True Grit Christmas
Friends are in northern India on vacation and their cottage, half hour away, suffered a burst pipe. I've spent the better part of eight days mopping up and arguing with their mind-bending, idiotic, bureaucracy-ridden, heart-attack-inducing insurance company. I hate this corporate departmentalised world we live in. Just do it! Say yes! Get it fixed. Come on you stupid people, this is someone's home we're talking about.
And the big freeze goes on. Gritting machines can't get up my hill so I slither down and get buckets of grit from a bin the council provides, and then start spreading.That took more than an hour yesterday. One thing's for sure. I'm not as fit as I would like to be. I'm getting old. That's an irritating fact to admit, Muscle memory of carrying in excess of my own body weight for days on end when I was younger turn out to be False Muscle Memory Syndrome. This latest jaunt nearly did me in. But, I enjoyed it. At least a physical challenge, digging out neighbours and stranded cars, takes me away from churning in my own indecision on a plot turn in the latest book. It's an important 'big jump' and it has to be done with a certain finesse that keeps the reader connected without causing a sharp intake of disbelief. A case, perhaps, of gritting the story's path so no one slips away.
I often prefer to be outside getting stuck in to something physical, and trying to kid myself that I can work through the pain - all part of the self deception - but it seems to work. Gritting teeth, as well as the steep hill, I shall get back out to the sticks and see what can be salvaged from their sodden cottage. That's providing I can get the creaking old Land Rover down the hill again (and snow would be better than rain because the roof leaks, and it's so cold inside the Rover I get ice forming on my head) . There are burst pipes to be repaired and salvaging what I can for them. Luckily they're not very materialistic people except for some items, their most important possessions - their books. So far I've saved most of them. A bit like rescuing my own story - which thanks to some hard work away from my desk, I've now done.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
