Prompted by last night’s dream, this morning I looked into the number of pages my Residua would cover in print at this time. The 1996 edition, which covers the first twenty years, fills a plump volume of about one-thousand and three-hundred pages. Less than seventeen years later, my magnum opus would fill five volumes of the same size. In terms of words, the first volume represents almost exactly twenty percent of the total to date. Wow! What a joy it would be to see the five plump volumes next to each other, too. I can already see the golden Roman numerals of all yearbooks on their back. For better or worse, though, the publisher on a white horse is but sheer fiction. For better, I assume, for my Residua would be too much of a challenge for any reader now living. Me included, I am sad to admit.

Addendum (April 14, 2016)

Four years after this piece was penned, we are talking about seven plump volumes rather than five. In terms of words, the 1996 edition represents no more than fourteen percent of the total to date. By the time I give up the ghost, though, my Residua will swell by no more than one volume of the same size. To wit, I will do my best to curtail my writing from now on. The first twenty years are my guide for the future. But even if a publisher on a white horse miraculously showed up by then, the joy of seeing all the eight plump volumes next to each other would be only my ghost’s.