Getting Settled

Well, the guy with the refrigerator is supposed to be here today. He will remove the gas stove while he is here and maybe look into the busted water pipe. I just hope he also has an air conditioner!

Yes, the ol' MD has been living in literally subhuman conditions for the last week: no refrigerator, no stove, no AC, no running water. Dad said, "Who knows? Maybe you'll become one of these rustic geniuses like Ernest Hemingway?" To which I replied, "Dad? Papa Hemingway shot himself."

I have to walk to town, but it isn't far and that's good. Plus, the BP station stays open 24/7, which is even better (at least, I'm pretty sure it does). I can't begin to count the nights I stayed up until 5am because I was out of cigarettes. Always drove me crazy. I've probably walked into town a dozen times now and I've been living on Godfather's Pizza and Sonic burgers (and Route 44 Cherry Lime-Aids - OMG, I love them!). I've been going shithouse for a week now and walking all around town in the rain and sweltering heat.

I'm available, ladies.

I can't wait for this guy to show up (if he does) and get this over with; everything is lined-up against the walls in anticipation and I'm ready to get it into place so I can start decorating this place and making it at least as close to inhabitable as it can get. I bought putty and stuff today. I would have bought caulk, but they only had the cartridges and no guns. Ace Hardware is only a few blocks farther down, but man, it's hot out there! And the humidity is off the charts.

I did nothing related to writing in my downtime. I actually fought the futon more than anything, but I also looked into a war system for a fantasy roleplaying environment. I have always wanted to set a campaign against a raging war - using the historical data (by turn) of the ongoing battles, heroes, and war as plotlines within the game itself - yet I have never gotten the chance. When I had the Greyhawk Wars boxed set (a standalone game), I recorded several of the turns in some games and came across them while moving, but I no longer have the game and am not sure I can make much from the notes I kept.

This all actually plays into our ongoing "toolkit" approach to writing, in that I am using disparate sources to generate bits and pieces of ideas and events to use in a storytelling endeavor. And seeing as how I live in the very buckle of the Bible Belt circa 1959, I'm not sure I'll ever get to play again anyway; I am just as likely to use this stuff in a writing project (even if that project is simply publishing the campaign materials for others' use).

More to come...

© C Harris Lynn, 2009