Mystery of the Missing Week; plus, the answer at last

Okay, so, it looks like I flaked out there for a whole week, but I did not; our motherboard did. I got back as soon as I could - before I reloaded our programs, even. It was a major inconvenience for my cat Thai, let me tell you - a week is a long time to go without proper laptime.

So now, is there any way to make the answer to the question I left us with last Thursday worth the wait? Probably not, so I'll just out with it:

I go to Gault, interrupting everything else I have to do, increasing my aches and pains, depriving my husband of the car, and getting filthy to a degree that most modern people can't even imagine, because I'm going to write another Pleistocene book. Someday. Don't know when, don't know what kind, don't know what it's about apart from the Pleistocene - but I know if I don't lay the groundwork, keep my brain primed with archeology and maintain the contacts I've made, now, it won't ever happen, or won't be as good when it does happen.

Not that there aren't plenty of other reasons, too. Archeology is fascinating by nature and I've yet to meet someone practicing it - avocationally or professionally - who wasn't eager to share their hard-earned knowledge and enthusiasm. I don't think I've ever had a day of digging, or a day in the lab, where somebody didn't find something cool, or tell a fascinating story, or teach me something I couldn't have learned from a book because it has to do with the heft and weight and smell and temperature of experience.

The difference between me and somebody who doesn't get ideas is, that I don't have a downtime. I'm always in active research mode. Going out and doing things related to the interest you want to write about is the single best way to generate the story. I ought to be generating short pieces, too, non-fiction articles on avocational archeology and maybe now I seem to have my health crud under control I'll finally get that done. Maybe, since the site has suddenly started yielding unexpected treasures from the Archaic period, I'll find a story about that in my head, too - no telling.

But not if I don't get out there and dig.