Conversations with Calliope

JOE: Good morning, Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning, Joe. How are you this morning?
JOE: Feeling a little discombobulated.
CALLIOPE: How so?
JOE: I expected to get a fair amount of writing done yesterday, but didn't manage to do much at all.
CALLIOPE: What happened?
JOE: I started out with good intentions. However I was waylaid by work for my writers' group, baking cracked wheat bread, working out at the Y, two appointments and the soup crisis.
CALLIOPE: What appointments?
JOE: I still see a few people now and then for a little extra income until I make it big with my writing.
CALLIOPE: Is that why you write?
JOE: No. I write because it is exciting and I think I have something to say to the world about how to live and how to do it constructively with others.
CALLIOPE: Lofty goal. What about the soup crisis?
JOE: I planned on making pea soup and had all the ingredients. I found I had a little too much for my crock pot and decided to make it in a large stew pot instead. While it was cooking, I went to the Y for some exercise. When I returned, the house smelled terrible. I discovered the water had been boiled away and the peas burned to the bottom of the pot. As I say, a mess. And I had promised to provide Carol with bread and soup for dinner.
CALLIOPE: Then what?
JOE: I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up and airing out the house. I also found ingredients for borscht and decided to make that instead. Fortunately it turned out fine and was something Carol had never tried. She liked it.
CALLIOPE: Did you get any writing done?
JOE: A little. My husband and his brother finished breakfast, walked out to the lighthouse and headed for Menemsha. All in all a meager output.
CALLIOPE: Do you think you will get more done today?
JOE: If I get right to it. I am meeting with the powers that be this afternoon about Medicare and its finer points. Later I have a board meeting at Mental Health.
CALLIOPE: Sometimes it goes like that and only dribs and drabs end up on paper in a given day. But just think about what one or two pages a day adds up to in a year. Okay, lets not waste any more time. On with the show.
JOE: Agreed. See you at the manuscript.

(West Chop Lighthouse- Vineyard Haven)