August Sweeps - Day 577

Nothing today.  I only have a little bit of time at the library to get writing (I had to take my nephew to his football practice, and sat in the car writing while I waited, for a few minutes at least) before I have to go, and I'm not going to waste it on blogging.

You enjoy your day, though.

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In August: 3373

Push-ups Today: 215
Push-ups In August: 4025

Oh, it was the last day of August today.  I think I did pretty alright these last couple of days, writing-wise.

Words Today: 1062
Words In August: 24,202

August Sweeps - Day 576

I'm back at the library, and everybody's wearing masks.  I even went back to the door to see if Masks Required/Recommended had been posted, and there was nothing.  All the same, I feel like the last time I went to a community shower and the nice strangers tried not to laugh as I took my towel off.

Sit-ups Today: 125
Sit-ups In August: 3262

Well, I was really getting into this one, and wrote over a thousand words with no problem.  I'd nearly finished the scene when my bladder told me I really needed to hit the restroom (I'd drank a 48 ounce Coke Zero while writing the scene, plus two cans at lunch).  I was loath to stop writing when I was on a roll, but I was like one of those Japanese girls you see in the really nasty videos, where the evil businessman gets off by watching her try her hardest not to pee her pants.  

You know the kind, Uncle Doug.

Push-ups Today: 60
Push-ups In August: 3810

Words Today: 2000 (purely by accident, exactly 2000.  Nice)
Words In August: 23,140

August Sweeps - Day 575

I was thinking today that I really only had to write four more scenes to finish my book ("When You Need It Most," a title I still can't get used to, which may mean it's not a good one).  I could get this sucker finished, if I just made myself do it.  So I wrote about half of the first of those scenes tonight, instead of watching TV.  Let's see how I do tomorrow.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In August: 3137

Oh, here's something that I shouldn't bother mentioning, but I'm going to anyway: you know those machines in hospitals that measure a patient's heartrate (and blood pressure and brain activity and wiener size and such)?  They are EKG meter, or Electrocardiograph machines.

But here's the thing: EKG is not the abbreviation for Electrocardiograph.  That would be ECG.  EKG is the German abbreviation for elektrokardiogramm, which somehow, we've started using over here.  So, when I described that machine in my book today . . . I had to decide whether to call it ECG, which is technically correct but sounds wrong, or EKG, which sounds right, but in't.

I used ECG.  But now I'm thinking I made the wrong choice.

Ah well, we'll see what I decide on in the second draft . . . next year sometime.

Push-ups Today: 214
Push-ups In August: 3750

I went to the lake with my nephews, hoping to get some writing done while they fished . . . but I only managed about twelve words.  

But the sunset was pretty great.  

At one point, my oldest nephew called me over, and I assumed it was to look at a fish he caught.  But it was to check out the big old spider that was crawling on the dock railing.  In fact, it turned out to be an asshat magic spider.

My goal for the month of August was not to write every single day, but to get to 20,000 words for the month (maybe I'll set the goal for September to STOP writing every single day . . . do you think I can make it?), and today I reached my goal.  Not great, but I'll take it.

Words Today: 1565
Words In August: 21,140

August Sweeps - Day 574

There was a big toy show in the city today.  I had looked forward to it all summer long, but got the time wrong, and was planning to show up at the hour it was ending.  Luckily, somebody on Facebook was live streaming from there, and I realized it had already started.  So I took my nephew in the car and we went as fast as we dared up there, and only arrived ninety minutes late.

It was really cool, and even though I spent all my money, I could have easily spent thrice that.  I do wonder what kind of underpriced treasures we would've found had we arrived at noon instead of 1:30.

My nephew spent more money than I would've deemed possible (or wise, except he's planning to sell the figures he bought, and you definitely can make money that way), and eighty dollars of it was on basketball cards, which makes my head spin.

We had a nice time of it, though, and went and ate together afterward, and with all the health problems he's been having, it was cool to spend time with him (after all, you never know).

