Writer’s update

We’ve reached the I’d-rather-burn-it-than-read-it-again stage of writing/editing. I’ve spent entirely too long working on a novella. But this is what happens when you start writing something that bumps up against personal issues AND you’re dealing with crippling depression.

Also, I’m terrified of self-pub.

Also, also, I have no idea what genre the story is.

It started as a one-off vampire romance vignette. That’s not where it stayed. I need to finish the darn thing. I’d like to publish in October. Eek.

And then, I have some shorts I can put into a collection of my own work. Eek. And then… I have some things on the back burner which could come forward. Also eek. Because I have world building to do in any case. I like world building, but it takes absorption and hyperfocus. I used to love those things, but they’re hard to sink into anymore.

And it occurs to me that I’m whining. I’m grateful to be in a somewhat better place that I can contemplate accomplishing things. If I write it down and make the goal, it’s more likely I’ll stick to it.

October: self-pub vampire/urban fantasy/thriller novella

November: self-pub urban fantasy collection of previously published and new short stories

The stick has landed heavily

When I woke up this morning, I remembered that it was September 11. I thought about the assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday in light of this anniversary. As awful as that day in 2001 was, it showed the character of the people in our nation. I remember the shared consciousness that we were all grieving together. We were more aware of the others around us. The emotional shock and horror grounded us as Americans and a community. We had our differences, but we all had a common reference point.

Charlie Kirk wanted to promote civil discourse to young people, especially college students. Isn’t that was higher education is supposed to be about? Challenge your previous assumptions and see what shakes out. If you’ve never watched an uncut Q&A with Kirk, you should. I’m sorry to see that there’s a segment of the population who is cheering his death. I have no idea how many of them. He just wanted people to talk to each other and reach an understanding. That’s not evil or fascist or hateful. Some of our country are grieving his loss while others are openly praising it.

To sum things up, I’m disturbed this morning. The country is split, that much has been obvious for a while now. Charlie’s murder is one more thing that demonstrates how divided it is. This stick has landed heavily on the camel.

The Giant’s Game

Trees were down everywhere. The sounds of generators and chainsaws were constant. But, we were lucky. The damage wasn’t bad, no one got hurt, and we had supplies to make the next week or so tolerable. I called it ‘glamping’ in my social media posts for a week. With comfortable beds to sleep in and hot and cold running (potable) water, I couldn’t say we had it that bad. It was still stressful. My temper was running close to the surface and other than snapping at people a few times, I kept it together. We saved most of the contents of the freezers.

People were helpful. Some local fellows with chainsaws came by to free Landry’s car from the garage. It had been well and truly blocked in by the fallen tree. We walked around the neighborhood, because there wasn’t much else to do. We had a few family game nights by candle and LED lantern light. Nerdling spent a lot of time outside helping other kids and teens to direct traffic. A north/south road that connects a couple of major streets was blocked solidly by at least a dozen big trees. The kids had to tell people how to get around the blockage. Signs were made and cones were put out. A neighbor got a bunch of safety vests to hand to the volunteers. A family from church loaned us a generator for a few days. We ran the fridge and a few lights off it.

I read books. I got through a couple of Louis L’Amour westerns and an Anne McCaffrey sci-fi novel. It’s been awhile since I devoted much time to reading. I used to read a fair bit, but after the kids started coming, my time went away. Reading used to be an engrossing escape. It was nice to have an escape from having to sit and wait for things to get fixed.

The house has been repaired. I repainted the bathroom which had received water damage. Most of the trees that fell in the yard are gone and we’re going to cut up what’s left for firewood. There are still pieces of massive trees in the right of ways along the roads. The county is slowly making their way around, picking those up. Life is returning to normal. There will be reminders of this around for a while. That’s about all I plan to write on Helene. We had a rough week or two, but we managed well. I’m grateful.

A Giant’s Game

Pickup sticks. It’s a game I was good at in grade school. You spill a handful of sticks -akin to bamboo skewers- on the floor. The object is to pick up sticks without disturbing their neighbors. If a stick other than the one you are trying to pick up moves, then your turn is over. Whoever picks up the most wins. It’s a game of dexterity and planning.

