morbid wonder

I suppose I’m giving the impression that I’m suicidal. I’m not, not really. I’ve too much I’ve not done in this life yet for that, though the depression’s relentless attacks on my ability to do any of it is wearing on me.

So, in that sense, yeah, maybe. There’s a lot of the time where giving up, half-assing it, letting go of any sort of potential for joy, all seems like the best path forward.

Sinking into mediocrity, a sort of mind-numbed endurance, its own special skill, though any and most of us have mastered it.

It’s called “waiting to die”.

Coming up here reminds me there is more to this world than our petty differences, our pointless bullshit.

There’s more than in-fighting.

There’s wonder.

One look at that sky, graded robin’s egg to to royal blue, stroked with tender brushes of clouds and one can’t help but be reminded: religion may be a fiction, but there is still a sense of the divine.

Of majesty and beauty, grandeur.

Holiness.

It has nothing to do with little men in the sky and everything to do with the sheer vastness of what’s beyond our own meager skulls.

It could be so easy to give it all up.

But then what?

Target: 800 words
Written: 584 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Brothers Of Earth, CJ Cherryh
Comics: The Crow: Skinning The Wolves 3, The Crow: Curare 1-3
Music: Ultimate Survivor, Survivor (again, why?)

glacial

Despite the fact that it’s eminently swimmable, there’s a glacial tinge to the waters up here that feeds something primal inside me.

I feel like it’s recharging. Connecting.

Communing, even.

I spent most of our trip on the pontoon boat thinking about sinking to the bottom and laying for a while.

I’d like it to be my final resting place. Not rotting in the woods (although maybe rotting in the woods).

But frozen, down there.

Waiting.

Target: 800 words
Written: 784 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Brothers Of Earth, CJ Cherryh (so slow going and not because it's not good; no one will leave me alone to read more than a page or two)
Comics: The Crow: Death And Rebirth 4-5, The Crow: Skinning The Wolves 1-2
Music: Ultimate Collection, The Who

tranquility base

My uncle has a secret place in the woods.

It’s just off Cassel Lake (or Castle, I didn’t look it up), but he plans to die there.

I mean, he’s hardly suicidal, but he’s told his family that when he goes, that’s where it will be.

Feet kicked up on the little wooden table, arms folded, a coffee cup of camp brew nearby.

Sixty-year old tent behind him.

He took us there.

It’s the most peaceful place I’ve ever been.

I’m considering following in his footsteps.

Target: 800 words
Written: 1322 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Brothers Of Earth, CJ Cherryh
Comics: The Crow v2 10, The Crow: Death And Rebirth 1-3
Music: The Ultimate Collection, The Pogues (fuckin' Shane, eh?)

fire tower

I couldn’t do it. Didn’t even try it. With my blood pressure being so out of whack and my concerns of having a stroke partway up, I chose not to climb to the top of the fire tower, as in years past. The goal, hopefully, is next year.

Perhaps, if I lose another dozen pounds and get back to the weight I was when I did it the last time, maybe there’s a shot.

I don’t need the aneurysm.

I don’t need the heart attack.

I don’t need the stress of forcing myself to do something that could kill me with no appreciable gain.

I just need to be in the outdoors, in love.

Target: 800 words
Written: 546 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Brothers Of Earth, C.J. Cherryh
Comics: The Crow v2 6-9
Music: The Ultimate Best Of Queen, uh, Queen (so hit or miss - the best Queen song is Under Pressure, by David Bowie. That said, the good is really good, the bad is... well... Bicycle. Prog rock shite).

morning walks

There’s something glorious about the Canadian Shield.

It seems almost immovable, grand on a scale that begs one to try and change it, but change it one cannot. Only in the most meager of ways.

It feels like a piece of me. It feels like home. Hard, but teeming with life. Gentle, but dangerous.

Unexpected depths. Untapped resources.

Like a good Canadian should be.

Target: 800 words
Written: 614 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Brothers Of Earth, C.J. Cherryh
Comics: The Crow v2 2-5
Music: Ultimate Air Supply, Air Supply (why would I do this to myself? Must be a masochism day.)

temagami

Today, I return to the motherland, children and dogs in tow.

I can’t wait. I need to reconnect.

Target: 800 words
Written: 600 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Brothers Of Earth, CJ Cherryh
Comics: The Crow/Razor: Kill The Pain 0, Final, Lost Chapter, The Crow v2 1
Music: Ukelele Songs, Eddie Vedder

dogsittin’ 2

Part of me thinks I should call in sick. Part of me would be glad to be away from the dogs for a bit.

But we’re leaving tomorrow, for a week, and I have shit to do.

Neither dogs nor work can stop me.

But they can sure slow me down, and turn the whole process into a zoo in the meanwhile.

Target: 800 words
Written: 1616 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Adventures Of Captain Hatteras, Jules Verne
Comics: The Crow/Razor: Kill The Pain 1-4
Music: Uh Huh Her, PJ Harvey

dogsittin’

We have my sister’s dogs today and they are adorable, but they are… a lot.

They are much, much, much more active than our dogs, so we are now much, much, much more active.

At least for today.

Target: 800 words
Written: 270 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Adventures Of Captain Hatteras, Jules Verne
Comics: The Crow: Waking Nightmares 2-4, The Crow 0
Music: U2 18 Singles, U2

the cursing cursor

It stares at me. Dares me. Five drafts down, and still shit.

Maybe it will never be else.

Just a pile of runny diarrhea, not even kind enough to be cohesive, splattered on the floor.

How long is ten thousand hours?

Can I training myself in the art of creating shit?

The art of defecation on the page?

These are the questions that spit at me in the mornings.

Are you nothing more than a diarrhea factory? Leaky housing for liquid shit?

Ain’t I hot?

Target: 800 words
Written: 374 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Jules Verne
Comics: The Crow: Wild Justice 1-3, The Crow: Waking Nightmares 1
Music: Ozzfest, Disturbed feat. Chester

remember me?

I’m increasingly beginning to think I’m playing lute for the damned.

The seemingly unstoppable march of fascism, climate change, gun violence, bigotry, overpopulation, war, fucking microplastics…

At this point, I’m thinking I could write humanity’s single greatest work of fiction, and it wouldn’t matter, because humanity itself will be gone before my lifetime is out.

My lifetime might be tomorrow.

Armageddon might be tomorrow.

I have works of staggering genius in me, but I fear that neither I nor anyone else will live to see them.

Nor will I ever get my head far enough out of my ass to complete them.

Is it still fatalism if it’s true?

Target: 800 words
Written: 535 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Adventures Of Captain Hatteras, Jules Verne (it's nice to feel cold in this heat)
Comics: The Crow: Flesh And Blood 3, The Crow: City Of Angels 1-3
Music: Overrated, Mudmen (me?)