Sit-ups Today: 150
Sit-ups In August: 3037

Push-ups Today: 50
Push-ups In August: 3536

Words Today: 317
Words In August: 19,575

August Sweeps - Day 573

This is the first time I've spent two nights at the cabin this year.  I just haven't had a free spot in my schedule.  And now, I ought to really work hard, get in as much writing as I can, finish this book and make my way back to the land of internet and television again with my head held high.

Or . . . a nap.  Those are both good options.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In August: 2887

To my surprise, my brother-in-law's kid came over tonight, and was sleeping on the couch when I went in to do push-ups.  With no other alternative that I could think of, I went out on the front lawn and did them.  They were MUCH harder on flat ground/grass than they are on carpet or off a couch.  Still, I stayed outside until I got through them all, and wish I had the dedication to do hundreds of extra sit-ups, which I know I am in need of.

That reminds me, my cousin Jake has started posting increasingly-undressed selfies over on Instagram, showing off his increasingly-impressive physique.  It's not just intimidating, it has driven me to eating pastry.  So, thanks, man.

Push-ups Today: 213
Push-ups In August: 3486

One of the (few) achievements of the day was getting the newest "Delusions of Grandeur" episode edited.

You would not have BELIEVED how long it took to edit the "Delusions" episode.  Well, I don't believe it, and I did it.  I thought, after it was all done, that I could add a single extra joke, so I made a blank spot in the file where Big Anklevich mentioned Sarah McLachlan, and when I got home, downloaded her (still somehow overplayed, more than twenty years later) song "Angel," and stuck a bit of it in there where the blank was.

But for some reason, I was unable to even out the three tracks, and they ended up being out of synch for the rest of the file.  So I had to go through and adjust them until I got to the end, where I had (wisely?) put in the same sound file on all three tracks, which I was then able to adjust so it was *exactly* in line.  I wish, how I wish, that I had remembered that file, and just gone to the end, copied and pasted that file in after the Sarah McLachlan debacle, and adjusted it there, fixing everything that came after . . . but no, I didn't think of it until it was all done, and yet another hour of my life was gone.

Hope the three listeners of "Delusions of Grandeur" (which don't even include Big Anklevich!!) appreciate it.

Words Today: 860
Words In August: 19,258

August Sweeps - Day 572

I accomplished far less yesterday than I intended to.  But story of my life.  

I did wake up EARLY, like Marshal Latham early, but simply went back to sleep.  A while later, I woke up again, and this time I did make myself get up, and I got some editing done, recorded an episode for an M.R. James story, which I'll try to get to you in September (or October), and then, when my alarm went off, I washed, brushed my teeth, changed my clothes, and finally sat down to record the second half of my August To August episode of the podcast.

That episode has been a huge pain because I recorded it in August of 2020, asking myself questions about The Plague Year (and my daily writing and exercise), but didn't leave silence in which to answer the questions, so I had to go in and edit it (putting in the blank spaces), but then I had to listen to it while recording the 2021 half, so I could know what the questions would be (or anecdotes I was responding to).  It ended up being a gargantuan effort, and one that I won't manage to get out in August, despite my best efforts.

The day is still, the sun is shining through many clouds, the breeze is faint but omnipresent.  It's a nice day for a walk, for a nap, for a sandwich.

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In August: 2787

Push-ups Today: 50
Push-ups In August: 3273

I did want to mention that, during a walk, I happened upon this rather sinister-looking tree stump:

It's not just me, right?  I mean, you see it too, don't you?

Words Today: 603
Words In August: 18,398

August Sweeps - Day 571

I mentioned Solomon Grundy yesterday, and felt like honoring him.

I was up somewhat late last night, arriving at about 2:40am, and not having done my push-ups (I did get some sit-ups done at my cousin's house--he kindly put out a rubber mat behind the couch where his kids could play, and it's great for exercising on), did some of those (which are harder to do late at night than they are early in the day--another entry in the Life Lessons That Are Obvious book I've been writing in my middle age, along with, "Always pack an extra pair of socks and underwear" and "If you drink a great deal before you go to sleep, you will wake up early having to go to the bathroom"), and got to sleep a little after three.

