Sunday, 04 July 2004

Hope you had a good Independence Day.

I had a very successful morning of writing. I've got 3700 words now, so about 1700 new words today. That's the best day I've had in a while.

I was a bit stuck, wandering my way toward a conclusion that I sort of understood, but wasn't sure exactly how to reach. Rather than keep wandering, I went ahead and wrote the climactic scene. Now that I know exactly where I'm going, I think I can pin down all the steps on route. In fact, I've already done some of that.

I still have the denouement to write, and the scene just before the climax, where the hero is convinced to make his decision. The first third of the story will also need some revision, now that I see where I end up, but there's a lot of it that won't need to change much. Along the way today I added some descriptive bits that, I think, give a much better sense of place.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased.

After spending the morning writing, I checked the weather and saw that a small thunderstorm was passing through, after which the radar looked clear. We had been thinking about a picnic, but decided to just have an early lunch at home while the storm passed, and then go for an afternoon bike ride.

We rode down to Savoy and then out Old Church to Race street, up to that point, the same route as our other recent long rides. Then we turned south on Race, heading toward Philo. In fact, we rode very nearly all the way to Philo. It's been long enough, though, that I don't remember exactly which of those back roads go through and which ones don't, and got us to a point where the road to Philo would be on a highway, rather than approaching it on the back roads. We were tired enough to call it a day at that point, rather than make the adjustments to actually get into Philo.

We've got a tentative plan to ride to Philo next week and have lunch at the Philo Tavern.

Today's ride was 27 miles, which Jackie says is the farthest she's ever ridden. I've gone a bit farther many times, because the house in the woods was 18 miles from Kalamzoo, so I rode that distance almost routinely. I've only had a few rides long than that, though. I did 75 miles two days in a row to ride to Saugatuck and back, but that was back when I was in high school. Twelve or thirteen years ago I did 56 miles (basically circumnavigated the cities of Champaign and Urbana). I'm not sure there were many others.

We went with Barbara to see "Fahrenheit 9/11," which was excellent. I particularly liked using the theme song to the "Greatest American Hero" over Bush's carrier landing. Indeed.

There wasn't much in the movie that was news to me. I was glad to see the Bush family's Saudi connections laid out. The Bush image team has done a very good job of making Bush look like a man of the people. The movie does a pretty good job of showing what a crock that is.

I have high hopes for the movie. I want Bush not only to lose the election, but to lose so decisively that no president for a generation will take the country into an unnecessary war.

We're off work tomorrow, in celebration of the holiday. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to finish my story. If I can finish it tomorrow, then I can let it sit, revise it briefly, and send it out for critiquing on Tuesday.