doldrums
Doldrums: what a great word for an awful state of being.
In the fall when every day is shorter and it's full dark by seven, the doldrums are just digging in around here. The full effect won't be felt until December when the days are so short it's almost not worth getting out of bed. And yet, I'm usually hit with insomnia at this time of year. A cosmic joke, or hormonal havoc? You decide.
One of the advantages to not sleeping is that I get a lot of reading done. Five novels in a week! Unfortunately three of them were really disappointing. Also, I cleaned off my desk, but now of course I can't find anything. Four in the morning is a great time to harvest Tom DeLay jokes off the internet, but I can't wake up my husband to share them.
Research for the book that's just started: a major character needs to learn a lot about the history, collection, sale and repair of fountain pens. If he has to learn it, I have to learn it. I once had a fountain pen I loved, a Namiki retractable point fountain pen in a lovely shade of green. Then I had my bag stolen at Heathrow and the pen was gone, along with (I added it up) about seven hundred dollars worth of odds and ends, from a leather bound notebook in which I had four years of notes on my daughter's language acquisition, and a signed first edition of The English Patient that was supposed to be a gift for a family member.
That was so upsetting that I never replaced the fountain pen, and now here I am having to learn all about them so this character can do what he needs to do. Here's the question: if I had unlimited funds ala Mr. Gates, would I spend five hundred dollars on a fountain pen? A beautifully made fountain pen, even?
I can't imagine it. I can't imagine spending four times that much on a rare collector's item fountain pen, either. But I'm in luck: neither can my character. He has to learn about the business, but he doesn't have to get on the bandwagon.
Everyone is in bed. Even the puppy boys are snoring, so I think I'll give it a try.