On this date in 1998 Tasha and I were married, we’re not married any longer but beings as we have no other date to celebrate as our own we’ve readopted this one as our continuing anniversary. So while not entirely true, it is mostly true that this is our 11th anniversary. Happy anniversary to us. It’s been a wild ride, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Ain’t love grand. We went out for Mexican, then we came home and she went to bed. I think she’s got the flu, she prefers to think not so much. Whatever it is the symptoms are different from what I have been suffering most of this past week, so I’ll probably get it next. Yeah me.

Did I mention that my iPod Nano got stolen out of my van? I can’t remember and I’m too lazy to look it up. Whatever the case, I’ve been looking for a replacement. I considered just getting another Nano, but that seemed lame. I toyed with the idea of getting a Archos 5 Internet Tablet, that would be sweet, but I’d want the big 500 gig one and the price is a bit more than I can swallow. Doug keeps praising his iPod Touch, but I can’t bring myself to get one. However, my Verizon plan has been up since September and I haven’t replaced my phone… Do you know where this is going? I decided to get a phone that would serve as a media player. I went and got myself a Motorola Droid.

I don’t get excited about phones, cameras, GPS gadgets, or mp3 players, but I gotta say this thing is pretty sweet. It does all of those things. It says, “droid,” more than maybe you’d like, but I expect I can shut that off. It’s got a 16 GB microSD card in it, so it’ll hold as much stuff as my old Nano, but it does way more than my old phone and my iPod together. I think it’ll be a good deal despite the additional charges that Verizon get’s for signing me up for the email service. Oh well, what do you do. I already put a couple audio books on it. I’m as giddy as a school boy.

Not much writing last night, though I did do some editing and I’m feeling better about what I’ve gotten so far. No writing at all tonight, so I’m going to take the weekend to get myself up to where I need to be. I think that means something like 13,336 words by Sunday night. It’s alot, and it may be more than I can do to catch up all at once, but I think I can take a good-sized chunk out of my deficit and put myself back on track. Like I said, doing the little bit of editing last night made me realize some of the bits that I needed to flesh out a bit more. What I was writing read more like a verbose outline than a story. So we’ll fix that and get Joshua Hale back in the action and get this party started.

In other news, I got the approval for my vacation. We’re going to Florida at the end of this month.

Didn’t write at all last night because I was feeling run down and didn’t want to get any worse so I slept.

Tonight, still not doing great. Didn’t want to stand at the desk. Was easily distracted. Managed only 637 words. Hoping that tomorrow will be better.

Managed to get 2,131 new words last night on novel.

Lost my fantasy football game by 4 points.

Not feeling all that great tonight, I’m a little worried that I might be having a set back on the road to recovery from this weekends cold. I’m going to try and get some sleep before this gets any worse.

Today, November 1st, the official start of National Novel Writing Month. The goal, to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That’s 1,667 words a day.

Today I wrote 1,709, and I did it in under two and a half hours. I had a slow start,deleting each of my first four paragraphs to try again. I don’t believe the beginning I have will be the beginning I will end up with, but it’s a start. And I knew I needed to get the damn thing started. I can always rewrite a stronger beginning. Most important for me was to get the ball rolling and that I did. The first two scenes are written. Let the story roll on ahead of me.

I started getting nervous about this novel thing Friday night and it built in intensity right up until I fired up the laptop and started writing. I was very afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to do it. But I did. It’s rough. It shows that I haven’t written much of late. The flow isn’t there. But I sat down (stood-up actually) and wrote for close to three hours and it felt good.

In other news, the Detroit Lions lost to the Rams in what I figured was the only other game on their schedule that they really had a chance to win.

Last night Tasha and I went to see Zombieland. It was funny and I enjoyed it, but why do zombies have to have puke constantly streaming out of their pieholes? I tell you, it’s just gross. And we both broke our rule about getting the big beverage, so the end of the movie was an agony of bladder control followed by a mad dash to the restrooms. Good wholesome family fun. Hope you all had a very happy Halloween.

