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Writer's Block: What’s in a Name?
Mar. 4th, 2012 05:31 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
I have the name I want.
I have the name I want.
Writer's Block: Tears of Joy
Feb. 19th, 2012 12:53 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
This one's a lead pipe cinch: my rebirthday, Decmber 10th, 2010.
This one's a lead pipe cinch: my rebirthday, Decmber 10th, 2010.
Writer's Block: Paranormal activity
Oct. 21st, 2011 01:09 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
I've only had one supernatural experience. It wasn't an encounter so much as a vision: I saw my father's death from 3000 miles away, about an hour after it happened.
August 26th, 1995 was a Saturday, eight days before my wedding. I had spoken to my father that morning. My father said he was hoping to get through life without wearing a tux, but it was my wedding, and I insisted.
I first learned of his death when my mother called that afternoon, and as soon as I heard her jagged intake of breath, I knew something was very wrong. He had been edging the driveway with the manual tool, she said, when he had a heart attack. I knew which tool she meant: it's basically a small, rotating drum on a long handle, with blades on one edge of the drum. It takes a lot of elbow grease.
As she talked, the vision flashed in my mind of my father falling to his knees on the concrete driveway, clutching his chest with an expression of mortal terror on his face. A second or two later he fell forward onto the concrete. There was no one around to see it; he was discovered a few minutes later by Strawberry Blonde Sister.
Most of the details of the vision match what my family told me: he was badly bruised from falling on the concrete, which was why my sister & mother opted for an open casket funeral. Any doctor will tell you it takes several seconds to die of a heart attack, which is plenty of time to realize what's happening.
There's one detail, though, that no one told me about. When I arrived in Florida, my mother asked me to finish edging the driveway because people were going to come over. (Dad used to joke that he'd get me to do yard work in the Florida heat one more time.) I could see where he'd died from where the edging stopped. It was exactly where I'd seen it in the vision.
After I was done with the manual edging tool, Mom threw it into the trash.
It was an awful experience, but I feel somehow privileged to have had it.
I've only had one supernatural experience. It wasn't an encounter so much as a vision: I saw my father's death from 3000 miles away, about an hour after it happened.
August 26th, 1995 was a Saturday, eight days before my wedding. I had spoken to my father that morning. My father said he was hoping to get through life without wearing a tux, but it was my wedding, and I insisted.
I first learned of his death when my mother called that afternoon, and as soon as I heard her jagged intake of breath, I knew something was very wrong. He had been edging the driveway with the manual tool, she said, when he had a heart attack. I knew which tool she meant: it's basically a small, rotating drum on a long handle, with blades on one edge of the drum. It takes a lot of elbow grease.
As she talked, the vision flashed in my mind of my father falling to his knees on the concrete driveway, clutching his chest with an expression of mortal terror on his face. A second or two later he fell forward onto the concrete. There was no one around to see it; he was discovered a few minutes later by Strawberry Blonde Sister.
Most of the details of the vision match what my family told me: he was badly bruised from falling on the concrete, which was why my sister & mother opted for an open casket funeral. Any doctor will tell you it takes several seconds to die of a heart attack, which is plenty of time to realize what's happening.
There's one detail, though, that no one told me about. When I arrived in Florida, my mother asked me to finish edging the driveway because people were going to come over. (Dad used to joke that he'd get me to do yard work in the Florida heat one more time.) I could see where he'd died from where the edging stopped. It was exactly where I'd seen it in the vision.
After I was done with the manual edging tool, Mom threw it into the trash.
It was an awful experience, but I feel somehow privileged to have had it.
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That would have been when I went to visit my mother in Florida in April. She bought us tickets to the opera. When I finished getting ready, she saw me and said, "Well! A long-stemmed rose!"
♥
That would have been when I went to visit my mother in Florida in April. She bought us tickets to the opera. When I finished getting ready, she saw me and said, "Well! A long-stemmed rose!"
♥
Writer's Block: Born to be wild
Aug. 18th, 2011 11:01 am[Error: unknown template qotd]
I went to Burning Man for my 40th birthday. Yeah, my birthday's in January and Burning Man starts in August, but it was easily the best birthday present I ever gave myself.
