anachred

ozark_hoodlums

Riley was used to having hunters cut across their land, so when a boy with a sun-burnt nose and frizzed-out curly hair came squirming out of the bush, a pistol held out in front of him, she was going to ask what he was after, groundhogs? She hesitated because of the expression on his face. Then he walked toward her, barrel extended in her direction, and the humor of it died.

“Look, you need to come with me,” he said.
She stood up slowly.
“What?”
“Get up, and walk toward the pond.”
“Please,” she said, panicking. “I don’t even know you. What do you want?”
“Listen, I need you to just come with me. I’m in trouble, I need safe-passage. No one’s going to hurt me if I have you, and I have to get out of here. I’m not going to touch you.”

This was ridiculous—not “touching” someone had to include not pointing guns at their head. She went, though. What else could she do?

He looked scared himself.

I found out something fascinating and horrifyingly exemplar of the sort of country we have bullied ourselves into having this week. On the lines of "make everyone a criminal, fast!" like Internet

It involves wild horses. I kid you not.

While driving to an Agritourism event, it came up that my boss, legally, can't bury large animals on her property: if you need to bury a sheep (or other large animal) it has to be done more than 100 [ft? yards?] away from any neighboring property, where there is not rain-water runoff, etc. The only other option is to take it to a certain incineration plant, the only one that does large animals, one that's actually got a national monopoly on the trade. (Why?! Why monopolize this? I ask you.)

It's in Oklahoma City, a good 2~3 hours away from here. It costs more gas, time, and heartache to do this than any sheep, no matter how valuable it may have been, is worth when dead. This is irrationally hard work for a farmer who's time and money are at max, and who has enough heartache to live with from the weather, thank you very kindly.

So where do the wild horses come in? They come in because there are horses that would be destroyed because they're not worth their keep (time/money/heartache, again). And if they were euthanized, they'd have to be...

You got it: taken to Oklahoma City. Or whatever your state's monopolizing incineration plant site happens to be.
So, happen it be easier to dump your horse on certain unguarded land... Apparently in Tennessee this is much more prevalent, but there's a known place to do it in this area of OK, too.

Have fun creating that wild apocalyptic novel! Your loss if you can't fit in wild herds of three-legged, one-eyed, angry horses ravaging the land. Too bad for everyone writing as if this wild stuff didn't really happen...

Some things I learned today:

~5 gallons of water is heavy. Almost too heavy for me to carry.
~It it impossible to stay cold carrying that much water, no matter how frozen the hose is.
~I really like dancing...like, to Irish reels. Step-dancing.

I pretty much choreographed an All New! folk dance for my story yesterday: the first time since I was on my choreographing kick at 14ish. I did it on paper, but used Lego blocks to try out the logistics of it, and I think it would work out.
I also think it will probably need to be cut, that scene of dancing. Because it was wicked boring to type up, except for the stuff going on in between.

I was at 46774 words yesterday afternoon.
This morning I wrote half the quota of pages, maybe, and last night I wrote a few extra. I think I'll be done tonight with NaNo, but not with the novel. Almost for both, though!

I have to talk about The Neverending Story soon. And read a few more books.

Today I needed a break from sitting under the screaming metal being drilled in the barn, where the alternative was get Sharpie-high (note: NOT a pleasant altered state).

So I went out to the bench in the remaining pumpkin patch and sat smelling my leather jacket warm in the sun on my back, and piecing the last quarter of my Navigator Star quilt block together. I ate while working, which was good, to have the half-hour just to be quiet.

Multi-faceted things fascinate me. I enjoy being multifaceted. Yesterday I was dancing on tiptoes down the hose to break up the ice inside to water our pony. Then I went to work and did a little graphic design (really mundane stuff, but still; formatting a brochure I put together the information for, too) with the technical prowess my boss somehow appreciates.

Last night I went to the “Dickens on the Boulevard” the city of Claremore does where lots of homeschooling families congregate, many in Victorian costume (some products of a musical my mother put on two years ago there). And a lot of other kinds of people, especially Civil War era belles.

Last night I went as a goth Chimney-sweep J-Pop-Idol.

You'd think I liked Halloween or something. ^_^ But actually, I only added a little kohl to my eyes, a loooong scarf and my brother's top hat to the outfit I wore to work.

And my Union Jack boots.

Only there for a few minutes. But my dad is going to Mexico and taking his camera, so I couldn't even get a shot of the wacky way I allow myself to be seen in public.

Tonight I was just a glamorous chimney sweep.

One thing that's pretty consistent in my life right now, in any spare moment, is obsessing. Obsessing about Dhaeniv and Qahl, the main characters in my NaNo project, because that's what I do now.

I always think about books a lot; mine, others', the theoretical, metaphysical, practical...

But I'd forgotten what it's like to think about a certain story all the time. To get enough story ready in my head to fill the paper I do that—and that's not the best way to write a novel long-term, maybe, or even as a general rule, but man. I know I used to be like this at the beginning of projects.

Maybe it's that it's been a half a year since I let myself really go planning a project. I'm finishing that one up now; the Main Story.

Don't have a word count: not enough time to type it in the last few nights. But I've been writing my five pages. One page not done this morning I have to finish now...so, see ya. I'm sorry about posting this wad after one so recently...but I'm offline tomorrow, and that was a mistake, anyway.