July Sweeps - Day 157

Last night, having not gone on a hike, I did my nightly run, and I was surprised to see the brightest full moon of my entire life.  It was huge and yellow in the sky, and of course the picture I took of it was terrible.  But I watched it rise over the mountains as I jogged, and I'd like to think that you were there with me, just for a second or two, which was probably confusing for you.  Sorry about that.

I wanted to capture its size and beauty, but instead, my phone captured this:

I'd apologize, if I thought that it would make a difference.

I hadn't taken my nephews to the park in a month or more, and for some crazy reason, I told them I would today.  What I'd done the last two or three times was take my laptop and try to write while they tried to catch fish in the little pond there. 

This time, I sat down, and tried to focus on my decoration story, and when I got to the part where someone calls the police on Katy and her brother, well, the story started to really interest me.  How would the sheriff behave, when the town ordinance of no Halloween decorations was that ridiculous and nobody's allowed to explain what the reasoning is? 

Well, the policeman character I introduced in "Podcatcher" ended up being a paragon of all that is decent and good in humanity (in fact, once he's introduced, the main character of Patrick recedes into the background quite a bit, and it becomes Detective Harrell's story, though I certainly didn't plan it that way*), so I kinda went the opposite on this one.  He's not a bad man, but he's certainly less touchy-feely than Harrell, and not only makes no apologies for ripping down a couple of kids' Halloween ornaments, but he leans into it.

It works for the story because it angers Katy enough that she's going to make her own decorations, and we'll find out how that goes the next time I write on it.

So, my sister called me at the park to ask when we were coming home, and I realized I'd been writing for a good long time.  The kids had caught a couple of fish, but I had managed over a thousand words.  Best day of the month so far.

When I got home, my nephew challenged me to do sit-ups with him.  Last time, he forced me to do a hundred in a row.  This time, he wanted to see if I could do one-fifty.

Well, it was not easy, but that competitive nature came right out as he tried to do them with me, and I managed to pull it off.  Record for this month as well.

Sit-ups Today: 200
Sit-ups In July: 948

Today would've been a good day to sit down and record a little bit on "Three-Time Visitor," which is one of my continuing goals for Jul . . . shoot, I could still do it.  It's only 12:39am.  Except that that lasted only one minute, and then it was one, and now it's nearly one-thirty.  At least I got my words in.

Words Today: 1495
Words In July: 5291

*That was absolutely due to the race protests and George Floyd outrage that were happening just as I first returned to the family cabin the last couple of days of May and early June.  I decided to make him a black cop, and give him reasons for having become one that were awfully topical.