Erin and I were tempted to have a go at participating in the 2003 Blogathon. From 9 pm yesterday (Saturday) to 9 pm today (Sunday), bloggers around the world are writing a post every half hour (yes, through the night) in order to raise money for charity.
We were, seriously, tempted. This sort of 24 hour event has a strange pull with us. There's a contest, run every year, where playwrights gather in Toronto on a certain day at 4 p.m. They're given a few plot elements, a few other parameters, and told to go out and write up a play containing these elements and conforming to those parameters in time to submit it to the judges at 4 p.m. the next day. This actually sounds like a lot of fun, and Erin, Dan and I have talked about borrowing a laptop and renting a hotel room for the night, retiring and bashing out... something. I'm sure it's quite a rush.
Unfortunately, things have been too busy, here, to devote as much time on my blog as I'd like. Transit Toronto needs my attention as I've been neglecting the site for long enough for some people to notice and ask questions. I am still interested in writing, with both The Young City and The Night Girl simmering on their various burners. There's not enough hours in the day.
And, of course, life outside beckons. Erin and I were quite pleased to join my parents and very old friends Ruth and Paul Gillespie for dim sum at King and University. Ruth and Paul are among my parents' oldest friends, and Erin and I hadn't seen them since they attended our wedding. It was good to meet them again and catch up. After dim sum, we headed back to my parents for drinks; Paul, Ruth and I had a brief detour as I showed Paul (who is an engineer) the developments in Uptown Waterloo and Downtown Kitchener.
And there have been car repairs this weekend. After 200,000 miles (yes, miles), Freddy our faithful Ford finally dropped his rearview mirror on our laps. It gets really hot in the car when it's beneath the summer sun, and I guess the adhesive just gave out. Erin and I went to Canadian Tire to make the repairs, and found that they sold "rearview adhesive", which had a five minute, seven step procedure full of warnings not to touch either surface while the two-part adhesive set. The stuff works very well; that's all I have to say.
I got some writing done on The Young City, while sitting in the Starbucks at Chapters Waterloo, but I haven't written as much as I would like. Erin has her hands full preparing for the release of Ghost Maps, but has no current writing project that's bubbling on the front burner. It's a little hard to write when your writing partner has nothing, at present, to write about. It's even more frustrating for Erin, I'm sure. Oh, well. I've been though what she's going through, and all I can do is tell her, again and again, that this transition period doesn't last.
Finally, there's still the Trenchcoat Farewell Project that needs doing. There is a lot on my plate, and it's a little stressful. But right now, the best way to deal with this is to post this blog post (unedited and full of typos), head to bed and get a good night's sleep. A charity blogathon will have to wait, I'm afraid. Maybe next year, we'll do something overnight...