Mystery solved? Peanut snuck in while my darling true love was unloading groceries from the car. A feeling of whimsy overtook the feline. Sure he's had the zoomies before. But this? This is new! This is wild! In a moment of idiot savantness, he locked himself inside. So... do I drive to work?

Sweet freedom! Not all stories have a happy ending. I am glad this one did. Peanut is too.

Fortunately destiny has other plans for him. Is he the chosen ginger one foretold in the prophecies? No. He is just Peanut. Our Peanut. The technician has arrived.

"Remember me," he meows. I imagine he is thinking of driving off into the sunset.

He is now resigned to his fate. A cat car life for him.

We're playing tippy tap. Well I am playing, trying to keep him calm. He wants to break the window.

But now it's been another few minutes and he needs the litter box. He's finally (maybe) realized what a fool he's been. We've called someone to come help. Updates to follow.

At least he is in good spirits. His same curious self.

So, somehow, this cat, that belongs to the Felidae family, the very same as lions, got in and did something to stay there. We got a hangar in to try to pry the door open. What does he do? Does he help? No, he starts to play with it.

We've had had a lot of issues with the battery on this car. This is the 4th time it's died on us. Kia Niros are the worst! They make you want to guzzle oil is how much they've turned me off to EVs.

This idiot cat got himself stuck in the car. Battery is dead. Key fob is inside. Can't get him out. And so the cat car adventure begins.

Kiddos: Mama, can we play video games. PUHLEASE!!! Me: We have video games at home Video games at home 😈:

When you're so depressed and even writing offers no relief given the current state of the industry only adds to the grief.

"Every time I win a tournament I have to think that there is something wrong with modern chess." -Viktor Korchnoi My chess story is out tomorrow!

Trying to be body positive.

Too much of my day was spent trying to debug basic functions for RNAseq analysis. Feeling like a character in one of my stories that's stuck echoing to broken code.

A friend used my "For Love and Country" www.lunastationquarterly.com/issues/063/ in her HS English class & I came in as a guest speaker to talk craft, influences, and the writing industry. Great discussions, from generally wanting to be seen and fit in, to Eva's agency and her final decision.

Kiddo's HW makes for nice story/worldbuilding prompt:

Writing thou art my drug, bringing me these highest of highs

The Fatherland by James Russell Lowell

Haiku for the sad state of my phone: Nokia brick phones, you were true perfection. Others never last. I thought the front was bad and then I saw the back. Thoughts and prayers for my phone to make it another year! Pic taken with partner's phone

Ever had an amazing experience with an editor on an accepted short (or longer) story? Let’s talk about it! For me, the best ones have made me feel like it's a conversation about my story.

Was duolingo this ridiculous before the AI takeover? To think it can use amazing literature to help improve language learning but chooses to do this. At least I use the free version so am not financially contributing toward this company.

Know thyself.

Paint me like one of your french boys

Nothing like reading “we’re happy you…” and feeling hope/excitement for 1 ms before the “however, we will not.”

The struggle to write is timeless:

"We Lived Happily During the War" by Ilya Kaminsky Incredibly resonant. And o, there are so very many wars.

The poem Grass by Carl Sandburg pairs well with my flash "Eyes on History" media.nature.com/original/mag... Maybe sometimes we ought to let the grass rest.

At least I can feel less guilty about not having the capacity to write this week.