Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
7 March 8 March 9 March 10 March	Second draft of “Golden Hour”.	1023 typed words.	PenBBS 487 Pilot Short Waterman Master Moonman M2	TWSBI Royal Purple Private Reserve Supershow Blue Diamine Honey Burst Diamine Writer’s Blood

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Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
28 February 1 March 2 March 3 March	Second draft of “Golden Hour”.	520 typed words.†	PenBBS 487 Pelikan P1 Moonman M2 Sheaffer Sovereign II	TWSBI Royal Purple Pelikan blue-black Diamine Writer’s Blood Herbin Lie de Thè

† This would be bigger, except for some ridiculous demands from The Regular Job and the unwelcome return of migraine to my life, after a long absence.

Oasis

One might accuse me of contradicting last week’s screed by trying to distract from the appalling events in Europe currently underway.

No. Be aware of it. But take a break. Here’s a guy talking about rockets and space and stuff in an entertaining way, with toys surrounding him.

Right. Be kind to each other, folks. Kindness is the substance the world cries out for most.

Today’s pen: Moonman M2
Today’s ink: Diamine Writer’s Blood

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
14 February 15 February 16 February 17 February	First draft of “Golden Hour”.	Seven and a half manuscript pages.	Pelikan P1 Moonman M2 PenBBS 487 Sheaffer Sovereign II	Pelikan blue-black Diamine Writer’s Blood TWSBI Royal Purple Herbin Lie de Thè

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
7 February 8 February 9 February 10 February	First draft of “Golden Hour”.	Seven manuscript pages.	PenBBS 487 Parker 45 Moonman M2 Pelikan P1	TWSBI Royal Purple Montblanc Royal Blue Diamine Writer’s Blood Pelikan blue-black

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
31 January 1 February 2 February 3 February	First draft of “Golden Hour”. Some New Year arting. Buying yet more bird food. See Monday	Three manuscript pages. Below… 20 kg. The same	Pelikan P1 TWSBI Diamond 580 ALR Lamy 2000 Moonman M2	Pelikan blue-black Herbin Rouge Hematite Edelstein Topaz Diamine Writer’s Blood

On the subject of bird seed– it’s been below -25 the past three days (normal February stuff, here), and birds eat a lot to avoid turning to feathery lumps of ice. That bag may last a week.

The progress on the story seems slight, but compared to the whole of last year, I’m pretty happy about it. The deadline is not frightening me yet.

And finally– Merry Water Tiger, all. Tuesday’s pen and even more the ink was chosen specifically for the day, and I was taken with an urge to do a bit of art with them. I share, with the proviso that I make no claims to skill in graphic arts (that’s my brother’s department).

I am not a cat (a statement which is true in at least three separate ways)

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
24 January 25 January 26 January 27 January	A story outline for an anthology for which I was invited† to contribute. Collecting my van from its alternator surgery. “The cats are out of food.” The barest beginning on “Golden Hour”, the story mentioned above.	(What I think was†) an extremely persuasive 500 words or so. $600. Sigh. Three ravenous moggies.‡ Two manuscript pages	Pelikan M30  Parker 45 Moonman M2  Lamy 2000	Diamine Honey Burst Montblanc Royal Blue Diamine Writer’s Blood Edelstein Topaz

† Yes, I’m very excited about this. Also, the editor I sent the outline to seemed very enthusiastic about it, so my self-assessment may be accurate.

‡ The smallest of our cats is large. The biggest encroaches upon Maine Coon dimensions. It’s really in our own best interests to keep them in food.

“People are made of… it starts with an M… rhymes with ‘eat’?”

Yikes.

At some point, I’m going to return to the Thursday Update format. I hope.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
17 January 18 January 19 January 20 January	Napping† Discussing illustrations for my stupid collection idea† Driving van around trying to charge the battery. Making arrangements to have the van’s charging system fixed	Never enough Encouraging (damn it!). An armful Less than an eighth of a tank. No estimate yet.	Lamy 2000 Platinum PKB-3000 Moonman M2 Pelikan M30	Edelstein Topaz Herbin Poussière de Lune Diamine Writer’s Blood Diamine Honey Burst

Want to see something really scary? My wife, who spends a lot of time watching horror films (for professional reasons as well as fun), was amazed at how well suspense was established and maintained throughout this little delight.

