personal

“To a new world of gods and monsters!”

I woke up early this morning to take my car into the garage. The anti-lock braking system light has been staying on lately, which is a sign that the system itself isn’t working properly, if at all. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to do anything for me. They reset the system, they said, and I should see how long it took for the light to come back on. They didn’t charge me anything, which is good, because it didn’t take any longer than sitting down in the car and starting the engine.

Of course, I then drove back home, shut the engine off, and then tried again…only to find that the light now went off.

Apparently, it’s something a Honda dealer is going to have to take a look at it. The car is safe to drive without it — it’s not the brakes themselves that aren’t working properly, and another customer at the garage said his Honda’s been having the same problem for two years. But I’ll probably do a little internet research and then maybe take it to the dealer. The car’s ten years old at this point, and well out of warranty, but the ABS is a safety feature that’s supposed to be working.

After that, it was a pretty quiet day, trying to get through lots of Kaleidotrope submissions. I still have over one hundred to go. But every now and then, a really great story will sneak into the mix, and I remember why I’m doing it.

Then this evening, I watched a double-feature of Frankeinstein and Bride of Frankenstein, neither of which I’d ever actually seen. They’re both okay, but Bride is definitely the better of the two movies, ridiculous camp more than horror, but entertaining.

And that was Saturday.

Thursday the 13th

You know how yesterday I said it’s been months since I overslept and got a latter train? Well, I did it again this morning.

I’d forgotten, however, that there is a train from Jamaica to Hunterspoint Avenue at that time of the morning, too, so it all worked out, even better than yesterday. I’m not going to make a habit of it — I’m actually looking to move out, probably closer to the city, and cutting the LIRR out altogether — but sometimes, when you don’t really nod off until well after midnight, that extra little bit in the morning makes all the difference.

Anyway, beyond that, just lots and lots of work.

Wednesday

This morning I did something I haven’t done in many months: I slept a little late. I’ve done that on weekends, sure, and on my days working from home — sleep a couple extra hours and get to work earlier than every other day? heck yes! — but not on a regular work day. Of course, it just meant that I missed my first train into the city, had to stand all the way to Manhattan on the next one (which was very over-crowded), had to take the subway out of Penn Station (which is less straightforward than the subway from Hunterspoint), and arrived at work a little after 9 instead of a little before 8:30 (which meant I worked until 5 instead of 4:30). That’s it.

This afternoon, at work, we had one of our semi-regular “brown bag lunches,” this one by a literary agent. It was okay, and he represents some really interesting authors — Michael Lewis, Ken Follett, Stephen Hawking — but the talk was a little too unstructured to be exceptionally interesting. (In academic publishing, we don’t work with agents very often. The money’s just not good enough.) Still, there was free pizza after.

That was…what’s today, Wednesday?

Tuesday

Such a lovely autumn-like day. I say autumn-like because it’s not predicted to last, temperatures tomorrow rising back into the 80s. It’s a shame, really, since today was just so pleasant. I spent all of it doing editor-type things, mostly for work, but also for Kaleidotrope. I sat, windows open, enjoying the afternoon sun and cool breeze, and had a pretty good telecommuting day.

I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to an autumn quite as much as this one. I may be cursing the temperatures by mid-winter, but right now I really want the change in season.

Monday

The weather has started to turn a little cooler, and while it won’t last before rebounding into summer temperatures again for another last hurrah (or two) — the forecast for the week is almost a guarantee of that — it’s turning pleasantly fall-like outside. This morning, after I took the dog out, I came back inside and changed into a long-sleeved shirt. Long sleeves! I know it’s probably already snowing or something close to it where some of you are — not that I’m jealous; not that it was an uncomfortably long and hot summer — but we’ll take what we can get.

Lots of work keeping me busy at the office, and lots of Kaleidotrope stuff keeping me busy in the time in between. Have I mentioned there are three issues full of stories and poems (and art and horoscopes) here, just waiting for you to read them? Maybe even comment?

Anyway, that was Monday.