About 77,800. Finished? Yes and no. I’ve got cracks to spakfill, but they’re all small stuff — words and sentences and paragraphs I’m iffy about for one reason or another, but nothing so bad that I couldn’t leave it as it is or choose one of the options I’m dithering between.

I’ll be spakfilling for the next two weeks. Anything left uncertain after that gets a lick of paint and a note to get an editor’s opinion. I’m also unsure about which pieces to include or not — but again, editor.

I’ve been getting stressed from noise lately — mostly thanks to a neighbour’s very sick air conditioner, but there are also water pumps, barking dogs, yelling kids, etc. I’ve found that playing the sound of rain helps. It blocks out a lot of the insidious mechanical noise, which is the noise I’m especially keen not to hear, and at least puts up a fight against the dogs and kids. I like this site, rainymood. It plays a rain recording with some gentle thunder and muted birdsong.