Time ticking ever so fast

This cloud bank seduced me the day after Christmas.  The dark colors framed by the lighter sun kissed clouds.  Again I have a four day weekend pending in mere hours with the illusion (or should that be delusion?) that I will get writing done and pictures snapped.  I did get some last weekend but they are mostly people filled and I am not one to paste up my friends without good reason (Wanted....for cookie theft). 

New Years Eve has always been an unwelcome holiday for me.  Some of the lousy things that have happened in my personal life tended to happen on or around the holiday.  My family is rather littered with deaths throughout the holidays that are pretty much taken for granted ("Oh, gee two days off with pay wonder who's going to be buried?") but those aside I've had some lousy luck with this particular one.  The last few years have been nice but still buried in my mind are the more horrific events.  I am working on killing off those deep seeded demons with my writing and walking and I seemed to have made some progress.  I am not good at making resolutions since I think it is a daily quest to better ones self for the future and the afterlife.  Unlike my characters I do believe in an afterlife and no it is not filled with fangs and fur.

Here's wishing everyone the best in the coming year.  Fur and fangs notwithstanding.

Darkest night

That's pretty much what it looks like outside right now.  Chance of rain but not major downfall just scattered showers.  I was thinking that today is the longest darkest night of the year according to the weather folks. My mind remembered the very eerie movie set in Alaska with a policeman trying to piece together a murder mystery and the never ending daylight that plagues the character played by Al Pachino. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278504/

The flipside idea of endless night has been showcased in some rather blood spattered horror films yet still the long dark night imagery chases through my mind.  The Riddick series starts with dark bleak scenery and Vin Diesel rippling through scenes chewing through the dialog while the pterodactyl like creatures try to take out the crowd in Pitch Black. To me that movie sums up the ultimate in darkness with a dark side. 

Driving in to work this morning the crescent moon was above the clouds rimmed by the rising sun.  My brain has been in writer/photographer mode all day.  Since I have the next four days off for Christmas hopefully I will feed both muses. 

Time keeps on slipping away

I'm amazed at how fast 2011 has unfolded.  The year has brought many challenges and changes.  Not all bad but some not so happy.  Death of two friends within weeks of each other earlier this year still resonates at times with me.  When I saw both of them last Christmas I hadn't realized that was the last time for them. 

Seeing my family was a fast paced joyful experience.  It was nice to meet my nephew's little girl and even experience (is that the correct word?) Chuck 'E Cheese at my age.  I still loved the fact that they had a habitrail (like hamster and mice live in when folks think rodent belong inside the house) for the kids.  I did wonder how many times they have to take the structure apart to get little kids out of the tubes.

Last week I finally got to putter around the waterways around my corner of the globe.  It was fun and the company outing was paid for so it didn't cost me a dime to see how the other half lives.  My co-workers didn't believe me when I kept saying I wouldn't want to live in most of the places.  They were fishbowls and far too accessible.  I like more remote locales.  So when I start selling my novels for 'real' money that's where you'll find me.  The corners of the backwaters.  I think it suits my writer's brain.

Holiday Thoughts

Okay I'm a slug.  I admit it.  Here it is nearly a week past NaNo and I've yet to get back into writing.  Bad me.  I've been busy - but who isn't in these times? The company annual Holiday Party was a blast.  I took snaps and sent them out this morning.  It's nice to see co-workers relaxed and having a good time.  A few folks worried I was going to paste them up on Facebook or something.  That's not my style.  I love taking pictures but they are for me.  At times writing promps and other times just shared memories.  My mom is crazy about photos.  We have to put the date on the snaps and where taken.  She marks her home calendar with the days she takes pictures so later she can have the exact moment the phote captures.  Now she doesn't do scrapbooking but her own photo albums.  Both sisters-in-law swear they are burning the evidence the day of my mom's funeral.  They aren't kidding at times.  My mom has the ability to take the worse pictures of the most beautiful people with a casual disregard if the person is insulted.  Hence the hostility. 

For years I took pictures of only scenery and things.  Never people.  I've learned to ask permission and take pictures and have some warm memories of long dead family and friends. 

Another NaNoWriMo done and gone

This year went smoother than the past few years.  I'm well into the writing 'habit' of writing every day best I can.  I didn't get crazy ahead but steadily built what my mind's eye told me was to go onto the page.  I do what NaNo folks say we aren't supposed to do - I edit.  I can't help it.  I like to reread a few pages back to find the right tone or voice and then a bit more usually has crept into my brain in the mean time.  *shrugs*

Sand already has 16 episodes sent so I'll spare her the rest until 3 months or so have passed.  I liked the dark twists and turns of these bad vamps.  My new character isn't necessarily 'truly' evil but then he's never going to be one of the good guys.  It's just not who he is.  I always figure if you've been around for a couple hundred years grumpy would be the least of the problems. 

Weather actually went to 'cool'.  Seriously for here it was 57 yesterday when I went into work and today it was 55.  That's some frost on the pumpkin weather for here.