I'm celebrating my fourth anniversary, though judging from my recent posts, you might say I'm resurrecting YGS. I'm glad to report that summer has been pleasant — though spent less at what Wallace Stegner, in a well-named western novel, calls an Angle of Repose. I spent my summer roofing — at an angle of 53^o.

I was employed on Smart and Soulful's roof in July and August. Though consumed only at day's end, cheap beer was my pay, and hearing loss my pain. We had powerful, pneumatic tools and much fun shooting compressed breezes through our nail guns. I suppose you could say — evoking an old theme — that summer labor has knocked some palaver out of my writing.

But, boy, am I glad to be back teaching.

Which leads me to a quote, one from Isaiah — as in my Pro Deo et Patria: Father-Called, Father-Sent:

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens — wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

I still admit I'm hard of hearing, but I try to remember, too, what it means to listen.

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