Roughing It...

I've spent the weekend writing in my trailer, which is parked at the in-laws' place in Morgan Hill. It's been a really productive time.

I left my house late Friday night, stopped at the grocery store in Morgan Hill and got some fruit, some bagels and cream cheese, some sourdough, some juice. I got here about 10pm, and watched a movie on my laptop, which is how I get myself into the groove.

I managed to get some work done on my "witch" story, and then went to bed about 4am. I work best in the early hours - there's something about the silence and the dark that lets me plug into my worlds so much more completely than any other time.

I woke up at 11am, spent some time alternating between watching a movie and writing until about 3pm, when it got really hot - it was probably about 80 degrees outside, which is hardly uncomfortable, but the trailer has no insulation, so when the sun shines down on the roof, which is still covered by a tarp, the whole thing heats up like a sweat box. I have fans going throughout, the door and all the windows are open, but it still does no good. I wound up sleeping from about 3:30 to 6pm, at which point the air outside was getting cool enough to let me concentrate on working again.

I've been thinking about how to increase the insulation or decrease the heat, or whatever, and I have a few ideas. I read a study once on the lifestyle of the Bedouin. One of the sections was about their tents and how they survive in one of the hottest places on Earth. Bedouin tents are always black wool, and it turns out that inside the tent, it's an average of 10 degrees cooler. You'd think that a reflective surface would be preferable, wouldn't you?

My hypothesis about this is that the black tent does absorb a lot of the sun's energy, but it holds on to it, so that there's relatively little energy to transfer to the interior of the tent. I had the thought that perhaps I could try stringing a black tarp over the trailer, but not touching it, and see if that had the same affect. The back end of the trailer is already under a tree, and I know that it's always cooler in the bathroom, say, than in the front dining area, where I work, which is under full sun. I'm not yet sure how to get a tarp up like that, but the trailer is parked next to my father-in-law's workshop, and it might be possible to attach the tarp to that somehow.

Anyway, just a thought. I'm going to have to come up with something soon, however, because it can get to 110 degrees here in the summer, and I can't imagine it would be even possible to be in the trailer without an air conditioning unit at that point.

I got up this morning at 9am, and I sat down to do some writing in my blog first - my brother-in-law set my laptop up to be able to access the in-laws' encrypted wireless network, so while the cell phone can't work this far up into the hills, I can now get to the internet, which has got Jeff feeling a lot better. He hates it when he can't get hold of me.

Ok, that's it for this morning. Back to work on the "witch" story now.

For your viewing pleasure: Rather like the "Super Stooges" of a few days ago, here's "Killer Horse Saves Baby", courtesy of some strange Indian movie from the 80's.



Toodles

I feel like 20 miles of bad road, but that's a good thing. Today was a lot of fun, and I'm tired and achy as a result.

First, you have to know that my last job turned me into a cubicle zombie. The glassy stare, the shuffling feet, the gray-pallored expression, the complete inability to either get or make a joke... yup, I had ALL the symptoms. I plugged my brain into the company's network and they took over from there.

As a result, I ceased to have a life outside work. When I came home every night, Elise would ask me to play, and I had to tell her, "Nope, honey, gotta work."

It's actually a bit disturbing how I keep meeting people I haven't seen in a long time, and the first words out of their mouths, generally, are "Wow, you look really happy".

So... Today I went to Elise's 2nd grade class, fixed a couple of computers for the teacher, and taught the first kid how to do basic research on the internet. I helped the teacher, and played with the kids, and now all my muscles ache and my face is a bit red from being in the sun at recess.

I need to get through the whole class of kids, and there's only eleven days of school left, which means I'll probably have to start taking them two at a time. I'm going back tomorrow, and then I'm going to take off early for the trailer, and spend Friday night, Saturday night and part of Sunday there as well. I've got a bunch of work to do to polish the pieces that are going into my portfolio.

I'll leave you with a song I really like - oddly enough, one of two that Marilyn Manson has done that I've enjoyed: This is Halloween

Toodles

Another Wonderful Day in LaLa Land

Not a lot to report today. The job hunt is going well, and the portfolio moves along. I have two novella-length stories and one short story completed and ready to go, the first 20 pages of a full-length manuscript, the first 20 pages of a creative non-fiction work, and I have two more manuscripts that still need some development and polishing before they're ready. If the muse continues to smile down on me and I'm diligent, that's about a month's worth of work.

I'm really enjoying getting to be a mom again. I'm going to be teaching keyboarding skills to Elise's 2nd grade class beginning on Thursday. I still need to find a giant keyboard map, and do a bit of web-searching to come up with the best approach for kids that age, but I'm really excited about it -it's going to be a blast.

I'm having lunch today with two of my tech writer friends, people I really liked and have missed: Colleen, a now-ex-coworker at Atypon, and Joanne, who used to work at Atypon and moved on to something better a while ago.

What I'm listening to today: The soundtrack for Angels and Demons. I loved the soundtrack for The Davinci Code, and Hans Zimmer has done it again with this one. My favorite track so far: "Science and Religion". I personally believe that anyone who has truly studied any of the physical sciences can't help but believe in a higher power, and this track kind of sums that up for me.

Actually, this may give you a laugh: I'm sitting here listening to Angels and Demons, writing my blog, and painting my fingernails and toenails black. Sometimes I can't believe I'm actually 45 years old...

Okay, last but not least:

Super Stooges vs The Wonder Women

For sheer mind-numbing WTF-ness!

Ciao!

The Hiatt Household - Nearly a Year On...

I haven't written much of anything in the last year. Work has been too stressful, and I've been struggling with a lot of illness.

I got incredibly sick after my knee surgery, and really didn't start to get better until recently. All kinds of little things (and some not so little). I had surgery again, this time on my sinuses, as it turns out I had a congenital defect that left me almost unable to breath through my nose. All this time I thought it was allergies...

I was already struggling at work, but this really threw me over the edge - I hadn't wanted to be an account manager, as I really preferred the technical bits and the behind-the-scenes bits, but got promoted anyway, and for a while I was able to keep up with it. Finally, a little earlier this year, I called my manager and told him I didn't think I could keep going with the job, and could he move me to another position? As it turns out, they couldn't, and I've now left Atypon, quicker than I wanted to, but the universe has a funny way of showing you where you need to go, and this was one of those times.

Enough of that. Yesterday, also for the first time in months, I got out my beading stuff and took up a necklace project I'd started back around Christmas. I finished it finally, and then I took one of my favorite necklaces, which I'd originally made with the stretchy clear rubber-esque string. I've been afraid it would break for some time now, as it's getting old, so I took it apart and remade it with nylon-coated steel, only I lengthened it, and then decided it's way too long. I'm going to take it apart and re-do it one more time, a little later on today... and wow, I've got the time to do that now. I've also got a bunch of cool pendants that I'd like to try to make into necklaces, and I think I'll try that later on today as well.

Nothing planned except job search - my (now ex) bosses were extremely cool - I really can't say enough about all the things they did to help out as I was leaving), and paid for me to see a career consultant. I've got the first of my seminars on Monday, and my first meeting with my consultant on Friday.

I lied, kinda... I said I hadn't been writing. Actually, I've got my travel trailer stored at my in-laws' place in Morgan Hill (Thanks, John and Doris!) and I've been going down there every Saturday, spending the night, and writing all day Sunday. So, actually, I lied a lot. I've been writing most weekends. At this moment, I've got the selections picked out for my portfolio. They just need some polishing, and I can create the actual portfolio and start sending it off to agents.

And... this morning, I had the most fascinating dream - essentially, I dreamed out a whole story, as I've done once before. I wrote out the dream so I won't loose it - in it, I was a witch who could shapechange into a hawk. I won't bore you with all the little bits, but I dreamt a lovely conflict and a lovely nemesis, and a wonderful hero, and everything.

Okay, that's all for now. Toodles!