Rode the high of this cool front all the way to about 2 p.m., when I crashed. To be fair, I woke up early, played some unusually rigorous pickleball, then did some grocery orders due to a holiday promotion that’s going to be a bit more demanding than usual for the next two weeks but is usually worth the extra work. I’m at my happiest and most invigorated in the 50s and 60s around here. It’s going to warm back up to normal warm temps, but it was nice for a few hours.

It’s been a weird week, between getting a flat in the middle of a terrible mood and nearly giving up on everything, then having unusually good days (I think the fall break in our area contributed to the increased orders) where I got to go home in time for dinner. Hot Wednesday, but that meant I could do my reading in the pool before it got cool again.

News:

I have good news but can’t share specifics yet.

Works in Progress:

Finished both advanced reads and the blurbs, so now my assignment is the Mary Reilly essay. As usual, I’ve got stage fright, always worried I’m not going to be able to do justice to the piece. The work-work is going to complicate finishing it, but hopefully I can do so sometime next week.

Books I’m Reading:

The Jackal Man by Russell C. Connor (finished)
The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson
Let Them Come by Francesca Maria (finished)
Fissure Face by Patrick C. Harrison
My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

Things I’m Listening To:

Halloween playlist

Things I’m Watching:

Skeleton Key
Lake Placid
Fresh Meat
Crawl
American Horror Story: Cult series (finished)
Halloween Wars series
Halloween Baking Championship series
Scariest House in America series
Marianne series
Ghosts (US) series (finished)
Kitchen Nightmare (reboot) series
Brilliant Minds series
The Closer series
The Hunting Party series

Poem of the Week: (throwback to October 2022)

twelve days dead
twelve days hungry
you’d be voracious too
I can no longer resist
the song under your skin
I am sorry to spread
so much of you around
to get to the ooey gooey
flooding center of you
before I begin again
my count of sober days