Close to the end of the year, I often find myself counting the pieces and addenda extending them. My Residua is my treasure. And I cherish it like an old miser.

Addendum I (August 16, 2017)

Now that I am spending much of my time rounding my writings off, I find myself counting the pieces and addenda extending them much more often than ever before. In fact, I go through my records nearly every day. And I feel like an old miser ever more often. Now that my treasure is gradually taking its final shape, I relish it with such passion that I am taken aback by my emotions every now and then. Residua is supposed to be about my life, but it has turned around as of late. By and by, my life is becoming dominated by my magnum opus. And I find the old miser scurrying around me ever more repulsive. Alas, the same also holds for my damned treasure!

Addendum II (December 13, 2024)

Slowly but surely, my writing project is growing in size in spite of my efforts to stop its mindboggling growth. As it is getting ever closer to four-million words, which I hope never to reach, I count the words with growing passion. This addendum will add around one-hundred and fifty words to the count, but I feel an amazing urge to extend the original haiku one more time, hopefully the last. In my mind, reporting my weaknesses is a must—actually, a solemn duty—and the old miser is now working in reverse, as it were. My records show the number of words short of four-million, and the smaller that number, the greater the anguish of the old fart. Right now, he is doing his best to ensure that no more than one-hundred and fifty words are added, the title and date included. Phew!