writer
Short entry. Home late from the gym.
Full day--beautiful day for late November--writing, letter writing, cleaning and moving. Got some new mss. in from N as well.
Mean to call Mom. Too late now. Will do it tomorrow. Can't believe how quickly the past few days have come and gone. "Swift as a weaver's shuttle fleet our years..."
Black Friday. Well, maybe not so black after all.
Nice, quiet Thanksgiving yesterday. Guests for dinner. Wonderful food, good wine, great conversation. Cooked my first rotisserie turkey, and it was everything I'd hoped for, a beautiful, bird. Will never go back to oven roasted again.
Had a dream last night where my dad came looking for me. He'd brought my old German shepherd, Buck (died April 15, 1995), with him. I called the dog and he ran to me and put his paws on my shoulders the way he used to do. I was overcome. I couldn't breath. I woke from a dead sleep and sat up in bed and tried to settle my mind, but here it is, early evening, and the dream is still with me. As strong as ever.
Cleaned K's gutters this afternoon, then went off to run errands. Bought a Christmas tree at the Good Earth just before closing. Beautiful Nordmann. Nine feet in height. Silver green needles. Got some writing in earlier--some reading, too. Came across a deceptively good fist-fight scene in Alan LeMay's The Searchers.
Hope to clean the garage tomorrow, box some books, make preliminary measurements for a new construction project. Need to keep looking ahead. Dreaming, no matter what.
Jesus. Off the grid again. Three day (four day?) visit with Mom. Got a small amount of reading in, no writing, but little else. Had a nice time. We're all getting older, and it shows. Radio silence with the rest of the known world, but that should change before long. Weather should warm, too, over the next day or so.
Thanksgiving tomorrow. Hard to believe. William Trevor died this week. Need to read a story or two in commemoration.
Kittie siege! Abandon keyboard!
Falling behind!
Got in some good edits this morning before jumping into chores around the house. May have put the final edits on "Man of Letters." Will have to let it go cold one more time before passing judgment. More good work on "Te Quiero Con Todo Mi Corazon" too. Best to let that one sit for a few days before going back. Move on to something else.
Nice note from N regarding a story I kicked up stairs. Didn't make the final cut, but got a lot of praise. Feels good to see solid work noticed. Hope the author finds a good home for the piece.
Hit a movie early afternoon. Arrival. It had some interesting moments, and beautiful effects but fell short, I think, in the end. Enjoyed it, but don't need to see it again.
Mom coming in tomorrow. Seems like she just left. Guess that speaks to how crazy life's been the past month. Miss the summer. Miss the fall. The good parts, anyway. Feels as if it's going to be a long winter.
One revelation. The gym is virtually empty at 5:00 on Saturday night.
Out of the house at 5:30. Fourth night in a row I haven't slept. Went to the gym, worked out, came home and got ready for work.
Read, rewrote, revised, and critiqued. Then home again to look after little things. Quiet early afternoon. Studying TJ's Poetics again. Endless font of information.
Winter announced its entrance late this afternoon. Flurries. Dropped temps. Had to come sooner or later, yes? Anyway, made due. Offered it up, as the nuns used to say. My god, but what our forebears endured! Trying to imagine what it would be like living in the cabin in Wyoming all winter--with food and without fear of losing your topknot to savages. My grandfather would have thought it a picnic!
Get tough. Grrrrrr. Read the closing chapter of No Country for Old Men last night. Remembered my dad. A tough man, feeling his way through this life like the rest of us. Not always right, but always dad. I can live with that. I miss him.
Working through.
Meetings, small things, everything but writing. One of those days, right? All you can do is chalk it up, move on, hope tomorrow's better.
Out of it for a couple of days. Not sure where the time went. Many fetes, as Fitzgerald wrote.
Hammering away at N submissions. Got a couple of fun ones this time around, a couple of rim shots, too.
Read yesterday that Thom Jones died in October. Still bumming over that one.
Work, coming and going. Same with guests, visitors, family, etc. Trying to catch a breath.
Day gone.
RIP.
Restless night, strange dreams.
Woke up late, or then again, maybe not. Slow going. Or, maybe not. Did some time at the keyboard, dropped off paint, etc., at the toxic dump facility. then came home and took up yard work.
Too tired to write more.
Happy for small things.
Couldn't make myself get out of bed this morning. Was seven before I realized I'd lost the war and needed to surrender.
Day got better as it went along, though, and that's what counts. Took care of little things around the house, managed a successful trip to the dump (always exciting), then got some writing in at the office.
Was put on notice. New mss coming in from N. Quite a few from the sound of things. Look forward to digging in. Look forward to being buried, in fact. Need some time away from the media.
Good workout at the gym this evening. Cleansing, I'd say. Feeling strangely energized, and ready to steep myself in new work. Hope the feeling lasts. Fingers crossed.
Took a running start at the day, but fell behind almost from the get-go. Spent the morning looking after the small stuff. Got to the office around 2:00, and worked on some project details. Managed a few sentences on a new story, too. Still fighting off the hangover of an election that went way too long, got way too uncivil, and ended way too late. Would have loved to be inside Don DeLillo's head this morning.
And even after everything that's happened, the sky was blue when I was driving into work, and the sun was shining. So it isn't like we have to guess who's really in charge. Gonna breathe deep, keep life out in front of me. Nothing else to be done.
Hit the gym early. Lots of new folks. Getting almost too crowded, mornings. As a rope-skipping, bag hitting, old-school chin up guy, I find I resent others who feel the need to spread heavy equipment around the workout area, then spend half their workout staring at themselves in the mirror. There. End of bitch.
