I’ve figured out over the last year or two that my self-imposed workload follows sort of a sine wave. I load myself up with obligations for a while until there’s just no way for me to take on more, and then I pretty rapidly shed myself of all that I can and enjoy the lull for a while before I find myself taking on more commitments again.

In the six months or so before Lennie was born, I took on several volunteer development projects that I ultimately either finished or wriggled out of sooner than planned because I felt a very great need to keep my last few fatherless months as open as possible. A few months after she was born, I took on the Spread Firefox project, which was a major time sink. And again, I had to let it go after a while, in large part because I felt like I needed to reserve more time for myself.

I’m definitely on the upswing again. I do a fair amount of work for RET. In the last two months, I’ve put up a couple of other little Web sites, and I feel a sudden desire to build a new Web site for RET. Recently, I’ve been doing this whole hurricane volunteer thing. I’m trying to fit in some jogging to help with the weight thing. All of this while working to release software, which, as insiders know, is a pretty time-intensive undertaking, especially here at the end.

Won’t be too long before I crash and become a lump again. But at least I’ll be a lump that eats healthy. I’ve cooked three new low-fat meals this week, all from an excellent cookbook. The meals have included a breaded baked catfish deal with a broccoli and corn salsa-y dish; sliced sirloin au jus with roasted onions, zucchini, and peppers; and tonight an excellent seared jerk chicken dish with rice and a salad of spinach and green onions wilted in a vinegar/sugar sauce with (believe it or not) bits of bacon in it. With the exception of tonight, the meal portions are on the small side, but I can rectify that by serving two sides (as I did tonight) rather than just one. I think I’m beginning to feel less hungry between meals (so maybe my stomach’s shrinking already), and when I do get hungry, if need be, I’ll just eat a carrot or some cucumber or some saltless, butterless popcorn (I like it that way anyway) to tide me over. I’m feeling very good about all of this, though the cooking’s more time-consuming than is ideal, given all the other things I’m trying to pile on.