My mom and dad left their home ahead of hurricane Ernesto and arrived yesterday morning to find instead Hurricane AJ. AJ�s first week of kindergarten, which involved nervousness about a new and much bigger school as well as much excitement and a difficult new schedule, has devolved into uncooperativeness par excellence. It seems as if any time anyone says anything to AJ this morning, it ends in tears.

Sometimes a shining sun is misleading.

But we will get out and do something entertaining today if it kills us. We�re trying to decide if we have the energy for Jazz Fest crowds. Given AJ�s state of mind this morning, I�m thinking that may not be the best idea, despite the fact that AJ has proclaimed jazz �my favorite kind of music. Except for bluegrass.�

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I had a strange night of dreams last night, no doubt encouraged by the fact that The Girl Next Door�s parents were sitting on their deck last night laughing, talking and screaming until 3 a.m. We seriously considered sending AJ over to ring their bell at 7 a.m. to ask if TGND wanted to play, but decided that really wasn�t fair to AJ.

I remember little of the dreams, but I woke up with a word-for-word closing for a story that I haven�t yet written. I�m not actually sure about how it begins, but added to the pile of half-stories I�ve been accumulating over the past six months or so, I feel certain that these two paragraphs will close the manuscript, if I ever get to finish it. I�m looking forward to figuring out how the main character gets to where she ends.

The strangest thing about this very detailed two-paragraph passage is that the main character came with a name. I have trouble with names � I think fairlywell and I had this discussion once. For me names always seem to remove possibilities and I never seem to be able to come up with the right name for the job, one that will imply the correct set of attributes without denying others. The name this character came with is one I would never have chosen � not that there�s anything wrong with it, but I just don�t think it would have occurred to me. But there are several reasons why it is a perfect fit, even for a story that is, at the moment, only two paragraphs long. I�ve never tried to write a story backwards before.

But the story, like many other things, will have to wait until the houseguests depart, until I finalize my syllabus, etc. Meanwhile, it gives me something to think about when I�m supposed to be paying attention to other things.

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