. We had lunch, and then I helped her build some shelving for her closet in her new apartment. She's quite short of space in her new home, and her landlord said he wouldn't mind her adding some shelving, so we tromped off to buy some wood, and then did some measuring, sawing, and hammering until it was all in place. The house is actually quite well-built, as the plaster walls took some real effort to ram the nails into to hold up the brackets.
All-in-all, it was maybe a tenth as much work as building my bookcases, and there were two of us, but it was fun nonetheless. Karen was pleased with the results; I noticed the same look in her eye that I had when I finished both my bookcases and, earlier, my CD cases, enjoying just looking at the fruits of our labors. Physical craft can be that way.
This evening I went downtown and finished The Uplift War. I enjoyed it a lot more than Startide Rising, but I didn't think it was great. Indeed, I think it will be a while before I read anything else by Mr. Brin, as much as I enjoyed reading The Postman.
I give very little credence to dream interpretation, but these sorts of things to tend to suggest that I'm under a lot of mental stress, which I am. They're not especially conducive of a good night's sleep, either. Sigh.