Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Sunday, June 16, 2024

Old man attack...

I'm in Washington DC, checked into my hotel, and this trip was both nice and extremely difficult. I decided to go a route that avoided all toll charges and knew it would add some time...but I left at 10:35am and didn't hit the hotel till 8:15pm. And I am beat from the whole process.

Going the back roads was a nice change. I drove through towns I'd never have bothered with, before, and...to be honest...it was good for my thought process regarding APoS-HNH. I was heading along a 2-lane blacktop between cultivated fields on rolling hills...and thought of how similar it was to the fields and hills outside Derry.

Which led me to wonder if Brendan would be partially sad to leave Houston. He'd started another life there, and acknowledges he was really trying to escape from Derry due to how chaotic the place had become. And prison-like. Seeking a place that was better. But Houston proved to be too similar, in too many ways.

Well, it evolved into me making some notes while driving along at 70mph. I didn't look at the paper; I wrote it by touch, really...attempting to use my brain-hand coordination to get the notes down. You can see how well that worked.

But it's helped. If I'm up to it, tomorrow, after work, I'll begin fitting it in.

Of course, in one of my less-brilliant moves, I left my work shirt and trousers hanging in the closet at home. Told myself to remember them. Thought I should put them beside by backpack and briefcase but didn't want to wrinkle them. As I loaded everything into the van I thought, Am I missing something. Then didn't think about it, again, till I hit Corning...160 miles from Buffalo.

No fucking way was I going back for them, so I hit an Old Navy in Selinsgrove, PA and bought two pair of sale trousers, a black shirt and a belt for under $65. And I do have my Caladex bowling shirt to wear over a t-shirt, so I'm covered.

But do feel very old-man-memory-ish.

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