The last rich plant green of the year, plus a snippet

I'm already pining for plant green. Yes, evergreen green is green all the time, and really green against the snow, but it's not the same. I'm talking leaf green from late September.

Still some green, along with the harbinger of things to come.

Struggling with blogger writer's block here. I had so many thoughts during my swim today, and now they're gone. The swim was so-so. My left arm is still killing me from the two metric tons the other day so it was essentially one arm drill. My massage therapist makes sad noises as she pummels me oh so good.

So here's a novel snippet, a reworking of some of the earliest writing. At the moment this is the opening for the whole kit and kaboodle that is busy getting massaged into shape. A reminder, this is copyright to Keith Cartmell.


Dwen put one booted foot on the air cart, and stretched to try to make her hips click. “Morning Gail, your turn on safety man duty today? Boring, but it beats being in there shoveling.”

Gail had been peering into the digester manway, but turned around and leaned back against the flange. “Morning! That’s for sure. How was your days off?”

“Busy. Hoping for a quiet day here. How much more is there to go?” She ducked down and peered through the manway into the digester.

“We’re well into the sump now, but it’s tough going. I’m hoping Bryan can finish today, and then I won’t have to go in tomorrow to dig. It’s heavy and packs really hard.”

“At least you didn’t have to climb in and out of the sump.”

“No. But neither does Bryan. He just has to lift the pail out. Peter took a bunch of full pails up to headworks, and he’ll be back soon with more empties for Bryan.”

“Days like this I’m glad I’m an operator.”

“Twelve hour shifts, alternating sets of days and nights,” Gail commented with a grimace. “I don’t know how you do that.”

“Some days I don’t either, especially when I’m not sleeping well. Anyways, I should be about it. Let me know if you want any effluent back-flushing action and I’ll do that for you. Tell Bryan I said hi.” Dwen started strolling across the pump house to the stairs.

“Sure thing. See you later.” Gail turned to look back in the digester again. “Hey! Bryan, you ok?” she yelled.

Bryan paused in his digging, and gave her a thumbs up. This wouldn’t be so bad, he thought, if it wasn’t for having to wear the air mask. It was sliding around his sweaty face, and he pushed it back into place.

Then he realized he needed to move the light again. The digester was dim, even with all 6 man ways and the equipment hatch open. The black sandy silt sucked up all the light. He positioned an empty pail on a level spot and started to dig again. He had reached the bottom of the sump in one corner, but there wasn’t enough cleared to work efficiently. The euchre game during coffee break couldn't come soon enough.

A few shovelfuls later something white clung to the side of the shovel and was left poking out of the silt. Even with gloves on he didn't want to touch it without hosing it off first. For good measure he hosed around the sump, then moved the light right into the sump with him. He squatted carefully to take a closer look. It was long and slender with a knob on the end. It came out easily enough, and he gave the rest of it a quick swoosh with the hose before holding it up to the light.

It's a bone. I'm holding a bone in my hand. What do I do now?

A current snippet

A little while ago I woke up with this scene in my head. Several writing fits later I'm up to almost 10,000 words in an evolving scene. It's not written as a story opening scene, though I suppose it could be. The question is, do you want to know what happens next?

Note, this snippet is explicitly copyright Keith Cartmell 2018.

Belinda looked up as the door to her control room opened, and was surprised into silence to see a complete stranger stroll into the control room like she belonged.

“Good morning, Miss Vesterby.” The stranger’s voice was clear and confident. She sat in the other chair but didn’t relax into it.

Belinda took her feet off the desk and sat up, taking in the poise and air of fitness radiating out of dark clothing that was neither tight or baggy. Her night shift hallucinations had never been quite this focussed.

“I can’t remember the last time anyone called me that,” she said, hoping her voice sounded calm. She thought that was a much more mature response than ‘Who the hell are you and why are you in my control room?’

“It wouldn’t do to be thought familiar and call you Belinda like we were friends. Just being here could be thought impolite at the least.”

“Trespassing is probably the word the City would use. I’d call it startling, but I’m also guessing you’re going to have a great story for me. So you’ve got my attention, unless I’m really face down on the desk, asleep and dreaming.”

She smiled and shook her head. “No. Unlike all the other operators, you’re awake.”

“Are you going to tell me, or make me ask?”

“Telling you is faster. My name is Amber. We’ve never met, though we were at the same event, you more briefly than me. We have several acquaintances in common. One of them has a shortcut to this plant, and I know the same shortcut. That’s how I’m here.” Amber relaxed into the chair but her eyes were alert.

Belinda slowly nodded. “The reception Dwen and Les went to. You were at the door as they were leaving. Hair up, fancy dress slit almost to your butt, heels, not that you need them. I don’t meet many women taller than me.”

“I wasn’t sure if you had noticed me, while you were standing beside that nice limo. As for the why, you already know that I’m not here to hurt you. Quite the opposite, in fact. This is a private place for us to chat about a proposition I have for you.”

Belinda pursed her lips and looked thoughtful. “I’ve never been propositioned at 3am here. This ought to be good if you’ve gone to the trouble of getting here.”



These lilies don't have anything to do with the snippet. Just some dark lilies to remind us of summer.

A raw chunk

I'm not sure if it's the warmer weather, or more sunshine or what, but some of the novel writing has been flowing again. I've had several new scenes come together, and several more get rewritten to fix timeline issue.

All along I've known that Dwen and Les strike sparks. Several times she's said she isn't sure if she wants to shag him senseless, or just punch him out. Les has his own issues, and I'd also known there was something that Dwen said or did that helped him to resolve those issues.

When looking at the timeline I realized that a funeral service was scheduled, and that would be perfect timing. So here's a portion of that scene for your delight. Copyright Keith Cartmell, of course,  no other usage is implied or authorized.


Les and Dwen got out of his car, and joined the other people walking to the top of the hill. Unlike her usual casual disregard for the weather, Ronnie was bundled up in a parka, complete with hat, scarf, and mittens against the raw March wind. She was still sick, and Belinda hovered nearby.

Les shook his head. “Poor Ronnie. She still blames herself.”

“I know,” Dwen said. “She doesn’t want to listen to anything different. I think when your time comes, it comes. If she’d been awake and had her visit with Audrey, maybe the driver of that truck would have been delayed too. Or if not that truck, it would have been another, or something else. Something Audrey said a few weeks ago, I think she believed something like that too. I’ve never met anyone so serenely happy.”

“The whole death in Samarra thing. Yeah. At least it was quick. More than anything else I fear getting captured by the medical system, kept half alive, too sick to live but not allowed to die.” Les shivered, and it wasn’t just the wind.

