Category: new car

Knowing Me Knowing You

Monday, of a three day weekend. I sincerely hope everyone has a lovely day, and takes a least a minute or two to think about the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in this country. It still boggles the mind, doesn’t it, to think that just sixty years ago (and less) segregation and Jim Crow were still the law of the land…we’ve made some progress since then, but we still have a long way to go.

Today will be spent finishing, at long last, the Book That Would Not Be Finished; I promised it (late) to be turned in today. It doesn’t suck nearly as much as I thought it did last week, which is something, but I am not overly fond of this manuscript. I’m sure no small part of that is being utterly sick of it and the desire to be finished with it once and for all; it can be quite a relief to finish something and turn it over to an editor for a final go over once and for all. I have two essays and some short stories to work on the rest of this month; and then, once all of that is finished, I am going back to another couple of projects that have been lying fallow and waiting for me to get back to them. I do think 2017 is going to be a very good year. I also have another book idea I’d like to start messing around with; a noir with a gay main character. The working title for it is Muscles, but that may change as it gets worked on. I’ve had the idea since the early 1990’s, and perhaps it is time to get to serious work on making that book happen.

I also am hoping to get the brake tag for the new car today. The Shell station on Magazine Street, where I’d been getting brake tags since we moved back here after The Lost Year in Washington in 2001, is no longer at that location! It was still open when we went to Pat’s Christmas party last month, but it has since moved to Claiborne Avenue. I wasn’t exactly sure where it was located–and I didn’t take my phone with me on Saturday so I could look it up–so I just went on to the grocery store and figured I would check it out once I got home. They may be open today; I am going to call them in a moment to find out. If they aren’t, I’ll have to go on Wednesday morning on my way to work. Woo-hoo!

But at least I don’t mind driving any more, so there’s that. It should count for something, right?

I still haven’t finished reading “Grail”, either. I spent most of yesterday working on the manuscript, and then last night when I was burned out and tired, we watched another episode of Slasher–which we decided we may not continue watching, because it progressively gets worse and worse with each episode–and then started watching Westworld on the HBO app. I’m not really sure what to think of the show, after only watching one episode…I know I’ve seen some critiques of it that made me stop and think about it a bit, but the show is extremely well done, and is extremely well cast. The concept behind it is interesting. I barely remember the original film, with Yul Brynner, from the early 1970’s, but I do remember thinking it was exceptionally clever. Michael Crichton, the mind behind The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, and Sphere, wrote the original screenplay for the original film. (I don’t remember if I ever read Jurassic Park; obviously, I saw the movie, but I do remember reading a lot of his other work. You’d think I’d remember reading it, especially since I remember the other novels of his I read. Interesting….but now that I think about it, I did read it; I remember the ending. At any rate, we will continue watching for now.

I’ve also started thinking about what books to take along with me on my trip; I am leaning toward a Michael Koryta, an Ace Atkins, Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King, and a Laura Lippman novel I came across the other day while organizing that I never read (I know, right? Madness), The Most Dangerous Thing. It’s always fun to suddenly realize you’ve not read something by one of your favorite authors; it’s also kind of exciting.

So, as I prepare to head back into the spice mines for the day, here’s your hunk for today.

Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You

Sunday of the three day holiday weekend, with an enormous pile of work to get done today. I didn’t get as much done yesterday as I had hoped because–well, let’s be honest, distractions and lazy. I am also in the process of learning how my car’s gadgets and so forth operate–I didn’t realize until yesterday that I also have, for example, a rear camera that turns the stereo screen into a television, so I can see how much room I have to back up and so forth. It startled me when I happened to glance at it yesterday at the Rouse’s parking lot, but will come in handy for parallel parking. I also love that all I have to do is plug the iPod into the car and it plays beautifully through the stereo, and this bluetooth phone capability thing is life changing.

So, yes, Constant Reader, I am loving my new car. I probably won’t love it quite so much when it’s time to make the first payment, or renew the insurance (I paid it in full) the first time, but for now, it’s kind of cool. I haven’t named it–someone asked me if I was going to–but for now it’s name is NEW CAR!!!!

