[As usual, three weeks lag here, if you aren’t reading this on my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/blazeward). If you’d like your news fresher, and the monthly Anti-Stodgy/Redneck Chef newsletter, all I ask is a buck to help keep the lights on around here.]
Tuesday. Coffee on deck. Lots of coffee.
Had a bear Sunday night. (actually about 1am Monday morning, but, you know.) Trying to get into the compost bin and bashing it with a paw. Black bears around here. Either just woken up and hungry, or just kicked out on his own and looking for territory. And I’m surrounded by green immediately and rednecks beyond that, so they don’t stay.
But him, bashing on the drum. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Jump up, run to the other end of the house and smack on a window right over his head. Blur hauling ass for the far end of the yard as I get round to the door and turn on the outside light. Give him a ten count before opening the door to yell.
Get them every year. Either into the trash cans, the compost rollers, or my wife’s bird feeders. Got lucky here, because the rollers are 30” tubes and you have to slide the hatch sideways. Everything black, slider green. Always wondered if bears are color-blind green not to see that. Only ever had one actually open it.
Writing: Good news: Kincaide is at 168k this morning before I start. Bad News: It’s gonna be longer than expected. Probably 200, so not done this week as expected.
Shit happens. Also have several other stories in motion on the phone. Harri 3. Derlyth 4. Plus short stuff I’ve been banging out regularly.
And you’ll have to wait until the Anti-Stodgy news to hear about my night last night. It was a little weird, but perfectly in line with my life these days. And none of it was my fault. Always good to clarify.
Probably need to go make more coffee. One cup isn’t even cutting the gunk in my head at the moment. But things are really a lot better these days than they were. Did a martial arts seminar these last two Friday nights down in Tacoma. Khmer art called Bokatar. The Sensei was really expert and a good teacher. Learned a couple of excellent nuggets, but you reach a point where there are only so many ways to move a human body, so it comes down to who focuses on what. His was a couple of shifts over from what I do these days. Lots of the underlying mechanics were the same, just in different sequence.
But you always have to keep learning, because as soon as you stop going uphill, you start going downhill. Eventually you end up in a recliner watching TV and turning to mush. Not for me.
Past that, more Kincaide. Done as soon as he lets me go, but likely at least another week of his craziness. Then on to SOMETHING else. Dunno what yet. This has been the heavy emotional lifting all year, and I’m not looking beyond it until it’s done.
But it’s coming.
Yay.
shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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