It was a year ago tonight. I tried to stay up until midnight, but in reality it began early the following morning.

I spent an entire month trying to be something I’m not.

In the end, I achieved my goal and I got it out of my system. Well… not entirely out of my system, as you may recently have read… but I did it, I wrote a novel.

But enough of that. That month took quite a toll on me.

During the months that followed, I realized that there are things I’m good at and there are things I’m not as good at.

For example, I’m a hell of an engineer.

And I’d like to think that I’ve made the world a far better place through my software writing than I ever will with my fiction writing. My code has made nice people happy, and I like that. It’s even made not-as-nice people not-as-happy, and I like that, too.

And don’t get me wrong, it makes me happy, too.

But there’s this part of me… I think it’s because of a woman I knew a long, long time ago. She was into books and publishing in a big way. A part of me wants to hold onto her in a way that only writing can. It’s really silly, all of this… I’ll never, ever see her again. Maybe deep down I think that if I made it as a writer she’d hear about it and I’d bump into her and it would all be accidental, wouldn’t it?

I’d like to think that I’m smart enough NOT to do something like this for the wrong reason. Who knows.

Of course, then there’s another part of me that still wants to write that other novel — and it’s a much better idea, by the way. And maybe some day I will do it, and for the right reason.

Until then I’ll just keep doing the things I do well and try not to spend too much time on the things I suck at. Except for tennis. I’m sure I totally suck at that — it’s been a few years since I’ve been on a court. But that’s OK. Some things you just have to do for the fun of it.

Hmmm, kind of like writing.

And in case you’re wondering about the title… yes, my new laptop does have one of these inside! :)

Yup, even in Indiana, it’s time to set your clocks back an hour to Standard Time. That’s if you live in the U.S., of course. But for everybody, everywhere, IT’S TIME TO CHANGE YOUR SMOKE DETECTOR BATTERIES!!

And while you’re at it, why not make sure your emergency flashlights have fresh batteries… we’ve had a couple big windy rain storms in as many weeks, and we nearly lost power yesterday. ::knock wood:: We nearly lost it yesterday, but we’re still up in spite of the howling I can still hear through the window.

I’ve always been fascinated by this time of year. Specifically, at 2 A.M. when the clocks go back to 1 A.M. Standard Time, what’s on TV for that hour? I mean, if you look at the TV listings today, they’ll tell you what’s on at 1:00 and 1:30 and then 1:00 and 1:30 again. But it didn’t used to be that way.

And how many years did I try and stay up until 2 A.M. and figure out what was going on and how it compared with the listings? Far too many, I assure you. And for me to share this embarrassing fact with you… certainly a horrific oversight, I assure you.

So speaking of the rain, maybe I’ll save the picture for this week’s WW, but we had these flash floods that put about a food of water in this one intersection near the mall. It was pretty wild, and the kids loved it! I guess it would have been different if we’d been stranded, but isn’t that always the way? As it was, my brakes were then wet and if I hadn’t known to expect that, I would have ended up rear-ending someone.

Oh yeah, so the time change… an extra hour of sleep, right? Ha! That’s only if you do it right, and I didn’t. Before I went to bed, I set my clock back an hour, like a good doobie. But what I FORGOT to set was the old cell phone I use as an alarm clock. And wouldn’t you know it, the time only resets if you’re switching networks, like arriving in your destination airport. So my alarm went off at 4:30, which was now 3:30, and I got my regular amount of sleep, more or less, and that extra hour gets tacked onto my awake time. Sucks, doesn’t it, but it’s my own damn fault, I know.

And OK, one more thing I was thinking about when I was turning back my clock. What if you could turn back an hour of your life… you did something and you could undo it and go back an hour and not do it… something like that. Would you? What would you do? I’m not sure I know what I’d do with that power!

I just think maybe I’ll crawl back into bed — if the cat will have me — and steal back that lost hour of sleep! :)

1. I roasted some acorn squash seeds and I think they’re better than pumpkin seeds!
2. I’m planning to buy a car in about a year — probably used. Got any suggestions?
3. I think I have it narrowed down to around 30 models, plus or minus.
4. My bloggaversary is in about a month, and I’ll be celebrating bigtime.
5. My RL birthday is coming up soon, too, but (shhhh) that’s a secret.
6. I need a lot more sleep than I used to.
7. I’m still really torn over whether or not I should participate in NaNoWriMo.
8. I want my next novel to be around 90,000 words, but I could get half of it done, right?
9. I can’t wait for this election to be over and the litter-on-a-stick cleaned up.
10. McDonalds’ hash browns are really disgusting but for $1 you can get four game pieces.
11. I am so sick of the pigs at the office lunch table and all of their gawking.
12. I don’t care much for Internet Video but I love listening to radio shows online.
13. There *will* be a WP plugin for ever-linkies and comment-linkies.