Dwen thought about it for a few steps, then reached out to tuck her hand into Les’s arm. She pulled herself in close beside him and curled her arm around his, holding it firmly.

Les didn’t know what to think. “Are you ok?”

“Oh yes. Times like this it’s nice to be close to someone. It’s your first funeral, isn’t it?”

Les just nodded.

“Not me, and I’m sure it’s not my last.”

“I suppose so. I didn’t know Audrey that well, but something about her friends is different. The polite thing to say is that I wanted to pay my respects, but  - “ Les trailed off.

“Yeah. I think it’s important that she introduced us to her friends. I don’t know how I know that. Maybe not so much you and me, but Ronnie. I was watching her during that first party and some of the occasions since. Maybe this is melodramatic, but I think knowing these people is life or death for Ronnie. She needs something or someone, and I think one of these people is it.”

“I got a piece of that too. I liked them all and got really good vibes from Ed. I don’t think we’re going to be best friends or anything but there’s a connection. With Ronnie, it’s like I could feel a puzzle piece, knowing it belongs but not quite fitting in. I hope it happens.”

“That’s a good way of saying it.”

They joined the small crowd, standing next to Belinda and Ronnie. All of the lab and office staff from the plant were nearby. There were some other people from the City as well, plus people assumed to be friends and family.

Two people were huddled tightly around Audrey’s husband Thomas, and their two small children, Erin and Jordan. Dwen knew they were Audrey’s best friend Betsy along with her husband Edward.

When the time came, Betsy stepped up to a small folding table. It had an urn and a condolence book on it.

“Hello everyone. I’m Betsy. Thank you for coming. Nobody wants to be standing around in this wind any longer than we need to, no matter how much we loved Audrey, so I’m going to get on with it.”

She gestured to the tall man near her. “Thomas asked me to speak for him; he is still overcome.”

“Audrey was my best friend and the freest spirit I’ve ever known. Some people are weighed down with the burdens of life, but Audrey was the opposite. She brought happiness into the life of everyone that she knew, and made it easier for them to carry whatever burdened them. It seems only appropriate to scatter the remains of her body to the wind and sunshine, where her spirit already is.”

She picked up the urn and carried it over to Thomas. Together they walked over to the edge of the hill.

Betsy looked around and said, “We’re downwind of you all, but mind the eddies. We love you Audrey.” Thomas opened the urn, and scattered a handful of ashes to the wind. Betsy did the same. The two children were coached to do so as well, then Thomas and Betsy scattered the rest of the ashes. They swirled on the wind, spreading out down the hill.

Dwen could feel the tension in Les’s body. She turned to him, and whispered in his ear. “Whatever it is, Les, let it go on the wind. It’s dead. It has no hold on you. Let the wind scatter it like Audrey’s ashes. You are free.”

Currently, sort of

I've been desperate for some colour in my photography lately. Some white on white is nice, and frost on stuff can be a good look, and icicles can dress up all sorts of stuff, and there is all sorts of things that can be done with reflections from melting snow, and evergreen trees are a classy and dignified green, and some people like action shots in snow, but (say it with me, with feeling) I'M READY FOR SPRING! I'm ready to see the green of growing things, and whatever blooms come up first.

In the meantime, there's still a ton of snow here. More landed last night. More is forecast. Sigh. Enough of that.

The Amaryllis is blooming, so I've been accumulating photos of that. One day soon you'll get the life cycle of bud to decaying, for the 5 blossom explosion underway here. Stay tuned. Curtis is often supervising while I do this, but his attention was caught by a bird or something in the back yard. He likes snoozing on this cushion and blanket. His fur has picked up a touch of green from the plants.

My inner shark has showed up with me rocking the swim mojo lately. I've been having fun in the water, and getting some nice times again after struggling for much of the last year. I'm still working up to my former times and distances, but I'm trying to be cautious. One of my buddies recently completed the Nevis to St Kitts swim. It's about a 4 K open water swim, and that might be fun to do next year, if the training continues. The inner shark highly approves of this.

Don't ask about the run or the bike.

I've sold another photo! It's fun to go to Resolve and pick out paper. I just saw the print today, and it's better than the version I see on screen. Wow! The print has a real sense of depth for the central part of the flower, and the colours are rich and creamy. It's been signed and I saw a photo of it framed and on the wall. Which photo, you ask? This one, which you've seen before several times.

One of my photos has been published in Impact Magazine! It's an autumn scene in Fish Creek and westward. You can find it on page 55 in the print version. You can see the digital version of the magazine here.

I've been trying to get out for a combination photo ramble and wine kit run, but the driving weather has sucked lately. My thinking is to leave early to find a sunrise mountain shot (pink is the money shot but I'm not going to complain about red or orange), get into Red Deer for breakfast, pick up the kits, and head home. There are 3 kits doing their thing in the basement, with one of them ready for bottling soon.

There's been some interesting bits of writing happening, once I had the wit to start plugging things into an actual timeline. I fixed a few minor timing whoopsies and had a nice idea about a scene. It's still just an idea though. I rewrote one scene to make a whole lot more sense. There's a lovely scene that was so much fun to write (Ronnie beating up Charlie) but I'm not sure where it fits into the rest of the work. This is part of writing some of the behind the scenes stuff that happened, but from the point of view of the antagonist and his world, where they see themselves as the good guys. There's maybe too much going on, but it's a complicated world with lots of players.

Some reading has been on the agenda lately. The latest is Tom Holt, The Management Style of the Supreme Beings is the latest. (God sells earth to some uber-capitalist twins, and decides to retire.) If you like his style of humour, you'll love this. I happily giggled to myself during the entire read. There's another photo book that has an interesting diagram relating ISO, shutter speed, and f stop in a different way than I've seen  before. It took me a while to understand how a lens could be fast or slow, and this explains it differently. I hope the rest is as interesting.

Yes, there's been some slackerpants attitude. I admit it. What do you expect? I have buddies sending me photos of beaches, and blooming flowers, and talking of gardening while wearing a tank top. I assume pants too, but that was left unclear.

There might even be news on the work contract front soon, but I can't talk about that yet.

Another of Curtis, just because.

The blahs

No rainbows and unicorn poop today. Isn't that one of the complaints about social media, that all you see is the good stuff, other people putting on the dog, and leaving you feeling all empty and lonely in your pathetic life?

It's been a blah month for me. Lots of cold weather, a cranky hip keeping me from good sleep and good workouts, and not succeeding as much as hoped in my Facebook/Instagram vacation. Which is still happening, aside from one brief visit to accept a friend request. I'm sort of looking forward to getting back into the groove, but I'll certainly be spending less time there. I'm thinking a session in the morning and maybe another later in the day.

