Monday, April 08, 2002
Today I made modest, but solid, progress with Chapter Four. 836 wds., and I'm happier with them than usual.
The weather turned warm again this afternoon (and thank goodness for Daylight Savings Time). Those of you reading this from the Great Lakes Region or New England (or all the World's other cold places) would probably find my idea of cold fairly silly, but, having spent most of my life in the Deep South, I'm uncomfortable with highs below 70F, and really 80F or warmer is ideal. We made about 74F today, and late this afternoon I took a long walk around downtown. On the weekends (or weeknights, for that matter), downtown Birmingham is a little like a set from a George Romero movie, scenes from sometime just after the apocalypse. Almost completely deserted. But it makes for nice walks. I stood on the bridge that carries 22nd Street over Morris Avenue and the maze of railroad tracks that cut the city in half (the bridge was finished in 1919 and is starting to look it), and watched a freight train as it passed beneath me and then rumbled away into the setting sun. On top of one of the box cars, someone had spray-painted the Christian ichthus symbol, but the modified version — the fish with legs and DARWIN written inside its body. I think maybe the universe is trying to tell me something again.
Back home, exhausted from the walk, I fell asleep on the chaise in the living room and slept for an hour, awaking about 7 p.m. I never sleep in the afternoon, but the nap left me feeling better physically than I've felt in weeks. It was good, clean sleep, which is even harder far me to come by than naps.
Anyway, the Name a Character contest is still going strong. I'm going to be able to fashion a telephone book from all these submissions. If you haven't sent in your suggestion/s, you still have until midnight on the 15th. E-mail them to Desvernine@aol.com and if you win, you get whatever I said you'd get when I first announced this thing. Stuff. We all want stuff, right?
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