So, is it any wonder that, during that long stretch of drive after the first canyon but before the second, I started to fall asleep again?  I think I've done this four weeks in a row, and nearly fallen asleep on that stretch every single time.  In fact, the first thing I did when I got here, after carting in all my stuff, was get my book out and read half a page before falling asleep on the couch (another tradition, maybe three out of the last five times).  But this time I was smart enough to tell my phone to wake me in half an hour.

I'm sitting here, in my usual seat, watching a baby deer--this one smaller than the ones I usually see--in the grass behind the neighbor's cabin, and while I tried to take a picture, it's really just too tiny and too far away to adequately capture.  I did go outside to look, and it did a quick hop back to the side of its mother, who didn't look at me with any suspicion.  I wish I could go over there--next door--and walk among the deer, but I fear that they'd catch a whiff of me and decide to be anywhere but here.  Just like with humans.

The sun seems to be going down already--it's semi-dark outside once again--but it's just dark clouds over the sun.  And it did rain for about ten minutes while I typed this.  Now it's stopped, and everything is quiet outside.  The roof has stopped clicking and popping, the birds are no longer calling, and the truck engines in the distance have abated for now.  Everything is still and beautiful, and except for the ticking of the John Wayne clock, it sounds like it sometimes does at six in the morning, before the world has awoken (awakened?).

And . . . it didn't last.  There was a big crash of thunder just now, and now it's started sprinkling.  Ho hum.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In August: 2676

Push-ups Today: 213
Push-ups In August: 3223

Words Today: 865
Words In August: 17,795

August Sweeps - Day 570

Well, the sun is starting to set (a full hour earlier than it did in June, if I had to guess), and I'm done with my writing here at the library.  I blogged, answered a couple of emails, and did try to write, but mostly I just sweated (not sure what's wrong with me, but my hands are sticking to the keyboard--maybe the air conditioning went out in this place) and surfed the net.

I discovered this website called Quora the other day, where people ask public questions and experts (or just regular Joes) can get on there and answer them.  I've read at least a hundred of them over the past week, wasting hours that I could've been doing something else.  But I find it interesting, similar to the message boards and bulletin boards I've frequented since discovering the internet in 1995.

A great many of the Q&As on Quora are political in nature, and those seem to be the ones that are always "suggested" to me.  I've tried to stick to the Star Wars and Marvel Comics subjects, but the great majority of the Star Wars ones seem to be questions about the Prequel era or anti-Disney, and the even greater majority of the Marvel ones are "Who would win in a fight between Captain America and Red Guardian?" or worse, "Who would win in a fight between Thanos and Shazam?" (I HATE it when people mix Marvel and DC, or ask Star Wars versus Star Trek questions.  Maybe that's just me, but it's something I've always despised)

And I guess I can go into why.  The thing is, it's something very juvenile, that boys like to think about, and the comic creators learned early on that the only thing that comic fans enjoy more than seeing a hero take on a bad guy is seeing that hero take on another hero.  So, they come up with various ways to have the heroes duke it out with each other, most lazily (and most often) because of a misunderstanding.  And who will win largely depends on whose book this fight is occurring in.  But just as important is, who does the writer want to win?  A writer can come up with any B.S. reason the character he's rooting for can win a fight with the other guy, even if it's something as ridiculous as Punisher fighting Spider-man or Captain America fighting Wolverine.**

I refuse to answer--or even look at--questions like that, because the answer is, "Whoever Stan Lee says would win," or "Go outside and talk to another person, just for a few minutes," both of which are correct answers.

I have posted one question myself (in the DC Comics section), asking "What does Lex Luthor think of Amanda Waller? Does he admire her, fear her, loathe her, or consider her an ally?"  I asked this because I'm a fan of the Luthor character (I realize he's been written a dozen different ways by a hundred different writers over the years), and wondered, after seeing SUICIDE SQUAD 2 (what I'll be calling it from this point on), what the famous DC villain would think of Waller.  I honestly didn't know if he would like her or despise her.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In August: 2576

Push-ups Today: 70
Push-ups In August: 3010

Words Today: 684
Words In August: 16,930

*The best example I can come up with is the Superman/Spider-man team-up book in the mid-Seventies, where they contrived a strength-boosting ray to hit Spider-man with so that he'd be as powerful as Superman, at least as far as strength goes, and the fight wasn't over in a single page.  Even worse, though, is when they'll have Batman (who is a regular, unaugmented human being) fighting Superman (or Wonder Woman, or Solomon Grundy, or Darkseid), who is essentially a god.  That fight, despite how much I love Batman, should be over in a single panel.

