Sunday, October 14, 2018

Mid October Reflections

I'm enjoying the weather Sunday afternoon and writing in Café John in my bare feet.  The sun is out and bright for a mid-October day, and already at 3:30 the day is growing cooler.  In about two hours' time, the long dusk will start:  our house will be in the shadow of the hill, but across the slough the westerling light will paint the hills ten blocks away a ruddy hue.

Early last week we had a few days of extreme grey -- the kind of day when dawn is merely a lessening of darkness and the sun's path is hidden behind a rumbled swath of cloud.  If it were fog, it would be mysterious; if it were rain, it would inspire to curl up with a warm drink.   But it's distinctly bland weather that leeches color from the turning leaves and flattens buildings' details, and the only response is to feel a paw-touch of dread at the meaningless existence as the cogs of the Machinery of the Universe grind everything into dust.   Even hibernating through it would be too much effort.

So when the sun came out last Thursday, I was glad -- and now I'm enjoying writing out in it.

On the Gym Front:  I managed to get to the gym Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Usually I spend about 30 minutes on the elliptical for about 300 calories (and read The New Yorker).  Then it's downstairs to the lat-pull-downs (12x60lbs + 2x12x70lbs), the Roman Chair hanging curl (3x12), and then inclined presses with dumbbell weights (3x12x10lbs) and then some forward-and-side rises with lighter dumbbells (3x12x5lbs). I try to end with tricepcs pull-downs (12x20lbx + 2x30lbs).

Friday when I went downstairs, I had the entire weight room to myself, so I grunted and breathed heavily after the slightest rep.  And then I giggled and tried to top the previous lift's drama.  Which probably wasn't so good for keeping my rep speed up.   I did not drop weights on the floor.

On the Writing Front:   Last week I edited three short stories that have been getting rejected.  In one case, the prose was clunky--I reworked some descriptions so the setting wasn't overly described, and that helped.  On the second, I think it probably needs one more pass to make the epiphany stand out. The third was already more-or-less perfect (hah!) and only needed minor touch-up; I've submitted it and we'll see how it does.

Ah, the novel.  Well... the process of breaking short stories out of the novel's corpus will have to be the next project.

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