Tag: Honda

Paint It Black

Saturday morning in the Lost Apartment, and all is well–at least so far! I got up to feed a needy kitty at six-ish, but went back to bed where Sparky let me sleep a few more hours and even cuddled with me in the bed for a bit. He can be sweet when he wants to be, after all. I was very tired last night before I went to bed–even falling asleep in my chair for good measure–and it was a bit of a full day. After work, we did run our errands, which included a trip to Costco (they had one of my regular items again after not having it for MONTHS, so I was very pleased, which clearly isn’t that hard to do) but it was an overall nice day. I got the dishes put away and got all that laundry done; today I’ve got a couple of errands to run, but other than that I am going to be here all day. I want to finish reading Hokuloa Road (which I am loving) and I need to reread Hurricane Season Hustle so I can write the epilogue and get it turned in once and for all. FINISHED! I’m also probably going to watch games while I read; LSU is the evening game today and while I don’t have high hopes for my Tigers after last week, you never know.

Tomorrow is going to be a writing day, obviously, and I hope to get some newsletters scheduled to go out this week since Halloween Horror Month ends on this coming Friday. Of course, now that I no longer have anxiety, I also know that I don’t have to finish before the end of the month; that’s arbitrary, and I can certainly can continue my examination, and reading and watching, of more horror. I may even take a walk this afternoon, but probably will wait and do it tomorrow, since I have errands (and chores) to do today. A leisurely stroll tomorrow morning before settling into my writing chair for the day may be just the thing for me, and it certainly can’t hurt me in any way (other than fatigued legs and aching hips), and every step is a way forward to being more healthy.

I was also pleased to see what a difference a new battery and two new tires made in how smoothly the car runs now. Buying a Honda was one of the smartest things I may have ever done. It also definitely needs to be cleaned out today and washed–we’re expecting inclement weather tonight and tomorrow (oh, about that walk tomorrow morning, Greg–maybe you’d better take it this morning after all), and I don’t think this is from Hurricane Melissa, but rather from the cold front which is deflecting Melissa and sending her northeast rather than northwest–but that was also last night and I haven’t checked this morning. Yes, Melissa is projected to cross Cuba and head out to sea, brushing past the Bahamas on her way out….and it’s supposed to rain off and on all day today and tomorrow–although the bright sun and clear skies right now beg to differ. It could of course change at any minute and turn on a dime; which has always been one of the joys of living in New Orleans.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines for the day. Have a lovely Saturday, and I’ll be back tomorrow morning, of course.

Gorgeous Nicholas Alexander Chavez, of Monsters, General Hospital, and Grotesquerie fame.

Highway to Hell

Isn’t that paved with good intentions? At least you can do seventy (if not more) on a highway–unless you’re one of those morons on I-10 every morning who either thinks the speed limit is forty (the minimum speed permitted by Louisiana law) or that their car will fall apart if they drive one mile about the minimum speeds.

Y’all can just fuck right off.

I probably won’t finish this before I leave for the dealership on the West Bank, which means taking the Crescent City Connection over the river. We are really lucky in where we have lived in the city all these years; we are very close to the highway and the river and are right off the parade route and Jennifer Coolidge lives just around the corner and there are restaurants within five minutes of a walk in every direction and the streetcar stop is just right around the corner and I can be in a park in just a few minutes. I love this neighborhood, and am looking forward to taking walks around again.

Leaving for the dealership before finishing this also means I’ll finish it when I get back home. I do have some work-at-home duties to perform (I got a lot done yesterday at the office, since we were slow), and am almost completely caught up on everything.

Okay, I am home, twelve hundred dollars later (heavy heaving sigh) but…now I don’t have to worry that the car will start or that I’m going to get a flat in either of those tires that needed replacing; both had nails (big ones, at that) in them. I think one of my errands tomorrow morning (besides the Fresh Market) will include going to a car wash. It could really use a vacuuming, too. I also love driving back from the West Bank (when there isn’t traffic, like this morning) and not to shade the West Bank the way most of us on the East Bank always do; I like driving back into the city over the river, because the views are so marvelous from the bridge. We’re going to run errands later, after my work from home duties are completed, including the biweekly Costco run, but we don’t need as much as we usually do. I did manage to get a load of dishes done last night as well as some picking up around here, and some laundry. The blankets are currently cycling through the washer and the dryer, so the bed stuff might even be done before we leave for the errands, which would be so awesome.

