Oh Wind, If Winter Comes . . .

Yikes, winter is back. Cold wind. Shrivelled rhododendums. Ice on the slough again. Ducks ain't gonna like that. Chives regretting they poked green tips above the cold ground.

Well, it was good to have a break. I think I am officially caught up with my homecoming chores. Now, if only the house were clean.

Today has been a lazy day, which is to say I lay in bed all afternoon and read. Of course, I really could do this every day, but a weird puritan streak keeps me up and about. The cats have NO problem whatsoever sleeping and lazing about all day.

I finished a great book by a woman who became caught up in the cocaine trade in Colombia in the early 70's. The co-author was a wonderful writer who really took you there, and the last 1/3 of the book was a tension-filled pounding adventure. Just what I'm trying to write. I read it as background for the Colombian "stuff." I had not expected it to be so good. The Book is The Last Run by Kay Wolff and Sybil Taylor. Good stuff. Great descriptions. Think I'll write a review for Amazon.

I had done so much research on Colombian for my robot fish short story that I knew where most everyplace was.

A Writer's Day

My life seems normal to me, but sometimes I wonder. Today--up early, read papers, and start up bean soup. The ham bone to die for, soaked beans, onions, celery carrots, herbs, chicken broth, all bean soupy ingredients. And garlic. Lots of garlic. Get the soup going and iron all the Christmas napkins, etc. Marathon ironing.

The infamous ham bone!

We run errands for the umteenth day in a row. Huge backlog of errands, still. Finally home and ready to start on the robot fish. Eeek! The CNN video of the Colombian Navy boarding the drug submarine has disappeared. I find lots of other stuff, including some very interesting details about the Cali cartel, and it turns out I have actually intuited lots of good stuff in my In Flight book. Save and print huge amounts of drug trivia and not so trivia. The novel fed the short story and now the short story is feeding the novel and I am learning all kinds of interesting facts about the cocaine trade. Just what every woman needs to know.

S.O. and Annie are taking a nap, and I'm going to sneak upstairs and watch the food channel. So far not one word written but lots of good fodder.

And the soup upstairs, looking yummier by the minute and calling my name.

Grapeshot!

Yup!