Echoes in a Hollow Space

7. And this is a weird one. Early this morning, about 12:30, I heard this great clattering noise coming from my bathroom, which is on the other side of my bedroom closet wall. I realized that some critter had gotten into the crawl space underneath my bathtub. Ever since the guy did the remodel, I’ve periodically heard critters in there banging up against the underside of the built-in bathtub. He apparently left some opening they get into. Rats or squirrels maybe. Something small. Usually, all I have to do is turn on the water or bang the tub and they scurry off in a hurry. Not so last night.

I could tell from the particular type of hissing and barking coming from my tub’s underbelly that the critter lodged in there this time was a ‘possum. Much larger than a rat or squirrel and apparently stuck and in a panic. Those hisses and barks are usually reserved for panic, when confronted with a predator/enemy or otherwise trapped. I banged on the tub and ran the water and that only increased its panic. I heard it clanging hard against the pipes in the wall and at one point it was scratching hard against the underside of the tub, desperate to get out. I really felt sorry for the poor thing, but there wasn’t anything I could do. I also couldn’t sleep with that racket and contemplated calling the exterminators for (hopefully) a trap and release.

Finally, sometime between 1-1:30 I remembered that there was an access way to the house’s nether regions on the side of the house right under my bathroom window. I wondered if the plumber, when he inspected the pipe the previous day, had somehow locked this critter in. So I went out with my flashlight and pulled the screen and the covering board off and came back inside. ‘Possums aren’t the brightest bulbs in the animal kingdom so it took another hour for it to realize it had a way out, but about 2:30 I heard its barking slowly diminishing in volume along the side of the house. Peace and quiet reigned and I could finally get back to sleep. 5:45 a.m. came painfully early this morning.

I asked the plumber when he showed up this morning if he could take a look at those bathroom pipes because I had a horrible fear that critter might have damaged them. Everything worked okay this morning, but I wanted to be good and sure.

The ‘possum adventures continue…

8. “The good news is,” said the plumber this morning, “this pipe I’m fixing today is the last of the big pipes. You’ve replaced all the other ones and any problems you have from this point on should be a lot less expensive.” Mom and I did a rough tote of plumbing expenses we’ve incurred since my parents bought this house in 1987. Spread out over the years we estimate we’ve spent close to $30,000 for various plumbing adventures. I sure as s**t hope this is the last of the big pipes. This is the part of the American Dream of Home Ownership no one ever tells you about, children…

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

After a great word count (for me) on Tuesday of 2500 words, I did the usual 500 on Wednesday. Then Thursday and Friday were complete washes because of a grand computer kerfluffle at work. I was just trying to deal with the mess on Thursday and didn't take much of a lunch at all, consequently no lunch writing session. The mess was ongoing Friday so I was still dealing with it and stressing. I think I managed half a page! And I'm always too fried by the time I get home at night to be very productive.

Right, I thought, I'll make up for the lack of production on the weekend.

My body had other plans. Yesterday, I felt like something the cat drug in. I thought I might be coming down with that cold everyone's been getting because I had a massive headache and a scratchy throat, body aches and enervation, but no. I just felt crappy. It could be I got a bad dose of synthetic thyroid hormone--that occasionally happens. Or maybe it was just non-specific crud. Although I feel better today I'm still low energy.

However, the upside of crudville yesterday is that while I was laying around doing no writing, I was able to do quite a bit of worldbuilding for Charged with Folly. I had enough oomph to do some reading, and in that synchronicity that often happens to me when I'm coming up with a thematic metaphor, everywhere I turned I ran into more things that reinforced the trend of my thinking--TV shows, novels, seemingly unrelated nonfiction books. So odd.

I don't necessarily attribute anything in this synchronicity to a supernatural agent (although I never reject any possibilities). It's possible that I've been surrounded by these intimations of theme for quite some time and have now passed into a zone of hyperfocus on them. Certainly, the symbol of labyrinths and images of the underworld are not strangers to me. But it never ceases to amaze me how when I decide to focus on a theme, the references begin blooming all around me.

So, wasted days and nights on the writing front, but good progress on the thematic front. And that pesky plot thing, as well.

Because of that remarkable Tuesday, though, I still managed to come up with my average weekly word count of between 3000-4000 words. Not a staggering word count and I'm trying to up that, but it's steady and reliable, week after week.