The Home Front. Other Stuff

It’s been a nice month. Four storms passed through.

My office is on the second floor and I can walk out on the terraza and see in three directions. To the west we are the fourth house from the end of the street. Beyond a concrete block wall are fields a quarter mile across and I can see horses grazing in the thick green pasture. Beyond the fields is a row of modest white and yellow houses with red roofs and beyond that the sea and the horizon. Sometimes a storm is rolling in thick and black and other times the sun is falling through a cloud-work edged with orange and red fires. There must be times when it hardly matters where you live or in what circumstances when such vistas are thrown out before you. Those who live on the hillsides to the east of us in board and stick shacks have an even finer view than we do, and they are not unaware of it.

OTHER STUFF

There is no simpler way to demonstrate what it costs to do this work, or where the money goes that you contribute, than to list my expenses here in black and white, so:

Business expenses for the 30 days prior to 2 March: Research and editorial $1,200; printing $720; supplies $105; printing $722; refunds on unfilled orders $205; telephone $553; reference $20; advertisements $892; secretarial and shipping $495—for a total of $4,902.

All the funds to pay these expenses came from SR readers and contributors. There’s no other place for it to come from. We’re on our own. Your help is appreciated. With you, I can do it. Without you? Not likely.