February Sweeps - Day 41

So, you turn on the news at all this week?  Now, I'm not going to say that all this COVID-19 talk is terrifying, but . . . well, I only experienced one other time like this in my lifetime (and that involved buildings and planes).  People are so freaked out, that I can't help but be freaked out too.

I spoke to Big about it, who works in news, and is inundated with scary news and shocking statistics, and he said, having lived through a hurricane, a forest fire, and three teenagers, that this disaster was old hat to him.  I guess that put things in perspective.

However, my mother listens to right wing talk radio, and she's been whipped up into a frenzy of fear and paranoia, and tried to talk me out of taking my nephew to Las Vegas this weekend.  She even went as far as to suggest that, if I went to Nevada, her grandson would contract the virus, and then he would spread it to her when he came back, and she would die.  And wouldn't that be my fault?

I have to admit that I was pretty torn, like Natalie Imbruglia at her most-overplayed.  Partly because I'm a weepy mama's boy, partly because the money I was going to spend on this trip got spent on a new windshield and a trip to the dentist ("Look, ma!  Three cavities!"), partly because I had my heart and/or loins set on seeing a pretty girl tomorrow (even if it was for less than a minute, without her acknowledging my existence . . . again), and partly because there's a concert on Friday that I really wanted to go to and if I'm out of town I can't bloody well go to it, can I?

But boy, my nephew wanted to go.  He's been bugging me about it since literally March of last year, saving up his money, being on his best behavior so his mom would let him go.  He even told me on Monday that he went to his teacher and got his homework for Thursday and Friday, and actually planned to do it.  Impressive.

Well, my sister said he could go, though she did make him go to school today.  But as soon as he was done, we hit the road to "lovely" Nevada.  We listened to the radio and sang along to a couple of songs, and before the stations faded, we had heard that Dua Lipa If You Don't Wanna See Me Dancing With Somebody song three times.  Three.  I hope you won't think less of me if I admit that I didn't make any move to change it all three times through.

I drove, as though the dastardly duo of Coronavirus and melancholy were hard on my trail, and did a little bit too well, I guess, for I was pulled over for the first time in fifteen years and given a ticket for going ninety-seven miles an hour.  I imagine that will cut just as much into my non-existent savings as my trip to the dentist did.  Goody.

But I can't allow myself to feel too down.  We got to Vegas amid a truly-amazing downpour of rain and flooded streets, and I got lost trying to find my uncle's place in the dark and pouring rain.  A couple of the streets had so much water in them that the waves on either side of the car were higher than the car (my aunt drove through one of those tonight, and actually stalled out her car.  She said four other cars on the same street were stalled out around her).  But now we're here, my shirt is dry, the boy is playing cards with my Uncle Al, and I am typing away at my laptop again.

I wrote a little bit on that horror script (I call it a script, even though it isn't) I started last month, and killed another character.  If I really wanted to, I could stop blogging and finish the story right now.  And then I could go on to another one.  I was thinking of doing a "Dead & Breakfast" where a man and his ailing mother are traveling from Helena (or someplace) to California to spread his father's ashes in the ocean, and they stop off at Noble Oaks for a rest.  I was wondering if there are two guests if that would mean two different ghosts would show up (like Marshal Latham put in his story), and I wondered what would happen if one ghost was benevolent and one ghost was malicious.*

Something that has been a bit of a stumbling block with this story (besides the facts that 1) I keep not wanting to write it, 2) I felt it was morally iffy, and c) that it should have been a screenplay) is that I chose to name the main characters Araceli and Bethany.  Those names are big and unwieldy, and I cannot imagine doing the audio version and saying "Araceli" eighty times.  I've started switching to Cell and Beth occasionally, but dude, I fear the damage is done.

Words Today: 1069
Words in March: 16,060
Words Total: 64,012

P.S. I took my nephew to Taco Bell to eat tonight, and now I'm worried about walking around tomorrow.

*I also considered writing a story from a ghost's point of view, perhaps of him manipulating the hotel staff to get his widow or girlfriend to come to the b&b to see him.  But the fun of the story would be if he does manage to get her there, on the relevant night, and another ghost beats him to the actual visitation part.  I'll keep thinking about that one.