How to become a mechanic, whether you want to or not.

If you've been a reader here for any length of time, then you've heard me rant a bit about the summers here in Houston and their poor manners. They give you plenty of notice that they're coming, true. But they show up at exactly the worst time possible, bring uninvited friends like humidity and bugs, and often stay a lot longer than they were supposed to. When they finally leave, it's with a sincere promise to be back next year.

Just the right time for a surprise issue with a car, right?

While driving around town yesterday, Claudia noticed the battery light come on. We headed for home, and crossed our fingers. Then we muttered under our breath as the gauges and displays started shutting off and turning back on. Finally we both cursed loud and long when the engine died, at a red light. When the light turned green, the honking began.

I hopped out and tried to wave cars past so we didn't end up receiving a rear-end collision, while calling a number for a twenty-four hour towing service. I got a recording saying they weren't open, and started wondering how long I could stand there waving my arms before somebody paid more attention to their cell phone than to me and sandwiched me between two automobiles. By luck, a guy drove by who was a mechanic, and who had a tow chain in his van. He hooked up, and while Claudia rode with him and gave directions, I stayed in out car and tried to brake at the right times, (you have to keep the chain tight, or it can get chewed up from dragging on asphalt) remembering why I hate trying to steer any vehicle that has no power. If you've never done it, don't. It's like wrestling with a tree.

One trip to Auto Zone later, I spent a long, miserable time figuring out everything that needed to be done to hook up my new battery. I've done it before with the vehicles that I drove in the Corps, but that was a few years ago. When everything was put back together, the car seemed to be working. Until I drove it today, that is. The battery light came on again and I drove back as fast as I could, imagining having to push the car a mile or so by myself in the same heat. So now I have an early trip to our mechanic planned, first thing in the morning.

Well, if worst comes to worst, I can always use the experience in a story, once I get the situation fixed in real life. Oh, bit of irony? I have royalties coming, but they're in such a small amount that I asked to just receive a copy of the book so I can hand it out or use it for a display at a convention. Which book? Why, 'Hard Luck', of course.

Enough miserating. Time to get back to writing.

Polishing

Last weekend was fun. My wife and I had friends over Saturday for a game of Mana Punk (http://mana-punk.com/) and in between my character recovering from an attack by something called a grave grub and dodging a gorilla sheathed in fire, our group discovered that we were going through one of the new modules for the game, Aria of Sorrow. Jeremy gave me a copy a few weeks back so I could go through it and get more familiar with the game, and now I'm glad I held off on reading it.

Also, summer has firmly settled in to Houston. This is noteworthy because the summers down here are not like summers anywhere else. If a Houston summer decided to go on the road for a while and seek its fortune, I can only imagine the horror. When it took I45 north and explored Dallas and Fort Worth, both cities and their many suburbs would declare emergencies and shut down when people discovered that their clothes were sweat-glued to their bodies. When it got to the dry panhandle, people wouldn't mind the heat but they would all stop what they were doing and take pictures of cars, buildings, and everything sinking into the mud that used to the southern edge of the high plains. If the traveling summer (I need to use that as a story title) got all the way to the north pole, then you, me, and everyone else would get washed into never-never land by the resulting tidal wave. Then the Elder Ones would thaw out and get the planet back.

But then I wouldn't be around to see Handsome Devil in print, so forget that.

Jeremy asked me to give Bittermint Tea a bit of a rewrite, saying it needs a smidge more atmosphere. Initially I was thinking that the GM would be able to pull that off from the framework I had lain, but I'm a bit spoiled in that regard from being raised on old Hammer Horror movies that starred people like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Those two and their peers could give you a chill by just looking at their watches. So I'm tweaking the adventure hook and adding what was going to be just a children's story but is quickly growing into a creation myth. (that'll teach him to send something back to me, dammit!) I've set myself a possibly ambitious deadline of having it done this weekend.

So I need to get back to writing.