I spent far too much time working on the exterior lighting at one of my branches today. What I thought was going to be maybe an hour ended up taking all day; and I get to go back with parts tomorrow. Such fun. Kinda screwed my plan for the day and subsequently my plan for the rest of the month. Now I’m going to have to scramble around tomorrow to get everything done.

NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. Sunday will be the first day of actually writing the novel. I feel pretty good about the notes I’ve got and the outline I’ve put together. There are holes. Holes in character. Holes in the story. But they’re good holes. The kind of holes that I expect to be able to fill easily as I write and get a better handle on the story, characters, and relationships within the novel. Like I said, I feel good about what I’ve got and I think this is going to be a good story.

Jay and I have the bye in our Madden league. Denis played the Rams tonight and lost. They beat me a couple weeks back. They played like superstars in both games, which is great for a team that is 0-7 in the real world. Between both our games the Rams grabbed a total of 8 interceptions. I think the AI online is being handled by a supercomputer. It’s maddening because I’ve been tweaking my settings to duplicate the AI performance online and I can’t seem to do it. Makes practicing a little difficult. Okay Kevin, play your game so we can roll the week and go face-to-face, Packers vs. Lions.

I lost my fantasy football game. **SIGH** That leaves me with a 1-6 record and a sinking feeling about the rest of the season. Damn you, Roy Williams. Damn you, Calvin Johnson. And a big FU to all my runningbacks.

I started piecing together my ’standing desk’ tonight. I picked up a two drawer cabinet as the base. Then I used some galvanized pipe to create a monitor stand. I found a bracket to use for a tilting keyboard tray and screwed a board to it. It’s very rough right now, but I don’t want to put a ton of effort into making it pretty until I determine if it’s going to work for me. So far I’ve put about $60 into it between the cabinet itself and the pipe and fittings, so even if I hate it, I’m not out much. I’ve already got the monitor and I should have a keyboard around here somewhere. I think it’ll be a grand experiment. Tasha thinks it’s dumb. Tasha thinks I’m not going to like it. Tasha thinks it’s a waste of time, effort, and money. I hope Tasha is wrong.

I should be working on my novel. Gotta get the Josh Hale character sketch up. Later.

I went on a little book buying spree today while waiting around the mall. There is a new Barnes & Noble book store right next to the mall office, where I was trying to get roof access. It was more temptation than I could handle. So I wandered in and walked out with three new reference books. Two of them are writing books; Howdunit – Police Procedure & Investigation: A Guide for Writers by Lee Lofland and Elements of Fiction Writing – Conflict, Action & Suspense by William Noble. The third is more of a career reference for folks getting into the P.I. field, but I think it’ll be useful as I work through this novel; The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating by Steven Kerry Brown. I haven’t cracked the cover on any of them yet, but I’m looking to digging into each of them.

I didn’t get on the roof. Win some, lose some.

38' Chris-Craft Commander

Coconut Attitude

During his divorce, Josh, was looking for an apartment when a family friend allowed him to stay on his boat as a sort of liveaboard caretaker. The boat was in need of some TLC and the owner was only visiting it two or three times a year. It was a good arrangement for both of them. Josh got a place to live and the owner had someone to maintain the boat while he was away. Josh, found that the liveaboard lifestyle fit him and when 3-years later the owner wanted to sell the boat, Josh bought it. He has lived aboard ever since. The boat has switched marina’s a few times but is currently docked on the Trout River just outside of downtown Jacksonville.

The Coconut Attitude, the boats original name, Josh hasn’t bothered to change it, is a 1972 Chris-Craft 38-ft. Commander of the flybridge variety. She’s  13-feet wide and 41-feet long due to a bow pulpit and a swim platform. The engines are counter-rotating 454’s. The boat is equipped with all the comforts of home; stove, refrigerator, microwave, and even has a 16500 btu air conditioner and electric heat.  For being nearly 40-years old, she’s in pretty good shape. If the work continues she’ll be good for another fourty.