Imagine that game, but instead of sticks, there are whole trees on the ground. And if you don’t have a chainsaw or a Bobcat, you can’t play. Now, it wasn’t just our yard, or our street, or our neighborhood, but the entire region. And we’re just in upstate South Carolina.

We didn’t have the flooding that North Carolina had in addition to everything else. It still took over a week to get power back and we’re waiting to get our full internet service back even now.

The sounds of generators and chainsaws were constant for weeks. Dozens of trees fell on a street we use everyday. The mess is still very evident. Logs and branches are piled on the sides of every residential street of every neighborhood I drive down.

Keep in mind, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida. It churned across the Florida panhandle and Georgia before it got here to the Carolinas. No one was expecting this. And a state further down the line got it worse than we did. That is absolutely mind-blowing. I know I’m late to try to write up this hurricane. The reason I am is because people need to know how very bad it was.

There’s question about how people in rural western North Carolina will even vote next month. I’m sure the people will prove themselves resilient. That region breeds hardy folk. Now we know why.

Helene pirouettes, center stage

I woke up groggy from frequent weather alerts on Friday. The lights flickered a few times and then went out completely. I struggle now to remember the exact sequence. I remember hearing something strange outside. I looked out and saw that the neighbor’s oak had fallen in the backyard. A bit of damage to the garden, but nothing serious.

When Landry and I were looking for a house, we liked that this neighborhood had lots of trees. There were tall oaks and whatever else is native to the American Southeast. And when we signed papers, we were told that a tree had fallen and hit the house several years ago in a microburst. This is why there aren’t many trees on our lot. All but one were taken out around that time.

And there it was, Friday morning around six o’clock, and a previously healthy tree had fallen in the backyard. I looked out to check on the one tall tree on our lot. It was still standing, but wouldn’t be for long. And then came the crash like thunder. Anyone who has lived a long time in thunderstorm prone areas knows that a very close strike sounds different. There is a sharp *crack* on the front end of the thunder in such cases. And the house may shake from the shockwaves of rapidly expanding, super heated air. Well, we got the loud rumbling noise, the house shook, but no *crack*. Looking out the windows, we saw that the neighbors seventy-plus year old hickory had hit the back side of the house. Fortunately, it did little damage. We were still safe inside and the resulting leak in the roof was contained to our bathroom.

The winds peaked a bit later in the morning and then slackened. Though, there were still surges in the wind for several hours. As the light brightened, we went outside to survey the damage. Landry’s car was trapped in the garage (our garage is at the backside of the house). Our other neighbor lost a tree in the front of the house, breaking the water pipe supplying them, and blocking the road in their direction.

I tried to get out of our neighborhood by car that afternoon to buy ice. Have you ever watched a lab rat figure out a maze for the first time? Advancing, getting blocked, turning around, trying a new way, lather, rinse, repeat? That was me trying to get out to the main road. I discovered we were blocked in. Everywhere I went, trees had fallen on the roads making passage impossible. It was a giant’s game of pick-up sticks.

Helene, the prelude

The kids had school off the latter half of the week. I toured a university with Joy, our oldest, on Wednesday. She’s a junior in high school and starting to feel out her options. I’m gratified that Joy is looking close to home. Some teens can’t wait to get hundreds of miles between them and their parents. Not so, our dear daughter. She drove to the university and most of the way back. It was one of her longer stints driving yet. And it was her first time to encounter rain behind the wheel. Those were some of the outer bands of Helene that she drove through. Helene’s long arms spread wide giving us heavy rains a solid day and a half before.

Thursday, I looked at the forecast: Steady winds forecasted in the 30-40 mph range with gusts to 70. That wind was to peak around eight in the morning Friday. I’ve experienced what 70mph winds can do. It’ll toss trampolines and kiddie pools with ease. So, I had the kids help me bring the wicker patio furniture into the garage along with the propane grill (lots of surface area, not much weight), the tiki torches, my wind chime and the shepherd’s hook it was hanging from. The patio umbrella was too heavy to move, so we left that in place, and the bike rack with bikes. I figured those things would be safe enough to not blow away. So, we weren’t haphazard in our preparations.