It hasn't been a complete failure. I've spent more time reading both fiction and non-fiction, which was one of the goals. The fiction was The Expanse. There were several non-fiction books, most lately a Paul Zizka book called The Rocky Mountains Rediscovered. It's full of lovely photos. I was drooling a little bit at some of them. Most of them. Almost all of them. But I know in my heart of hearts that I'm not gonna take up mountain climbing to get some of those kinds of shots. Sorry guys.

Working on the book has happened. I figured out a new opening that works better for all concerned. I've also been noodling through a particular scene at a funeral. Not a downer, since one of the versions I was mentally writing ended up with two characters having long overdue sex. No, not at the funeral, they're horny, not perverted. Not sure that will make into the actual writing, but it gave me some clues where they are mentally.

Workouts have sucked, though. Even the idea of daily stretching and core has withered and died, to say nothing of the actual activity. There's been a few swims, and the mojo is there about as well as can be expected for the number of times I've been to the pool. I've regretted the little bit of water running I did after some of the swims. Let's not even talk about actual running, or getting on the bike for a spin session.

Some house stuff has happened, in a semi-erratic sort of way. Two wine kits have been started and are burbling away.

The photography, you ask? I've a number of nice rambles this month, but my head hasn't really been there. I'm not sure why. Last night I was looking over photos from this month, thinking about the Image of the Month. Let me tell you, it's slim pickings. Not sure why. Something about it being cold out, with lots of blah light because I've been a slackerpants not willing to get up for dawn, or go out for night shots.

Here's a couple more from my ramble south of Calgary earlier this week.

 This hill is why I didn't drive the car here. It's much steeper than it looks, and those aren't just snow machine tracks by the fence on the right. Such a lovely blue sky though!

I liked the meandering line of the bottom of the gully.

Another distant skyline shot with some inversion haze.

If you look carefully at the trees, you'll remember seeing another version of this a few days ago.

So yeah, I'm ready for warmer weather. I can't wait to see some leaf green show up in my camera. 

Aside from the whiteout, it was good.

A writer buddy of mine is working on a mystery novel set just west of Calgary. She asked if I had any photos of specific areas in winter. She likes to get the descriptions accurate, and use them as promotional material. Yes, to one of the areas but not in winter, no to the other. Not like going out and taking photos is a hardship or anything.

Wednesday was the day. I packed snowshoes and traction aides, plus winter gear, and my camera gear. I knew the first place, a particular set of waterfalls. Traction aids! Hard pack snow and ice everywhere. Some of the walkways were closed off but people had been ignoring that. Some people even climbed over the rail to get closer to the falls. That's why they make bigger lenses.

The weather was cloudy and the light nothing special, but I thought of these as more description photos, and not art, so that was ok. Once the falls were done I headed for the next two places not all that far apart, which happen to be bridges.

Holy doodle! It's maybe 10 K at most from the waterfall to the first bridge I wanted. It went from calm and cloudy, to snowing a bit, to snowing a lot and fairly windy, to snowing really hard and quite windy, to driving along really carefully in near zero visibility with the wind rocking the car like a big truck had passed me. Maybe it did and I couldn't see it. About the time I was passing a telephone or power pole, the next one would be barely visible in the murk. I crawled along for a while, aborted the trip to the first bridge, and ended up in a parking lot in Bragg Creek to wait it out. This photo is after the snow calmed down a bit. When I first pulled in I couldn't see the trees behind the saloon and didn't want to open the car window.

It was a good time for lunch. Afterward the snow had mostly stopped so I was out to the second bridge, scouting locations. The watery ice was a beautiful blue green.

From there it was off to the next bridge, navigating carefully, and driving really carefully on a twisty turny road. By now the snow and wind had stopped and it was almost a nice day. I found the bridge no problem. As I told my buddy, whatever the map tells you, or you may have heard, this location sucks for getting rid of a body. There's an unless, of course, but we need not get into that here. It's not a good looking bridge or interesting in any way, unlike the pink one I found last year about this time. I took some documentary photos for my buddy and moved along.

You'd think that a remote road so close to the mountains would offer some first rate landscape scenery. I drove along for a while, carefully, looking for it, but no. Blah, blah, and blah. Rolling hills and lots of trees. Maybe in better light there are some possibilities. Maybe in the fall or summer when there is more green than the evergreen trees visible. Maybe. It won't be the first place I think of when looking for a nice dramatic sunrise landscape. Home again, still driving carefully.

After supper (lamb shank, if you must know) I headed out to wash the car. It needed it. At first the pressure washer didn't do anything to the snow. I had to work at it.

It turns out to be good timing. My buddy is about to write the more detailed description soon. I'm looking forward to a FaceTime discussion about it.

My own novel, you ask? That plotting the major events from all the novels on one timeline was a really good idea. I found a bunch of contradictions. It gave me an idea for getting a character from A to B that I had been stuck on. I'm thinking about where the story needs to go after the bit I've written so far, and what needs to go with what in each chunk.

Part of the trouble with the first novel (both chronologically and first written) is that it wasn't sure if it was a murder mystery, a tech thriller, science fiction, or a love story. A novel can be a combination, of course, and that makes it a bit more compelling. But to throw it all in the pot leaves the readers awfully confused. I had weeded out the science fiction part (leaving just a couple teasers), and dialled back on the tech thriller part, trying to find the balance between setting description to help the readers, and having the setting drive the plot. So lots of fun there.

One (big) thing worse, one thing better

So yeah, there were more bombs in the timeline than expected. That's what happens when you only work on one book at a time, when there are several books and they all have a common timeline. I've got the major events in the software now, most with a "WHEN??" to indicate I need to nail down the date. I'm already seeing connections and making notes of things to write.

Mostly Bone and Elixir are good, just a few minor timeline tweaks. It's everything thats in between that is all muddled up. At least I know what the problem is, and can start thinking about fixing it. Once done I'm hoping that some of the other issues will resolve themselves. So I guess in an odd sense, the worse leads to better.

The actually better thing was the swim today. Hot tub first. Then 500 m or so easy, and a bit of drill. I saw a drill where the swimmer touched their hip, shoulder, and head on every stroke. They made it look graceful. I didn't. I had the lifeguards watching me, wondering if they were going to be needed. Not.

Then more hot tub while the pools cleared out and the swim club kids went to school or whatever. Picked a lane and chatted briefly with swim buddies I hadn't seen in a while. Then banged out 500 m in 9 minutes flat without even really trying, everything feeling really smooth. That's a big step forward, and a reward for consistency.  Now to start building some distance again. Water ran afterward. Then more hot tub.

