There are two times when...

Writing for the week has gone well, I think. Word count will exceed 50k by the time I'm done writing tonight, I considered a small celebration, maybe an extra ration of grog for the scurvy dogs who've managed to scrape the hull of barnacles despite everything. On the other hand, maybe the captain is the one who deserves the reward, maybe a gallon of frozen strawberries. What I mean to say is that it seems to me that there's a whole crew driving this sailing ship of a novel. Captain Imagination, who comes out on deck and marvels at the weather, and waves vaguely at the horizon and says, "thataway". First Officer and chief navigators Scenery and Plotter (who figure out where the ship is going) . The B'suns mate, Discipline (who tries to keep the gang moving). And the crew, collectively named Tenacity and Fortitude. So who gets the credit for making it 1/3rd of the way (estimated, your mileage may vary)? I'll let you know, though I suspect it's the crew and the B'suns mate.

On a different subject, as long as the captains walking the poop deck, I figure it's time to smile a bit. I was watching the Red Green show the other day (a funny, home spun canadian import that has apparently run on canadian tv for about 15 years). Red, a gruff, grizzled canadian who runs the Possum Lodge (motto: When all else fails, play dead) somewhere in the great white north, was offering his take on life. He pointed out that "there are two times when you shouldn't be smiling, when you smell something bad, and when your wife isn't. (Think about it. And realize how often the two times coincide). That got my funny bone twitching. I'm sure there are other "two time" wisdoms out there, like "there are two times you shouldn't say volunteer", and "there are two times you shouldn't offer to carry a baby." So, here's the contest. Pick one of these two time lines, or make up your own, and write the punch line, stick it in comments. I promise, the winner (It's my blog, I choose) will get a prize. Something that will make you smile. Good luck. Or as Red says, "Keep your stick on the ice"...