Will today be the day? The day I break my streak? The day I throw in the towel?
It could be. It's after one-thirty, and I haven't written yet (of course, if you wanna be pedantic, I probably miss the deadline if it's after twelve and I haven't written yet).
But I'm not at all tired, so I think I'll still manage.
I drove down to my dad's house today for the first time in the season to mow the lawns. I'd done it a few times when I went down with my brother or my mom, but today was the first time I'd done it alone. I took my microphone and recorded an episode of my podcast, but it wasn't a very good one. But still, much like writing, making new episodes is better than not doing it at all.
Being alone in that house after dark, I was reminded of my childhood fear of the basement. I would have a recurring dream when I went down there and saw . . . someone standing among the half-finished main room there, someone I didn't know, who was malevolent and somehow alien.
I've had that same dream into my forties, so I imagine it'll continue long after the house is sold and someone else is living there. I think there's probably a short story in that, but I don't believe I have written it yet.
While I was there tonight, I did go downstairs briefly, and the childhood memory returned to me. I imagined turning the corner and seeing my father standing there, nearly three years in his grave. A chilling thought . . . but I wasn't scared of that. My dad and I had our differences (more than our share), but was never afraid he'd do me serious harm when he was alive, and I don't fear him now that he's not.
So, it would have to be someone else's ghost that I saw down there, someone I don't feel was a good person, and hence, might have sinister designs on me after their death. That's a little scarier.
After I had finished, and it was time to go, I locked up the house and went through the back door (locking it behind me), then had to walk around the house in almost total darkness (the moon didn't rise until after one, for some reason). That's another horror film scenario, and it would be pretty cinematic to walk right into someone in the shadows beside the house . . . or turn on my keychain flashlight and see someone standing in the weeds where the garden used to be.
Delightful, my mind is.*
But I realized just now that I'm stalling, writing this blogpost (now after two am) instead of writing a story. Blogs don't count, the Word God once said, so I really ought to stop this and start on the actual writing.
...Well, not much. Somehow, it's 3:28am, and I only managed three hundred words. I spent a good long time on Wikipedia, though. So there's that.
Words Today: 345
Words Total: 37,871
*No idea why I phrased that like Yoda would have. Very sorry, I am.
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