the broomstitch

Writing… Some scene bits popped up in my mind while eating my breakfast of hummus on toast. As soon as I was done munching, I scribbled the bits down on a small notepad. Maybe I’ll wind up not using them, but maybe I will and I didn’t want to forget them and then berate myself for forgetting.

I began writing one scene tonight, trying to transcribe on paper what was in my head. I think my mental writing was better than the pen-and-paper one, but that’s ok. That’s what revisions are for.

Does anybody remember John Le Carre’s “Absolute Friends”? The novel came out when Dubya’s gang was at the pinnacle of its power and the story’s epilogue reflected that, showing rightwingers taking over many governments and crushing hopes. In the real world, the arrogance of the Dubya Regime eventually did them in. Watch for the same thing happening again.

I had been toying with the idea of refreshing my COBOL skills with the goal of doing contract work, but… It’s been over 15 years since I actually wrote a COBOL program and that wouldn’t look awesome even though it had been such a long time because my coding never broke. Mainly though, do I really want to get back in a work environment that’s now even more cutthroat and stressful? I like retirement so I’ll probably stick with that. Besides, there’s no reason why I can’t refresh my COBOL knowledge just for the fun of it.

Yesterday was the last day of my severance package’s health coverage. Today was the beginning of my own supplemental coverage. This all means I don’t have to use the pharmacy my former employer had forced upon me. I just went to my old pharmacy at the Albertson’s on Academy and Tramway and initiated the transfer of my few scrips back to them.

Today’s workout… 5.36 miles on a stationary bike, then one mile of walking the Good Batch of dogs, then one mile of the Bad Batch of dogs, then one mile of walking our guest Luna…

I napped and read by the Pecos River today.

I just finished “Dark Matter” on AppleTV. It was oddly structured, in that it took many episodes to cover some events that could have been covered more economically, while other events were covered in a rushed manner. It held my interest, but it didn’t need nine episodes.

Sometimes I look at one of our dogs sleeping peacefully close by and I am filled with the wonder of Life.

The first draft of the prologue's complete rewrite is done. I'll let it sit for a couple of weeks then I'll see how much work it needs. Then, when the rewrite has been rewritten, I'll pass it on to Sue. It should then be a better basis for the novel, which will still need work, but hopefully not as much as the prologue did. Hopefully.