There have been no Ask Me Anything questions. None. Zip. I figure either my readers already know as much as they want to know, or they are horrified at the possibilities of the answers. So this is the last call for AMA.

Lately going out and trying to get planned photos isn't going so well. There have been a few taken along the way, almost by accident, that worked out sort of ok. Here's one of them.

The downfall of being a pantser, revisited

Lately I've been working on the never ending book projects. As one reader said, it's readable but it's mostly rainbows and unicorn poop. Someone wants to make money out of all this, or prevent it from happening for their own reasons. They are the good guy in their head, so what's their story? That has led to a chunk of writing to build conflict into The Sweet Elixir and the other works.

Plus more information about setting and character descriptions, and the actions taking place. Some writers are great at action and you only notice later they never talk to each other. I'm way better at dialogue. Maybe I've watched too many movies or read too many books where the characters talk to each other in elegantly appointed libraries. And yes, one of my characters has a lovely library.

Before I get started you might wish to review the earlier blogs on this topic, here and here. I did a bit of work closing brackets, and that led to a nice book ending scene, providing you don't mind a gap of about 5 or 6 years from the previous chapter.

So I started on the conflict part and have bogged down several times. This guy is a planner and organizer. The thinker behind the scenes. He spends lots of time at a computer working on databases and spreadsheets, thinking. He attends meetings, reviews reports, and pushes his subordinates (not minions) around. There is a word for all that in most readers minds, and that is BORING! I got him out to the field hoping to find a bit more action, and there's some nice scenes.

But this is a slippery guy. He likes to fade into the background, and as a consequence, there are other interesting characters coming forward. A digression here, we are currently watching a fun show called The Librarians. One of the recurring characters in season two is Professor Moriarty, of Sherlock Holmes fame. He made a great villain; better than the titular villain. I'd love to see him again in future episodes, but I don't think it happens. He was smart, capable, charming, and he certainly thought of himself as the the good guy under difficult circumstances. I'm thinking a combination of him, and the Ba'al character in Stargate (but with less ego) as the template for my conflict guy. But the problem with a smart bad guy is that they don't do stupid things, and don't stand around talking when the time has come for an action.

On one hand I learned a bit more about some of those other characters, but it started going down an unrelated path that I think is a separate book entirely. Plus I've run into a couple other problems in maintaining internal logic to the story, one of which has me stalled.

One plot device that infuriates me is obvious blindness or wilful stupidity (and vice versa), so I'm not going to do it to my (hypothetical) readers. I suddenly realized one day that if character X is observant enough to know certain stuff, he certainly would have noted that certain stuff about character Y, which kills dead a certain scene I'd used as a building block, and everything downstream of it. I either have to explain why character X didn't notice when it is entirely to his advantage to have done so, or rewrite the scene, which leads to it's own complications I'm noodling through.

The other is internal timelines. I wrote a nice scene showing how one character meets up with other characters and gets them to do something for her, and builds for a later scene. Problem is that as written it is simultaneously too late and too early for related events that I've already written. I've talked about this before and used some software to help sort things out. Now that I've sort of written myself into a corner I've decided to revisit that software and see if I can't plot my way out again.

However that leads to a couple other things. After the great music update I started down the path of updating software on my various devices, which is still in progress. None the less, I fired up Aeon Timeline on the big screen and started reviewing. It's sort of interesting looking at software again after several years.

The timeline is mostly focused on The Sweet Elixir and that's ok. I can add an arc for the book(s) I've tentatively titled Bone To Elixir, and while I'm at it I should do The Bone in the Digester, since there are complicated things happening in the background across all the books. I'm just now thinking about the best way to do that. It turns out there is an updated version of this software available, and I need to decide if the current version is good enough, or if the newer version has features I want/need.

So now I'm looking at going through the various stories living on the laptop and marking the key scenes in Timeline on the big screen. The trouble is that while they are sequential, I don't have a specific starting date, other than it being any time within a range of several years, which isn't terribly helpful. The conflicts I've discovered will be obvious, and I can only hope that there aren't more revealing themselves along the way. Although in the long term maybe that's best. Even my big screen isn't big enough.

Then comes the tricky part. Making the revisions in Timeline to smooth out the inconsistencies, and then writing the actual scene out and fixing it in the text. This has worked for me on a couple of occasions, where I marked a meet cute scene, then managed to write it out. Yay me! (That couple married, house sat for another couple for a while, and were looking for a house and eventually pregnant with twins as the story ended. Just in case you were wondering.) A couple other ones I marked out on the timeline, and then it went sideways when I tried to write it out. There's some features I'll need to figure out to track the changes to make sure I haven't missed anything. It might be best to start a new version of the various books. Hmmm.

Normally I like to start writing, channel the characters involved, be open to the unexpected, and see what words appear on screen. It leads to discovering interesting things about characters and the situations. The problem is those scenes don't always go together very well. Or at all, hence my current difficulties. You can't let the characters have their own way entirely; that leads to vast piles of unicorn poop, but you can't force them into something that is not them. They'll sulk, and the perceptive readers will say to themselves, wait a second that's not all what character x would do.

In the meantime, I have to cope with this, and the ever so cute snoring noises they produce. There is no place in the house that is silent once Curtis gets started. If I'm even the slightest bit tired, I want to join them for a nap.

I didn't think staying caught up on sleep would be so hard

This retirement thing is harder than I thought. I figured I'd take some vacation, then get into retirement groove, find a routine, and be good to go.

When I'm working, and working out, I'm usually in bed by 9, sometimes earlier. Up at 5. Usually not sleeping the whole night. Busy all day, ready for bed again. It makes for a fast day.

The days go by even faster now. Who knew? I'm trying to get up when I get up, but there's been a surprising number of days I've set the alarm clock. I see no need to drive downtown in rush hour for a swim, so that affects my timing a bit. I've ridden my bike there a few times, which takes a bit of planning.

I've had a couple days where I deliberately planned to do very little, and that's nice. Usually there's something on the schedule. I try to get up and get at it, but a couple things on my list have slipped all week. Really, how difficult can it be to make a phone call and book an appointment?

Today was sleeping in from being up late yesterday (fireworks), then some flower shots, a nice run, (5K in 35 minutes if interested), lunch, working on some macro photos (they will be posted Monday), making some calls to see if something ordered has come in. I found out too late it had, but I wasn't going to drive there on the off chance. So installing that can't happen until Monday. There will be photos.

Yesterday was a nice swim, and a chat with some buddies I see at the pool. One of them tied right into recent blog topics, and it was interesting to get another take on the situation from someone else in the industry.