August Sweeps - Day 569

I really tried to be productive last night, getting my exercise and work done before watching John Oliver.  But I hadn't written a single word the whole day, and decided to force myself to sit down and record all of what remained of "Last Friday In December," the D&B story I've been dragging my feet on for a month now.

I had been looking forward to the end of that story, because it included the bit that I was most proud of writing last year, and I couldn't wait to get to it.

Unfortunately, when I reached that part . . . it wasn't as good as I remembered it.  

Also, there were only four thousand words left to record, and an hour of space on my recorder, and I didn't get even close to the end before it ran out.  But I was dedicated, so I turned off the microphone, deleted two recordings (Bram Stoker and Algernon Blackwood), and went back to it.  I was really bummed when I reached "the end," because it didn't have the impact I'd wanted it to*, and rewrote the last line.  Twice.

I may not be as good a writer as I thought I was.  Or I'm just overthinking this.

Sit-ups Today: 111
Push-ups Today: 211

I hadn't done a hike this month, so I made sure to get to it today, asking my nephews if they'd like to go with me to the waterfall up the canyon (and if they said no, I'd just do the regular hike on the mountain here in town).  Two of the three said they would, including the four year old, which I found strange.

We drove up the canyon, and I missed the turn-off to where you get to the falls (guess it had been too long since I was there), and it was a pain to turn around and get back there.  Even so, they have two parking lots just south of the falls, and people jam their cars in the spots, then just line them up wherever else they can fit them when those spots are filled.

We walked up the path, and my nephew (the four year old) started to complain about it being too far to walk, and wanting to be carried, but once we got to the falls, all his energy came back, and then some.  The water level was lower than I've ever seen it before (down below, anyway, and the river it empties into), but the waterfall was still going strong.  And it occurred to me: I have no idea where all this water is coming from.  It's easy to say that it's melted snow, early in the spring and summer, but there's no more melted snow now.  Is it coming from underground?  If so, why would it emerge at the top of a mountain?

Anyway, we admired the falls--along with about a hundred other people--then went to the trail to reach the top of it.  I remembered having no difficulty getting up there the last time, but man, it was super steep and treacherous, leading my ten year old nephew to declare that he wasn't going up any further.  And leading me to think, "Wait, Mexican families bring their babies up here?"

Then I remembered that there was a long/easy trail and a short/difficult trail, both of them marked as such.  So, we hiked back down, and started again, this time choosing the easy one.

And it was easy.  The four year old had no difficulty with it, in fact, I had to tell him to slow down and stay with us, because it was too easy to imagine him walking right off a cliff without even noticing it.

We got to the top, and it was spectacular, as usual, and both nephews wanted to go INTO the water, rather than just look at it, as I've always done, so we did.  We went across the fall and higher than I'd ever gone before, but I vaguely remembered it being harder to get down than to get up when you're hiking, so I declared it was time to turn around and head back.

That was a tiny bit more difficult, but not overly so.  Who knew?

Push-ups Today: 211
Push-ups In August: 2940

Gosh, I need to end this story.  I just sat down and wrote for two hours here in the library, and it's a scene that, if this were a screenplay, I'd cut out in the second draft.  And it's the most I've written all month.**

Words Today: 1763
Words In August: 16,246

*This story leads into the novel-length "Only Have Eyes For You," so I was thinking it would be a good last story to include in the first "Dead & Breakfast" collection.  But it might be better to swap its spot with "Meet the New Clerk," because it ends on a better note.  

**One of my friends on Facebook has started reporting his daily writing achievements, and today, he had over eight thousand words.  EIGHT THOUSAND.  You're damned right I unfriended him.

