In Lieu Of A Martini And Smoking Jacket

For the longest time, my weekday evening routine has been numbingly predictable. Come home, go straight to computer, check e-mail, check work e-mail, think about blogging, surf web, think about blogging again, surf some more, promise myself to start blogging after checking one more site, realize I wanted to add a couple things to my Amazon wishlist before forgetting, stare at screen, think for the nth time that I should find another hobby that requires less concentration, write first sentence, rewrite first sentence two or three times, glance out window at night sky, finish blogging, berate myself for not getting any project writing done, turn away from computer bleary-eyed, eye my growing stack of unread New Yorkers, berate myself again, turn on television.

And all this occurs after spending much of each day in front of another computer. I think the collective dose of gamma radiation is starting to dehydrate my brain, so I’m going to conduct a little experiment on myself. Rather than make a beeline for the computer when I return home, I will instead read a few pages from a book, leaf through a magazine, go for a walk. Anything that doesn’t involve a screen. Lemon sorbet for the mind, if you will. I make no promises that this will improve the quality of the blog. The surest way to improve quality is to bring in new management. But it might spare you from having to read three or four rambling posts on health care policy each week. Oh, who am I kidding? At best, my experiment will make those posts a little more readable.

Now, what was I going to add to my Amazon wishlist…?