2009 Dodge Challenger R/T

Josh’s Ride

When it comes to work and being undetected, Josh, drives the 2005 silver Toyota Camry that stays parked in the lot at the office. When it comes to anything else, Josh,  uses his own car. A brand spanking new (thanks to a rather well paying job for a Fortune 500 company) 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T. It’s HEMI Orange with black stripes on the hood. Powered by a 5.7-liter HEMI V8, rated at 376 hp and 410 lb.-ft. of torque with the optional Tremec 6060 six-speed manual. The HEMI sports variable valve timing on the camshaft and a 10.5:1 compression ratio. Tires are P245/45ZR-20 Goodyear Eagle RSAs. Dodge says the R/T version will do the 0 to 60 hustle in a mere 5.5 seconds, and will get 16 mpg city and 23 mpg highway.

Newfoundland Dog

If you visit Coconut Attitude you’re sure to encounter Josh’s dog, Fish. He’s a very large, very black Newfoundland Dog.  Around the marina Fish is famous for his giant size, deep bark, sweet disposition, and his swimming; everyone knows Fish.

Fish is huge. He’s 28-inches tall at the shoulder, more than 5-1/2 feet from nose to tail, weighs 180 pounds, and is covered in shaggy black fur. It is not uncommon for people to mention his resemblance to a bear when first seeing him. His head is the size of a pumpkin; a black, droopy lipped, hang jowl, slobbering pumpkin. To look at his soft, drooling expression you might think him a bit slow, but he carries himself with a benevolent and dignified temperament.

Despite his huge size and intimidating appearance, Fish, is a well trained, loving, and patient dog. His gentleness, kindness, and alertness have kept more than one child out of the marina’s depths. Fish does not typically bark or growl when visitors come to the boat, instead he simply places himself in such a way as to protect Josh and block the strangers path onto the boat. Despite this protectiveness of  his boat, Fish, has taken to swimming amongst the other boats throughout the marina, in his slightly odd and comical breaststroke,  begging for handouts and checking up on everyone.

Fish loves to swim and be in the water. He can often be found swimming in circles behind the Coconut Attitude. But Fish does not like to dry himself on the deck of the boat or on the dock. If there was one source of contention between Fish and Josh, this would be it.

So I was supposed to be writing the 500 word character study of Josh Hale for you tonight. But instead I did these two inspirational/motivational wallpapers to help me focus on the story. Ha. They’re both 1920 x 1200 resolution, because that’s what I use. I didn’t make any lesser resolution wallpapers because, well, who the hell would want them. This is the first time I’ve done this with photos, check them out. And I make no claim to any part of these pictures, all I did is put them together in a manner conclusive to my needs. Peace out.

This was the first one I did.

And then I did this one, just because.

Enjoy.

unknown actress

Caitlyn Marie Reese

19 years-old, Aquarius, 5-ft. 5-in. tall, 125-lbs., Blonde hair, Green eyes

The only child of divorced parents. Caitlyn’s father left her and her mother when she was five for a topless dancer. And she saw him maybe a dozen times in the intervening 13-years before she left home. Each time he had a different bimbo on his arm, and as the years passed the age difference between her and these women decreased. Birthday’s and Christmas’ were celebrated with greeting cards and twenty-dollar bills. She both loves and hates this man who is her father as only an abandoned little girl can. While her mother has nothing good to say about him, she more than obviously is in competition with these girl-women and as a result of this Caitlyn has developed a very strong but unrecognized desire to please her father.

Caitlyn’s mother remarried, three times. The first two marriages, Carl and Jarred, lasted a grand total of six years. She is currently married to a long-haul trucker, Adrian, and the two of them have hit the road together. Caitlyn remembers fondly making Christmas cookies with her mother every year and staying up late watching horror flicks on the TV at Halloween, but her mother was not one to put her daughters needs above her own. Mostly Caitlyn resents her step fathers, not because they were bad men, though Jarred truly was, but because they came between the pairing that they had and always seemed to get first billing before her.

