The outer edges of Ike are being to lick us. The wind has picked up considerably and there’ve been a few scattered thunderstorms. So far it looks like the New Orleans area is going to avoid hurricane-force winds from this storm unless it somehow decides to take a sharp right turn in the next few hours. We are, however, supposed to get tropical storm-force winds, and I’m nervously eyeing the two dead trees in my back yard which are STILL standing because yet another [expletive deleted] tree service didn’t show up when scheduled and is now not returning my phone calls. The one that I’m most worried about is a ginormous pine that has a slight lean toward the golf course, so I’m crossing fingers that if it does snap off that it does so into the sandtrap that is conveniently placed right behind it, and not into my house or my writing lair.

It doesn’t look like the weather is going to allow me to go cycling tomorrow morning either. :( I’ve become slightly addicted to my long rides. Not only do I burn a zillion frickin calories during two hours of cycling, but it’s also a wonderful stretch of time where I have few distractions and my mind can wander. It’s been great for when I’ve run into a brick wall with my writing and need to figure a way out of the plot hole I’ve dug myself into. And on Wednesday I managed to come up with a neato idea for another series–and by the end of twenty six miles I had a basic plotline mentally mapped out. If this keeps up I may have to start bringing my digital recorder along–though the playback might be a bit difficult to listen to: “[pant pant] Okay, so there are these [gasp for breath] dominatrix exorcists. ..Oh look! A bunny! Shit, there’s a car coming..[pant pant]”