I certainly don't want to get in a rut, doing the same old same old every day. But part of a fitness routine is that it is a routine. Regular. That hasn't happened so much since my race in June. How can that be two months ago, so fast?? It seems there is always something bumping my schedule around. Oh well, it just makes life more interesting.

One bit of interesting was my uncle contacting me via Facebook. I'd hand written (HAND WRITTEN people, when was the last time you hand wrote a letter?) a letter to my Granny who will be 98 later this year. I made the mistake of mentioning the writing. She's been on my case about the book I've been writing since shortly after starting it. My regular readers will know that book is far older than this blog, and has undergone far more revision and transformation. It's oscillated between being a techno thriller, a love story, and a mystery. It's opened and expanded out into a far bigger story, but what's important about it being a book is that it's not a commercial property. I couldn't easily market it, mainly because it isn't an easily defined genre, and worse, it doesn't follow a standard plot outline. That makes editors nervous.

It's also huge, something on the order of 350K words. After some back and forth with my uncle, I sent hime a text file for The Bone in the Digester. He went back and forth with it on his laptop to find an app that would open it and look like something Granny might read. Well, no. It took less time than the laptop took starting, for Granny to decide it wasn't a book, and she wasn't going to read it on screen. She wanted paper in her hands.

Sorry, Granny, it's not going to happen. I am not going to kill a bunch of trees to print out a draft copy, and put a dent in my bank account mailing it. Neither am I going to burden other relatives with the concept of taking a file to a local printshop and transporting the resulting pile of paper to Granny. Just my luck she wouldn't like a mound of paper either, because it isn't a bound book.

The current work is about a new character, and I don't know him and the people around him as well as I know my other characters. Right now I'm stuck on something, and I think I need to give it a bit of a rest. It's worked in the past. Or I could skip back to the other books and work on them. Or I could pick up the camera and take photos.

Here's some of the recent flower photos. I know some of you are a junky needing your fix. Not sure what I'm going to be able to do for you during the winter.

A bike ride in Fish Creek

No this isn't some virtual trainer ride on some fancy computer software.

Real bikes.

Real Provincial Park.

Real sunshine and actual nice weather.

Real buddies to ride with.

Real awesome! Thanks for inviting me along.

I figured out my novel blockage this morning. The aha moment came as I was brushing my teeth. This scene I had written was ok for bare bones sketching, but then I stopped. I knew what was supposed to happen next, but the way that first scene played out, the next scene started looking a little more implausible.

The solution is that scene doesn't have to happen there. It can happen later. And later opens up a way to do it slightly differently, betterly. It sounds like it should be easy, but for some reason it wasn't. I want to put obstacles in my guy's path and this scene was one of them. I guess it wasn't the right obstacle. There will be others. I wrote about a thousand words waiting for them to change the oil in the car. A bit more writing tonight and I should crash through 10K words. Yay me!

Except, no, not really. It's the 21st, and I should have about 35K words. So I'm just a little behind schedule here. If I'm going to make the NaNoWriMo goal, I'm really going to need to buckle down the rest of the month. So if I'm a little slow to answer a text...

But when my buddies called and asked if I wanted in on a nice easy ride in the park, I said yes. Actually I said YES! Long time readers know I'm a bit of a weenie on the bike, but it was just a hair under my border of 10C, and it was so sunny out. Plus it's not out on the road exposed to wind and buffeting from cars. I was dressed and waiting for them.

There were a ton of people in the park with lots of walkers and quite a few bike riders. No runners though. I was surprised. Sure, it's nice out, but it's a week day. I guess I'm still getting used to how many people are around various places during the day.

Once in the park we meandered along the gravel paths and through picnic areas. The river is frozen all sorts of different ways, with some areas open and in others the ice is thick enough to walk on. We looked at a little dam someone made out of stones for a few minutes. Some of the stones had these cute little ice caps on. My buddy Neil would have been in the water to get the shot, but I didn't even bring a camera. I just wanted to enjoy the day with my eyes. I didn't even track the ride.

It was nice riding along, not thinking about having to be somewhere. Normally if I'm on a bike in Fish Creek I'm going somewhere, even if it's looking for a spot to take photos. I just followed them and stopped when they stopped. I'm feeling great after the fresh air injection.

More keywording in Lightroom after I got back. We rode past this place today but didn't stop. I suspect it would be frozen over or nearly so. There isn't much of a current. It's a reminder of a beautiful summer day.

Run. Beach. Shorts. November

This run map makes total sense, right?

When I was shooting some sunrise photos I found this bit of trail right down by the water. No idea how far it went, but my run buddy (best ever!) was keen to explore. We got down the only way I knew to find it, ran past the canoe club and turned around at a little inlet I hadn't known was there. We ran back along the shore, past the picnic area, and almost into Weasel Head. Scrambled up a slope, then back and forth a bit, and around a wetland I hadn't known was there.

I wished I had the good camera.

As always, we had a good time chatting, marveling at the warm weather. I wore shorts, she wore capri's. We found lots of new stuff we'd never known was there in North Glenmore park. The trail was a mix of stuff, lots of packed gravel, some clay, a bit of almost bog, all very nice to run on.

We went 10 K, 1:22, but we didn't care about the time. It was so nice to run along the water and enjoy the changing views, and just be outside when it's so nice out.

Linda is putting the final touches on putting the garden to bed. Believe it or not, there is still some bloom!

Here's part of the garden a little more affected by the cold weather.

Finally over 5K words! At this point I doubt much of will make it into the final edit, but what the heck. I think this is one of the places I need to blither a whole bunch of words to find out what is going on and how they get there. Then I can figure out the best way to tell that bit. It won't be the first time I've written myself three sides around the square, then later figure out how to do it better.

Here's a little snippet, just because I'm so good to you guys.

The room was larger than he remembered, and he didn’t see any of his own people, not that he would have sat with them. He picked out a tall chair at a long counter where he could watch most of the room. He enjoyed every sip of coffee. It just wasn’t this good at home.

“Been a long time. Join you?”

Regan was a little startled. How does he do that? He hadn’t noticed Davenport approaching and gestured to the next chair.

Davenport settled himself and took a sip of coffee. “I love how they do it here. Always just right.” He smiled the affable smile that he knew irritated Regan.

“Yes.” Bastard. He’s doing it again.

“Now you’re wondering if this is a chance meeting. Perhaps it is. The other possibilities you’ve probably already considered is that I knew you were coming and have been waiting, or that someone was watching for you and told me.”

Calm. Calm. “It matters little. As you say, it’s been a while. I thought it would be nice to escape my office and visit old friends.”

Davenports eyebrows went up a fraction. “Your influence must be growing if you can persuade your Chairman to counter sign your travel authorization, just to visit old friends.”

“Perhaps it is. You’ve probably already considered that I knew you would hear of my coming here, and that I was sent in expectation of that.”

“Your people are big on sending, I have to admit that.” Davenport waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “We both know we can both dance around the small talk all day, and we’re both busy people. Shall you get to the point, or shall I finish my coffee and be about my business?”

First the closet, then the world

Curtis has learned to open the closet near the front door. I'm not sure why. As far as I know there's just a shoe rack on the floor. It's not even the shoes in daily circulation, so I don't know what would interest him enough to go through the effort of opening it. What I'm worried about is that he figures it's the first step to figuring out the front door. I've seen him pawing at the handle, and sniffing the deadbolt. He watches as we open it.

I've been thinking of this photo over the last little while. One of my buddies is struck by the number of celebrities that have passed recently. She was on about Bowie, but I'm pretty sure some will be swooning about Cohen and Vaughn. Some see Trump being elected as a sign of the coming apocalypse.

People sometimes talk about wanting to go back to bed and pull the covers over their head for a while. Curtis looks like he is hiding in the closet and trying to decide if it's safe to come out. The house is safe for him, but he doesn't believe me when I tell him the world is a tough place for kitties.

In the past I've tended to either lose myself for a while in a book or a movie when the going gets tough. Once I picked The Blues Brothers and that turned me onto the blues, a form of music that I hadn't been much exposed to. Once it was Being There, and for the first half of it I was wondering what the heck I was doing there.

Today I was lost in the novel, and managed to pound out about 1500 words. I'm still way behind. This is more difficult than I expected, telling the "bad guys" story from his point of view. He's very much a facts and figures kind of guy, looking at the world rationally. His colleagues respect him but are a little afraid of him. He is polite and soft spoken, though he doesn't say much. His internal thoughts are a joy to listen to, in a potty-mouthed sort of way. He doesn't know that in one important way he is completely blind.

It's also more difficult because it has to dovetail at least somewhat with what I've already written, though I always reserve the right to have a better idea. It's only pixels now, I can go back and revise.

The other difficulty is more subtle. At the moment I don't know exactly what year the story starts in, though it's almost certainly sometime between the early 70's and the early 90's. That gives a lot of ground for fitting in with other parts of the story, which is good. But in another I have to be careful about mentions of computer or communications technology. I know that parts of the story that take place later, his operation makes sophisticated use of those technologies to make money by manipulating the stock market. Presumably he also did in the timeframe that I'm writing about now, but I don't want to have to describe the details just yet. Such are the tribulations of a writer.

Then winter, now summer again

Last week we had this.

This week we get this.

You just never know with Calgary.

I think some of you missed the image of the month in yesterday's blog.

And writing, after a long morning photo shoot. I'm a little behind, but not worried. There's a bit of world building happening.

Swimming and writing

And I'm off to the races!

Before the swim I was hanging out in the bleachers watching the swim kids kick their brains out because it was really busy and I wanted a contemplative swim. Lots of them can flutter kick down the pool faster than I can swim it. Whoosh! Still, I was watching their feet, and started thinking about ways to change up my kick.

Several times during the swim I thought I was swimming faster. I started in a lane with the other people swimming slower than me. Soon two of them left, and I didn't even have to pass them. Two others joined and I later learned they were a Rob and Sara that recently did the Germany Roth Challenge. I swim a little bit faster than she does, he swims a lot faster than me, and looks more relaxed doing it.

1000 m, 19:30 long course, nice and easy.
4x100 on 2, 1:35 to 1:45, then 100 really strong, 95 seconds. All of this was with me concentrating on my kick. For most triathletes our kick is lazy. We know our legs have to power us through a long bike and run, so we let our arms to do the work in the water. I'd read that you should kick from the hip with a straight leg. That doesn't get me anywhere. But it looks like the swim kids are bending their knees a bit and the flutter has a bit of vertical whip in it. So I tried that. Hmmm. So far so good, though I have to think about my roll now. There's always something.

500 easy, 9:30 or so, to top off a really good swim day.

At home after another coffee and second breakfast I buckled down to NaNoWriMo. After a bit of setup, and figuring how to get italic text to show up in my document to indicate what a person is thinking, I got a good start. I think there's going to be a lot of this character's thinking. So far his inside voice is a bit of a potty mouth. See the stats below. I might write more tonight, or I might watch Fargo the TV show.

Lastly, I clicked the camera shutter 2178 times in October. Of those, I liked 182 images enough to process in Lightroom and save to a separate folder. That's 8.3% which is a fairly high percentage of keepers as these things go. Then again, sometimes I develop things just for the practice.

Without further ado, here is the October image of the month. Ta da!

So it begins.

Winter.
This was my view this morning on a photo scouting trip.

Yes, it was snowing briefly, but more will come.  Yes, I could have removed some of that haze and snow using Lightroom, but it suits my mood this morning.

The intent was to find a spot for shooting tail light trails, but the geography is a bit different when you walk it, so I didn't get quite the view I had wanted. There is one shot with some interesting light trails in the river, if you know exactly where to look, and use your imagination a little.

However, I was surprised and got this view.

You can be forgiven for asking, WTF am I looking at? That's digester number 12, plus the PGH building, and what caught my eye is the two flares. Normally the digesters produce enough gas to run two generator sets at full output with just a little left over. This is more than the little bit left over, so maybe they're doing some work of some kind.

But that's not the important part, it's just what caught my eye. Of all the places I've ever worked, this one has the biggest hold on my imagination and so is the place where my NaNoWriMo is going to kick off. My protagonist, Ceridwen Burns works there, and her version of the plant is extremely interesting in a special way (3 almost-books worth), beyond the fact that a body was once found there and that there is a monastery on the plant grounds. The intent of this month's writing is to blitz out 50K words starting with the discovery of the plant and my protagonist.

Here's what's first, as of now, and it might change.

"What do you mean, it's not done? How can it be there and not done?"

"I tried, sir, really. Two steps and I got a splitting headache. I could barely see and lucky to get out before I puked."

"A headache. I send you off to find the answer to a simple question, and you tell me you came back because of a headache. Would you care to tell me why I employ you?"

"Results sir. I'll try again tomorrow, and take some aspirin first."

Regan eyed his employee with a tight smile for a long moment. "In your experience, do I like waiting for results?" he asked softly.

"No sir!"

"What does that tell about when you're going to take your pills?"

"Now, sir?"

Regan smiled his tight smile again, and waved one hand as if brushing fluff off a sleeve.