The weekend, I mean. It was there, and I remember trying to grasp it and hold onto it, and then ::poof:: it slipped through my fingers.

Time is like that, I guess.

Saturday would have been a sleep-in-and-rest kind of day if we hadn’t been signed up for a rabbit show… in Vermont! Yup, we hauled our cookies and several rabbits all the way to Vermont just to have their little hearts and hopes CRUSHED and DASHED by what can only be described as much better rabbits. Yes, we spent more than two hours in the car (each way) just to get our asses kicked. Oh well, that’s life in the rabbit biz! :)

Sunday was much better. This was the day of my planning. It involved sleeping a little later than usual — I probably got up at 5:30 — and then working on my little project ::wink::wink:: and then cooking some eggs and then helping with some farm things outside until it was time to get ready… to go… to the opera!

We saw La Clemenza di Tito, one of Mozart’s lesser-known works… though I’d swear I’d heard that overture before — does anyone know if it’s similar to some other of his works? There were a couple of male roles in this opera — Sesto and Annio — well now that I poke around a bit I read that these are breeches roles which were once played by men with high voices and are now played by women. So voices were in their intended ranges, but that made it hard to tell by ear who was singing. And when you’re reading the projected supertitles, you do a lot of listening. So I guess it was as it should be and I’ll stop complaining about it. The production, in spite of having been modernized just a touch (of which I disapprove), was really nicely done and very enjoyable.

After a nice dinner at a restaurant down the street, we claimed our car from the parking lot and headed home.

It was a blur, like most weekends. I guess I’m glad I can write it all down. This way I can look back and say, yeah, there really was a weekend! :)

I got this in my e-mail… I’ve seen it before, but it’s funny and it means I can be lazy and save the excellent post I was writing for another day! :)

No, this isn’t some kind of trick to bring out the lurkers, but if you’re reading this, please help me out with testing a new Linky feature before I let it loose on the other members. Just say a little something in the comments and pretend you’re playing along with the meme. Thanks very much!

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You’ve probably heard by now… yes, it’s that time of the year. And you may know that the Nobel Committee has already awarded prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, economics. But I’ll bet you didn’t know that this year’s prize for blogging had yet to be given.

It is ironic indeed that I have listened to stories on NPR of other recipients being awoken at odd hours, only to hear the jingle jingle of my own phone at 4:30, this very morning.

“Hello?” I probably said, trying to wake myself up. “Hello?”

“Is this a Mister Yoo-uhh… a Mister Whuh-huh… is this Whiskey?” came a foreign accent, quickly stirring my curiosity.

“Well, yes… this is Uisce,” I said. “But how did you…”

“My name is Olfnfn Svnrgnfn,” I think he said. It was early, as I mentioned.

I don’t think I got the spelling right of the caller’s name. But none of that would matter. He was from the Nobel Committee, he told me. He was sending a car for me and I would be flown immediately to Stockholm to receive my award.

“Yeah, sure,” I believe was my clever response. “Genuine, is that you? Cut the crap and let me get back to sleep.”

What a kidder, I thought. And then I did the math. Wait a minute, I realized. It was 2:30 in the morning in Colorado. Maybe this guy was for real!

Sure enough, the dogs were barking up a storm as soon as the limousine pulled up our long dirt driveway. The ringing of the doorbell at such an early hour caused an even greater stir among the household.

And I was off, and it was quite a blur. Thank goodness I’d left my passport in my toiletries bag the way I always do. “Just in case,” I always say, and wouldn’t you know there was finally a case where it came in so handy!

We pulled up at the Panda Express drive-through for some lo mein on a stick, my favorite on-the-go breakfast, and I knew I’d need two big steaming cups of green tea for this trip. One of them was burning a hole in my stomach when we pulled up at the Lufthansa doors at Logan.

“Good luck, sir,” said the driver. I jumped out and headed into the terminal.

But what the… Flash bulbs were going off all around me and now I know why people are always covering up their faces when they walk by a camera. Damn, those lights are bright! A microphone was thrust into my face and its owner could be none other than channel 4’s roving reporter — judging by the big “4″ stenciled onto the microphone’s wind cover.

“How does it feel to get the call?” the reporter asked. “How does it feel to be going to Stockholm?”

“Well do I have to take my shoes off this time?” I answered. It was all I could think of. No wonder everybody seems like such a moron on TV. They’ve got people rifling questions at them.

“No questions right now, please,” came a voice from my right. But when I looked there, my dog was just sitting there, smiling and wagging her tail.”

