Marianna left for the airport early this morning – she knocked on my door and said goodbye briefly. I bid her bon voyage and went back to sleep, finally dragging myself out of bed around noon. One cure for jetlag: sleep late and stay up late. It’s like you never left home. I spent most of the day reading rather than writing, not even motivated to eat or drink anything, just expanding into this space that will me mine for the next few weeks, enjoying the lonliness.
I just put on a CD from my host’s collection, a band whose name I don’t understand singing songs I don’t understand the lyrics to, but the music itself carries a sadness that augments my mood well. This is going to work. I’ll be writing late into the night, I can tell, but I suspect it will be The Fish rather than my NaNoWriMo effort, already so far behind. You have to write with the vibe (or at least I do), and a thriller isn’t were my head is right now. Although a novel needs to shift geard now and then. Maybe I can write a couple chapters for November as well. Whatever the case, I should be writing one of those things rather than this.
I hope all is well over on the other side, where the sun is still shining and you are all looking for diversions from your work. I’m only too pleased to be of service.
I’m a little unclear on where pL is while you are in Prague and Marianna is in New Mexico. Are you house sitting an empty apartment?
I love that your blog (and its comments) have become a public bulletin board for your family (e.g. “Does anyone have Marianna’s flight information?”).
pL is in the US. They are likely still in Los Alamos, as I believe they plan to get his giant detroit iron running, and I’m guessing that may take a few days. There is a link on the sidebar to Fuego’s Place, and there you can learn just enough to become more confused as you come to appreciate my brother’s unique style of prose.
Yes, must get new battery, must siphon old gas. Soon, the rumble will be felt as the Hotelsmobile once again attains the glory of the road! Anyone know where to get cheap gas?
I hear the price is being artificially held low in Iraq. Since your taxes are paying for it, you may as well cruise over and fill up.
I’m writing a scene in my NaNoWriMo novel (now retitled Unforgivable) in which a character has prepared a car years in advance as a getaway car, which must start in seconds. It’s an interesting exercise to think of all the things that can go wrong. One of the people I mentioned this to said, “Don’t forget that mice will probably start living in the airbox. You don’t want to have a mouse get stuck in a valve. Ant they’ll probably chew the brake and fuel lines, too.” Dang, there’s a lot of things to think about. (Although a mouse-nibbled brake line could add to the excitement.)
I guess I should be writing about it in my novel, rather than here.
pl I am told has a scheme to visit New Orleans.
We went sailing despite cold weather, helping run a race. Sunday morning woke up to find snow had fallen.
Gee, mice under the hood sounds even worse than bats in tha mainsail. Just so long as the squirrels don’t get into the picture, you should be OK.
As for keeping a car from deteriorating over a long period of time, is it possible for your characters to keep the car in a tightly sealed chamber, or does it have to be kept in a normal environment?
Oh, yeah, while Pat was on the boat freezing, I was in the motel room with a laptop, writing. I got nearly 10,000 words in over the weekend.
Meanwhile, my novel has taken on a life of its own — my main character, contrary to my intentions, has fallen love with a girl half his age whose parents don’t approve, and I tried to get a cat in there, but I ended up with three Pomeranians.