I went to Burning Man for my 40th birthday. Yeah, my birthday's in January and Burning Man starts in August, but it was easily the best birthday present I ever gave myself.
Writer's Block: Father figure
Jun. 19th, 2011 05:50 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
Strawberry Blond Sister, before she turned to the dark side, told me this: "If you can't be good, be careful."
Strawberry Blond Sister, before she turned to the dark side, told me this: "If you can't be good, be careful."
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My car is the Sanctimobile, and my poor, neglected bike is Goldiebike. Fairly self-explanatory, no?
My car is the Sanctimobile, and my poor, neglected bike is Goldiebike. Fairly self-explanatory, no?
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I'd follow the guidelines of the International Astronomical Union: the name of the star followed by a lower case letter. If the planet is the nth one discovered around that star, the letter is the n+1st letter of the alphabet. The letter "a" is unused to eliminate confusion with the star itself. For example, Gliese 581 g.
Let's make it easy for people to search databases, shall we?
I'd follow the guidelines of the International Astronomical Union: the name of the star followed by a lower case letter. If the planet is the nth one discovered around that star, the letter is the n+1st letter of the alphabet. The letter "a" is unused to eliminate confusion with the star itself. For example, Gliese 581 g.
Let's make it easy for people to search databases, shall we?
Writer's Block: Unplugged
Nov. 22nd, 2010 10:16 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
How much money? The price of a Burning Man ticket, gear, water, food, and transpo. About $1000 total, because I don't have that much gear of my own. Yet.
How much money? The price of a Burning Man ticket, gear, water, food, and transpo. About $1000 total, because I don't have that much gear of my own. Yet.
Writer's Block: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
May. 10th, 2010 07:42 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
'79 Olds Cutlass Cruiser wagon - The Moldmobile, so named because the door panels collected water and allowed the ceiling to mildew. The fabric up there came unstuck, so I stapled it. I did a good enough job that people often took a long time to realize that it wasn't factory equipment. With dents from two states and D.C. I drove it from Florida to Arkansas to Albuquerque to L.A. to San Francisco to here with everything I owned, and I still had a clear view out the back. Happy days.
'93 Saturn SL2 - The Mighty Little Saturn. After the Moldmobile, the Mighty Little Saturn seemed tiny. My first new car, the car I drove Nibs to Powell's in on a date, and the first car to carry my son.
'97 Toyota Camry - The Anonymobile. Nibs & I had to learn the plate number (572 HLY) to keep from trying to break into other people's otherwise identical cars. It served us well, though.
'06 Toyota Prius - The Sanctimobile. I drove the family down to Santa Cruz with it, and we came back up through Sonoma & the redwoods. Five hundred miles on a tank can sure make you stiff, but that was a fabulous trip. The backup camera is a godsend for parking in Seattle for clubbing. Obama bumper stickers in Latin & Hebrew script.
'79 Olds Cutlass Cruiser wagon - The Moldmobile, so named because the door panels collected water and allowed the ceiling to mildew. The fabric up there came unstuck, so I stapled it. I did a good enough job that people often took a long time to realize that it wasn't factory equipment. With dents from two states and D.C. I drove it from Florida to Arkansas to Albuquerque to L.A. to San Francisco to here with everything I owned, and I still had a clear view out the back. Happy days.
'93 Saturn SL2 - The Mighty Little Saturn. After the Moldmobile, the Mighty Little Saturn seemed tiny. My first new car, the car I drove Nibs to Powell's in on a date, and the first car to carry my son.
'97 Toyota Camry - The Anonymobile. Nibs & I had to learn the plate number (572 HLY) to keep from trying to break into other people's otherwise identical cars. It served us well, though.
'06 Toyota Prius - The Sanctimobile. I drove the family down to Santa Cruz with it, and we came back up through Sonoma & the redwoods. Five hundred miles on a tank can sure make you stiff, but that was a fabulous trip. The backup camera is a godsend for parking in Seattle for clubbing. Obama bumper stickers in Latin & Hebrew script.
