Day 1460: Tree down

The first significant snow storm blew in today and deposited a couple inches.  We're in for lots of lake effect since the lake is still quite warm.  I was happy to stay in all day to clean up from the holidays and write for hours.  Steve swept the steps and fed the birds, but only a few little juncos and blue jays braved the cold.

Taking down the tree was time consuming.  It took nearly three hours to remove all the ornaments, pack them away, vacuum carpets, walls and windowsills, then move the furniture back.  The hardest part is getting all that stuff back in the attic.  It brings out the worst in my husband since the tree box is so large and heavy.  Next year, I think we need a new, smaller tree that we can manage.  I'll tackle the garlands later in the week.

I spent much of the day working on the first chapter that's titled Triumphs Along the Trail.  Ideas have been percolating for weeks while I worked on other chapters.  Plus, I had already written three significant chunks.   Today, I wrote a whole new story about boot-sucking mud.  It's a composite of stories of three times when kids fell in the mud, had to retrieve lost boots and then others came to their assistance.   Neither Steve or I can remember who exactly was involved in those incidents, so I made up names and took the best dialogue from each event. It's the first time, I've created a composite  in the whole book.  I hope it's engaging enough to pull the audience in.  It's the section I'll take to Penelope next week and see what they think.

Yesterday, I transcribed a couple key interviews that I've done over the last few months.  They'll be critical in the conclusion.  I thought of a couple ways to link the beginning to the end that I hope will work.