August Sweeps - Day 568

I've never told you this before, but I love Hide the Pain Harold.

Yes, the meme guy.  I just love that dude.  I'd stand in line for two hours to get a picture with him, one hour to get his autograph, and three hours to sleep with your sister.

How 'bout you?

If you don't know, "Hide the Pain Harold" is the internet name for a stock photo guy who is smiling, but it's barely more than a grimace, as if he's suffering so much this is the happiest he is able to pretend to be.  

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In August: 2365

Hasbro made an action figure of Anthony Hopkins's Odin this year, but it doesn't look like Tony Hopkins . . . it looks like Harold.

Hide the pain, my son.

It's hard to predict what will speak to you, what will make you laugh, what will make you cry.  But Harold is one for me.  

Push-ups Today: 70
Push-ups In August: 2729

Harold is actually a Hungarian senior citizen named András Arató, who is hopefully being rubbed against "accidentally" by European beauties young enough to have been babysat by his grandchildren . . . but somehow I doubt it.  But I do hope the knowledge that he is so loved (at least by me).

Words Today: 425
Words In August: 14,483

August Sweeps - Day 567

Gonna be brief today.  I'm several days behind on posting these, and I find I usually spend (waste?) the first twenty minutes to an hour at the library working on my blog.  Today, though, I'm going to write at least 200 words before I do anything more on this thing.*

Someone on the second floor is whispering in a Romance language.  It's super creepy (my ear tells me it's Italian, but I highly doubt that around here--we only have Spanish and Portuguese speakers, for the most part), and reminds me of the gross whispering voices in the SUSPIRIA soundtrack.

I think, if it were just some dude with a raspy voice whispering in English, it wouldn't be at all frightening.  Unless he were saying, "Yes, Lord Satan, these will do nicely.  A fine sacrifice for such an infernal Saturday."

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In August: 2265

There's an online writer's conference tonight that I was thinking about checking in on.  One of the topics is What Does It Take To Be A Writer In The 21st Century?  I'm pretty sure he's going to list off a couple of things that immediately disqualify me.

The dude is snarling and stage whispering again.  And now I'm wondering if it might not be the guy who sat next to me about a month ago (I referred to him as crazy, but maybe he was just possessed, right?).

Push-ups Today: 211
Push-ups In August: 2659

Words Today: 714
Words In August: 14,058

*Again, it was not one of my goals (for the month OR the year) to blog every single day, just to write and exercise.  I'm not sure why I keep doing it.

Rish Outcast 204: Podcatcher Part I

So here is the first half of my cryptid horror story, "podcatcher."  Parental Guidance suggested.

To download the episode, Right-Click HERE.

To support me on Patreon, click HERE.

Logo by Gino "Pod-Thirdbaseman" Moretto.

August Sweeps - Day 566

It's hard to do everything, kids.

I should know, I do hardly ANYTHING, and yet I find it hard to write and exercise and blog every day.  Take now, for instance. Hope you don't mind if this one is a few days late.

Today was the one day during Big Anklevich's visit that we could get together.  We had several possibilities of things we could do (from making a video to seeing a movie, from going to an amusement park to recording a final Dunesteef episode), but there wasn't time for all of them . . . there was barely time for one.

We did get lunch together, and later went to the same Denny's we used to hit after a movie every couple of months.  But the majority of the day was going to the Bonneville Salt Flats.

It had been one of my goals for the year, and I had wanted to go last year when my family visited the Great Salt Lake, but I had never been.  In fact, I didn't realize that it was right on the Nevada/Utah border, and a journey of hundreds of miles.  Whoops.

I found my "Late Night with David Letterman" t-shirt, which I hadn't worn since the two of us last went on a road trip (it's a vintage shirt, and won't survive continued machine washes), and picked Big up in the morning, trying to fit him in my overstuffed-with-junk car.  He's here to drop his daughter off at college, but had been too busy to get together until today.  

It was good to see Big Anklevich again.  But wow, I have not written today, and I really want to just call a time-out and say, "I'll write tomorrow, okay?  I'll hit the library until they kick me out.  Just give me a break right now?"

