Apr 6

Oops-a-Daisy!

Many items on the check-off list took the attention away from the writing. Many excuses for not keeping up. Taxes, exercise, meetings, blah blah blah.

Today would be better for writing, except that it's airport day. This morning instead of writing I started a Couch to 5K program. It plays my own music, but the last time any music had been played on the phone was a over a year ago. It was amusing to hear the training program say "Run, now" and at the same time hear Johnny Cash singing Hurt, by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails (not Kurt Cobain as originally thought).

Off we go!

Apr 5

Places to go, people to see, things to do.

Another list from the bottom to the top.

Antarctica

Giza

Khajuraho

Jerusalem

Mt. Everest

Assisi

Stonehenge

A friend added Ulanbaator to ride the Mongolian ponies long and far. But I did not connect that line to the destination. Too fearsome for me.

While night descends in the novel, as dark as the rotting wood at the bottom of a stagnant pond, Sonny tries on prom dresses.

Four Four

Yesterday's Google logo celebrated the Ice Cream Sundae. Jim claims that his home town is the birthplace of the sundae and where the phrase "Oops-a-Daisy" also originated, where the average summer temperature is 71 degrees. Or something like that. It's a place where you can order the bacon lover's special at the M & M restaurant and get 1 pound of bacon with a side of bacon. M & M used to stand for Morbidity and Mortality in medicine training.

Today is Betty's birthday. She was a secretary and office assistant at my old practice. One year I gave her two tickets to a Yanni concert in Portland. She loved Yanni. I wonder if she ever went. Yanni. Who names their son Yanni?

Which makes me think of a question from yesterday's novel writing, "Who names their daughter Sonny?"

Apr 3

The skiing was sticky yesterday before it warmed up to mid 40s.

Not too many carved or gliding turns. Instead there were step turns.

The car managed to free itself from the mud and is now parked on higher ground.

The writing is going smoothly. Our hero's grandmother and mother have bled to death. Not that it's a good thing, or a smooth thing. It's background information for the development of the character, the morose drunk.

Apr 2

Rain pants and boots are at the ready, Jim says like a fireman.

Birches bend over the driveway.

And the last sentence of the writing day yesterday is, "Our drunk and morose hero is ready for an adventure, or at least another drink."

I think he should live in a little cabin in the woods with a barely adequate wood stove and a really ingenious cooking ability. And he won't be saying, "Fabulous!"

April Fool

Ah, the stupid things we do...

Thinking the ground is frozen because it's snowing outside, I get stuck in the mud and snow at 3:30 AM after Daisy hits the bumper trying to get out the door. Jim once asked, years ago, "Is that the dumbest thing I've ever done?" And I answered, "Not yet." Paybacks.

More snow, rain expected later, a blank page for a new book awaits, no time like the present.

Waiting for Spring Storm Day

Yesterday was Airport Day.

Jim took the skis off the airplane. Yay, I say. They clack and clatter on the pavement, wracking the nerves. Even our little airplane's nose has a mitten.

We met up with some friends. One of them had an attractive backpack. Maybe it contained headsets, maybe tools.

It was a good thing we flew when we did. The wind came up, moved across the runway, and made for a gusty sideways Whoa kind of landing. Today I reached 10,000 pictures on the little camera. The most recent ones moved to the head of the line since the camera brain doesn't recognize anything beyond 9999. That should be the Mayan Calender.

Mar 30

Three things today:

First, there was a synchronistic telephone call from someone I'd been thinking about relating to travel and study.

Second, while rushing about at WalMart looking for colored pencils, I happened by a book display, immediately slowed down and took a look.

And third, how simple life can be with a good book, no motors, easy travel, and the wind.

Coincidence

Today we are to believe in synchronicity. Someone you've been thinking about calls, the perfect book arrives unexpectedly, money mysteriously shows up to finance a project.

April approaches and so soon begins another writing kind of month. In the next few days the plot should arrive before the writing begins. I believe in synchronicity because I'm supposed to.

What has happened in a year? Three languishing novellas, ten fewer pounds, one hundred more gray hairs, one thousand great ideas, one million ways to find something else to do.

Focus.

Mar 28

Today would be a good day to ride a divine bamboo vespa through the mud in the woods, before the peepers and tadpoles arrive in the melted snow puddles and ponds.

Vroom vroom.

Dream

At the edge of the filmy veil of the divine plane, I stepped through some facet of a jewel. I saw the earth planted as a seed in my heart. Within the earth all of us sparkled like a disco ball at a New Year's Eve party.

Through what facet had I stepped to get back on earth? Whatever was going to blossom out of me was starting to open right at the heart. The earth was blooming, and I was blooming on the earth, and jewels were everywhere, reflecting a beautiful light.

Social Climber

First there was the young woman ahead of me, in line to board the airplane, who carried a small backpack labeled "Everest".


Then there was the article in a magazine about a mother with one month to train for climbing to Everest base camp with her daughter who set the treadmill on "incline" and began.

The pieces to this puzzle have already been placed. There's only one way they go, and that's together.

Christmas in March

This is what my brain is saying.

"Feed a cold, feed a fever."

Another Travel Day

Enough visiting!

April approaches with another 50K words to write.

This blog's days may be numbered.

I like the idea of an old fashioned parlor where tea is served and everyone is properly polite. But I don't like tea, I don't especially like being polite, and I'm done visiting.

Mar 23

Wednesday at the gym.

A sign along the wall of the indoor track is below.

In New Hampshire, the application for carrying a concealed weapon requires three references and money. No class required. Massachusetts has more strict rules. And even if you took the class, you couldn't carry in this gym. Carriers of concealed weapons probably don't attend gyms anyway.