I read more into Holukoa Road while the car was being worked on, and I feel pretty confident I’ll finish reading it today or tomorrow. It’s a simply beautiful day outside, too, meaning I can sit outside and enjoy the weather while reading, if I so choose. I definitely want to take a walk later on this evening as well, with my earbuds in while viewing Halloween decorations–New Orleans always goes all in for it, and I need to take some pictures of the skeleton house on St. Charles at some point before next Friday. Next weekend LSU has a bye week and we get an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night, so it should be a fairly productive weekend then, too. I also have to get the epilogue for new Scotty done and some other things my editor asked for; needless to point out that I will inevitably wait for the last minute to do it all.

Of course.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely Friday, Constant Reader, and I will be back tomorrow morning!

This is actually a road to heaven, in my opinion. My dream–which will never materialize–would be to retire to Tuscany.

Hazy Shade of Winter

Saturday!

I drove over to the West Bank this morning to get the car serviced (its very first oil change!) and then made groceries on the way home.  Paul gets home this evening, and there’s some light cleaning that needs to be done. Once that’s finished I intend to spend the day finishing Daniel Woodrell’s Tomato Red; I got further into it at the Honda dealership while I waited for the car, and it really is something. I mentioned the other day that I thought of it as Southern Gothic more than anything else; but truth be told, I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything quite like it before. It makes me think of Megan Abbott (not just because she wrote the intro to this edition), and Faulkner, and James M. Cain’s The Butterfly, and even a little bit of Harper Lee. It’s truly extraordinary.

 I think I’ll reread The Great Gatsby next; then I am going to take a stab at some Hemingway, just to see. I’m also going to read some short fiction–I’ve got Bracken MacLeod’s collection Thirteen Views from the Suicide Woods, and Laura Lippman’s Hardly Knew Her, and some anthologies lying around that I really should read more of; short stories are always a pleasant respite, I find, and since I am planning on working on short stories for the next week or so while the WIP rests, reading some great short stories seems to be in order, doesn’t it? I had a great idea for another story last night while watching clips of old LSU games on Youtube last night; kind of inspired by Tomato Red, if I am going to be completely honest. I really do think I should start writing about Alabama some more…and my old ghost story y/a that’s been brewing in my mind since I wrote the short story in 1989 might just be the ticket.

I also got some new books: Nick Cutter’s Little Heaven, Mary Stewart’s Rose Cottage (one of hers I’ve not read), Phyllis A. Whitney’s Amethyst Dreams (one of her later novels; I stopped reading her around The Singing Stones),  James Ziskin’s Styx and Stones, and Tim Blanning’s Frederick the Great King of Prussia. I’ve been wanting to read a bio of the most successful gay European monarch in history for quite some time; this biography is rather acclaimed and also openly explores the Great King’s homosexuality in great depth, apparently–previous biographies glossed over his relationships with men, and other ‘interesting’ bits like banning women from his court, making his Queen live elsewhere, never having children, etc etc etc. I first read of Frederick when I was a kid, in Genevieve Foster’s George Washington and His World, and deeply empathized with the young Prussian prince who just wanted to read and study music and art and philosophy, but was forced by his father to be ‘more manly’, and was miserable as a result.

I could relate, even at eight years old.

But I am really looking forward to reading this; I may make it my non-fiction read once I finish The Affair of the Poisons. Frederick was fascinating in many ways; he was considered one of the three ‘enlightened despots’ of the late eighteenth century (the others being Joseph II of Austria and Catherine II of Russia), and he made Prussia into the preeminent military power of Europe–yet was still cultured, loved music and reading and poetry and philosophy and art.

And now, I suppose I should get that cleaning done.

Here’s a hunk for you for Saturday:

 

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