But I can write, say, 100 words, can't I?  That I can do, then I'll go to sleep (I was going to set my alarm to wake me up early tomorrow, but hey, if I do 100 words, then maybe I'll let myself sleep an extra half hour to reward myself.  Why not?).

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In August: 2154

It was much farther to get there than I expected it to be, but at least I got to hang out with my friend again.  This will probably be the last time I see him before one of us is eaten by rodents, but even a full day was asking too much, apparently.*

There were some tourists there, though not too many (plenty of places to park, and lots of space to take pictures without another soul in them . . . but still enough folks around to ask one of them to take our picture).  We parked, I dumped out what was left of my water from home in the drinking fountain, only to discover that it wasn't turned on.

There was a young woman with blue hair playing the guitar and singing, hoping to cash in on those high tourist dollars, and because I no longer live in the big city, I hadn't seen somebody doing that in years.

Big and I walked out onto the ice.  Now, I know it's not ice, but it sure looked like it, even to the point of there being parts that were cracking, and bits where you could see through it to the ground below.  The further out you went, though, the thicker the ice was (someone had dug a hole with a shovel at some point, and hadn't found the earth beneath the salt).

The sun heated everything up, and before too long, both Big and I were sunburned from the reflected light off the salt.  Even worse was trying to keep your eyes open (without sunglasses) for a photo.  Even worse was, I lost an arm-wrestling contest to a thirteen year old . . . at my own grandmother's funeral.  The hits just keep on coming, kids.

I guess I had considered the Salt Flats to be kind of a sacred place, but I don't know what I was expecting.  It's certainly a strange place--a long flat area in the desert with no life, only salt, as far as the eye can see.

All in all, I'd say it was the most alien place I've ever been.  Though I can't imagine what would be number two on my list.

Push-ups Today: 70

Push-ups In August: 2448

We walked a ways out on the saltfield (whatever you call it), trying to take pictures with the little Hot Wheels AT-AT and AT-ST that I'd brought, making them look in scale with us (it never really worked, mostly because you had to put the camera on the ground, and you couldn't see through the viewfinder to take the picture because it was so bright--you just had to take a picture, look at it, then try to reframe for the next one.

I cannot adequately convey how bright it was.  Sometimes in winter, you'll get a little snowblind, with all this sunlight reflecting off snow and making it hard to see, but this was unlike what I'd experienced before, so white in every direction that you literally couldn't keep your eyes open for more than a second or two before they'd tear up and close on their own.**

After a while, we did walk back, admiring three or four cars that were driving around on the saltfield, and wondering if it would damage my little Toyota to go out on it.

Turns out, it was quite easy to get out there, and there was even a road of sorts--just a section where the salt had been "paved" down in a straight line for several miles.  We went out there, and found a mound of salt, like a wall of plowed snow, and an entire second section of flat salt, on the other side of which was the Bonneville Raceway section of the . . . park?  Would you call it a park?

There were other vehicles out there, some doing donuts, some with trailers and campers, one guy had laid out a blanket and was sunbathing there in only shorts, and there was a stretch where people were driving as fast as they could, which looked so strange from our vantage point, because the heat reflected off the ground made it look like every truck, car, motorcycle, and train had no wheels, but were hovering like Luke's landspeeder in the distance.

At one point, miles away from anything--you could literally go out there far enough to no longer see people in any direction, if you wanted to--the CHECK ENGINE light came on on my dashboard.  There was a good second or two there where I thought, "Oh no.  I've damaged my car somehow, it's gonna break down, and we're gonna be stuck out here."

And I had dumped out my water.

I didn't any anything to Big, though, because he's got enough problems, what with the man-eating rats he's got waiting for him in Texas.  However, I did discover on the drive home, that the bastards at the oil change place had set that up so that it would come on the second I'd reached the number they'd designated on the odometer.  

Anyway, I parked the car and we got out.

There was a little pond of semi-opaque water in the break in the wall, and it was impossible to tell how deep it was.  We tossed in big rock-sized chunks of salt in there and watched them either sink or dissolve.  A family was there, having fun climbing and enjoying a picnic, told us a truck had tried to drive through it, and it was two or three feet deep in one section, and the driver was lucky to have gotten through it.

After a while, we got back in the car, and drove all the way back to the main road, impressed by all the white, but not really sure what else to do out there.

And Big needed a drink, so we went back the way we'd come.

We talked quite a bit, and admired the scenery, which was really cool (there's long stretches of ocean-like desert out there, and enterprising people had put out markers and decorations, including one making it look like a sea monster was emerging from the "water," and one with a shark doing the same thing.  I was driving, so I couldn't get a picture of it.

I wondered what would happen if you crashed your car out there, and Big said that he used to do stories on the news about truck drivers who fell asleep on that long stretch of road.  And within minutes of him saying that, we passed by a semi truck that had gone off the road and was half-submerged in the mud right alongside Interstate I-80.  Cops were there, and a big tow machine was hooking up its winch and cable to pull the semi out.

There's not much more to say about our day.  Big had to get back home (his daughter, it turned out, could move into her new apartment/dorm today instead of Monday, so hey, free labor, if Big could get down there), but I dragged my feet, and when we finally got to his sister's house (where his family was staying), they had all left already, so the two of us hung out in the front yard until he couldn't stand it anymore.

We had planned on doing a number of things during his visit here.  But we did manage one.  And not a bad one.

Words Today: 377
Words In August: 13,344

*Even so, I get that I'm not his family and that I am seen as the enemy, which, in most respects, I am.  So what can you do?

**Big had forgotten to bring sunglasses, so we'd stopped at the dollar store to get him a cheap pair, and that was probably the best single dollar investment since Charlie Bucket bought those Wonka bars in the book.  Even WITH sunglasses on, I got a headache pretty quickly, and there was some minor sunburning with the reflected light from below, just from what little time we were out on the sno--er, salt.

August Sweeps - Day 565

I woke up just after dawn, having had a dream where I was an extra, playing someone in the Holocaust at a concentration camp.  We were in a big line of people, and there was a sort of assembly line of wardrobe and hair and makeup assistants who would make our clothes look dirtier, mess up our hair, and make us look gaunt and/or mistreated.  I was trying to put myself into character, but there was this guy who kept pushing himself up in the queue, taking all the crutches and Stars of David and donuts and souvenirs for himself.  Something tells me that there were people like that, even in the Holocaust.

I was going to do a "concentration camp inmates" image search, but changed my mind last minute.

The sun just came up and is shining redly through the trees, casting an orange glow on the room in front of me (which has gotten quite cold during the night, though I didn't build a fire).  Marshal Latham has been posting, a couple of times a week, photos he's taken of the sunrise when he heads off to work, and there's something inspiring about that, even though I'd rather dream about being in a concentration camp than get up that early.

I did take a picture of it today, just to pretend I'm a go-getter, my whole day ahead of me.  

The sun is right at the perfect place to shine through the window and onto my hands, and it's got to be a metaphor for something, but I really only know the dirty ones, and even then, a couple years after everyone else in the schoolyard learned them.

(I couldn't figure out how to take a picture of both my hands)

Sit-ups Today: 150
Sit-ups In August: 2043

It's a very cool day outside for August--in the forties--and it's cold enough here in the cabin that I put on a long-sleeved shirt, then a second one over that.

In fact, I went into the bedroom for quiet to narrate another public domain story*  and when I came out of the room, I was horrified to discover that it was snowing outside.

It was snowing.  In August.

Not long after the snow stopped, though . . . came the fog.  Fog is immensely cool.  Fog is rare and special.  Fog is endlessly fascinating.  Fog is, basically, everything I am not.

