It’s been three days since we spoke. I’ve been up, I’ve been down, but I haven’t been in touch. I am sorry about that. I was at the day job on Friday, working away, enjoying the company of my colleagues, but my thoughts were ever somewhat elsewhere. Perhaps it was the looming deadlines, perhaps the chance to spend time with family. The truth is, we shall never know.
So, what happened, you ask? Well, Friday evening was supposed to be wet and wild and windy. I headed home early and prepared for a night of children tucked safe in bed and quiet enjoyment of a good movie over a better bottle of wine. The younger generation were wonderful, the dinner was fine. I didn’t love the movie. I know you did. I’d not seen it. Perhaps I needed to have seen it – Withnail and I – when I was in my twenties and the world was still in the ’80s. That’s not what happened, though, and I was bored. The wine was poor, too.
Saturday was another day. Up early, out for breakfast with the loved ones at Esprezzo (ahhh, the heady pleasures of Noranda Palms Shopping Village), then some shopping. I’d already JB’d, so not that day. House and family things were done, of course. Oh, and Gordon and I went and spent a couple thousand dollars on a pile of computer bits (pieces, not bytes). It should make for something spiffy, but after a friend bought a new MacBook and another got my hooked on some Mac only software I wondered about my wisdom.
I know, I know, my tale drags. The rest of the day was fine. My mother came over – you remember her – and babysat while we met the Gang at the Place for dinner. The Gang were wonderful, as they always are, but this Place shall never become a regular Place, I fear. They had a singer, at dinner time. Gauche. Poor form. We shouted. In the end, the Gang decamped to another place (where it was Wild and Windy and perhaps briefly reminiscent of Old Providence, but coffee and chatter were available in abundance). And thence, to bed.
Sunday was a work day. That piece of software, Scrivener, came to the fore. Manuscripts poured in, and bundled out. Suddenly rough manuscripts for Eclipse and Subterranean and many other things exist. I realised errors I’d made, shuffled things, mailed contracts. I was, and you’ll remember how this can be, Extremely Productive. For several hours. Then more of the Gang – not all of them, but some – came around for chatter and coffee. The children were terrific, until they weren’t. Tiredness came to town, and things fell somewhat apart. I know you know how that is.
And that’s where I’ve been since last we spoke. I’m overwhelmed a little, right now. Suddenly too MANY stories where once there were too few. Still, that can’t be a bad thing. I shall shuffle, I shall hustle, and we’ll see how many we can make feel at home. More soon! (Oh, and how were things There with You and Yours?)