Space: The Fun Writing Frontier

I put aside the Slightly Off The Mark book and am going to concentrate on Beowulf: In Harms Way, which I'm up to 17,000 words on. Why? Because it's my vacation, doggone it. Slightly Off The Mark, being an adaption of columns already written, involves a great deal of organizing, formatting, editing, and revising, and only a little new writing. Rough drafts of fiction are more fun (to me). But I don't expect it'll take too long to finish the first draft, then it's back to the column book.

Dyer -- I mean, Dryer update

I had to exchange the plug on my old dryer with the plug on my new one, which I bought for $25 at my mom's church. In other words, electrical work. There were plenty of online guides on how to do it, but here's the rub: They all explained how to replace a three point plug with a four point plug. But the dryer I bought is actually older than the one it's replacing -- I had to replace the newer plug with the older plug, not the other way around.

 

Very, very carefully, I took the old new plug apart, matched it with the connections on the new old plug, and put them together exactly as the old new one had been put in when it was new, not old. I double and triple checked, and then, making sure not to touch the dryer or any metal as I did so, I plugged the unit back in.

 

No sparks, explosion, fire. No singed mustache.Happy and incredulous after only a few hour's of work, I turned the dryer on to make sure it would actually dry stuff.

 

Nothing happened.

 

No power. No idea why.

 

And so, I would like to announce that I will be hanging up everything to dry from now on. Clothes, sheets, towels, whatever. If the Amish can do it, so can I. If you happen to be Amish, tell me how you manage. Also, tell me what you're doing online.