"...once we're out amongst the shadows."
Mar. 8th, 2010 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeast1. A sunny day again here in Providence. It's very good to have the sun back after its recent extended absence. The meteorologists predict a high of 57F, which means windows will be opened.
2. The silence of the last two days has followed, largely, from the fact that I'm not getting anything written. Which follows, chiefly, from the fact that I'm still not sleeping. I think this stretch of insomnia is beginning its third week. Mostly, there's been exhaustion, anger, depression, worry, and more exhaustion. Nothing I want to write entries about, and (I assume) nothing anyone wants to read. I'm trying to think of good things from the last two or three days. Friday, I received my contributor's copies of The Mammoth Book of the Best of the Best New Horror: Two Decades of Dark Fiction. I got the year 1997, which was, by the way, the first year I made The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (I've had stories selected for nine of those volumes). Which means it's "Emptiness Spoke Eloquent," though Steve Jones kindly let me rewrite the story a bit, so it's not quite the story that was reprinted in the '97 volume (#9). Those last two sentences could use a rewrite, but I'm not up to it, and trust you've muddled safely through. Anything else worth remembering? Streamed the new episodes of Spartacus: Blood and Sand (still good porn) and Caprica (still impressing me). That's about it, though. Well, except for yesterday.
3. Yesterday was the rain date for my trip to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, to meet up with Sonya (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sovay) and Greer (nineweaving), but Sonya was feeling under the weather...so we've postponed again. Instead of Boston, Spooky and I took advantage of the sunny, almost warm day and headed south and west to Connecticut. It's a hideous stretch of interstate, I-95 through western Rhode Island, and much worse this time of year. All stark, leafless trees brown beneath a white-blue sky. It burns the eyes and mind, that sight, slashed down the middle with black asphalt. But it led us across the state line to Mystic. There were already tourists, or so it seemed. We avoided them as best we could. An hour or so was passed in the shops along West Main Street. I found a cast-iron mermaid exactly like one I'd seen in the very same shop back on the summer of '06, and have often regretted not getting. So I bought it for the kitchen mantle. After Mystic, we followed 215 down to Noank, where neither Spooky nor I had been before. Narrow streets and pretty houses, boats and lobster pots. Out across the water we could see Goat Island, and beyond that, Fishers Island. It was quite a bit chillier by the water, but also mercifully free of people.
We headed back to Providence about five p.m. (CaST), and I dozed all the way home. The van is about the only place I seem able to sleep (without the aid of Ambien) these days. We stopped for Chinese takeout (dumplings and beef lo mein). I spent the night with WoW and Insilico. At 4:30 a.m., still trying to sleep, I read Lovecraft's "Dagon" (1917) for the bezillionth or so time. I did manage to get to sleep before five, and I must have slept maybe five and a half hours.
4. Spooky made a new doll, which you may see here. It is a lovely, gloomy doll. It'll be going up for sale on her Dreaming Squid Dollworks Etsy shop once she's finished with it.
5. Geoffrey (readingthedark) is dropping by tonight, and it will be nice to have company for an evening.
6. Not at all happy with the Oscars this year. I may post my own picks later today. It truly was a baffling year, and not for want of wonderful films. I was pleased to see that Christoph Waltz won for Inglourious Basterds. Though Neil was very dapper in his jacket and waistcoat (made bykambriel).
7. Finally, I have thirteen photos from yesterday's trip to Mystic and Noank, behind the cut:
A ruined pier on the Mystic River, north of Mystic (on Greenmanville Road, near the intersection with Pleasant Road). View to the west.
In Mystic, view to the south from the bascule bridge (1922) over the Mystic River.
The bascule bridge (1922) on West Main Street. View to the northwest.
View from the western side of the bridge (to the northeast), showing the bridge's gigantic concrete counterweights.
Kayaks tethered below the bridge.
Detail from the bridge. I can stare at rust and iron all damn day.
In Noank, the docks at the end of Main Street. View to the south.
View from Noank, towards Goat Island (middle distance) and, beyond it, Fishers Island. View to the southeast.
The Noank waterfront, from Riverview Avenue. View to the southwest.
Lobster pots stacked at the end of Spring Street, Noank. View to the south.
Still more lobster pots. View to the west.
I always fall in love with boats that will no longer float. At the end of Spring Street in Noank. View to the east.
A cemetery in Noank, as seen from Elm Street. View to the west.
All photographs Copyright © 2010 by Caitlín R. Kiernan.
