(I'm fine)

I tripped on a curb edge and did a spectacular pratfall on hard concrete last night, on the way home from a delicious dinner at my favorite local Mexican restaurant. (Mia's Cantina. Tacos & strawberry slushie drinks FTW)

The crash was a fitting cap on a day of radical course changes.

Things started predictably enough, with breakfast on the patio. (I've been having all my breakfasts there lately, air quality permitting.) Sunshine, soundtrack of variously crabby/happy/alarmed birds, and happy blooms & butterflies all around. Good times!

First change of course: Outdoors to Indoors. I was settling at the table to get some Quality Writing Work done when the smoke stink descended.

Some near-neighbor keeps leaving their backyard firepit/ barbeque/ chimneria uncovered so the tiniest breeze blows the ash everywhere, which is fine for them but ruins other people's ability to enjoy their yards. (NO IT IS NOT "CANADIAN WILDFIRE SMOKE." The problem is confined to the middle of my block & the blocks on either side, and none of my immediate neighbors are the culprits. But I digress. Of course I do.)

Course Change the second & Third

Up at my boring office desk, I unpacked a story I shelved back in, oh, February of 2022 because it still didn't have a plot after 5 scenes. It's a character study that doesn't fit into a short story or novel rhythm, and this was my fourth attempt to give it a direction. So far I'm liking the new material I added. There might be a resolution of sorts within a scene or two.

Lunchtime walk turned into TWO walks & a trip to the mechanic to drop off a car for an oil change. Surprise exercise is always good, right? It was a good day for walking, but I was still glad to get to my 'brar shift where I would get to sit for a couple of hours.

Ha-HA NOPE!

Course Change the Fourth

Half an hour into my shift, electrical hijinks started happening. (Lights flickering, computers restarting, phones going offline for about 10min, and so on) culminating in no HVAC, no elevators, and only half the lights up in the public areas.

One of the staff soon reported that a transformer nearby went *POP.*

The next hour was exciting, more for the intrepid and awesome in-charge staff than for me. (I got to make Power Failure Announcements. Why, yes, we do have a script for that.) With a resolution time of 7:45PM or later, the library shut down for the evening.

Leaving me with an extra two & a half hours free! It could've just been another basic evening at home, but Spouseman suggested (half joking) Mia's for a celebration supper.

And so we did.

Which is how I came to be tripping over a curb at dusk instead of being at my desk in the 'brar, or at home watching television.

Lots of flailing happened, and that weird time-slowing perception thing, which let me get positioned to minimize impact damage. Result: bruised dignity and a minor hamstring/muscle pull in the leg I didn't land on.

"Lots of flailing, no major damage," is a decent summary for most of my days, when it comes right down to it.

That's all until later.

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The latest book