Second Wind

On these windy days, Isabel sits on the lee side of that big yucca and tries to tough it out.

Sometimes she lasts through most of the morning or even a lot of the day, prowling around under the bird feeder. Other times it's only for a few minutes. Still it's nothing like our old Wyoming wind. The high desert winds of Spring here gust in tumultuous waves, but they lack the icy knife's edge of the Wyoming winds.

We were warned that Spring here would be windy and so it is. I think of it like lake turnover - all of those layer of air warming up, rising and sinking. It's worth a little tumult to get the warmth.

I suppose that's the way of things - you can't get change without stirring things up.

Please don't nod and add "you can't get an omelet without breaking some eggs." I always thought that analogy was stupid. Who cares if the eggs get broken? You're eating an omelet! No, the analogy cries out for enduring something really unpleasant to get what you want.

(Incidentally, Blogger told me I spelled "omelet" wrong. I spelled it "omelette" - apparently I'm feeling very French this morning - but it doesn't offer correct spellings. So I typed it into Sterling as the beginning of the next chapter so Word would tell me. Now Chapter 12 starts with "Rowan made an omelet." This amuses me no end. I'd love to find a way to keep it. And you wonder where writers get their ideas...)

Sometimes the unpleasant things we endure aren't dramatic or glamorous. In fact, more often it's the humdrum, the grind that has to be overcome. David has less than three weeks left of school in this semester and he's grumbling about not wanting to go to class. I'm about 25% of the way into Sterling, nearing the Act I climax, which is a nice goal to be reaching, but there's a lot of novel left to write.

(Especially if my heroine is going to spend a chunk of the next chapter preparing breakfast. I really think she has more important things to deal with...)

Ah, now Isabel has had enough. She leaps up onto the table outside my window and meows as if the hounds of hell are chasing her. I let her in, for a bite of breakfast, maybe a little nap. After a break she'll try it again.

Just like the rest of us.