He-e-e-e-e-re they go! Off and pacing........

We went to Vancouver - to Fraser Downs Racetrack - to watch the pacers today. The ferry ride was smooth, though when I looked outside, the water was grey and so was the sky.

I kept thinking that the sun was bound to come up.

Then I realized it was about 9:30 in the morning, and the sun wasn't going to get much more up.

Robin and I decided to call the scenery "atmospheric," because that sounds much better than "grey."

We had brunch with the grandbabies and their parents. Then we headed for Fraser Downs to watch the harness racing. Between the brunch and snacking at the races, I think I ate every possible Bad for Me food. I ate anything that stood still long enough. I ate Eggs Benedict, for god's sake. I haven't done that in years. Then I had part of an order of nachos at the races. I am so going to have to be really, really good for the next week or so.

Anyway, I did enjoy the day. Robin won enough money at the races to almost compensate for the amount I lost, so I didn't come away feeling guilty. And when Robin and I were on our way to the ferry terminal afterward, my daughter-in-law found my cell phone, which had apparently fallen out of my purse at the racetrack. She and her husband called us on Robin's cell, told us they had my phone, and met us in a parking lot along the road to give it back. I hadn't even realized the phone was missing. Phew. Disaster averted -- and we still got to the ferry on time.

Now, I'm back at home, laptop in lap, listening to my characters call my name. (The one I killed is still dead, so far.)

Remember NaNoWriMo?

This is Day 28. I did take a couple of days off, because my brain hurt, but this morning I started my next installment. That NaNo deadline, I've decided, is magical. Now that I don't have the 50,000 words in 30 days stick goading me on, I'm finding it much more difficult to write than I did even a week ago.  However, I made an effort. Then I went to work. When I got home, not long ago, I remembered suddenly that I had killed one of my main characters this morning. Now I'm a little panicky, and very guilty. I'm not saying who the character is (was!), because I may want to change my mind. Maybe the next chapter will begin with that

character saying "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." 

I rather feared that once I stopped writing, I wouldn't be able to start again at all, that it was only the fact that I was running headlong through the manuscript that was keeping me on my feet. There was some justification for that fear, but after some stumbling and reeling, I did regain my balance and get going again.

Tomorrow, we are off to Vancouver (again) to watch the harness racing. That means I'll have two more ferry rides, and I plan to use that time for writing - and for reading Margaret Atwood's Life Before Man, which somehow I have never read before. I am always of two minds about Atwood's work. I respect it, but I don't always enjoy reading it. It seems to me that she stands back from her characters, carefully moving them around, but doing it with gloves on, so as not to dirty her hands. That can't be a fair judgment, because I know that millions of people have read her books and loved them, so with Life Before Man I am trying once again to feel comfortable in the company of Atwood and of the unhappy people who inhabit her books.

P.S. I posted this, then read it and thought Oy. Look at me. I write 50,000 words, and suddenly I'm the newest literary critic on the block.  Somebody peel me a grape. ;>)

Friday Photo Shootout, with 59 minutes to go.

The photo on the left shows the  Rocksalt Anthology group, who read their poems at the Poetry Gabriola Festival last week. I borrowed (?) the picture from Facebook, where Kim Goldberg (that's she at the front of the photo) had posted it. Such happy faces. This week's topic, Faces and Smiles, was suggested by Sarah.  For more Friday Photo Shootout posts, just click on the big camera in my sidebar.

And the 59 minutes? That's how long I have to wait before my ferry leaves. I came went to Vancouver today - on the 8:30 a.m. ferry) to visit my son, this being his day off, but I wanted to get back to Nanaimo in time to do WordStorm (remember WordStorm?) We decided I would have to catch the 3 pm ferry, which would get into Nanaimo at 4:35, lots of time to go home and have supper and then go to WordStorm for 6:30. However, by time I came by ferry to Horseshoe Bay, caught the bus downtown, and then caught another bus to where my son lives, we only had an hour and a half to spend together before I had to do the route in reverse. I could live with that. We went  to a Thai restaurant for lunch and spent an hour catching up on each other's lives, but then it turned out that the bus going back downtown was re-routed due to construction, so I got to the connecting bus stop three minutes too late to make my 2:07 connection to Horseshoe Bay. The next bus (the 2:20) was five minutes late, and in the end I got to the ferry terminal at precisely 3:00 p.m., ten minutes too late to catch the ferry (they cut off ticket sales 10 minutes before sailing.) So here I sit, enjoying an Americano at the Blenz coffee shop, watching for my 5 o'clock ferry to come in, reading Margaret Atwood, trying not to be too annoyed about being here when I could just as easily have hung around with my son for a couple of hours more. Okay, an hour more.

I sent a Facebook message to David Fraser, my connection at WordStorm, explaining my situation and asking whether, if I don't get to the theatre until 7 o'clock, I might still take part in the open mic (which doesn't actually start until then). Then I scrolled down a little on his page and saw that on the 22nd, he was sending messages from Mazatlan. Hmmmm. So I sent a p.s. that read "Never Mind." If he has returned to Nanaimo, I hope he'll find my message before he goes to WordStorm. If not, I'll just have to take my chances. I do have the poem in my bag, so I can have Robin pick me up at the ferry and drop me off at the theatre without going home first.

All this is to let those of you who don't live on islands know that once in a while, the situation is less than idyllic. ;>) - especially if you don't organize very well.


Oh, and this means I'll be having ferry food for dinner, folks. Pray for me.

Later:  Well, the boat ran half an hour late, so I didn't get to read my poem, but I did tell my sad story to the emcee, who suggested that I get on the list for January, as there will be no WordStorm in December. I told her I would be in Hawaii in January, so we settled on February. Then I sat down and listened to the poets and musicians  - first, the open mic folks, and then the three featured performers. They were all very good, all very different. Speaking of faces and smiles -This is Dinah D,the last of the featured performers, who made me laugh so hard that my stomach hurt. She lives on Gabriola Island. I think I have to move to Gabriola.