Cars, Bonfires, and Writing Processes

Cars

I’m telling you, as much as I love my car, I hate cars right now. Well, maybe hate is a bit strong, but I’m getting sick of car repairs. In the last week I’ve had to put brakes in all the way around. New rotors went in the front. The check engine light has been acting up, too. It kept popping up an alert I needed to tighten my gas cap. We tried that and just plain replacing the gas cap. Still didn’t fix the light. So, we got the light diagnosed at a local auto parts store. Turns out the EVAP purge valve solenoid became a culprit. Or at least I’m hoping that’s what created the issue since the only other possibilities are crazy expensive. The upside is that it’s an inexpensive fix, if this fixes the light. The downside was that I was back buying yet more car parts this weekend. I’m getting rather sick of this. But I got it swapped out with a little help from my husband. Now I’m crossing my fingers hoping this will turn out the check engine light, since that takes time to clear once we fixed the issue triggering the error code.

Bonfires

We had our first bonfire of the season this weekend. My son was so excited. He loves bonfires. What made it even better was that Meemah, Papa, and Auntie all came over to sit around the bonfire with us. He loves hanging out with them. I wish my in-laws lived closer so we could have had them over, too. But, being it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, that didn’t work. It would have been the only thing to make the bonfire even better. Better planning will remedy that, though, as will planning help our experiment in making pies over the bonfire in cast iron pie makers. First off, they were new, and we didn’t season them well before starting this little venture. Then we also had an uneven fire going while we were cooking the pies, which did not contribute to the success of it either. The first two were almost under-done. The next couple were rather over-crispy. But we got a couple that were at least edible. We’ll just have to have more bonfires and keep practicing!

Writing Processes

I’ve noticed an interesting pattern happening as of late. I’ve been struggling to write while sitting at the keyboard. Seriously, I stare at the page and can’t get anything to flow, even when I’m picking up in the middle of something I’m working on. But, when I write in my journal, I can get things going much easier. It’s odd because this isn’t a normal phenomenon for me. I mean, I often start something in my journal, but once I transfer it to my laptop, things seemed to work fine to keep it going. Not lately, though. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been busy between my day job, editing for one small press, multiple graphics projects, and then my writing. Or it could be something else. I have no idea, but I find it interesting that my process has shifted like this. For the authors out there, have you noticed changes like this? What shifts have you seen in your own process?