“Puppy, how did you…”

“Flight 53829, now departing for…”

Damn, that was my flight! I rushed for the gate, the gang of reporters trailing behind me, my dog still sitting in the terminal. Who was going to take her home, I wondered. How the heck did she…

“Your shoes, sir…”

Yeah, yeah. I knew it. Didn’t I… aw hell, never mind.

The flight was long. But I guess it beats the hell out of swimming all the way there, so close to the Arctic Circle.

Arriving in Stockholm, getting into the car, rushing to the Concert Hall, it was all a blur, and I was low on caffeine, I was thinking. How could I get my hands on a… The next thing I remember was being led onto the stage. The lights were unbearably hot. If only I could take off this… hey, where did this jacket come from?

I had been introduced and given my trophy and now I had to make a speech. What would I say? I just thanked them and told them to be sure to visit my blogroll. There was thunderous applause from the audience and I kissed my statue. The Nobel Committee Chairman came to lead me off of the stage and I gave him a big hug. We strode off the stage arm in arm.

And then there was a tap on my shoulder.

“Whiskey,” I heard.

“Thank you, no interviews right now,” I think I said.

“Whiskey, it’s time to get up.” I knew I recognized that voice. It was Wifey’s!

“Oh, OK,” I told her, and looked around me. I was holding my alarm clock in my hands and hugging my pillow close to me.

“Must have been some dream,” she said.

“Yeah,” I replied. “Some dream.”

No, I’m not bitter about what happened in 1986… it’s just that I like the Cardinals’ uniforms better.

Hey, what can I say? It’s all about fashion! And speaking of fashion, did you see the finale of Project Runway? I did, and I was a little disappointed for my favorite.

But I’m not saying anything about that because I know people sometimes record these things on their DVR’s… I didn’t watch it until last night and was really lucky I didn’t run across any spoilers yesterday.

Baseball, on the other hand, is another story. Record the big game and you’d better be in a coma or living in a cave if you don’t want to know the score.

Next time on Project Baseball… Tigers, you are OUT! Auf Wiedersehen! :)

Thirteen Observations While Driving
1. Go ahead and drive 85 on the highway, but dammit, keep it under 40 in the 30 zones, please!!
2. If you’re going to scream at somebody on your cell phone, please DON’T use the hands free.
3. I thought this woman was screaming at me and I got so confused!!
4. Hey guy in the station wagon — I saw you picking your nose. You really should wait until you get home.
5. Hey, white car lady — if you have the right-of-way going straight and I am at a stop sign waiting to turn left, it’s awfully nice that you want me to go ahead of you, but could you flash your lights or something to let me know what you’re thinking?
6. Why is it that whenever I need to text or e-mail someone there’s never a red light?
7. Not that I’m trying to send messages while I’m driving… umm, no, never!!
8. If there is a police car with flashing blue lights behind you, pull over.
9. Notice that the police officer won’t pass you on the right, because this is UNSAFE.
10. Why is it that there are no drive-thru’s for things that I really want?
11. I’m talking about stuff like bagels, soup, Chinese food.
12. Yeah, I know that DD has bagels, but their coffee SUCKS!!
13. And yes, I shouldn’t be eating soup and Chinese food while I’m driving, but just TRY and stop me!! :)

I’m back in the meme-saddle, so here I am stealing this one from Dawn.

1 – What was the scariest movie you have ever seen?
>> you mean besides Fahrenheit 911? how about Friday the 13th.

2- What was your favorite Halloween costume as a child?
>> those crappy ones with the plastic face and the flammable pajama. oh, if only…

3- Given enough money what would be your fantasy Halloween costume?
>> how about covering me in twenty dollar bills.

4- When was the last time you went trick or treating?
>> I think I took the kids out maybe 5 years ago… but as a kid, I think I was 13.

5- What is your favorite Halloween candy?
>> peanut bar things like peanut brittle.

6- Tell us about a scary nightmare you once had.
>> riding a motorcycle and crashing and dying — very realistic and I will NEVER ever ride one because of it.

7 – What is your supernatural fear?
>> going down in the basement and being attacked by a giant mouse, as revenge for all of my mousetrap killings.

8-What is your ‘creepy-crawlie’ fear?
>> no-see-ums.

9- Tell us a time you saw a ghost or heard something go bump in the night.
>> things may go bump in the night, but the gun’s under the bed and I’ll take my chances.

10- Would you stay overnight in a real Haunted House?
>> why not, are you buying the pizza and beer?

11-Are you a traditionalist or a creative carver of you Jack-o-Lantern?
>> I am a traditionalist in all things but don’t do jack-o-lanterns.

12- How much do you decorate the house at Halloween?
>> zero is how much.

13- What do you want on your Tombstone?
>> how about a date after 2084… yeah, I wouldn’t mind living to be 120!