Battery discharge recharge

A four day weekend can zip by awfully quickly when you are buried deep in your book, and you get a couple visits with friends in. Friday was a lovely coffee with a buddy. Saturday we headed way north to the Symon's Valley Farmer's Market to check it out, and meet up with a work and blog buddy. The market is nice, with very friendly merchants, but given the 40 minute drive we won't become regulars. We really enjoyed getting caught up.

Workouts were a mix. The spin on Friday was excellent! 15 min warmup, 1 hour at 160 to 170 watts at different cadences, then 15 min cool down. Stretching. I didn't think it had taken that much out of me, but it appears so.

The run on saturday started with this.

I was feeling a bit clunky and briskly walked a whole K to warm up. My right quad wasn't feeling the run love. Part way along I got this.

If it had been a 6 K run it would go into the books as good, exactly as planned. Nice and easy about a 7:30/K pace, even though I was feeling heavy on my feet. My quads were not happy at all. At this point I was still running beside the reservoir.

If I'd known it was ending at 7 K I could have gutted it out. But I was still a long way from home, and  the actual pain was starting. No bears were chasing me, so I walked home. I'm not sure why a walk pace sends the purple cadence line all over the place, but it's a pretty good description of how I was feeling. I hope this is the worst run this year. By the time I got home my legs were feeling somewhat better.

I took it easy Sunday, with only some light stretching. On Monday my quads were actually talking to me again, and not swearing. I got on the bike for an easy half hour spin session. There were only a couple minor twinges. First run off the bike since last summer. It was a beautiful warm day and I didn't even have to change. 3K, 18:36! I think this is the fastest 3 K ever. Towards the end I was getting a bit tired. This felt like about a 5 K race pace for me right now. My next race I only have to run 3 K, so this is all good.

The real news this weekend is that I dived into my book, and pounded out 10K words! I'd written myself into a little bit of a corner, and noodled about it for a while. Then I backed up a bit, and rampaged off. Lots happening. I'm up over 58K words now, and I may have gotten into what the book is actually about.

Curtis, the literary cat that he is, supervised. A few times he tried getting his paws on the keyboard to put in his own suggestions. I've told him he can start his own book, and put in whatever words he wants.

There seems to be a bit of an inverse relationship between the number of hours I put in at work, and the number of words that get written. I'm not sure why that is, but I'm enjoying it when the words flow. I'm not sure if any of it is worthy of a snippet here, I'll have to think about that.

And with that, the long long weekend is over, and not another one till May.

The laser goes POP POP POP!

After what seems a wonderful long time of nice weather, for Calgary, in February, we have a day of cold dankness. Foggy. A bit of snow. Freezing rain. Glad I'm not out in it.

Except I was, off to a coffee shop to chat with a buddy. She is about to start one of the biggest adventures of her adult life, and I was there to cheer her on, and tell her that while right now there doesn't seem to be much light at the end of the tunnel, that's part of her task, to install the light.

After the fast 5 K run on Tuesday my legs felt great! They continued to feel good after a solid swim on Wed. 1K 18:30, 5x100 on 2, 1:37 rest at 1:42 or 3. 150 m backstroke to cool down. I felt sorry for the teach pool. They've been having some problems with, and are taking serious action.

Serious action.

It hurts my soul to see a swimming pool that colour. The life guards are just as disgusted, but they've gotta do what they gotta do.

So the laser. We've all been fed a diet of the sound a laser makes in the movies, a high pitched screeching sound, with the villain cackling "No Mr Bond, I expect you to die!" But they don't. They go POP POP POP for a while, very quickly, fairly loudly. The occasion was the stubborn mole on my nose. It came back.

They said I shouldn't swim Friday like I planned, so after coffee with my buddy I got on the bike for 1.5 hours. 15 min warmup, steady at 160 to 170 watts for an hour, in various gears to play with cadence and effort. Just towards the end it was falling apart a little. Thursday was a rest day, though my legs didn't really feel like they needed it.

Bjuold is one of my favourite authors, and Miles Vorkosigan and the motley crew around him are some of my favourite characters. This is the most recent book in the long series. She normally writes from a "what's the worst that could happen to my character?" and that leads to interesting places. Not this time. I was a little disappointed. Still, it's nice to see some of the characters find some happiness. A fast easy read, but not the place to start the series, even though the plant they are on is where the series started, and my goodness what a long strange trip is. Come to think of it, this book is massive spoilers for much of the rest of the series.

My own novel is being stubborn at the moment. The characters are all talking to me, just not about the point where Ceridwen realizes she's been deceived about something. I mostly know where the story goes after this, but I'm not sure how to get over this little hump. I'm at the point of just picking up a bit later to see where it all ends up, then I can write this particular bit.

Currently

I haven't done one of these prompted blogs for a while. My buddies Leana and Janice had done them.

Awaiting
All things come to those that wait. Except I like chasing the things I want. I'm keen to see how I do in the March mini-triathlon at Talisman. Sooner or later I'll make a decision about doing a marathon in 2016.

Experiencing
Life as a semi-retired person is lovely! Every weekend is a 3 day weekend. So far there's been plans for every Friday, including next Friday. It's nice to have the option of going out for breakfast on Friday when the crowds aren't so bad.

Working on
Stuff! Yes, so much stuff! I should insert a bullet list here so you can keep it all straight. Fitness. Another novel in the Dwen's Worlds series. Still trying to push my aging body into further fitness gains. 80% time at paying work.  Catching up on some of the house tasks that had got away from me. Getting paperwork in line for personal income tax, then a bit later for corporate tax time. I keep saying I want to set up a system, and I'm getting there.

Watching
House of Cards, the American version. Loving it! The scheming, twisting, lying, and downright smarminess is lovely to watch. We're in the middle of season 3 right now.

Next is season 3 of Elementary. Related to that we watched the one movie episode of Sherlock that was partially set back in Victorian times.

Linda is in the middle of Game of Thrones, but I don't know where, or who's doing what to who. I can't watch it; It seems like every few minutes someone is screaming in agony. Even the gratuitous display of boobs doesn't make up for that.

Avoiding
Some of the items on my to do list. There are wine bottles to be cleaned, and I haven't been in the mood. One of these days.

Reading
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Captivating so far. Set in WWII France. The tale of two very different sisters.

Loving
3 day weekends every weekend! Being able to run and bike and swim, though not so far or fast as I would like. Considering other people my age, I'll take it.

Hating
I'm not a big hater. That's too much emotion to waste. I'm more of an ignorer. I look over it.

