Connecting the Dots

Quick house progress: after two quiet days, the workers were back at floor installation yesterday. The noise of power saws and power guns, the pounding of rubber mallet on floorboard getting it into place, and their radio. The smell of sawdust, of burnt wood when they cut the bottoms off trim so the new floor would fit, and of varnish, where they were redoing the door jambs. It's not quite familiar enough to be background noise. But the cabinet people called, and they'll deliver the new cabinets for kitchen and bathrooms next week. It's rare that I'm lucky enough to get in on the early end of a window.

As for writing…

Every now and then, there's a scene that absolutely refuses to get from opening to closing in a straightforward fashion. I just got up close and personal with one of them—for over two days.

I had my starting plot points, there were only two characters in the scene (and one was asleep for most of it), and I had a reasonable idea of where it should end.

As I worked on it, however, it was more like a connect-the-dots picture, but without any numbers telling you what the next dot should be. Sort of like this one--with an entirely different way to get the right picture.

Skill Sets and Transitions

No new wildlife—I think the construction noise freaked them out. Hummingbirds are fearless, however—they don't even wait until you hang up the feeder.


Construction update. Tile laid in one of the entries and in front of the fireplace. The darker tile is going to look good with the lighter oak. Hall bathroom gutted and ready for tile tomorrow, along with the other entry (if they did them both the same day, we wouldn't be able to get out of the house until they set). They're discovering extra work due to strange techniques used by the previous owners. I thought things would be quiet, but they got out power saws and power screwdrivers and power noisemakers in general. And … drum roll … we have a Dumpster! Yes, Dumpster is a trademark, just like Kleenex, so it has to be capitalized.

As I listened to the workers dealing with laying the tile, I started thinking about layers of skill sets for characters. Depending on our upbringing and experience, we might consider those who work in 'blue collar' trades as people who work with their hands, not their brains. I know the focus on my generation was to get a college degree and work in an office, rising the corporate ladder.

Slight digression here...