I took the kids to the bowling alley that afternoon. It was raining again. On the way home we saw some trees down, a foreshadowing of things to come. Though, like good foreshadowing, we didn’t know it for what it was. I assumed it had happened in a storm earlier in the week, a microburst perhaps.

Thursday evening was date night. I expressed that I wanted to stay close to home because I was worried about how the weather was shaping up. So, we tried a place close to us. They served up some of the best Mediterranean food we’ve had in the area. I was been skeptical when I saw the menu mentioned lettuce in their Greek salad. A Greek salad *should* consist of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, olives, and onion topped with feta cheese, herbs and dressed with olive oil and vinegar. No lettuce! That said, the salads served as a side with our orders was quite good in spite of a little lettuce. Landry and I agreed we’d have to go again soon. On the way home, we filled up with gas and I’m very glad we did. Mine would be the only drivable car for days after the storm.

I am the weather watcher of the family. I set my phone to wake me every couple of hours as those long arms of Helene spun. Thunderstorms and tornadoes were my biggest concern. After the first wake up, I didn’t have to set the alarm anymore. We kept getting alerts of flash flooding blaring on our phones every hour or two. As Landry and I bought a house high on a hill, we weren’t anxious about that. By the predawn hours, we were cranky, but awake…

No internet

I had planned on writing several day’s worth on Helene and aftermath. While electricity was restored 8.5 days later, we’re still waiting on internet. It seems that the same poles that carry electric lines also have the cable internet wires. Yeah, multiple power poles snapped under the weight of fallen trees. All this to say, while I do have power -for which I am grateful- I don’t have interwebs on anything but my phone plan. We are seriously considering Star Link. Pray for North Carolina if you’re the praying sort. It’s still rough going up there.

Helene, a teaser

It’s apropos that my last post was about hurricanes. Helene paid us a visit. It could have been a lot worse. But, it’s been bad. Eight and a half days without power to the house. We were able to borrow a generator from an acquaintance the last few days of that so we could run the fridge. Iced drinks are a luxury.

We lost some food to spoilage. Only so much will fit in the cooler, after all. But the weather was blessedly mild. I missed the air conditioning, however it was tolerable without.

I’m greatly grieved by the news from North Carolina. It’s far worse than my neighborhood which has been bad enough. And here I was in my last post thinking we wouldn’t have bad effects from a hurricane that hit Florida first.

Hurricane Forecasting

Weather is interesting to me. And, I think, most people. Weather affects a lot of our day. Most people check the weather before leaving the house in the morning. We used to tune into the Weather Channel, but now it’s weather apps. I have the standard weather app that allows me to easily check my local weather and the conditions near loved ones. I also have Windy that lets me look in more detail at several forecasts, radar, satellite, wind speed, etc. I love it and I’m still learning what it can do.

In the past, I’ve not had to worry about hurricanes. Those were things that happened hundreds of miles away. At most, I’d catch a little extra rain and wind from an outer band. We’re a couple hundred miles from the coast now, but significant impacts are possible, so I’ve been watching the named storm, Debby, closely. It’s frustrating when the best the weather people say is “we don’t know”.

The storm is moving slowly and that means parameters change in the meantime. It reminds me of Jurassic Park. Ian Malcolm studied chaos theory. Explained in short: small changes make a big difference in outcome. Debby’s slow progress makes for constant small changes in the pressure systems and water temperatures off the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas. And weather is chaos.

I do enjoy “Tropical Tidbits“, a Youtube channel that goes active during hurricane season. The forecaster gets deep into the details of what different computer models show. If you’re in a hurricanes projected path, I highly recommend tuning in. Dr. Cowan is easy to understand and is passionate about his work.

Our house shouldn’t be in any danger from Debby regardless. We may get some extra rain which my garden will be happy for.

Orange cucumbers

It seems that cucumbers that are left on the vine overlong become yellow or even orange. I took a swing at turning these into refrigerator pickles. I’ll do a taste test tomorrow and see how they turned out. I did peel them and scoop out the seeds. They were ugly before peeling, let me tell you.

Also, I cooked steak for dinner tonight. Steaks on a spitting hot cast iron pan. Tasted good. No leftovers of the meat, just a little spinach. Maybe I’ll mix that with my eggs in the morning.