Today at lunch I popped open my laptop and a new blank file.

I wrote, without looking at the main documents, a totally bare bones non-outline of what happens in my NaNoWriMo 2011-2012.

Now that I see that, I already have ideas about where some of the story parts may be not quite right or need adjusting. That was really helpful, since I don’t have any revising/editing know-how or expertise.

A few times during the actual writing, a similar few minutes spent sketching the plot points really helped move things and get the words appearing onto paper screen again.

Dipping a toe here and there into the world of NaNoWriMo 2011. Do parts of it need some attention? But of course! But it made me smile. And that’s the best part.

I might be the worst writer in the world but I like that my characters (to me anyway) can be funny and caring.

And, they all have most wonderful and appropriate names. Just sayin’.

Keep your eyes open and you won’t miss the magic.

When you reach the little house, the place your journey started, you will recognize it, although it will seem much smaller than you remember. Walk up the path, and through the garden gate you never saw before but once.
from: The Instructions, by Neil Gaiman

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
from “The Wasteland”, by T.S. Eliot

from: Acquainted with the Night

And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

–Robert Frost

I love how this sounds when read aloud. To read the whole poem, click the title above.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s much better to have a furnace problem on a day when it’s almost spring-like than on a day when it’s 20 below and getting colder.

Anyway, last night the furnace took some convincing to make it work occasionally. This morning I contacted the heating oil company and they sent someone round to fix it. He seemed a little dismayed when he came into the cellar and saw this huge hulk of a coal furnace masquerading as an oil furnace. Luckily for him, I was pretty sure what the problem was because it’s happened before.

He looked it over and confirmed that yes the relay in the stack controller was not responding correctly. Ran back to get one and replaced it and voila.

So we’re back up and running ahead of any coming more wintery temperatures.