NaNoWriMo Day 18: 15,369 words

Man, I rocked and rolled today on this. My deployment to Austin really knocked a hole in my time to write, and I have been seriously worried about how I was going to make National Novel Writing Month work this year. The thing is, I hate ever being a DNF (Did Not Finish). So I sacrificed a little sleep (well, a lot of sleep) and put in over 6,500 words-- about five days worth of writing today. I wrote before work, during my lunch hour, and a really long time after Sonia and Daniel went to bed.

I have to say that I'm pleased. I had story elements come out of nowhere. Two more of my minor supporting characters turned out to have really interesting back stories that I ended up explaining (even though I invented these characters, I'm finding out more about them all the time).

Well, I'm about to fall asleep sitting up, so I'm headed for bed.

Leaving Texas

It looks like my time here in Beaumont is coming to a close. Unexpectedly I am being pulled back to DC. I'm really happy to be heading home to Sonia and Daniel, but I'm a little sad about leaving my home town so soon. I feel like I wasn't here long enough. I got to hang out with my cousin Becky and my friend Ginger, and I'll have dinner with my brother Pancho tonight. But I didn't get a chance to see my buddy Troy (In case you're googling Troy Soileau, all of the rumors about the chickens are damned lies). And I still haven't gotten to Lumberton at all. I'll have to see if I can pull through there before I go.

Beaumont, Texas - A little run in the Big City

I'm on a project with FEMA here in Beaumont, Texas. This was the "big city" when I was living in Lumberton as a kid. I forgot how much I like this place.

I'm staying at my cousin Becky's house, which isn't far from downtown Beaumont. I went out with my new $30 Montrails! and my twitchy calf and went for a short run this morning. Tha calf held up-- it's a little stiff now, so now I'm worried about what's going to happen on 20 November 2008 when I run in the Northern Central Trail Marathon. I might have to lay off for another week to see if it comes around.

Miniscule tiny short run/New Shoes/Beaumont!

I ran here in Austin two days ago in the Walnut Creek Park.  It was a really pretty run, but my left calf started acting up just before I stopped (well, about three miles before I stopped).  When I got up yesterday, I had planned to go out for a long run-- I had a route mapped out for 22 miles.  My calf just said nooooo.  So I took the day off.

But I did have a stroke of good luck yesterday afternoon.  I had gone to Rogue Running, aterrific  running gear store here in Austin, in search of a long sleeve shirt to run in.  It is colder here than I expected!  I didn't find a shirt, but in the SALE pile, I found a pair of Montrail Vitesses for $30.  It was like finding the trail running holy grail.  I was checking them for nails inside and stuff-- I just couldn't believe it.  Of course I bought them, feeling very smug about wearing my $30 Montrails!.

I went out for a run this morning-- I meant to go for an hour and a half.  But as soon as I stepped out the door in my new $30 Montrails!, I realized there was a problem.  My left big toe was banging right up against the end of the shoe.  Darn, I thought (hey, this site is PG).  So I cut the run short right at 30 minutes.

At lunchtime I was able to take the shoes back to Rogue Running.  They took them back and gave me another pair of $30 Montrails! in exchange for free!  Fantastic!  Incredible!  No Sh*t!  So I left feeling doubly smug and very happy about life in general.  So if you're ever in Austin, go buy shoes or something at Rogue Running Gear.

When I got back to the FEMA shop, it turned out that the folks at the FEMA shop in Beaumont had requested someone to come do what I do.  So I'm going to go there early tomorrow morning and go do what I do there.  It will be cool, with any luck I'll be able to swing through Lumberton and see my buddy Troy and see my cousin Becky and brother Pancho in Beaumont.

NaNoWriMo Day 10: Behind, but catching up

We are ten days into NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  To make 50,000 words by the end of the month, I should have written 16,670 words.  I woke up this morning with 900 words... but I also had three pretty good characters and an idea.

I got up early this morning and put in a couple of hours writing, and this evening I put in some more.  I've decided to structure my novel somewhat on the same lines as George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and write each chapter from a differing character's viewpoint.  I like this because it avoids making the story too neatly lopsided to one character.

The storyline has gotten out of my hands and is firmly in my characters' wills now.  I was determined to make two of my characters hate each other but they seem to have fallen in love.  One of my incidental characters (a waiter) just pushed his way into a major supporting role.  And two of my characters just jumped in the sack together.

Anyway, my word count is at 5,561 now, so I did about three day's writing today.  And I'm pleased and proud and for the first time this month I think I can actually do this.   At this point, I must.  I actually am anxious to see how the story turns out.

Austin Trail Running

I'm still in Austin working on Hurricane Ike for FEMA. I'm staying at a hotel right across from Austin's Walnut Creek Park. I finally managed to get out for a run this morning in the park. We've been working 14 hour days since I got here, and I'm just now getting adjusted to that.

On the map the park doesn't look like much. On the ground, though, it has some really terrific trails. The trails are for real, too-- they aren't glorified sidewalks. I was having to slow down a lot to get down some of the bigger downhills without falling face first. I really enjoyed the run.

I got kind of lost out there and was having a hard time finding civilization-- a perfect thing to have happen on a trail run. But I needed to get back to go to work (we're working 7 days a week now). I finally broke out and headed toward the highway. I ran along and saw several things on the side of the road: a second hand tire shop ("Llantas Usadas Fiables")... then I saw a spent shotgun shell... and finally a flattened armadillo road kill.