2. The silence of the last two days has followed, largely, from the fact that I'm not getting anything written. Which follows, chiefly, from the fact that I'm still not sleeping. I think this stretch of insomnia is beginning its third week. Mostly, there's been exhaustion, anger, depression, worry, and more exhaustion. Nothing I want to write entries about, and (I assume) nothing anyone wants to read. I'm trying to think of good things from the last two or three days. Friday, I received my contributor's copies of The Mammoth Book of the Best of the Best New Horror: Two Decades of Dark Fiction. I got the year 1997, which was, by the way, the first year I made The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (I've had stories selected for nine of those volumes). Which means it's "Emptiness Spoke Eloquent," though Steve Jones kindly let me rewrite the story a bit, so it's not quite the story that was reprinted in the '97 volume (#9). Those last two sentences could use a rewrite, but I'm not up to it, and trust you've muddled safely through. Anything else worth remembering? Streamed the new episodes of Spartacus: Blood and Sand (still good porn) and Caprica (still impressing me). That's about it, though. Well, except for yesterday.
3. Yesterday was the rain date for my trip to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, to meet up with Sonya (
sovay) and Greer (nineweaving), but Sonya was feeling under the weather...so we've postponed again. Instead of Boston, Spooky and I took advantage of the sunny, almost warm day and headed south and west to Connecticut. It's a hideous stretch of interstate, I-95 through western Rhode Island, and much worse this time of year. All stark, leafless trees brown beneath a white-blue sky. It burns the eyes and mind, that sight, slashed down the middle with black asphalt. But it led us across the state line to Mystic. There were already tourists, or so it seemed. We avoided them as best we could. An hour or so was passed in the shops along West Main Street. I found a cast-iron mermaid exactly like one I'd seen in the very same shop back on the summer of '06, and have often regretted not getting. So I bought it for the kitchen mantle. After Mystic, we followed 215 down to Noank, where neither Spooky nor I had been before. Narrow streets and pretty houses, boats and lobster pots. Out across the water we could see Goat Island, and beyond that, Fishers Island. It was quite a bit chillier by the water, but also mercifully free of people.We headed back to Providence about five p.m. (CaST), and I dozed all the way home. The van is about the only place I seem able to sleep (without the aid of Ambien) these days. We stopped for Chinese takeout (dumplings and beef lo mein). I spent the night with WoW and Insilico. At 4:30 a.m., still trying to sleep, I read Lovecraft's "Dagon" (1917) for the bezillionth or so time. I did manage to get to sleep before five, and I must have slept maybe five and a half hours.
4. Spooky made a new doll, which you may see here. It is a lovely, gloomy doll. It'll be going up for sale on her Dreaming Squid Dollworks Etsy shop once she's finished with it.
5. Geoffrey (
readingthedark) is dropping by tonight, and it will be nice to have company for an evening.6. Not at all happy with the Oscars this year. I may post my own picks later today. It truly was a baffling year, and not for want of wonderful films. I was pleased to see that Christoph Waltz won for Inglourious Basterds. Though Neil was very dapper in his jacket and waistcoat (made by
kambriel).7. Finally, I have thirteen photos from yesterday's trip to Mystic and Noank, behind the cut:
A ruined pier on the Mystic River, north of Mystic (on Greenmanville Road, near the intersection with Pleasant Road). View to the west.
In Mystic, view to the south from the bascule bridge (1922) over the Mystic River.
The bascule bridge (1922) on West Main Street. View to the northwest.
View from the western side of the bridge (to the northeast), showing the bridge's gigantic concrete counterweights.
Kayaks tethered below the bridge.
Detail from the bridge. I can stare at rust and iron all damn day.
In Noank, the docks at the end of Main Street. View to the south.
View from Noank, towards Goat Island (middle distance) and, beyond it, Fishers Island. View to the southeast.
The Noank waterfront, from Riverview Avenue. View to the southwest.
Lobster pots stacked at the end of Spring Street, Noank. View to the south.
Still more lobster pots. View to the west.
I always fall in love with boats that will no longer float. At the end of Spring Street in Noank. View to the east.
A cemetery in Noank, as seen from Elm Street. View to the west.
All photographs Copyright © 2010 by Caitlín R. Kiernan.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 06:41 pm (UTC)Gorgeous doll by Spooky. And, oh, to live by a large spot of water...
no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 06:45 pm (UTC)And, oh, to live by a large spot of water...
I really makes everything so much easier to endure.
What I love about Spartacus is that it's really kept my attention. That's half the battle right there -- 99% of tv, film, books, etc. doesn't interest me in the slightest.
Most of what's on and popular these days, I look at it, and I utterly fail to comprehend the appeal.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 08:36 pm (UTC)I think I'm developing a fetish for lobster pots. I may need to own one.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 09:45 pm (UTC)The Spectrum award-winners have been announced, and I suspect there are a number of them that will tweak your interests...
http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/full_content.php?article_id=1140&full=yes&pbr=1
no subject
Date: 2010-03-08 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 07:32 pm (UTC)