Yesterday, it rained. As opposed to today, which is only grey and sodden.
Despite the rain, I truly needed to go to the grocery store and while I was in town, I stopped by Marden’s, home of surplus and salvaged goods from all corners of the universe. Since it was rainy, the rest of the population of Waterville, Oakland, and Winslow had decided to go to Marden’s, too. I’m not kidding you, there was gridlock inside the store. One lady was so busy staring around at all the Stuff, she walked right into me. Good thing the place was so crowded; if there’d been less people in the aisle, I’d’ve fallen down. As it was, the pressure of the crowd kept me upright.
I note that Marden’s Waterville location has received quite a lot of items from J.Jill, so if you’re a fan, it’s probably worth the crowds to get some really good deals on clothes.
I also note that there’s some UGLY furniture being made nowadays. Of course, the sample was from Marden’s, so maybe the pieces on display were remaindered for a reason.
Ostensibly, I was there to look for a rug. There were many rugs — 9×15 “Oriental” rugs, only $79.99 were of special note. Man, it used to be that knock-off Oriental rugs were actually made out of polyester blend. The things on offer yesterday were a sort of double-thick canvas that somebody had run through a Giant Ink Jet to print on an Oriental design. Nasty to look at; nasty to touch. Not worth 79 cents, much less $79.
There were several hand-loomed wool rugs (Handmade in Tibet! said one. Um, yeah?) that felt real and looked interesting — and there my Shopping Foo was as strong as ever — $500, $600 each. I’m not buying a $600 rug from Marden’s. Yes, even if it’s “marked down” from $1200.
Let me see, what else? Wasted some time on eBay “shopping for” an antique “crystal ball” watch that isn’t being sold out of China for $5, $20-$40 shipping and thirty-day delivery window. Not much luck there, which is fine — I couldn’t afford to purchase such an item, if I found it for sale from a vendor providing actual information about hisorher wares — but, as I mentioned on Facebook, I did find a Model 21 Ship’s Chronometer Escapement Jewel, in case anybody needs one.
Yesterday evening, Mozart and I made a start on reading Necessity’s Child. Due to limited Higher Brain Function induced by the stress of the late-but-not-lamented day-job, I did indeed fail to report in the pages of the novel an Extremely Important Event. Happily, it’s a very drafty sort of draft in places, and there’s an appropriately shaped hole in very nearly the perfect spot into which this event may be inserted, making that whole process a lot less painful than it could so easily have been.
I also found a place where the backbrain was going nudgenudgewinkwink that I had also failed to notice due to the aforesaid limited HBF, but which leapt out at me like a saber dancer just as I was writing down in my notes, “But what HAPPENED to the patrol?” Duh. It were obvious to the meanest intelligence, O Author. Do try to pay attention.
To give you some idea of Just How Distracted I’ve been on this project — I usually run one yellow pad per book, for notes, scene building, snips of dialog, reminders…
Necessity’s Child has four partial yellow pads in use, and not because I was jotting down copious notes. No, it was because I’d forget that I already had a notepad in play and start another one.
So, anyway. This morning has been spent with the correspondence, and now the blog. Lunch is looking like baked potatoes, after which it’s back to the couch, the pens, the pads, the cat.
Everybody have as good a Monday as you can manage.