Time is like broken glass...

cuts you down to size
Jagged edge, cuts both ways
I'm a diamond...
...in disguise...

So, at some point in this life or a past one, my brother seems to have irritated a minor water deity. His apartment has been flooded, from one appliance failure or another, no less than three times over the past six months, and each time this happens, I end up taking care of his cats until the problem is remedied.

Now, don't get me wrong - I adore his cats, little hellions that they are, and I don't even mind the 8 AM furry rump against my face wakeup calls. Usually, I end up blindly, blearily, reaching out and hugging them until they go away and let me go back to sleep.

I've tried this on girlfriends in the past, too, but it never seems to work properly.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up - besides the fact that this is a blog, and therefore a reasonably-up-to-date guide to the minutiae of my life - is because when I came downstairs ungodly early this morning, I found that the downstairs toilet had overflowed, leaving my front hallway - already littered with junk mail that I hadn't bothered to pick up for the last, oh, month or so - a minor swamp.

Which leads me to believe that it's the cats, not my brother, laboring under the curse.

Anyway, minor problem soon remedied with a plunger and a mop... for now. Here's hoping my brother gets his floor and plumbing repaired before my water heater decides to go... or my pipes... or, well, anything else.

So, my life continues very much as it has before - we're in port, have been for some time, will be for most of the month. The ship is scheduled for a nearly year long deployment, starting at the end of September; I don't plan on sticking around for it, having put in for a relief date of October 2nd. Whether I'll actually get said relief date is up to the whim of the gods and MSC detailers, neither of whom are very much known for their common sense or rationality; sure, the company could save roughly 2 grand in plane tickets by simply sending my relief over a day or two before the ship deploys, but more likely I'll find myself flying home from Spain or Crete. Hardly the first time I've done so, and what the hell - I like flying.

Robin Williams once said, "Cocaine is God's way of telling you that you make too much money." Me, well, I'm pretty straight edge - not to mention that my job conducts random drug testing. So, instead of narcotics, I blow incredibly stupid amounts of money on toys and hobbies. The latest fascination? Airsoft, a game in which grown men dress up like soldiers and run around the woods shooting each other with plastic BBs. After a failed expedition to Ebay proved the truism "you get what you pay for," my brother and I absconded to our local airsoft store - Poseidon Airsoft Group Armory and picked out our favorites from the, sadly limited after a major blowout sale, selection. Fortunately, everything we wanted was there - James ended up with a Classic Army G36, I picked up a CA M-14 and a pair of KWA M1911 pistols. Everything is incredibly shiny, and I've been forcibly restraining myself from bouncing back and purchasing more - despite the hefty price tags, despite the fact that I haven't yet had a chance to play with the ones I already have, my work schedule as draconian as it is.

I know, somebody should really hold me down and take my credit card away from me.

Twilight Exile continues along, steady enough although progress has been slower than I'd like; it doesn't help that I'm as easily distracted as a ferret in a room full of mirrors, and whenever I embroil myself in a major project I inevitably seem to find other story ideas boiling up out of the back forty of my creative subconscious. I've been giving thought to NaNoWriMo this year as the fall draws closer; for a while there, I was pretty sure I was going to do a Rifts novel, probably focused around a burned out ex-CS Juicer who was dishonorably discharged and forced through detox, but now I'm not so sure. Of course, if previous NaNoWriMos have taught me anything, it's that I'm going to be unsure and waffling about the novel right up to November 1st - and afterwards too, most likely.

I pitched an idea to my friend Brian, involving a shared universe and a common starter scene, as seen from the POVs of everyone's characters - he took to the idea enthusiastically, and that enthusiasm is one of the reasons I'm second guessing my idea to do any sort of genre-fic this year. But hey, the Event itself is still almost sixty days away, and a lot can happen in that time.

Light, I hope I can stay in the area for it this year.