New Year

It's been several weeks since I entered a new post. I can't use the holiday excuse as I had eleven days off from work and much time to write. Chalk it up to my seasonal letdown around the holidays and the shorter days (SAD?). Nor can I attest to any new year resolutions. I don't believe in them and assume accountability for tasks on only a daily basis.

That said, we are past the solstice and my spirits are improving, if not my muse. My writing has ground almost to a halt. Shrink and Finding Jackson are out and I have done a book signing. I have two pieces in press--Becca in Cyberlanbd, sans illustrations, should be published shortly. I don't have high hopes for successful marketing without pictures to a children's audience. A short book of poetry, Oliver Twists in America, is also due out soon but will do no better than my first attempt, Bronx Lyric. I have written some pieces on line for Ezinearticles.com and Hubpages with no visible results in books sales or private practice referrals,so I stopped writing for them. I renewed my website (www.shrinksite.com)but I don't think I get many hits there either.

I receive occasional comments on my blog, usually from people interested in dreams and authors of their own blogs. I keep advising them that there are no universal symbols and that they need to associate to and interpret their own dreams.

My work at the high school is rewarding; I see about 20 kids regularly, some with srrious emotional and family problems. How much longer will I continue to do this? I'm not sure. I dislike the driving. Consulting is not what it is cracked up to be when school holidays come around since, unlike regular staff, I do not get paid for days off. However, I am free to manipulate my schedule and take long weekends.

We have discovered the Hudson River Valley as a great place for hiking and exploring Hyde Park and the Vanderbilt estate. From New Paltz, the Shewandunk Mountains are only about a mile or two to the west. The newly opened pedestrian bridge across the Hudson at Poughkeepsie, to the east, is a very pleasant walk on a nice day. The areas was the site of the Hudson River School of painting in the nineteenth cantury--the beginning of naturalistic art in this country. SUNU at New Paltz has an excellent art museum.

Recently we drove to Massachusetts for grandparents' day for one of my seven grandchildren. The first grade teacher asked the assembled grandparents how things were different in our day in school. I responded that desks were bolted to the floor and children were not as free to move around as they are today. The children seemed surprised at that, one claiming, to the embarrassment of the teacher, "We run around all the time." I also talked about the inkwells, blotters, and disposable pen points. We sat at our desks with our hands folded when not otherwise occupied. I did not find school to be a pleasant place but we did learn. My experience now at two high schools today suggests that it is a lot easier to graduate now without doing much work but that bright kids still are as conscientious as we were at The Bronx High School of Science in the late 1940s.

Enough for today. I'll try (but not resolve) to do better at blogging.