Is it autumnal?
I just witnessed somebody else's near-death experience.
I was pulling out of the Broomfield park-n-ride, turning right, but there was someone turning left. That car went ahead and almost got run over by a bus that was just then turning into the park-n-ride. The driver waited for a moment, as if she thought the bus might get out of her way, and then backed up.
As we turned out of the park-n-ride, she was in the lane turning left onto Wadsworth, but she didn't pull up to the intersection. Instead, she stopped two car lengths back and sat there. I was about to turn right but hesitated. Then a bus pulled up behind her and a car pulled up behind me.
I put my hazard lights on and went over to her, apologizing to the people behind me on the way. I knocked on her window. It took her a minute to open it, and I asked, "Are you OK?" She didn't respond . Then I said, "Hey, you're blocking traffic," and she said something about blocking the bus and gave me a look that said I just didn't get it. Then she floored it through the yellow light.
I just hope she gets home without killing anyone.
The weird thing is, if she hadn't turned in front of that bus, I probably would have. I didn't see it until it stopped for her. So she very well could have saved my life, or at least saved me from getting into another wreck in the truck.
To the woman who is weirdly petulant toward buses: thank you.
The first wind of winter
About the only thing I can't abide about Colorado weather is the wind we get up here in the winters. The land rises up from Boulder to Broomfield, and we're at the top of it, just where Rock Creek Farm open space meets Miramonte. Today we were getting nearly 50 mile an hour winds. We had to put the umbrella from the deck furniture in the garage, because even closed and tied, it was catching the wind and threatening to blow over and scrape more holes in the deck. We took my three plants in the huge pots and put them in the garage, where they won't get any light but at least they won't break or freeze tonight.
I have pepper plants and mint plants all over my kitchen, and a serviceberry that I haven't planted yet in the hall.
The wind makes me feel like I'm screaming inside, especially when it lasts two or three days in a row.
Last winter was especially windy. I hope this one is calmer and a LOT snowier.
***
I'm at home tonight, with Rufus on my lap and Todd downstairs, doing copyediting. I took too much work this month, but I'm enjoying every job. This particular book is about a Jew fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Not your usual image of Rebel soldier, is it?
Even though I hail from Missouri**, I don't consider myself Southern, so I had to go look up Battle Hymn of the Republic and sing a verse or two. Then I realized, what am I singing? Julia Ward Howe is saying that God is on the side of the Union.
I hate that kind of shit. The God I believe in is way above all that.
**See information online about the Missouri Compromise.
Endings
I’ve decided not to renew my Krav Maga contract for another year.
It’s been two years of heavy metal music, torturous pushup drills, and choking. I’ve loved almost every minute of it.
But I need a break.
I have too much going on at night nowadays to be taking classes at dinnertime. Not to mention that fact that I typically eat a little before these classes, and then when I come home I’m ravenous. So I haven’t lost any weight, despite the intensity of the exercise. In fact, I gained 5 pounds last Thanksgiving and haven’t gotten rid of it.
But I did buy a standing punching bag, kick shield, and punching mitts for use at home. Now I can spend as much time as I want practicing my footwork while kicking and improving the strength and speed of my punches.
I may go back sometime, but probably not for a year.
Toasters Repaired
I’ve just had one of those writing moments that makes it all worthwhile.
I was editing a poem that I first wrote four years ago. It’s a love story conducted by a cat, and I had always loved reading it to myself but hated reading it aloud. It’s mostly noun-verb-direct object sentences, which gets deadly boring in a reading.
But now I think I’ve fixed it so that it will read better. I’m going to memorize it so that I can give impromptu readings if I want, not be tied to a piece of paper with my oh-so-precious words on them.
The woman in the poem has power over electricity. Originally I had her fall in love with a groundskeeper, but then I hit on the idea of calling him “Groundsman,” to stand not only for the work he does caring for a park but also for his ability to ground her—because electricity that isn’t grounded is dangerous. I’ve been patting myself on the back all morning.
Now if I could just transfer this feeling to my fiction…
