8r4d #flashback to #chicago and travelling there on our #running adventure for the 2023 Marathon. Travelling with friends is always a blast and hitting the tourist highlights in the days leading up to the race was pretty sweet: deep dish pizza, downtown, the pier, and all over town for food and sights. I can’t even begin to post all the great things I saw without about ten posts of flashbacks, so this small collection will have to do on the one year anniversary.

8r4d So, our regular Sunday morning #runcrew #running adventure was usurped by a turn through another charity race, this time dropping in on the breast #cancer fundraiser Run for the Cure where about 4000 participants fun runned through a south-central #yeg neighbourhood. We parked at a cafe about 4k away and ran there and back for the 5k race, which gave us a little over 12 klicks on the day and a well deserved coffee meetup afterwards. #runforthecure

8r4d It’s been damn near a whole decade since I bought this little #truck which pretty much makes it the longest-owned vehicle I’ve ever lain claim to. I don’t recall the exact date, but it’s been a chunk. Needless to say we’ve entered into the era of minor repairs and ongoing maintenance. Sure, it was pretty much parked for most of the pandemic era and my work-from-home phase but that just means I fell out of the rhythm of keeping her tuned. This weekend has been some general catchup, from a good long wash to an oil change, some battery TLC and a brand new set of tires. Nothing special, but even if they last me half as long as the last set I’m sure I’ll be doing just fine.

8r4d If you’re curious how the writing is going, here’s the thing: I spend at least three solid sessions per week giving Starbucks a few bucks for #coffee and a table. I sit here, in one of three locations, almost always in the same chair pounding away words on my #keyboard for a couple hours. My goal is to average 500 words per day, including all days, off days and on days, work days and play days, and in the last six weeks since implementing a lovely little spreadsheet to more formally track that I’ve averaged about 650, again, writing about 3-4 days per week. In essence, that’s a handful of 1500-2000 word sessions.

The novel itself is not so much stalled as I’ve slowed construction-proper in favour of doing some shoring up of the backstory foundations. I got to a point about 80% of the way in where I found myself trying to build a satisfying build to the climactic conclusion on a concept that I had loosely in my own mind but for which I hadn’t really done enough world-building. That kind of writing risks plot holes or weak sort-of “because story” justifications, and I wouldn’t have been happy with that and surprisingly its much tougher to untangle bad writing than just writing it right in the first place. So my last couple months has been a twisting whirlwind of finding yet another new routine to settle into and simultaneously punching through what is becoming a novel-length collection of backstory short stories. Really.

And if nothing else, I’m keeping the local cafes on their toes, too.

8r4d This October morning #sky #sunrise looked like a roiling sea on the horizon and kinda matched my vibe. [read more...]

8r4d A year ago tonight I was wandering around Chicago having arrived that day for the upcoming marathon weekend. This year we’re enjoying the #autumn #trails while out on our regular #running meetup.

pixelazy The saga of my sad botany skills continues but this fern has obviously been revived to some measure of health.

#houseplants

8r4d The Kid booked the makerspace at the library for a couple of hours so that she and her friends could try recording their podcast there, so as a resultI—the responsible, waver-signing adult—needs to hang around and kill a couple hours #writing and having some tlc with my #keyboard. Oddly, a bustling library on a Sunday afternoon is less ideal for my creative efforts than I would have imagined.

8r4d Sunday #running with the #runcrew made for some lovely but cool #autumn scenes

pixelazy Soon our morning #walk will be in the dark as foretold by the #sunrise views we’ve been getting lately.

8r4d The weekly #running of the creek was decorated by emerging #autumn foliage.

8r4d I find myself unexpectedly on #whyteavenue on a Wednesday evening, sipping #tea and #writing because The Kid needed a ride up to an #improvtheatre orientation up here. I didn’t really expect to be up here and, yeah, I tried the library but where my #keyboard is usually quiet enough for the background him of the cafe to not be annoying, I felt very self conscious about the clickety-clack in the super-quiet library what with people, probably students, studying all around me. So—I paid for a peppermint tea and here I sit, trying to feel inspired or something.