The heat is back with a vengeance, and the next chance of rain isn’t for another 10-14 days. Almost all fireworks in this part of the state have been canceled for the forthcoming holiday weekend. I did mow the lawn yesterday. The grass wasn’t terribly long, but it was getting a bit raggedy looking. Only the second time this year.
I had a productive weekend. I finished revisions to the short story I’ve been working on. The final version was 2970 words. Submitted it yesterday, with fingers crossed. Also got another story back into submission—I have five or six more that are waiting for my attention to get them back out the door. I’ll have to have a submission party one of these days when I have some spare time.
I took some time out to read through the 17-page (legal paper) contract before signing it in triplicate and getting it back to the publisher in today’s post. One of these days I’ll be able to tell you what it’s for. I also completed a Canada Council Grant application. I’ve applied a number of times with low expectations. Like the joke about the guy who prays to win the lottery, I’ve discovered that if you don’t apply for things like this, your chances of winning are nil. (Work with me, God says. At least buy a ticket!)
This morning I started another short story that’s been rumbling around in the back of my head all during revisions to the previous one, and I jotted down 1500 words, which is a pretty darned good session for me.
I’m about halfway through The Five by Robert McCammon. I wish I had more time to read—it’s really good, but I only get back to it every three or four days.
We’re into season three of Six Feet Under. I keep waiting for them to surprise us by saying it’s all a dream, a byproduct of Nate’s surgery. There is a surreal feel to everything, magnified by Nate’s frequent instances of déjà vu. The leap in time from the end of season two to where they pick up in season three is disorienting, as they pretty much ignore the outcome of the surgery and his recovery. Good seeing Kathy Bates, though. Her character is a scamp.
Last night was the final episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Maybe forever. It was a good one, a riff on the lawsuit between the twins and the Facebook people, except in this version the twins are both murdered (and by different people, as it turned out, though their bodies were found next to each other). My favorite exchange was the one between the suspect who asked Goran, “Are you insane?” To which Goran replied, “Jury’s still out on that one.” Which set up the final session with his mandated therapist, Dr. Gyson. She finally told him her thoughts about what he needed to do to be happy and then tried to hand him off to another therapist. He handed back the referral card and said, “Same time next week?” Alas, that is not currently the fate of the show, though D’Onofrio encouraged viewers (via the LOCI live twitter chat last night) to write USA and ask them to bring the show back. Not sure how well a campaign like that works, but I sent them an e-mail via their website just in case.