My wife also grumbled about not having access to a space like this for her projects.

Today’s pen: Sheaffer Saratoga TM Snorkel
Today’s ink: Skrip Jet Black

†I worked a couple of days at the end of last year that NO ONE ELSE did, so the start of this week redressed that balance. I am now a strong advocate for a 20 hour work week.

Big Bird

I am going to have a film this week, following another not-much-progress report.

Day	What	How Much	Pen	Ink
10 January 11 January 12 January 13 January	Faffing about with getting the collection in train COVID booster Post-booster groggy See Monday	Much smoke, little fire. An armful My favourite colour of the alphabet is grape! See Monday	Pelikan M30 Moonman M2  Sheaffer Saratoga TM Snorkel Lamy 2000	Diamine Honey Burst Diamine Writer’s Blood Skrip Jet Black Edelstein Topaz

Now, with that out of the way, let’s have another moment of misty-eyed contemplation of a direction of technological development.

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to do my air travel in something that wasn’t just a big tube.

Although, like a lot of people, I’d also like to do my air travel at all, and in something that wasn’t wrecking the atmosphere.

Today’s pen: Platinum PKB-3000
Today’s ink: Herbin Poussière de Lune

Augurs Poorly

No film last week, no update yesterday– you might think something terrible had happened to me. Happily, it’s just a quantity of unpleasant distractions demanding that I use my time otherwise.

I won’t try to penetrate the veil of traumatic amnesia which obscures the New Year’s Eve duties that ate my lunch hour, but the thing that kept me from yesterday’s (lack-of-)progress report has some grim amusement in it which I’m willing to share.

My intent was to add some air to a tire that wasn’t holding air particularly well. This is a tire that has been giving me trouble for a long time, and that should have been a hint– the problem extended through switches between summer and winter tires.

[An aside– I may have said this previously, but if you live above 45ºN in the Americas, get winter tires if at all possible. I had taken all-season tires at their word for years, but having tried winter-specific tires, there’s such a difference in traction that I have to urge them]

I will at this point mention that the weather here has been… I don’t think “abominable” is too strong. Most of the last fortnight has had lows under -30C, and most of this week the highs have been below -30C. A tire looking a little squishy is to be expected, but this one was VERY squishy. Using the front end of the lunch period to run to the gas station for some air was sensible, and even more so when I applied my tire gauge to it– a mere 15PSI, less than half what it should be.

[Second aside; yes, I use Centigrade for outdoor temperature and PSI for tire pressure. I’m a GenX Canadian, and a lot of us are wired that way thanks to the fifteen year conversion of Canada to Metric with which we shared our school years]

I applied the air hose to the valve, the sound of inflation followed, and when the tire looked more itself, I removed the hose to check the pressure. The sound of rapid deflation followed.

That ain’t right.

Let me show you my tire valve.

More than usually portable…

The cold weather was probably the last straw for this little fitting, but as this is the second time I’ve had this happen. The previous event was explained to me as an exercise in cost-cutting by vehicle manufacturers. In earlier ages, the main element of the valve stem was made of brass. Now, with this vital part being an exterior manifestation of the pressure monitor system, brass is considered too expensive for OEM parts. What we have now is “pot metal”, which is the foundry version of “100% unknown fibres”. It is given to failure.

I’ll leave this to you to decide if this is a manifestation of the wickedness of capitalism.

Yesterday was thus devoted to swapping flat for spare at -31C while apologizing to the dozens of other people wanting to desquishify their own tires whose efforts I was obstructing.

So, with that as a foundation, let’s have a progress-free report for the week.

Day	Pen	Ink
3 January 4 January 5 January 6 January 7 January	Lamy 2000 Sheaffer Saratoga TM Snorkel Moonman M2  Platinum PKB-3000 Lamy 2000 (yes, I’m so distracted, I bookended a pen)	Edelstein Topaz Skrip Jet Black Diamine Writer’s Blood Herbin Poussière de Lune Edelstein Topaz

Now, as a final disappointment, I’ve run out of time for this session to select a film. Hopefully next week will see a restoration of normalcy. I’m also DESPERATELY hoping that this week is not a setting of tone for the year, because that would be pretty hard to take.