Potpourri

Among other things ....

Correction: As regards the Halloween story told Friday night. It has been pointed out to me that Evening Mass wasn't offered by the Church until after 1972. So Mrs. Twilliger musn't have been going to Mass. In fact (having discussed this with Mrs. Morgan) Mrs. Morgan misspoke. Mrs. Twilliger was, in fact, on her way to Confession.

I am more than 8000 words into the first chapter of 'Sarah'. She is proving to be much tougher to write than 'the Kid' was. Not that the story itself is all that hard - its more like trying to keep myself from just running off in different directions. I keep getting different ideas that would make the story so BIG - writing Sully's life, for example, and how he got to Las Vegas from Chicago. Or writing Jake Bertrett's life into the story. I'm beginning to realize that Jake is going to be necessary to the larger story - so maybe I DO have to write him larger than I had thought I would have to. It's really difficult to keep this thing focused on Sarah. 8000 words in and I have completed three scenes and I'm well into the fourth. I think the first chapter, then, is going to run out at about 16000 words.

One thing I love about my new Mac (her name is Luscious, as you know) is her LIGHTED keyboard. Talk about getting in the mood. I can turn out the lights and put on music that suits the mood and just type away on her velvety smooth keys and never miss a stroke because I can't see. I AM, of course, the kind of guy that likes to look at what he's doing. Ahem. Cough. It's just that I am NOT a touch typist. I have tried. But practice typing so sooooo boring and if I'm typing something for real, why the hell would I want to type that slow? Anyway, Lucsious is lovely to play with and Sarah is benefitting from my affair with my new Mac. Actually, it's no longer an affair. I have decided to give up Windows and give my heart to Mac, if not with a secret longing for a Linux environment that's actually usable by everybody.

I am doing NaBloPoMo. I mean, why not? I'm on the downhill side of blog365 now, and NaBloPoMo is going to fall right into the last end of it (well, almost the end of it) so I guess I'm going to do NaBloPoMo whether I like it or not. Besides, I really enjoyed it, last November, and I met some great people that are still friends.

I wonder if someone is going to propose Blog365 for 2009? I will not do it. I am going to do something a little different, I think. I am going to change my template so I have three columns. If I can figure out how to do that safely. And I am going to publish a schedule of days I will be blogging. I may take a few weekends off in the coming year. I may take an occasional day off during the week. Whatever - it will be on the calendar I plan to deploy in the new format. All I have to do is finish testing the new format - and the new code for the randomized blogroll.

While I've been writing this, I've been listening to Mozart. Suddenly, I am hearing 'Misericordia Domini', K.222 and its beautiful Aria sung by a woman, whose name I don't know, with a glorious voice. But this piece of music takes me to one of my favorite characters from Television - Inspector Morse. From the BBC. Played by John Thaw. Inspector Morse, a loner and a lonely man, loved to listen to classical music, and this particular piece was heard several times during the run of the series. I have always loved this piece, and it helped endear the character of Inspector Morse in my mind and heart. Anyone who has ever felt themselves the 'outsider' would understand and appreciate Morse. Anyway, it came time for John Thaw to walk away from the series. To retire. In 2000. A little over a year later, he was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. Eight months later, in February, 2002, he was dead. He was three years older than I. He never had time to properly enjoy his retirement and his recovery from alcoholism. I'm not sure why I felt his death any more keenly than others who have died - except, perhaps, that I felt a kinship with his character, Morse.

Beany of So Grateful To Be Mormon is still missing. She has been constantly on my mind for days now. The latest update says that they have found her truck. Her keys are gone from the truck, there is damage on one side of the truck that may be from an earlier encounter with a guard rail on Monday. Or, possibly, a later accident. No one knows. Now, more than ever, they need your prayers.

That's about it for today. I hope you had a Happy and Safe Halloween.

Peace.