"Three steps forward, two steps back" is a good analogy for the last few days. The forward steps have included tremendous progress in getting settled in, including setting up furniture for the office in which I write. But the really big step was talking to my Calgary magazine editor and receiving a first freelance assignment, due May 14, for decent money. As the Psalmist said (in metrical), "we were as men that dreamed." (Now to actually do the work!).

The backward steps have included our Vonage and D-Link routers inexplicably ceasing to function after moving the computer from across the hall (where they worked wonderfully) and into this room. So--no home phone, no wireless internet. After trying to fix both (including a free phone consult with Ben) and contemplating a minimum $125 (cash--what's that about?--for some garrulous dude: the tech help here's limited) service call to look into it, we decided to go with a conventional phone service and forego the wireless. (A big library branch with around a dozen workstations with Word and internet and two hours user time daily is about three blocks away, for one thing.) For phone, we loaded up the mobile, and that's what I'll have to use until the landline gets working mid-Wedneday.

After somewhat freaking out about the latter items (and oh yes, my Visa card was refused again last night at Wal-Mart: was it because I'd put our new car insurance on it two days ago?) I thought of the faithless Israelites standing by the Red Sea with Pharoah's army charging. Waaah waaah waaah. Even after witnessing so much evidence of God at work, their faith went south. So this morning, waking early, I prayed about it and now feel on more even keel...

Today the big duty is completing our income tax. If we want to contribute to an retirement savings account (thereby lowering our 2007 tax) we need to do so before midnight. (There's a way I can switch the funds online). So, once again, the pressure's on.