Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Nano and Covid by Bonnie Le Hamilton


Nano (National Novel Writers Month) is finally here, and I finally have a brand-new computer! Yeah!

And I’m sure Konnie is cheering too. I can post this week for a change.

I can also access my notes and get to work on my Nano writing, which is even better. I have been stir-crazy this last week or so because I couldn’t so much as edit my sci-fi let alone prepare for Nano.

I might have been able to work on something, if I had hardcopy notes, but guess what, I didn’t. It’s way easier to type than to write longhand.

I’m so glad I finally have my new computer.

I just wish we could gather in person! I’m tired of only meeting on Zoom.

In-person is a lot more fun, but I guess I can put up with one more year of keeping my distance. After all, I do know Covid is real. I’ve lost family to it. The most recent was a week ago when an uncle of ours, and his wife both died of Covid.

Konnie called to let me know while I was shall we say, “otherwise occupied.”

When I noticed I missed a call from her, I called her and asked her why she was calling me so early in the morning.

Honestly, I should have realized it wasn’t good news.

Because of that call, I was running late for work, and then when I was finally on the road, I looked ahead to see a train blocking my path. For nearly a year I was working at DI (Deseret Industries) and I crossed those tracks every working day of that time both going to work and returning home. Never had I seen a train in all that time and now on the day I was running late, there’s a train!

I was thinking I’d have to call in and let them know how close I was (Close as in about a block away on the wrong side of the tracks.) and why I was going to be late when the train finally came to an end.

And the only reason I managed to clock in on time is that they give you a three-minute leeway. It was precisely 10:03 when I finally clocked in. My usual is to be three minutes early.

Not a good start.

At one point during the day, one of the other supervisors came into the area where I worked, and he didn’t seem all that happy, so I asked him how he was. He answered he was fine, then asked me how I was.

I let him know I wasn’t having a good day and even mentioned my uncle and aunt who had died the night before.

The supervisor immediately asked if they were from Pocatello, which they were, and he asked because a couple in the ward of one of the other supervisors had died of Covid the day before, just like my relatives.

Well, I have seen them on occasion, but I’ve never been to their place, I didn’t know what part of town they lived in. He asked me their names and went to find out who the other supervisor had lost.

Turns out, it was my uncle and aunt.

The other supervisor came by asking how I was related and asking about their kids and if they had grandkids, and I hadn’t seen the kids with spouses or children when I last saw them at our older aunt’s funeral.

But it gets worse, my supervisor came up to me after hearing about my loss and said, “He didn’t seem that old to me.”

Yeah, she knew him.

So, I spent most of the day talking to the bosses about my uncle and his wife, and about the fact that he was only five when Konnie and I were born.

Though this time it didn’t come up that he went to school with my husband, a fact which someone once remarked, “I thought he was quite a bit older than you.”

Excuse me? I’ve seen larger age gaps, so not even four years doesn’t seem all that much to me. I know couples who had ten or more years of age gaps. Starting with our father, whose second wife was ten years younger than him, and ten years older than Konnie and me.

And now I need to get going on my writing my Nano project! Are you doing Nano? What is your project? Mine is a romance, again. My usual.

Look me up on the Nano site. I am FaithfullSpirit2 on there.

Happy writing everyone and good luck with Nano!


 

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