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Dec. 17th, 2014 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckHere I am posting again and my story not yet done. Circumstances have changed, and I'm not in a position to work on the story just now, so why not?
I made it through the rest of my first draft this morning then took time out to make what I expected to be a quick trip to Cordelia's school to drop off her lunch money. I thought I'd be out of the house fifteen minutes, tops. So much for my plans.
When I got to the school, it was dark. I found quite a gathering of teachers in the office. They were debating what to do. DTE had cut power for the school (a planned outage that they didn't bother to warn the school about). This also took out the phones and the heat. When I got there, power had been off for about two hours and was expected to be off for at least another three hours. The office staff asked me to stay because they were pretty sure they were going to want to send the kids home.
Some parts of the school were already fairly cold. It was 32F outside, so it was warm for Michigan in December, just not warm compared to what the school should be. Some rooms were quite dark, too. The sky was overcast, so there wasn't much sun to begin with, and quite a few classrooms don't get much light even when it's bright out. They'd arranged to take the school lunches to another school to be heated, so there was hot lunch available.
They eventually decided that they couldn't actually close the school because many parents wouldn't be able to pick up their kids. Instead, they notified parents and asked them to come pick up their kids if they could. Cordelia was in orchestra, and I figured I could let her finish that before I took her home. In the meantime, I got a phone number from the office for Cordelia's best friend's mother. I knew there was no way she or her husband would be able to pick up their kids, and I usually take them when school's cancelled. The mother was happy to give me permission (she had to talk to the principal directly) to take her two kids home. She hadn't yet gotten the notice about the problem at the school.
There was some mix up about which kids I wanted. The younger kid is one of two kids in his class with the same name (well, his name is pronounced differently from that of the other boy. They just spell their names the same), and they brought the other boy out at first. They also, when they went to get Cordelia, didn't call for her friend. I had to send Cordelia back for her. There was a fair amount of back and forth as the kids collected their backpacks and instruments and all.
I made mac 'n' cheese for the kids pretty much immediately. They were eager to eat. I was afraid I wouldn't get any more writing time, but after lunch, they all three went into Cordelia's room, and I could write for about an hour and a half. Right now, they're back in the living room, playing MarioKart and yelling at the screen.
I'm very, very close to finishing this dratted story, but I can't concentrate while they're in here with me (and there isn't a good place for me to go to get away from them). Hopefully, they'll give me another break later. I want to finish before our gaming group meets tonight. We'll be a couple of players down, and I'd like to participate (I'm not sure Scott will understand if I don't). I don't expect writing time tomorrow, and I'm not sure how Friday is going to look. Ideally, I'd like to post the completed draft today and go in search of beta readers (I figure I can polish even after deadline as long as I've got a completed story to begin with). I still have to find a title. I might work on that while the MarioKart players are yelling.
I made it through the rest of my first draft this morning then took time out to make what I expected to be a quick trip to Cordelia's school to drop off her lunch money. I thought I'd be out of the house fifteen minutes, tops. So much for my plans.
When I got to the school, it was dark. I found quite a gathering of teachers in the office. They were debating what to do. DTE had cut power for the school (a planned outage that they didn't bother to warn the school about). This also took out the phones and the heat. When I got there, power had been off for about two hours and was expected to be off for at least another three hours. The office staff asked me to stay because they were pretty sure they were going to want to send the kids home.
Some parts of the school were already fairly cold. It was 32F outside, so it was warm for Michigan in December, just not warm compared to what the school should be. Some rooms were quite dark, too. The sky was overcast, so there wasn't much sun to begin with, and quite a few classrooms don't get much light even when it's bright out. They'd arranged to take the school lunches to another school to be heated, so there was hot lunch available.
They eventually decided that they couldn't actually close the school because many parents wouldn't be able to pick up their kids. Instead, they notified parents and asked them to come pick up their kids if they could. Cordelia was in orchestra, and I figured I could let her finish that before I took her home. In the meantime, I got a phone number from the office for Cordelia's best friend's mother. I knew there was no way she or her husband would be able to pick up their kids, and I usually take them when school's cancelled. The mother was happy to give me permission (she had to talk to the principal directly) to take her two kids home. She hadn't yet gotten the notice about the problem at the school.
There was some mix up about which kids I wanted. The younger kid is one of two kids in his class with the same name (well, his name is pronounced differently from that of the other boy. They just spell their names the same), and they brought the other boy out at first. They also, when they went to get Cordelia, didn't call for her friend. I had to send Cordelia back for her. There was a fair amount of back and forth as the kids collected their backpacks and instruments and all.
I made mac 'n' cheese for the kids pretty much immediately. They were eager to eat. I was afraid I wouldn't get any more writing time, but after lunch, they all three went into Cordelia's room, and I could write for about an hour and a half. Right now, they're back in the living room, playing MarioKart and yelling at the screen.
I'm very, very close to finishing this dratted story, but I can't concentrate while they're in here with me (and there isn't a good place for me to go to get away from them). Hopefully, they'll give me another break later. I want to finish before our gaming group meets tonight. We'll be a couple of players down, and I'd like to participate (I'm not sure Scott will understand if I don't). I don't expect writing time tomorrow, and I'm not sure how Friday is going to look. Ideally, I'd like to post the completed draft today and go in search of beta readers (I figure I can polish even after deadline as long as I've got a completed story to begin with). I still have to find a title. I might work on that while the MarioKart players are yelling.