Home early to new little responsibilities. The maiden voyage. Whole thing went smoother than expected, but there's no putting this one down. Not for a second. A hands-on operation all the way. Missed the Monday mornings I've been able to have through the summer, but who knows what the new routine will bring. Anyway, managed to read a few short stories while walking the floor.
Late to the office this afternoon. Made some project revisions, popped off a few emails, and wrote two critiques for N before heading out to the airport to pick up K. Crazy day all around. More tomorrow, it sounds like.
Haverthorn came in the mail today. Contributor copy for "Beggar's Banquet enclosed. Others should follow. Nice to see something coming in for a change.
Gotta stop making this late entries. Too tired to dig into anything substantive.
Up early. Or late, depending on how you look at it. A new Daylight Savings time to contend with. Don't care much for the early sunset, but definitely appreciate waking up to anything resembling light when heading off to the gym in the morning.
Spend a lot of time at the keyboard this morning looking for a new story to write. Didn't have a whole lot of luck. Then again, might have just been me. Been burned out on my own work for a while. Need to clear my head by getting into something new. Read J. Carol Oates's Omen today. Want to dig deeper into her work. Meanwhile, two new pieces in from N.
Cleaned the garage yesterday. Felt good getting things organized again. Looking ahead to making permanent changes. Makes a big difference knowing where things are, when you need them. Like having a well-organized library.
Talked to Mom earlier this evening. She sounded good for the most part. A few troubling bits of news, but that's always the case, isn't it?
Tomorrow, green woods and pastures new as Milton would say.
Beat.
Out of pocket the past two, three, four days.
Projects coming in left and right.
Woke this morning thinking it was Tuesday. Must be the Halloween hangover. Anyway, into the shop early, and hard at the keyboard. Projects in and out, letters written and sent, bills paid, invoices prepped. Hit the gym late afternoon, then home to dinner guests. Afterward, sent off N. reviews.
Not sure what tomorrow's going to bring.
Blurred day. Up at a lazy hour, then off to the keyboard. Revised one manuscript, started in on another, then finished a critique for N. After, out to Starbuck's.
Spend the afternoon and early evening attending to Halloween details. Graveyards look great so far. New skeleton worked out well. Zip tied a scythe to his hands. Have him lurking behind a tombstone, the new coffin and rotting corpse in the foreground. The dog is in the flowerbed, gnawing on a bloody rat. Lot of work to do yet, but a good start. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
Gotta find more time to read. Gotta find more time, period.
Another beautiful day. Early morning meeting with G. Good to catch up, as always. Good to see him in better spirits.
Into the office earlier than expected for a session that never happened. But that's the way things go, isn't it? Got some revisions in, did some research on a new project, wrote mom a letter, then headed out to the gym.
Lot of work ahead. Need to find some reading/writing time in the midst of it.
Two kitties visiting. One conked out on the rug, the other in a trance, looking out the window. Nice to have them around. Good luck, I think.
Looked after little things this morning. Managed a walk through the neighborhood, too. Quite the day. Sunny, mild, blue skies. Park was empty except for a few joggers. Got that longing, that tug at the heart that comes this time of year. Reminds me of when I was a kid, growing up in Wisconsin. All those long hikes in the park. The oak trees. Plum orchards. Farm houses.
Late to the office, and a little spent by the time I arrived. Still, managed to get some work out the door. Made it to the gym late, but pushed through. Learned one of my long time buddies had his truck stolen two days ago. Was in the shower when someone lifted his keys and made off with his ride. Felt for him. Had my house burgled many years back and was homicidal over it. Took my dad, a federal law enforcement officer, to walk me back. Gutless stuff, stealing. Hope B. gets his vehicle back and learns to make peace. It's all you can do.
Early morning meeting tomorrow with an old friend. Looking forward to it. Tired tonight. Think I'll settle in and let things go which way they will.
Bunch of crazy dreams last night. Bit my tongue, hard, in the middle of one of them, and it's been smarting all day.
Put in some good time at keyboard, caught up with an old friend for a quick hello, pushed a couple of projects out the door, the went off to the gym. All in all, a productive day.
Still looks like fall. Trees are a bit more bare than they were last week, but the colors have hung on. Skies are still a deep blue, too. Be nice to get up in the mountains and do some fishing this weekend, but don't expect it to happen, what with all the work that needs to be done. We'll see.
Read today that 80 some percent of all Americans are ready for the election to be over. Gotta say I'm one of them. Have I felt that way every election year and just forgotten?
Rapid fire day. Here, there, and back again.
Didn't make it to the office until a little after one, but got a lot of things in play even so. Editorial work. Script revision. Billing. It all figured in.
Hit the gym around four, and came out to a light sprinkle and double rainbow. How good is that? Haven't seen a rainbow in ages.
Feels like fall tonight because of the rain. Smells like it, too. Weather forecast says to look for a warm weekend. I will.
Got that bittersweet autumn feeling in my heart.
Awakened by phone just before six. Forgot I'd set the alarm. So dark now in the mornings, need a little help getting up and off to the gym. Anyway, made it in, and back, in time to get in some revisions out of the way, along with a bit of office work.
Pretty morning. One to remember. Wish the day could have lasted even longer.
Coming up on crunch time for the Halloween display. Found the perfect "remains" for the new coffin. A hooded cape for the Grim Reaper and graveyard west ought to be ready for the check box. Porch display's another animal altogether. Still not sure how the witch's crystal ball will fare. Good part about having her on ground level is I don't have to clamber around the rooftop this year. Gets kind of dicey up there late a night, especially with fog machines pumping out smoke.
Braces come off exactly one week from tomorrow. Not saying anything more until then. Except WHOOHOO. Twenty-six months. A long twenty-six months.
