Thoughts on a Thursday

Finally, after three weeks of distractions, I was able to post the next installment of the serial yesterday.  What with flu shot poisoning, then making up for that lost week, followed by cleaning the house and having my sister visit last week...well, the story didn't just take a back seat, it ended up in the trunk.

It was a good day to write.  The anticipated warm weather has been kicked aside by an endless barrage of storms for over a week now--I'm not complaining!!--though by tomorrow the sun is due to return.  I'm okay with that.  Indian Summer is a special time in the Northwest and I'm very much looking forward to it.

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NaNo starts in a few weeks.  Several months ago I expected to have the serial finished by now so I would be free to write a new story.  Hasn't happened.  Maybe if I sat down and really hammered out the plot, I could finish the Library of Souls by November 1st, but the thing is, I don't want to do it that way.  Besides, I'm all embroiled in it right now and don't even have another tale in mind.

Still.  I haven't missed NaNo since I started in 2009.  That's not to say I finish every year, but I do sign up and participate.  I don't know.  Between the 52s, my photography, the serial, and life in general, I might have to pass this year.   I wonder why that feels like a cop-out...

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This is Week 40 of the 52s.  Isn't that sort of amazing?  I remember Week One and thinking I would never find a new adventure every week.  Another thing about Week 40 though...it means the end of the year is only 12 weeks away.  12 weeks!  How did that happen?  Tempus fugit, peeps, and faster than a speeding bullet.

I have an idea for this week's adventure.  With any luck at all, I'm going to do it either tomorrow or Saturday.  We'll see how it plays.  My ideas always sound great in theory but sometimes--okay, often--they don't work outside my head.  Such is life...

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With all the storms and clouds and squalls, I've gotten some dazzling sunset photos this week.  I have a thing for sunsets.  I've taken hundreds of shots in a multitude of places around the globe.  To some folks any sunset is as good as the next.  Not to me.  I equate them with snowflakes: unique and beautiful and fleeting.

Last night.  After a serious downpour, sky dark and ominous, the sun broke through the clouds just as it was setting behind the mountains...

A most excellent way for Mother Nature to say goodnight...don't you think?

Birthdays, Pens and Portals...

Today is Ozzy's 10th birthday.  Ten years.  How is that possible?  There have been so many changes since that wintry cold Sunday in Edinburgh when he came to live with us.  I can see him clearly in my mind, this tiny little creature, all fluffy blacks and whites, shaking and scared...until I picked him up and cuddled him, and just like that, he was mine.  I still pick him up the same way and he still snuggles into my neck.  

Where has the time gone?  Wasn't he just a puppy the other day?  I won't go into how it tears at my heart to see the gray around his eyes, see the signs of age in his face; how hard it is to swallow around the lump in my throat.  But we don't need to go there, not today.

Happy Birthday, sweet boy...and just look at your handsome 10 year old self:

 

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I was reading a post on Lynn's site (Paperback Writer) the other day about the 2013 Handwriting Contest, sponsored by Fahrney Pens.  You have to write a story, haiku, poem, whatever, that relates to handwriting or pens in some way, but you have to actually write it.  By hand.  The winner gets a totally cool pen worth over $300.  I used to love writing and had a pretty good hand, though nowadays it's far easier and faster to type.  Still.  I was intrigued.  Yesterday I wrote my haiku and sent it off.  It doesn't matter if I win or not, it was the fun of it, and the act of holding the pen and writing the words.

My handwriting used to be much better, but I'm out of practice.  Here's what I wrote:

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Late yesterday, walking back from my hike to the mail box, the clouds, the sky, the winds high in the atmosphere, were making the most incredible display of shapes and colors.  I tried to hurry the boys along so I could get my camera, but as is usually the case, the minute I hurry, they lag.  By the time we got home and I snagged the camera, it was already too late to take a picture of a bizarre cotton ball effect in one section of clouds, though I did get these...

But then.

I was closing the blinds as it was getting dark, when this most beautiful vision of cloud and sun appeared on the horizon.  It was so amazing, I almost forgot to take a photo.  I think this is one of my favorite shots of all time.

I'm calling it Portal.  Can you get what I mean by that?

Our world is so fantastic.  I wish everyone could see it...