Sorry I didn’t post last night.

I’m living my life right now like a… I don’t know. I need a good metaphor. Like a duck hunter? I don’t know when a job is coming in, but I try to have my shotgun ready and my eye on the sky. The email arrives – “Can you get this episode done before the end of the business day tomorrow?” (8 hours ahead in Norway) – and I clear the decks for action. An episode revision takes about a day to do, but it can vary. I don’t plan on doing much of anything else that day.

I live a life of action, like a TV hero.

Yesterday I actually did have something else going on – one of those rare occasions when a family member drops in to crash on my sofa for a night. It went fine. I was able to go out to dinner with him and still get the work done by about 9:00 p.m. I wasn’t able to make much conversation with my guest, but hey, that was a plus for him.

I know I should be looking for something more to do than this intermittent translation stuff. What it’s doing is to eke out my social security and savings, making it possible to postpone for a while the moment when I have to think seriously about finding grownup work. In my delusional moments, I compare myself to Travis McGee, the old paperback detective hero, who “took his retirement in installments.” He’d live the life of a beach bum until his money ran out, then take a job solving crime. He, however, made a lot more money through his occasional jobs than I do.

Also, he was taller. I’m sure that matters.

What it works out to is that I feel tremendously productive on my busy days, and guilty on free days (like today).

Well, reality has a way of bringing us all down to earth, if you give it time.

But I keep hoping my translation labors will bring a sudden windfall in the glamorous world of motion pictures.

A world I hate, I keep reminding myself.