Wednesday: Writing, neighbors and St. Vincent de Paul

Yesterday was a pretty full day, but today I decided to take things a bit easier. I did go to the gym first thing. Then I worked on NaNoWriMo a bit before packing up to go write at the library. On my way, I dropped off a couple of small wall mirrors, two boxes of glass dishes and a box of glass votive holders at St Vincent de Paul. I figure if I take a few boxes every time I go to the library -- the thrift store is only about five minutes further -- I can stay ahead of things and not wind up having to haul loads and loads over in the middle of December.

I got in some serious writing at the library and was approaching 19,000 words by the time I packed my laptop and headed home for lunch.

Our next door neighbor is expecting a baby and today is her due date. Tom and I are on call to stay with the kids at their house should she and her husband head to the hospital. About the middle of the afternoon, the son and the older of the three girls came over looking for work. Tom had him do some yard work while his sister helped me sort through towels and linens and things. Over the years when we were hosting lots of people for the holidays, we accumulated towels, cloth napkins, table cloths and so on. Some things are still in the original packages. Picking what will go with us to Madison -- where we need just enough for ourselves and a set of things for a very occasional guest -- and getting the rest stuffed into four large garbage bags for delivery to St. Vinnie's tomorrow took about forty-five minutes. It was helpful, but it was not enough to burn up all the nervous energy of a ten-year-old girl and a thirteen-year-old boy. They were still bouncing off the walls when they took their money and headed home. Their mother may go to the hospital early, just to get away from them.

Somewhere in there I managed to get just a wee bit more done on the novel. The word count at the moment is 19,626. That means I am averaging just under 5,000 words per day, almost three times the daily goal of 1,667. I'm not saying how many of those are the right words, of course.

 The word for the day was a tricky one: coriaceous -- of or like leather. Fortunately it is applied to the texture of some leaves, and as it turns out, some dried smilax had blown into the neighbor's yard just in time to be mentioned in passing. (I don't know any other name for smilax. The kind we had in Texas was a vine with red berries that sometimes served as a sort of false holly for decorating purposes.)

Last lines: [Sorry about the line-spacing problem. Can't get Blogger to cooperate.]

“Miz Missy, I don’t have time to go into all the details and I know you want to get going. But I had a troubling visit from Joanne Smithers last night about … well, you know, about our new friend. It sounded like she might stir up trouble. Could you maybe keep your eyes peeled and your ears to the ground to see if anything is up?”

She made a clicking sound with her teeth and nodded.

“That girl never had any sense. Afraid of her own shadow when she was a kid in my class. You could make her cry just by looking at her cross-eyed. Anyway, she’ll probably be at the Vacation Bible School this morning. I’ll keep an eye out and see if she’s up to anything.”

I saw Katie running back with her white Bible tucked under one arm. I thanked Miz Missy for her help and also for giving Katie a ride.

“I’m happy to do it,” she said. She peered at me over her eyeglasses for a moment.“You know, Corny, if you ever want a ride to church, my car is big enough for all of us."

I bounced Billy Bob on my hip and shook my head.

“If I ever do, you’ll be the first to know,” I told her. “But don’t hold your breath.”

I waved to Katie and walked back to my house.