PICTURE OF THE DAY

Jasper being lazy.

DAILY RAMBLING

Another beautiful morning. Sent out two more resumes, given a bit of a kick in the seat by receipt yesterday of a letter explaining COBRA. I'd forgotten how appallingly expensive health insurance is without that paternal corporate hand to chip in for it. I'm not as willing as I was when younger to take the risk of having no insurance for a while, especially since I am now providing for the rest of the family, so here's hoping I find a job toot sweet.

Other than that, a splendid day--went for a long walk in the afternoon, without even a coat on, and in the evening a friend from the West coast dropped by in the course of his travels. I managed to cook something decent (I think), and the hours passed quickly in talk, food, and drink. Lydia was on much better behavior, thank goodness, though she didn't end up going to sleep until about 10:30.

Trying to solve some problems of plot as I contemplate getting back into novel work. At the close of chapter 11, K has been taken captive by bad guys. H is out of town. Why would they not leave K locked up until H returns to deal with him, which will take a couple of months? Slow revelation of What's Going On important here. Someone else in the organization doesn't care for H? Highly enough placed that he can ignore what H will think when he gets back? Thinks that he can use K against H? That's good. I like that. Plus leaving him locked up all that time might make K nuts, therefore useless. Rivalry within organization I can work with. Set up for more dramatic problems later on? H to be assassinated by B... other person to help set that up? Might cause too many tangles. Leave that for later. Current problem okay now? K let loose but kept under supervision until H returns, limited freedom. How do they keep him under control in H's absence? Still haven't figured that one out. Magic tattoo or brand seems possible. Non-wizard able to do those? Branding maybe. Has to be removable, though not easily. Or maybe some sort of chain. Has to be explainable as something other than what it is. Why him and not everyone else? Or would everyone else have one? You would think they would be difficult to produce. But then H would want to keep the supply of that sort of thing under tight control, wouldn't he? No, if he's gone they might need to bind someone, he would have to leave some behind, that's okay. No need to be all gruesome with the tattoo thing or something like that, then. Maybe build it into clothes or something so other people don't see it?

Right, then. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be less pleasant than today, maybe I'll be able to turn the gibberish above into an actual draft. It's been a while. Today, though, we're going to go for another walk, and I have to take care of a bunch of stuff for the car that I meant to do last week, but I got distracted by the layoff. It's been a whole week already? Weird.

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