The real troubles started in middle school; she got her boobs early and attracted the attention of the boys, the jealousy of the girls, and the advances of her stepfather Jarred. Her grades slipped and her attitude got bad. She was unhappy at home and unhappy at school, but she liked the attention of the boys so she went. Each year of middle school the teachers told her that she had failed academically, but that they were going to pass her for administrative reasons to keep her with kids her own age. And so, without really doing any work that wasn’t chorus or art for two solid years she was passed on to the high school.

High school saw Jarred out the door without her mother ever acknowledging to Caitlyn that he’d been feeling up her daughter for two years. It was unspoken, Caitlyn didn’t want to talk about it and her mother didn’t want to think that she was competing with her daughter for her man’s attention. Caitlyn found it was easier to skate through high school because the teachers cared less (and some were open to barter), the boys were more interesting, and the kids broke up into groups that were more accepting of each other. Caitlyn was a burnout; she drank, she got high, she skipped class, and she screwed. And every year they found a reason to push her through with just enough credits to pass. Three years later Caitlyn was out, her mother was involved with a trucker and wanted to go on the road, and the party’s looked better on the beach.

Caitlyn had been to Florida for spring break and made some friends. So she headed south with her then boyfriend, Brett. She dumped Brett after two weeks and his money ran out. Hooked up with a rough-boy, Dwayne, who got her a job at the coconut shack serving drinks. She’s out of Ohio and living life like it’s one big party.

Actress Sarah Shahi

Luciana Maria Bianchi

35 years-old, Aquarius, 5-ft. 7-in. tall, 140-lbs., Dark Brown hair, Brown eyes

Lucy grew up in Holland, MI.

She was the youngest of four children, 3 brothers (Daniel-45, Anthony-41, Nicholas-37) and 1 sister (Sofia-44).

An average student but active in school (basketball, softball, volleyball, and student council).

Tried community college for a year, but decided it wasn’t for her.

Joined the U.S. Marines at 19 and stayed for 3 years

In the marines she was an Engineer Assistant performing various duties incidental to construction design, planning, estimating, and management. And was trained to use optical reading/electronic total station survey instruments to establish the horizontal and vertical alignment/layout for construction projects. In addition, she was trained to use manual/Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) methods of preparing architectural/mechanical/civil drawings, to include computations for bills of material/earthwork volumes.

Despite rules to the contrary she saw combat in Iraq when her convoy was ambushed. During this combat she was pinned down and in a bad situation. An Iraqi civilian prayed constantly and seemingly caused a miracle that allowed them to escape the situation. Always wondered about that.

Left the marines and went into the Grand Valley State University’s Police Academy.

Joined the Grand Rapids Police Department at 23.

Lucy Bianchi had been a patrol officer with the Grand Rapids Police Department for four and a half years when a violent incident forced her into an early retirement. While on routine patrol, Lucy, stopped a vehicle for going the wrong way on a one-way street. When she approached the driver and requested his license and vehicle paperwork, the driver did not cooperate. Lucy asked the driver to step out of the car. The vehicle door was opened, and Lucy made an attempt to remove the driver from the vehicle, at which point the driver panicked and put the car in reverse. The open door trapped Lucy and slammed him into the parked police car, crushing her first between the door and the bumper of the police car, then between the two cars. Caught on the fleeing vehicles bumper and dragged into the street, Lucy was left for dead.

Lucy sustained many physical injuries, but she survived. The accident left her with nerve damage, herniated disks in her back and neck, and severe stomach problems. Her body began to heal, but her head injury left her with severe headaches, insomnia, memory problems, and intense mood swings. Lucy was put on Demerol  and other strong pharmaceutical drugs, which were ineffective and left her unable to function. She took early retirement and left the police force on disability.

Lucy has done a number of odd things since; opened a Native American art store, flea market booth, dollar store. And for a few years dedicated herself to helping design and rebuild homes for earthquake victims as a member of Build Safe, an international non-profit social enterprise that designs earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries and trains builders, homeowners, engineers, and government officials to build them.

After returning home and having a child, Brianna (5), she took her military and law enforcement background and went into business with Josh Hale, starting their own Private Investigation agency.