I am rapidly (okay, not rapidly, but inexorably at least) closing in on the end of my book.  I've known, pretty much since since conceiving of it (I wish I had written down the day I thought, "Oh, I've got an idea for "a darker Lara Demming story," as I wrote in my notes) how it probably would end.  But here I am.  Basically, I need to write maybe two bits leading up to the climax of the story, and then--

Well, I just made my decision, and jotted down how the climax would go.  I'm tempted just to write that bit, then work backward, as long as it takes, to get to where I left off.  A really fine writer, someone who tells stories for a living, would be able to set up a question in the audience's mind, that could go one way or the other, and they wouldn't know which way it would go (kind of like the insufferable "Girl has to choose between two worthy boys" cliché that has permeated YA fiction for the last decade and a half).  I don't know if that's me or not, but I'm gonna go for it.

Push-ups Today: 210
Push-ups In August: 2378

Not once this year have I spent a second night at the cabin.  My schedule just doesn't allow it.  But I'm going to TRY to do it next Thursday night.  We'll see.

Today, I left the cabin with plenty of time to get out of there before nightfall (though not necessarily before dark, since it was still pretty grey out there), but as I was loading up my car, I saw a guy in a truck and trailer trying to back down the road from where the tree had fallen the day before.

I decided I would help guide him, but that was harder than it sounded (I've only ever driven a truck with a trailer attached once, when I was bringing my car back from L.A., and I vaguely remember crashing into everything).  Finally, we ended up moving the barriers the rich folks down the hill have blocking the driveway to their cabin and parking lot (the lot is big enough, no exaggeration, for a dozen cars, whereas I'm quite proud of the two parking spaces we have at our cabin, each almost big enough for a compact sedan (or Big's daughter's Mini-Cooper)), where he was able to turn around and head back.

Head back home, he told me.  He had come up all that way (from where I didn't ask), but was unable to get to his cabin, so he was going to go home to get his chainsaw.  You see, there are two roads leading to where his cabin is at: and A SECOND TREE had fallen today, blocking the other road to it.

Talk about the old Parker luck.

This was right at the start of the second road, and a much bigger, fresher tree than the first.

The man, a heavyset older guy, was really grateful that I had helped him out, and I didn't mind at all (though he did scrape his trailer on a property line marker because of me), but it had cost me the daylight.

I drove down through the canyon, just as the sun--a terrifyingly red sun--was setting.  

It started to rain again, and when I reached the little town at the mouth of the canyon (where I always park to check my text messages from my cousin to tell me who had died), I got a flash flood warning for the road I was setting out on.  That, added to the fact that it was darkening, and there are always deer on that road at night (and an elk that one time), made me nervous to drive.

But I did my best.  That is, until a big black Ford F-150 pulled up behind me, and followed.  They were too close, so I pulled to the right, so they'd go around . . . but they didn't.  Every time the road straightened out and the single line became a double line, I would slow down so they would go around . . . but they wouldn't.  Soon, I had slowed from 62 miles an hour (it was a 65) to 58, then to 55, then to 50, and finally, to 45, hoping they would get upset and pass me.

Well, upset they got, but they absolutely would not pass me, just riding my bumper with their lights on bright to the point where I had to adjust both my rear-view and side-view mirror so as not to be blinded.  I passed a couple of deer eating grass on the side of the road, and it occurred to me that if one were to jump out in front of me, that I would hit it, and then the truck would barrel into me from behind, being unable to stop in time.

However, if this hemorrhoid-with-a-driver's-license would just pass me, and HE hit a deer, I'd be able to stop in time, because I wouldn't be driving immediately behind him like a total sociopath.

I started to think about what James Bond would do, going through them from Connery to Brosnan, deciding which ones would run him off the road, which ones would leave him in their dust, and which would simply shoot him ("He's licensed to kill whom he pleases, where he pleases, when he pleases!").  For about a half an hour of my drive, he tailgated me, and ruined any pleasure I would've had from the drive, as I was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that I kept having to wipe my hands on my pants.

Only when we got to the main road out of the canyon did the affectionate driver pass me by (I pulled into the far lane first thing), and I was able to see what kind of vehicle it was (the rest of the time, it was a dark shape and blinding headlights).  I felt closer to Dennis Weaver than I ever had before.

Words Today: 480
Words In August: 12,967

*Remind me to tell you how dumb I felt reading this one in an English accent sometime.