39 down, 4 to go

I mean for Stage 2 of my humongous translation project. Unfortunately, it is not a work that would interest too many people outside of my religious family itself, since it is an internal sort of publication, and rather dated. But I'm getting a lot out of doing the work, and hope to be able to integrate it and create a new synthesis with it, making our Founder's thought more available on a wide scale. At this point, I am ready, as I told my friends, to give up food and rest, just to reach the finish line. Yesterday I did three chapters, and I thought perhaps I could do the same today. Wrong! One chapter I tackled today had 20 footnotes, and one of them requires some consultation about the English title equivalents of works of St. Francis de Sales which are known by distinct titles in Italian... I am still waiting for an e-mail reply from a Salesian spirituality scholar who is fluent in Italian to help me get past that one. At this writing, I have chapter 40 mostly done (except for the footnotes; I hope there won't be 20 of them, too!). And once chapter 43 is done, I have to tackle (ugh) the index. Which I don't really know how to do. Probably in a database form, so it can be alphabetized later. And connected to the page numbers...

 

Anyway.

We had a lovely picnic cookout at a friend's apartment by the lake, and as we finished, an impromptu fireworks display went on by the lake. Perhaps they were practicing for Chicago's upcoming Venetian night, because it was better than the Fourth of July. And Sr. Susan loves fireworks. (So do I!) A sweet surprise from Jesus.