And I find that I don’t mind driving at all any more–although I do find myself getting a lot angrier at terrible drivers on the road now.

Last night we watched a really fun movie called Keanu, which is a Key and Peele movie, and it’s quite funny; it’s about the world’s cutest kitten, and how it becomes the subject of a gang war, and Our Heroes also have to get the kitten away from the gangs. We also started watching a Canadian series on Netflix called Slasher, which seems to be a cross between the Halloween, Scream, and The Silence of the Lambs movies, but it definitely held out interest despite it’s being so derivative (and let’s face it, it’s kind of hard to do this kind of show and NOT be derivative). We will definitely keep watching, as we’ve both lost interest in Ray Donovan during its second season.

I still haven’t finished reading my Ellison short story, “Grail,”–I know, I know, bad Gregalicious, bad Gregalicious–but hopefully I’ll get to that today. It’s quite good, as all Ellison stories are–you really can’t go wrong with reading Harlan Ellison’s anything, really–but by the time I finished working yesterday and cleaning and after running the errands and all, I was tired and simply wanted to watch television. I hate that about myself–I should be able to read and engage my mind, but NO–but it happens every once in a while.

I still need to finish reading the Pelecanos. I’d hoped to be finished with the book before this weekend, and had fully intended to spend THIS weekend relaxing and cleaning and reading. Heavy heaving sigh. And I only have one more weekend before the trip to visit my parents….although I should be able to get a lot of reading done during that trip.

Heavy heaving sigh.

And I really want to get back to that short story I started, “Quiet Desperation.” I also have figured out how to rework several other short stories I’ve struggled with–“The Ditch”, “The Weight of a Feather”, and “Death and the Handmaidens.” This always happens when I am trying to finish something–I get all these other great ideas about new projects and how to fix others. It’s annoying, because I would almost always rather work on that than what I am working on. I hate that my mind does this to me, without fail, every single time.

Heavy heaving sigh.

All right, I need to get to the spice mines. That spice ain’t going to mine itself.

Here’s today’s hunk:

No Spoken Word

Saturday morning. I have to go get a brake tag for the new car, and get the mail and go to the grocery store, and then I am going to spend the day writing, cleaning, and organizing. I had to find the title for the Buick this week preparatory to going to buy the new car, and as such discovered the horrendous mess that resides inside my file cabinets. I was planning on waiting until next weekend before doing something–anything–about them, but I doubt I can let this stand. Just knowing that there is so much chaos existing in arm’s reach of my keyboard is really doing a number on me. Heavy heaving sigh.

The cabinets where I keep supplies and so forth? Also something straight out of a Stephen King novel. I keep waiting for one of the doors to creep open and something to say, we all float in here.

Shudder.

I still haven’t finished reading that short story–maybe tonight. I still haven’t finished the George Pelecanos novel, either. I don’t know what’s been going on with me lately, but I’ve had trouble reading–trouble doing anything, really. The Lost Apartment is an utter shambles, my storage places are horrific, and I am not getting anything done. But I made shrimp and grits when I got home last night (it was so NICE being able to park in the Rouse’s lot on the way home instead of the garage; power steering has changed my life), and then Paul and I just spent the evening getting caught up on our shows (last night, Modern Family and Nashville), and then we both went to bed relatively early. I also slept in till ten this morning, which is not normal for me–although I’ve been sleeping later and later, not sure what that is about, quite frankly.

And of all things, I started writing a short story this week. Because I have nothing else to write, of course. It’s title is “Quiet Desperation,” and it may turn into something relatively good. The idea behind it is clever–it came from a conversation I had with That Bitch Ford. We’ll see how it turns out, but so far I am thinking it’s clever.

“Thinking”, of course, being the operative word in that sentence.

Ah, well, perhaps I should get back to the spice mines.

Here’s a hunk for you: