Slow loris progress

The story and I have reached a cautious détente. It also now has a working title: "Transplant." The dragon at the end of the tunnel isn't singing yet, but it may be humming scales as a warm up. er, the punlight just went on. Sorry about that.

Meanwile, "Lost Souls" has passed muster with the beta-readers who reported back in, and Madame Editor reports that FREE FALLBLOOD FROM STONE [note: oy, I've become my mother, who can't remember which of her children she's speaking about, either] will be read over the winter break, and notes coming back to me in January. Oh, the joy of an efficient editor, she said glumly.

In other non-news, the weather fails us; after a few measly inches of snow we have sleet and freezing rain. Bleah. It looks like it might be safe to go outside but it's actually worse than snow. Would anyone take it amiss if I just went back to bed?

EtA: and the come-to-Jesus talk has produced groveling [which I give not a damn about] and the promise of action on Monday [which I do give a damn about]. So we'll see.

bah, humbug

All right, yes, I'm a forgetting-to-practice Jew. But I also grew up in the US of Christmas, and therefore I get to have an opinion. Rant ahead. Don't say you weren't warned.
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I am reminded again of one of the really nice things about this neighborhood -- limited holiday decorations, and the ones that do go up tend to be house-appropriate (i.e. Victorian, and/or proportional).

Call me a Grinch and you might not be wrong, but I never understood the need to do BIGGER!BRIGHTER!MORE PLASTIC! decorations. Especially when they totally overwhelm not only the house and yard, but the entire street. Some call them festive. I call them butt-ugly and annoying.

I'm not anti-holiday decorations, mind you. A strand or seven of lights illuminating the night are lovely (just please, don't mix chasing lights with still ones unless you plan it out beforehand!). A wreath of greenery on your door or winding around posts, delightful. A display of a creche or maybe a few reindeer and a Santa, sized approprately to your yard, I will admire and point out to others as lovely expressions of the season. I even admit to a sneaking if guilty fondness for the giant blow-up Frosties and Grinches you see occasionally, although I do wish that people would think about the relative size of the display versus their yard.

(and whatever you do INSIDE your house to decorate is your business)

But the people who festoon every single square inch of house, roof, and yard with blinking, chasing lights, plastic waving Santas, bobble-head reindeer, vinyl-wrapped gifts, and every other piece of crap merchandisers can think to sell? And let's not forget, although I wish I could, the blinking signs that they 'forget' to turn off at a reasonable hour?

I'm coming down your chimney, man. I'm eating your cookies. And I'm leaving fake coal* in your stockings.


*real coal's too expensive to waste on you idiots. I'm giving it to people who aren't wasting so much energy on stupid displays.