Report from the Stanbrough Camp, West

September 29, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* The Internet’s Up!
* I (Almost) Have Electricity!
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

The Internet’s Up!

Yesterday, after a couple of weird weeks, my youngest son, a 9th-degree black belt telecommunications guy, got my internet up and running again.

Before the smoke fully cleared, it required the installation of two new “dishes”: one on the house and one on a tower just behind (east of) the Hovel.

We also drove to a store in Benson (15 mile roundtrip) to get a new router for inside the Hovel, but that was only so the WiFi at my writing ‘puter was as “fast” as the WiFi at my business computer. Completely my fault.

The two are literally about 4 feet apart, as if that should make a difference to stuff that allegedly moves at the speed of light. But apparently it does make a difference. Now both are equally fast.

Now I have to decompress a little, if that’s the right term.

I have to make sure I transfer everything on my flash drive to the appropriate folders on my business computer and my writing ‘puter. Each serves as a backup for the other.

Then I have to pry myself out of the Trek Back and Forth to the House mode and get back into the Go to Work and Fuggedaboudit mode. I’m hoping that will take only a day or two and require a minimum of muttered cursing.

Additionally…

I Almost Have Electricity

Well, I’ve had electricity in the Hovel in a minor way ever since I ran the first extension cord from the house way back when.

Then my landlord at the time ran electricity from the pole next to the well pump, so I was able to get rid of the extension cord. But I was allowed very few amps (around 20).

Then we bought the house and land—but not the well and the acre on which the well sits, although we do have a 1/3 well-share—and now another guy’s buying that acre.

So it was time to switch everything over and get some actual power in the Hovel. When all’s said and done, I’ll have 100 amps of power, a small fridge, etc.

So over the past coulple of days, the elecrician was out. He dug about a 150-foot trench (No, Not By Hand) from the electrical box on the house to the middle bay (next to the Hovel), ran the line, backfilled the trench, installed the power box and four outlets, etc.

Finally at the end of a hot day on Friday he was “on the verge”—I’ve been on the verge of many things many times, so I readily recognize The Verge—of hooking up the end of the wires at the house and switching everthing on.

But the ground strip (that long, narrow Frankenstein strip of aluminum in the back of the power box with a lot of little bolts protruding from it) was no good. The little bolts were rusted.

Fine. Whatever.

So he’ll be back on Wednesday to do that after the electric company folks come out, pull the meter, etc. Then he’ll hook everything up and throw the switch and I’ll be golden in the Hovel at long last.

An’ all’a this is goin’ on while I’m writin’ characters who remind me a lot of Joe Peschi’s character (Tommy) in the Godfather series. That doesn’t help a lot with the cursing, if y’know what I mean.

The Writing

As one of my dear writer friends says now and again, “Hey, I’ got excuses, a’right?”

Well, something like that.

And just now, as I was writing this, the breaker flipped and I hadda go outside and reset it. You see why I’ll be glad to get that 100 amps in the Hovel? Hey, more is better.

Wednesday… come on, Wednesday.

Anyhow, with everything going on, I fell down on the writing a little. Well, a lot. I continued writing a little here and there, but Days Happen, am I right?

So I dropped the bottom out of my average wpd to below 3000 again, with only today and tomorrow left in the month. Talk about a challenge! (grin)

Today I’ll cycle through the whole story so far, and when I hit the white space I’ll be off and writing again.

If “The Darling Club” is a short story it’ll probably wrap today. But I don’t want to take the chance. I’ll write another short story today for the Bradbury Challenge and then continue the current story later today and-or tomorrow. See how that works? (grin)

Exes and Ohs from southeast Arizona,
Yer Uncle Harv

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: “Acts of Daring” Of course, we writers can do this without risking life or limb: WITD. You know, Dare to Be Bad.

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 800

Writing of “The Darling Club”

Day 1…… 3274 words. To date…… 3274
Day 2…… 0498 words. To date…… 3772

Fiction for September…………………….. 81458
Fiction for 2024………………………….… 734792
Fiction since October 1…………………… 862494
Nonfiction for September………………… 27820
Nonfiction for 2024……………………….. 302660
2024 consumable words…………………. 865347

Average Fiction WPD (September)……… 2927

2024 Novels to Date……………………… 13
2024 Novellas to Date……………………. 1
2024 Short Stories to Date………………. 14
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 95
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………. 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………. 251
Short story collections……………………. 29

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer, but please try this at home. You can do it. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies. They will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

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