I love Texas.

Gone To Texas

FEMA is sending me to Austin for a couple of weeks to work on the recovery effort for Hurricane Ike.  I ended up leaving earlier than I thought-- my 6am flight had me out of bed at 3:30.  We stayed up and watched the returns last night-- looks like I have a new boss-- so I got about two hours of sleep.

I feel surprisingly fresh.

I'm not happy about leaving Sonia and Daniel for two weeks.  But this is part of the job with FEMA, and if this somehow relieves the suffering of someone, I feel good about it.  I'll actually have a little more time to build up my nanowrimo word count and to train for the marathon on the 28th-- I'm expecting 12 hour days, but the other 12 will be fairly obligation free (guess I have to sleep sometime, though!)

Stop what you're doing and go participate in history

Today is election day.  If you don't know that, you probably aren't registered and may as well go back to sleep.  Pleasant dreams.

For the rest of you, there is a great Google Map that will show you exactly where your polling place is, take you to the web site of your local board of elections, etc.

I got up at 5:00 am this morning and got to the polls at 5:30.  I was the first person at the polls, but within 15 minutes there was a line of 20, and when the polls opened at 7:00 am there were hundreds of people in line.  It made me damn proud to see how many people wanted to vote.

When I was in Seychelles as a Peace Corps volunteer, they had the first democratic elections after 17 years.  People went wild.  It was near 100% voter turnout, and might have ended up being more that 100% as many tried to scrub the ink off their thumbs and go back.

So who did I vote for?  If you've followed this blog for a while, you'll notice that I don't blog on politics any more.  Read this for further details.  In any case, I voted for who I thought was best.  Go do that, too, whoever you believe that may be.

22 Miles - 17 minutes faster!

I'm continuing with my crazy-assed plan of running 22 miles every Sunday for a while to see what will happen (any guesses as to what will happen?  It starts with "I" and ends with "njury").  I got up at 4:45 am so I could get my run done before Daniel and Sònia where up and around.  Hmmm, one of the signs of addiction is hiding the behavior-- maybe I'll start hiding my long runs in toilet tanks and behind books in the bookshelf...

Anyway, Daylight Savings Time is over so I kind of got up at 5:45 am my time, so it wasn't as horrible.  If you're finding that you're not on time for anything today, you might need to adjust your watch!

The trail was silent, no one on it at first.  Last week I was dodging bikers and other runners the whole way, today I was alone for long stretches.  I found it very easy to stay concentrated on my environment, being in the moment.  I found that this got progressively harder to maintain as I got more tired.  But I was pleased with how easily I got it back.  At the very beginning of the Capital Crescent Trail I saw an animal moving around by the trail ahead in the darkness.  I tried to figure out what it was and was pretty much right on top of it when I realized it was a young deer.  The deer just looked at me.  I just did my "Hi Deer, you stay over there and I'll stay over here and this is going to turn out just fine" bit.  It never really moved away.

I was cooking today.  Last week I finished this route in 3:31 and today I finished in just 3:13-- 17 minutes faster!  Part of this is that I know the trail better and missed one false turn (though I still made a different wrong turn).  Part of it is that I know I can do this distance and I was confident that I could press the pedal a little more.  But I have to think that part of the improvement was simply that I have improved: I'm actually a little faster.  Fast enough that I was running 8:59 miles the whole 22 miles.  A few months back I could only sustain 10:00 miles for about 12 miles.  I am feeling smug.

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2359605

As far as National Novel Writing Month, I squeaked out 366 words yesterday-- not 1,667.  Sigh.  Being a dad cuts into this kind of thing.  But I have a story!  It's gonna have it all-- runnin' and meditatin' and goin' to them meetins' (I've been watching that palurda Palin and now my "g's" don't work)  And I've made a decision-- I'm going to have to give up my reading club coordination duties for the month.  Basically that will make the time necessary to get this thing finished off.  I had a blast doing this last year, and I am looking forward to getting my word count going this afternoon when I get a little time alone-- as long as I don't fall asleep from my run as soon as I'm by myself.

National Novel Writing Month starts today - Killer leg cramp

I got up this morning knowing that something was happening-- daylight savings time? nope, that's tomorrow.  Payday?  yep, but that's not really as special as it should be.  Then it hit me-- the first day of November-- National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has started!  Arg!

I haven't thought about a story-- on the other hand, that's not necessary or even desireable.  But what I am freaking out about is the time commitments I'm on: I'm a member of two book clubs who meet this month, and reading time competes with writing time.  I'm training for the Northern  Central Trail Marathon on the 29th, and running time competes with writing time.  And I'm a FEMA Branch Chief and working time definitely competes with writing time.

What the hell, I'm still going to do it.  Just have to write 1,667 words today.  That's easy.

Last night I woke up with a huge cramp in my left calf muscle.  I felt like someone was ripping my calf muscle off.  It's my own damn fault.  I went into the gym yesterday and lifted like crazy.  I changed my routine to emphasize endurance more, so I'm doing 3 sets of 20 reps of everything.  That last set is pretty awful.  Hopefully this will get a little easier over the next few weeks.