My best and worst days are a blur of one task to another to another … editing these pages; rummaging through reference books for background material; conjuring a draft of a new chapter or at least the beginning of it, the beginning always being the most fraught part; taking notes on another new technical history; fussing over photographs to use. Those days are the best of days because every day, progress can be seen. They’re the worst days also. At the end of a blurry day, I feel like I’m stripped bare.