My lightning's flashing across the sky

It's been a day of errands and yardwork because the weather was a bit cooler; and since it was overcast, this was probably the best day we'll get for outdoors labor for awhile.

With that in mind, I got the backyard trimmed up nicely (but ran out of juice to finish the front and sides), cleaned up the garden a bit, pruned the rose tree and aggressively weeded its (badly overgrown) bed, cleaned up the bird corner, cleaned out the bird feeders and added seed/suet, likewise made more hummingbird food and put it out there, and trimmed/cleaned/pruned/relabeled the herb garden. Other than that, it was just groceries and more candles for the mantle, and then the last of the housework (vacuumed, laundry, kitchen, etc.).

Still no writing work, but you'd be hard-pressed to argue that I've not been productive. My mom's coming over to spend the night tomorrow; that's kind of my excuse for frittering around the house instead of at the laptop. Not that my mom gives a hooey if the hedges are trimmed, but it's the principle of the thing.

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Last night, the husband and I went to see The Conjuring. I wanted to see it partly because yay, ghosts! and partly because I'm passingly familiar with the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren. (In the second Eden book, you meet the "Marshalls," a husband/wife ghost-hunting team whose existence was, shall we say, "prompted" by the Warrens - though not strictly inspired by them.)

Overall, I enjoyed it, but I can see how it could come off as a little too easy. Two confident experts are invoked. They take the case. Things are subsequently explained, and then fixed. The end. One could argue that it's too much case file, not enough mystery. That's how my husband read it, anyway.

But I appreciated the straightforwardness of it all. In my opinion, the most tedious part of any horror story is the dragging bit at the start where the skeptics must slowly be won over to become True Believers. Bah, I say. Bring in the family that knows right away when it has a serious problem, and show me the earnest, dorky priest-hero archetypes to the rescue. Skip all that gradual case-making humdrum. I don't mind a slow-burn warm-up, but my patience for characters who refuse to admit or confirm their own experience ... is pretty damn low.

Come to think of it, I tend to feel the same way about real people, in real life. Hmm.

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To be clear, I have no opinion on the veracity of the Warrens or their erstwhile careers in demonology. All I'm saying is, I enjoyed the interpretation presented by the movie.

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Right. Well, I smell like bug spray and sunscreen, and I'm covered in fine bits of grass and dirt, plus a thin seasoning of sweat. Time to take a shower and settle in for the evening. I have some reading to do, and some notes to jot, and some rum to sip; maybe I'll fidget my way back around to doing something creatively productive, before the day is out.

Thanks for reading.