Bet You Thought I Fell In A Hole

I didn't, I climbed a bluff.  Well, I didn't climb it exactly, I kind of drove up.  Better to say that on Saturday, Sept. 26th I followed the highway north up to almost the tip of Door County and the land rose under me until I stopped at The Clearing where I parked Beverly, my trusty red HHR (LC tells me that Meemaw's car is "rojo"), where she rested under a tree while I hauled my suitcase, laptop, printer, and a crate of writing supplies to room 12 which overlooks the path to the bluff.  My roomie, CA, and I spread out our papers and dictionaries and versions of manuscripts, trying to stay out of each others' way, and we pounded words into shape for a good four and a half days (we get Thursday afternoon off).  Mornings were spent in the Stovewood room of the Workshop building with the other nine writers and our crackerjack teacher/leader/mentor/butt-kicker, JB.  Monday she got us organized, pinned to a project for the week, and she led us in a free write which submerged us each into the week's work.  In the afternoons we had Quiet Writing Time.  The capital letters are needed because this wasn't just a suggestion that we might want to spend a little time at our desks, this is command performance time.  JB admonished the other students not to talk to us, not to even make eye contact with us during that time.  We were to plant our backsides in our chair or on a friendly rock or tree stump and WRITE.  No excuses.  We wrote.  Since I am in the middle of rewrite #5 of a novel, I kept going, rewriting the last two chapters before needing to rearrange the remaining chapters into an order that made more sense.  Honestly I'd have probably enjoyed writing or rewriting more because what I did required a whole lot of thinking.  Very tiring thing, thinking, but I think (there's that word again) I've got an order now that makes more sense.  The proof will be when I get my keester in gear and rewrite the next chapter, which I said I'd have done by next Sunday.

It was clear enough for us to walk out to the homestead meadow in the center of The Clearing to watch the lunar eclipse last Sunday night.  Did you see it?  It was amazing.  Not being near the east side of the peninsula we didn't see the supermoon rise (besides we were at supper at moonrise; you don't want to miss meals at The Clearing, the food's too good) but we had a clear view of the moon being eaten up by the earth shadow.  I took Durwood's DSLR camera and a tripod and practiced on the full moon on Saturday night.  I figured out how to make the flash stop firing and how to turn it to manual focus but I never did figure out how to change the shutter speed so the shutter stayed open too long, gathering light, making the moon look like a fuzzy round ball of light instead of the disk of moon being gradually covered by shadow.  I got some cool pictures of the starry sky, though, and I'm going to look around for a class on using a DSLR this winter.  Even though the next supermoon lunar eclipse isn't for 18 more years (and who knows if I'll still be alive and kicking then) I was frustrated enough that I couldn't figure it out, even with the manual. I want to learn how now.  Maybe there's a YouTube video or chat forum that'll help...  (There's no internet service on campus [thank God] so I couldn't look it up there, but that also kept me from wasting time surfing the web or playing games instead of doing my writing work.  It's hard at first but by the second day I didn't miss it so much.  The quiet and focus is relaxing.)

Since I didn't think it was fair to read Chapter 16 of a novel at the show & tell on Friday night I dashed off a quick personal essay about going to Woodman's grocery with Durwood.  It was pretty funny and everyone laughed.  I was a little nervous about reading it to him when I got home but he loved it.  I wish I'd taken a picture of his grin when I put the last page down when I read it.  He loved it.  I was glad--and relieved.

There wasn't as much knitting time as I imagined there'd be.  I knitted two of the three Sudoku squares I need to put the next block together.  I'll show you those tomorrow.

October 4--Turnbull/Boudreau, Pasture Fence & Building.  Ty tried not to look along the fence as he worked.  He figured seeing how far it was to the gate would slow him down even more.  He had tried to get his friend Major to help paint the fence or at least keep him company but Major's mom had him scraping the flaking paint off their chicken coop before repainting that.  Ty had a strong suspicion that his mom and Major's mom had planned these chores as a way to keep them busy and apart.

I confess that I didn't do one nightly prompt while I was gone.  By the time bedtime rolled around I was tired of putting words on paper and just called up an eBook on my Kindle and read for a few minutes before conking off.  I will say that I was glad to be back in our big bed last night and leave what felt like a cot-size bed (actually a twin) that we slept in all week.  All of the beds are the same but CA and I had the best bathroom. Instead of a telephone booth-sized shower stall ours was the full width of the bathroom.  It's big enough for someone in a wheelchair to use with an attendant.  Thank you, Americans with Disabilities Act, and thank God that we don't really need it, but it sure is luxurious.  Toodle-oo.  It's laundry time.
--Barbara