Writing
Work is going well on Mercy. I wonder why I procrastinate so much (every freaking day!) when, once I finally buckle down, I really enjoy working on it. I ARE MAH OWEN BIGGIST OBSTICKLE.

Having a problem with how to start it, too—not a fan of my original opening. So I’m working on scenes in random order, with the question of how to kick the story off not too far back in my mind. If a brilliant idea doesn’t pop up on its own, I’m thinking of writing a new opening every day for a week and see where that puts me. But not this week. This week I’m going to continue working on scenes randomly.

Cycling
I did 8 miles Saturday, 9.6 on Sunday, and today was supposed to be 12, but like a dufus I missed my turn-off and ended up with 13.5…which is pretty damn cool. Next Sunday you can bet I’ll be pedaling into the Ultimate Ice Cream parking lot for a milkshake.

And after not toppling over for a while, I toppled over today. Twice. Sigh.

Shows
We saw The Warlocks and The Black Angels at The Grey Eagle Friday night. Prior to the show I’d liked The Warlocks better, but The Black Angels won me over live. Their drummer, Stephanie Bailey, KICKS ASS, and I liked how they changed up who played what. They had a few problems—something was going on with the keyboard near us in the beginning, they seemed to have trouble finding room for themselves on the stage, and at one point during the encore Alex Maas’s guitar got unplugged—but none of it took away from the overall show. I’d see them again.

The Warlocks put on a good show, but I’m not sure I’d see them again. Maybe if they hadn’t opened with my favorite song (”Zombie Like Lovers“) (and it was really good) (but it was like coming right away, yet the intercourse goes on and on) (this is, of course, far more my problem than theirs)…. They also weren’t as compelling to watch, even with Bobby Hecksher’s kibby fits.

This was also our first time at The Grey Eagle. Not a bad place. The stage is maybe two feet high, no barrier. They’ve got a bar and a kitchen. No complaints about the sound. Mark’s going back to see Custard Pie on the 18th, when Jake and I go to The Orange Peel to see the “Local Metal Showcase II.”

I’ve forgotten to mention that when we had to exchange rental cars in New Jersey, I left my keys in the one we’d been driving. We called the Hertz office in Trenton as soon as we realized it, and the woman told us she’d mail the keys. However, it seems that she may have just lied to get us off the phone. Hopefully she didn’t just chuck the keys in the trash.

Yesterday I went to the Pontiac dealership to get a new key made using my VIN (because I only got one key with the car when I bought it), but the key they made doesn’t turn in either the locks or the ignition.

I am apparently never going to be able to drive my car again.

I guess I could turn it into a very expensive planter.

For weeds, because that’s the only thing I have enough ambition to grow.

Meanwhile, picked up the dogs from the boarding kennel yesterday, after the key thing. Jack was his usual self, but there was something wrong with Izzy. She just looked a little dazed at first, and I thought maybe getting home and getting some rest on a prime piece of bed real estate would sort her out, but by 3:30 in the morning, it was clear that there was something Serious going on. So I brought her to the vet, who put her on IV fluids and started bloodwork. When they called me after this, they said it looked like kidney failure. Cue tears (mine, not the vet’s). I okayed x-rays, and after a while they called back to tell me that her kidneys looked pretty normal on the x-ray, neither enlarged (as you’d expect with acute kidney failure) or undersized (as you’d expect with chronic kidney failure), and putting that together with the bloodwork (particularly the elevated potassium) and the fact that this all happened in conjunction with a stay at the kennel, and the fact that she’s trembling and walking funny, they’ve decided it’s maybe Addison’s instead, so I okayed the test for that and we’ll have the results in a day or two. Cue hand-wringing. I hope it is Addison’s, because while not curable it is treatable. Meanwhile they got her stabilized enough to be able to stay at the vet’s overnight (as opposed to having to be transported to the emergency vet hospital). I’ll call in the morning to see how she’s doing—hopefully even better yet! (Please don’t let it turn out that I made the wrong call on staying at the vet vs. going to the emergency hospital for the night. I just didn’t want to move her if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.)

I haven’t had a chance to get back to bike riding yet. I have to bring Mark to work tomorrow so I can go back to the dealership to try to get a working key, and so I’ll have the car if the vet says Izzy can come home, so probably no bike riding tomorrow either. I did look at my bike fondly…as I was bringing down a load of Izzy-puke-covered laundry.

I was planning to start in on the Mercy rewrites today, but no luck. I’m typing this while I make dinner, and I have a crapload of things to do after dinner. But tomorrow, I’m digging into it. (I did get it all set up in Scrivener last night, though, and rearranged the first draft so that the scenes were in order. And I made notes. Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. I shouldn’t have any puke to clean up off the carpets and stuff tomorrow….)