By the silvery light of a cellular phone

Although it was not very cold today, I still walked to the dock at work a couple of times to smoke. It's a little quicker, and I like the quiet those cavernous hallways I showed you Monday offer (and show you again now). It's quiet enough to think.

I was down there this evening, some time after dark. The dock was cool and still and open and I was thinking again about how nice it would be to live in a giant loft apartment. I totally understand the appeal of living in converted industrial space these days.

I was nearly finished with my cigarette when the timer that controls the lights activated and I found myself standing in utter darkness. A tiny amount of light seeped in through the windows of the truck bay, but not enough even to see the ground beneath me anymore. I was perhaps thirty yards from the hallway, where at least some lights were lit, but wasn't sure the nature or number of obstacles on my path to the safety of the hall.

I opened my cell phone and held it down towards the ground. It provided just enough illumination to make out my shoes, dark against the pale gray cement of the floor. I figured that so long as any obstacle was not the same color as the floor, I could make it just fine.

And I did, Blogreader. I am not still there on the dock. This is my thrilling survival tale for today. Kind of peters off at the end there, I guess.

In other news, I just broke past 10,000 words on the new novel. Come to think of it, that's the thing from today that I'll likely remember later. So forget about the stupid "trapped by darkness" thing and pretend that I wrote about my progress on the novel instead.

I am very excited (almost Caroline excited) for tomorrow, when my new thing is scheduled to arrive, and when I should pass the 14,000 word mark ( I plan to simply write and write after work tomorrow night). 14,000 holds a special significance for me, as that was the final word count of the novel I tried to write when I was 19. Until November, that was the longest thing I'd ever written. And so far, anything I write that passes that mark blossoms into a full-length novel. All of the only one thing I have written that passed that mark, anyway.

Whaddya know? I guess I did write about my progress on the novel after all.