Sunday, November 18, 2018

The Plot Thickens, a Christmas Memory, and How Not to Hoe



I used to wake with story ideas first thing most mornings. While writing is a tremendous joy, I hadn’t realized how much I missed that wakeful muse until its return two nights in a row.

Friday’s was at 2:30 in the morning, all but sitting me up in bed and popping open my eyes. But I won’t complain. It’s more a joy, even, because I later remembered the idea that woke me while having been too groggy to make note in the darkness.

This morning I plan to start my NaNoWriMo project’s opening over again following a new and, I think, more interesting scene which should meld fine into what follows. I’m excited.

But first, let me tell you I wrote Saturday’s NaNo quota in near record time. As a result, I decided to meet with other participants upstairs at the Gem City Catfé. It’s a neat place new to me. I hope to bring my husband and pay to play with their shelter kitties (bringing one or two home as a result would be nice).

In the ninety minutes or so spent there I got to visit with a close friend and still accumulated five hundred new words. The owners have gone so far as to put a sign in their window welcoming NaNoWriMo writers.

That was a nice touch.

Not so nice was the excitement encountered before my second to last freeway exit. I was about to leave I-75 and head east on Route 35 when the pickup truck two vehicles ahead of me lost something long and thin.

Did you guess it was a garden hoe?

They must have been landscapers. I hope the perpetrator saw it happen and secures all tools better in future. It’s hard to say (and here’s my holiday memory). My older brother once lost a Christmas tree off the bed of his truck and didn’t notice. He pulled over upon realizing Mom and I were no longer following him down that country road.

Then it occurred to him he shouldn’t have been able to see out the truck’s back window. Heh… Good times.

Anyway, that hoe tumbled end over end through the air. The car ahead of me almost drove off the freeway. I’d like to congratulate him or her for quick reflexes and skillful handling. Thank heaven that stretch has a wide shoulder and nobody was tailgating for a change. My swerve was much less dramatic, the hoe having come to a rest just left of center in my lane.

I can only hope nobody got injured. No northbound traffic backup on my way home indicated a major accident, at least.

Have you ever drank matcha?

PS The Catfé was out of chai (!) and so I tried this green tea powder suspended in milk. I cannot recommend the beverage, whose aftertaste I found cloying, like muddy grass. Ugh…

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12 comments:

  1. The Catfe sounds fun. I have been to one in NYC and enjoyed it. Never had matcha, I stick with coffee with cream in it.

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  2. No, no matcha. No chai. No green tea. Just plain (nothing added) iced black tea! I've had unpleasant surprises ordering iced tea at fast food places, and had them sticky sweet. I have a Mr. Coffee iced tea maker, and it gets use daily even in winter, two or three times a day summer.

    The Catfe has some pretty calicos!

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    1. I'm not a fan of sticky sweet tea, either, though I do like a light bit of sweetener to bring out the taste of my favorite fruity iced teas. :) Be well!

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  3. NO...I have not tried matcha and thanks to you I probably never will, thanks! I really like just coffee with a flavor, nothing fancy. Sounds like a fun place to write. They must get a lot of writers in there. Do you live in a area of artist and writers? Wow...miss a Christmas tree or not! haha, that is funny. I however once was heading down the interstate when a car in front of me with a livingroom chair tied to the trunk, yes, to it and not in it, came off. I was in luck at dodging it only cause the lane next to me did not have a car in it. That could have been a MESS. Anyway, I think I am changing the stay calm and do whatever and I am going to start saying Just Laugh and Write On...haha

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    1. I'm enjoying tells on what folks like to drink. ~grin~ It seems to me that there are artists and writers squirreled away in every part of the country. The national NaNoWriMo page tells quite the tale by itself. Not all of us need proximity, it seems. Heh... Glad you missed that chair. Wow! And I like your considered new saying. Be well, my dear.

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    2. I know what you mean....some folks drink stuff and I wonder how they stand it. But others probably wonder how I drink or eat what I do. Yes, I visited a place in NC - up in the mts., can't remember the name~ oh wait, Highland NC. Full of all sorts of different artist. They lived there and had cute shops. Pretty cool. But then again, Franklin NC has its share also. My sis in laws mom lived there and she was a writer. Her name was Eva McCall, we lost a couple weeks before Thanksgiving last yr. I also met Londa L Woody who is a writer. She gave me one of her books - Shaking Hands wwith Fame and signed it to me. I also have several of Eva's. Crap...I am really mouthy today, aren't I?

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  4. Hey I've gotten some great tools along the road, lost out of some sloppy worker's flat bed. I got a hammer, several wrenches, one that I snagged out my drivers side door at a stop light, and two decent canvas tarps. However I have had to dodge two flying mattresses in my life time, and gotten two flat tires from in road junk too. Glad you missed the garden hoe.

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    1. Wow! You're so industrious. Actually, hubby just took my car into a shop the other week because something punctured a tire. I don't even know exactly when or where *that* nonsense happened. Thanks for the kind word! I appreciated him for handling the repair. And take care!

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