The Journal, Thursday, 4/13

Hey Folks,

Well, I had a pretty good scare this morning.

I let the little girl out with dim, pre-dawn light in the sky. She skittered off around the corner of the house to her favorite place to look through the fence.

About the time I got settled at my outside table, a hoot owl started hooting. It was on a telephone pole some forty yards from the house.

But immediately after that, as I was still getting up, another one screeched.

And that one was much closer. It was perched on another telephone pole directly above my little girl’s favorite place.

I raced around there. Probably that was a funny sight, me running in dark grey sweat pants, a black jacket and house slippers.

The baby hadn’t even made it to her favorite spot.

There was a little “lean-to”, where awhile back I leaned a heavy 3-feet by 3-feet piece of perforated metal against the backyard shed.

The lean-to was only about two feet from her, but she didn’t even duck under there, another of her favorite spots.

The screech of the owl had frozen her with fear.

She was hunkered down, visibly trembling, on bare ground about five feet short of her usual place. A mostly white kitten against an all-but black background.

I scooped her up, then looked up and gave some nasty directions to the owl. Then I took the baby into the house.

When I went back out, I shined my flashlight on the one sitting on the more distant pole. I said, “Go on, git!” and he flew off.

The other one was already gone.

Time to buy a .410 and some shotshells.

Today, and Writing

Rolled out at 3:40 after a fairly late night. I processed some pics I took yesterday and posted them to Facebook, then read some email.

Then I handled the episode with The Owl and the Baby, then came here and wrote all this. It’s almost 6 a.m.

Getting a slow start today, but no biggie.

Laundry day. Put on the first load around 8:30, did some other stuff while that was washing. Working around the house on various things today.

That includes moving Bryan out to the camping trailer we have parked outside. Kind of a reward for him getting into Job Corps, and to give him a little practice at doing things on his own, but with us only a couple hundred feet away.

He’s getting electricity from the Hovel via a heavy duty extension cord (s/b able to run the AC unit).

He and I moved his bed and all his stuff, then cleaned the old bedroom, which is now the new dining and utility room. Yeah, it’s an old house.

So all kinds of stuff up at the house today, rearranging and cleaning.

Received and installed a new passenger side mirror on the 4Runner, and received and returned the WRONG windshield washer reservoir for the Tacoma.

All in all, a very good day. But no fiction.

Back tomorrow.

Of Interest

See “The Magic Bakery: Chapter Four” at http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/the-magic-bakery-chapter-four/. This is another GREAT post.

Below that, if you’re following his daily updates, “Story Twelve and a Wonderful Dinner.” Actually it’s pretty interesting.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 530 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 530

Writing of “Beats All” (probably a short story)

Day 1…… 1743 words. Total words to date…… 1743
Day 2…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Writing of The Platinum Blond Perturbance

Day 1…… 1381 words. Total words to date…… 1381
Day 2…… 1864 words. Total words to date…… 3245
Day 3…… 2136 words. Total words to date…… 5381
Day 4…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 14313
Total fiction words for the year………… 222869
Total nonfiction words for the month… 7180
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 64520

Total words for the year (fiction and nonfiction)…… 287389

The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………… 506 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novel Goal (15 novels)… 4 novels