Mid-Week Already

I feel like a 78 rpm record in a 33 1/3 rpm world lately.  I know I say it too much but it's true, days just seem to zoom by and I barely have time to catch them before they're gone.  BTW, that reference in the first sentence?  That's the speed that records, you know, those flat vinyl disks that played on record players, spin on the turntable.  78s are the oldest form, after the wax cylinders, that is.  I got an email from the library this morning telling me that a book I want is available.  It's an audiobook and a download.  I don't even have to go anywhere to check it out.  I just sign into Overdrive, tell them my library system and library card #, and they let me download books.  FOR FREE.  Right into my iPod.  (they have ebooks too for my Kindle [notice how they're only for my electronic gadgets?])  DS & DIL1's friend, Carrie, told me at one of the Titletown movie nights about this series of thrillers starring an Israeli art restorer named Gabriel Allon who is also a "cleaner" for Israeli intelligence (ooky) and I can't get enough of them.  I'm even evolved enough (lately... in this one instance) that I'm listening to them out of order.  (gasp, my inner-Hitler is writhing)  Quite by accident (trolling for available audiobooks) I found a series by Fern Michaels called the Sisterhood books (there's a lot of them, at least 19 of 'em) about a group of women headed up by a rich old bat (my age) who have all been wronged in some way and the legal system let them down.  The old bat's first lover is a retired MI6 operative (handy) and her "adopted" daughter is a lawyer (also handy--don't you love that you can arrange things to your liking in fiction?  I do.) and they're taking turns righting the wrongs in very firm and final ways.  Obviously they have branched out to right other women's wrongs because the premise in the first book foreshadowed only seven books and she's up to at least #19 that I recall, so obviously this story idea has legs--and there are a lot of readers out there with revenge fantasies.  I need to find a quiet closet where I can sit and work on my writing.  Of course it doesn't help that I have way too many other things I want to make and do--sewing, quilting (not the same things), knitting, exercising, lotion crafting--and a bunch of things I should do--spending time with Durwood, cleaning, working, then there are the things that I do without thinking--watching TV at night with Durwood, surfing the net (god, surfing the net's a disease, it grabs me and I come to awareness and hours have flown, hours), all worthy pursuits but none of them get my manuscript any closer to publication.  Bah.  Today's Photo a Day theme is "this happened today."  I went out into the garden this morning (I even put on pants first, I usually go out in undies and a tank top [what? it's not like we're on a busy street or even have backyard neighbors] to fill the birdbath and start up the fountain but it's too cold to do that at 6:30 anymore) and filled the pockets of my hoodie with all the not-totally-green tomatoes.  It's getting colder at night and one of these nights there'll be a hard frost and all will be lost.  I need to zoom out there before I forget and snip the thyme that hasn't frosted already and hang it up to dry.  We use thyme a lot and I love that we grow our own.  Makes it tastier somehow.  I also grew a lot of rosemary that could use drying too.  (see?  too much to do.  damn those "should"s.  see?)

October 3--Burkina Faso, Mask with Female Figure.  The firelight flickered on the sweaty skin of the circle of dancers.  The night was barely cooler than the day had been.  The air was alive with insect sounds layered over the low humming song of the dancers.  Nan knew that it had started as an entertainment for her and the rest of the group but now that most of the tourists had gone to their tents things had changed.  It was hard for her to describe but voices had deepened and the movement of the men dancing had slowed.  It was more graceful and she felt an undercurrent of menace even though she didn't understand a word.

Oh, I like that.  I'd like to have the day or even a couple hours undisturbed to explore, to see where this might lead.  Maybe I have late-onset ADD because I can't seem to focus if there's other sounds in the house.  Even up at The Clearing I had the devil of a time writing in the classroom if someone was talking and that's usually a place where I can buckle down and get things done.  Speaking of getting things done, I need to go eat my Cheerios, shower, then go to work.  Bye for now.
--Barbara Sue