Yeah, I’ve been writing. Lorna and I have been talking about BG3 and we think we’ve come up with a better direction. I felt I had written a lot today, but when I did a word count, it was only 140 words! I am so frustrated! I need that word count to make me feel like I’ve done something, you know?
As I run BG3 through my brain, BG2 keeps coming to mind. The two books take place in almost the same time frame so on the one hand, I want to include the two characters from one in the scenes of the other.
Part of me is tempted to write both at once, just to see if it would work. I don’t know how that could be done though. Maybe notes on the chapter title/number line. Or two seperate documents. Hmm. Something else to think about.
**
I had the opportunity today to do some thinking. I had been writing and realized I had a headache. It’s been hot here so I kicked the dogs out and went outside too. But the sun was too bright and the birds too loud and I was too cranky. I came back in, let the dogs in, got a drink and parked myself in the living room. Jo was up on the couch so I backed up to it and tilted my chair back. I could reach down and pet her nose. At some point I decided my legs needed to be straightened out. I can’t reach the knob all that well so I flipped back the armrest and tried to reach it that way. Nope.
I straightened up and tried to flip the armrest back. Nope. While in tilt, the armrest has gravity in its favor. I could reach the bottom of the armrest but the weight was too much for the leverage point. Now, see, on the end of this armrest are the controls for the chair. Motion, tilt, etc. But, I can’t reach it. Do you see it now?
Yep, I was stuck. I wiggled about for a while trying to reach it but failed. I thought about pivoting off the chair but I was pretty far back in tilt so gravity was against me too. I looked at the clock. It was just before 4pm. Lorna should make it back to the post office soon.
The only thing in my favor was that I’d pulled the laptop’s table closer to me to hold my drink. Also on the table was the phone and, of course, the laptop. I called the post office and left a message for Lorna to call me when she got in. I could only reach the laptop keyboard with one hand so typing was out of the question, at least to get back to writing. I couldn’t hold the mouse that well on my stomach so even playing games would have been awkward. That and I really had to turn my head to see the screen. I just settled in and did some thinking. Thought about my writing. About BGCDA which is still scheduled to be published in Feb ’07. About my characters I have set up in the BG series. And about how to screw up their lives and then fix it.
Sophia came online and we chatted a little. To her credit, she didn’t laugh in her comments, although she said she wished she could. (I still had a headache).
The phone finally rang and it was Lorna. I asked her to come home as soon as she could. She complied, although it didn’t seem fast enough for me. 🙂 She came in the door and the dogs started barking like mad. As I winced, Lorna figured I had a headache so she kicked them all out again. She came back, standing there talking to me. I asked her to push the armrest down. Being the good girl she is, she did. Then I told her that I had been stuck there for about an hour.
As she made dinner, we discussed various ways for me to get out of that mess again. But other than attaching a string, there’s no way for me to do it.
The wheelchair was on and set to full outdoor speed. Tossing my sock or shirt so it hooked on the thing to bring it down would have resulted in the chair taking off across the room. (note to self: set it to indoor mode when indoors and turn it off when parked)
Don’t flip it back while in tilt to begin with! (duh)
Roll out of it onto the floor, perhaps using a dog or two as cushioning. (just kidding about the dog thing. maybe.)
We even discussed how to train Joella to flip it for me. We added it to the list.
Throughout all this (the getting stuck, the waiting, the funny conversation with Sophia, the explaining to Lorna what I’d done, etc) I was somewhat cheerful. I didn’t break out in tears or do something stupid like purposely dislocate my shoulder so I could reach the armrest. (I can do that, you know. gross but true!) It was good to feel….I don’t know. It was just good to feel positive despite the situation. A few months ago, that wouldn’t have happened.
Maybe, just maybe, I am not as insane/depressed as I was a few months ago and have been for many many years. Personally, I think it is the chair. I can get out and about. I can go places that haven’t even been mowed yet. I haven’t gotten stuck. Well, out in the yard, anyway. 😀