Thinking
I like to think of myself as a thinker. Deep thoughts. Plans for world domination. Connections between apparently unrelated things. At work this leads to me creating complicated multi-tab spreadsheets that I end up having to explain to people. People have such difficulty comparing two complicated sets of data through views like Jurnum=Jurnum but SN<>SN or location<>location or status<>status, which is 3 tabs right there and I'm barely getting started. 

Most times my novel characters are doing stuff in my head, and I try to keep track of what they're up to. Sometimes it's just stuff they're doing that has no bearing on the novel, such as the day the buddies had a chili-cook off (Les had the hottest, Belinda had the tastiest/best balanced, Ronnie had the one needing most tequila after, Zoe had the best vegetarian, and Llywelyn had the best cole slaw side.) All of them complained about the lack of impartiality by the judge, and the judge made it clear they'd all tried to bribe her. When I ask who won the farting contest that was sure to follow, they just smirk at me. Other times I suddenly realize what they are up to is the next bit of the book and I hustle to the laptop. Last time I was in the shower, and couldn't wait to dry off. That was where I'd realized the guy who had been shot was, oops, I've said too much.

In fitness news, the indoor run Monday was a bit of a slog. A lot of a slog, actually. My feet did not feel like running. 4K, 30 minutes. The one lap I tried to push a bit faster (224 m in 1:20, which is a fraction under a 6 min /K pace) it was actually beginning to hurt a bit.

The swim today was sort of better, I think. 500 m in 9:30 (long course) and it seemed like I was working really hard for that. 3x100 all about 1:43. Two separate 100's nearly all out was 95 seconds. It took till about then to start feeling the water, and by then my arms were tired. A few more 100's fairly easy and cool down and I called it a morning. I had the whole 50 m lane to myself the entire swim, and for much of it I was the only person in the pool. That doesn't happen often.

I'm a bit puzzled by the swim. I counted heartbeats after one of the fast 100's, and it was 124, dropping to 95 or so in a minute. Yet I'm breathing all out by the end. The swim kids in the next lane were zooming past. I need stronger arms and less drag and more lung power.

Weekend watching

Part of owning a home is doing maintenance on it. Or rather, to be more precise in this case, paying others to do maintenance on it. There are some basic tools in the basement. Some of them are even electrical power tools. Previous of my jobs have required the use of various tools in tasks not unrelated to home maintenance. I've done lots of various home maintenance tasks before.

But.

That was then. I'm much more aware of what can go wrong with plumbing or electrical stuff. There's always a part or tool you need that you don't have, and you have to put things on hold to go get it, knowing, KNOWING, that this won't be your only trip.

Now I'm much more willing to pay others to get their hands dirty, and deal with the inevitable issues that come up. So for example. This tap dribbles. We've done the take it apart and soak it in vinegar and scrub with a toothbrush thing. It just dribbles worse now. Turns out you can't get parts for it anymore, at least not through the plumbing distributers.

Some people take this as a challenge and go hunting. Not me. The kitchen tap is much more than a decade old. The replacement tap isn't expensive. I have a limited (but hopefully large)  number of hours left on earth, and I don't want to spend them chasing tap parts. It's easier to earn the money to buy it, and have the moral satisfaction of keeping the economy going.

This tap is even older, and the handle has got all floppy and takes a bit of doing to turn off the water. It needs a new cartridge, whatever that means, plus a plumber with special tools to replace it. Kind of a pity, because we really like these taps.

In preparation. You don't want to know what we took out of there.

One of the things we took out of there was a video tape (you younger readers can google that, it's a real, if old, thing) giving instructions for the care and feeding of the counter surface. That counter was installed mid-90's or so. It's been sitting there for 20 years. You don't want to know what it's been buried under.

Replacing the taps was straightforward, for him. Once the old ones came out, I was glad I hadn't tried to tackle it. There is a tool that makes some of it much easier as you're working up behind the sinks. Plus there's a bit of fiddly stuff, and the instructions look really complicated. I'm happy to pay an expert.

There was also a bit of hot water tank maintenance, plus piping related to a furnace humidifier. All went well. I'm glad I didn't try that either.

In fact, the only problem turned out to be the kitchen drain line. We'd known the drain was slowing down, so I'd asked him to look at the P trap while he was under there. I just assumed that was full of guck. That was fine, though there was just a bit of "mung," as he called it, in the little almost horizontal section of pipe under the sink. We tested the drain after, and the first few seconds were awesome! Then it slowed down, and drained even more slowly than I had remembered. Then the other sink started filling up.

"Oh oh" he said. We went down to look at drain piping. There's a long run of pipe to the main drain stack. It was clear there was a low spot on the piping. Tapping it sounded full. Shaking the pipe didn't produce any sloshing or draining noises. "Oh oh," he said again. "I don't have the drain clean out tools, and I don't have the amount of pipe to cut that out and replace it. Plus you'd have to move all those books. Drain clean out time."

That guy and his specialized tools arrived the next day, and produced cat frightening noises. He did the kitchen sink drain, and the ensuite shower drain just because the second drain was half price. The kitchen sink drain works awesome now, sucking down with a whirlpool forming. The shower drain works better. Trying to do this myself, even with rented tools would be a frustrating use of time at best. At worst it would be trivially easy to create a horrendous mess from what used to be caked inside the drains. Need I elaborate? I thought not.

The only unfortunate thing is that I didn't get my run done while it was nice Friday afternoon. Thursday was a much needed rest day, and Friday an extra rest day, which isn't a bad thing in my books after 6 days in a row doing something every day. One of the things about the nice weather is that this becomes the running surface.

Saturday morning was a swim. We got in a half hour swim in the dive tank till we got kicked out, but by then the main pool had cleared out a bit. I joined a lane with 3 other people swimming my speed and had a fast K or so, plus some various intervals going harder.

There I am at the end of the pool, looking around wondering where Michelle and Amy have got to, when I hear my name. I can't see squat without my glasses, but it's the two women that had been water running in the next lane. Once she called again I recognized Rose's voice, and joined them to run for a bit as she and Madi had a long run and were looking for diversion. We chatted a bit, then Michelle and Amy dragged me off to the hot tub. Then breakfast. Yummy!

Today was a 100 minute spin. Longish warmup. 40 minutes at 150 to 160 watts in various gears at various cadences. Then some hard short intervals, and a cool down. It's feeling really good.

I'm pretty pleased with my month of workouts. Some people write up a calendar with planned workouts. I write down what I actually do. If you look carefully, you can see the novel writing progress as well. (At this very moment, the project is at 45203 words, and I'll be back at it as soon as I'm done writing the blog. The things I do for you guys!)

In the shower after I had some brainwaves about the book. I know what the next bits are. One of my characters is lying to a cop, and here I thought she was a good girl. Things are getting complicated.