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So, let’s say for a moment that you woke up late Thanksgiving morning, not until about 11:30AM when they called to see why you hadn’t showed up for supper. Fine, no problem, get awake, get ready, drive across town… yadda yadda, and then that night, instead of going to bed, take your brother to the closest 24-hour Wal*Mart a little after midnight. (For future “Black Friday” sales, midnight might actually be too late to arrive for the 5AM sale – Heath and I were 22nd and 23rd in line at about 00:40, and until almost 2AM we didn’t know for sure whether they had 20 or 35 of the $378 HP Pavilion laptops we were there for – and the rest of the people through the 35th person were there before we knew it was 35…) And then sit there. Until shortly before 5AM, when you stand up, spend some money you … well, maybe you can’t exactly afford it, but you’re a consumer whore and the industry (the consumer whore industry, that is) has given you more than enough credit (not to mention finally getting approval for overtime to try to catch up on all the work the department has fallen behind on by being at less than half staff since summer – and to earn quite a chunk of money in the next month or two, since the other person or two in the department the overtime will be offered to have no interest in coming in on their days off) … anyway, since you’ve checked all the ads ahead of time (not to mention had the last four plus hours to wander the store and alternately hold your place in line with your brother) and know the only other things you might want to buy (which can be afforded after the $400 for the laptop) are the 40+ $3.44 DVDs whose titles were not listed in any ads and maybe a 2-cup “chopper” (ie: off-brand quisinart) you get what you need (just the one DVD, then the computer), you pay, and you’re out of the parking lot and done with ‘Black Friday’ before 5:15AM. And then let’s say you have to leave for work by 7AM…

Continue reading As time goes by…

You probably get your hair cut all the time.

Just because I haven’t had one in three years…

There’s a lot of things I should do more of, and posting is one of them, I suppose.

I’ve had a runny nose the last few days… mostly running down the back of my throat, causing a sore throat. I slept about 16 hours last night and feel pretty good today, though. I’ve just showered for the first time in I don’t know how long (probably just a week or two, but I don’t, like, mark my calendar), and I’m about to go out. I have to return The Truth to the library and simultaneously request it again; it’s so popular I can’t renew it, and I’m so busy I only read about half of it in two weeks. My word count for NaNoWriMo is … 1824 words, apparently. Man. I am on a roll. To be “on track” to finish a 50k word novel by the end of november, I’d have to have roughly 26,667 words written by the end of the day today. Sadly, that’s about … 2.4 to 3.3 times faster than I tend to write, when writing is all I’m doing… I mean, to get to that number by midnight. Of course, if I were to write from now until midnight tomorrow, I’d be right on track, if not 7500 words ahead. Not that I see that happening.

But I do plan to spend some hours writing today, tomorrow, even Friday.

Oh, hey, anyone want to go see Harry Potter at the Cine Capri with me Thursday night at 12:01? For those of you who haven’t looked up the statistics, the picture size on the Cine Capri screen differs from that on the IMAX (for converted pictures in the 16×9 format) by less than 4%, and even if you paid the full $10 ticket price (student tickets, with student ID, are only $7.50) you’d be saving roughly 30% ($4 off the typical $14 adult ticket for IMAX converted movies). Sigh. Anyway, if you’d like to join me, give me a ring on the phone. ((Cine Capri sold out before I could get a ticket, so I’m just going to my local theatre, the North Valley 16. They don’t usually sell out for anything.))

I’ll see about posting an excerpt from my novel later. Maybe a photo or two of my new painting.

So, I got to the end of what I had thought would be the last step to the creation of this piece, and I’m just not satisfied with the end result. The screws aren’t as visible as I’d hoped, and they do not form as clear an image as I thought they would when I began this project, years ago. Take a look for yourself:

It just isn’t clear enough that that’s GWB. Or even a face at all. So there’s more work to be done. Something I’d considered a while back but basically dismissed due to the ridiculous amount of time it would take. I don’t want to get into details, and I’m sure I won’t have an accurate estimate of time until I’ve actually worked on it for a while, but probably another fifty or one hundred hours’ work left before I’m done with this next idea… and I hope I can be happy with that, but … at the worst, I should be able to give up on it at that point, I hope. Just let it be.

Continue reading It may be another while

I heard the car idling, perhaps two houses down, but this is not unusual. Not in this neighborhood, not at any time. Cars idling around, honking, playing loud music – no music tonight.

I was reading some website I look at every Sunday, and then I heard it and froze.

bang,bang,bang,bang,bang,bang

Probably less than two seconds passed and before I was sure I didn’t hear my own house breaking, feel my own body breaking, I was praying. Which is not rare or unusual; I pray every day, usually several times a day, sometimes a lot more than that. And even before I was sure it wasn’t just … I don’t know, an engine backfiring six times, setting off a car alarm with its noise before the idling car spun out and sped off coincidentally, I was thanking God for the time He’s given me, praying that He would be with whoever was in that house, whoever was in that car, my family here, my friends and family around town, thanking and praising Him for all he has given us and asking that his will continue to act in all our lives and in the lives of those just a few houses down who need Him the most.

I can hear crying, wailing, screaming now, coming down the block from that direction. Grief, loss, pain. I can hear whooping and hollering and laughter and partying as well, from someplace else. Still no music.

I’m going to go work on an art project I’d like to get done this weekend. It’s almost November, and there’s a few things I’d like to get out of the way. I’ve got to keep working, doing what I can with the talent and inspiration I’ve been given instead of just working some dead-end job and nothing else. I’m thirsty.