Da F-Bomb Falleth!

Ah yes, a good writing day today! (Finally!) I knocked out just over 1,800 words on "First", which brings my word count to almost 150k . . . and I don't see it ending under 200k, unless I really start cheaping out on some of the story (which I won't do!) Well, who knows? Maybe I can clip a bunch of it in edits (Yea, right!) I really wish I knew how people keep their novels under 100k . . . it seems to elude me. Too much cool crap comes up as I'm working and I've never been able to just "leave it out". Speaking of edits, I really need to get back to work on editing my other stuff. It's been sitting there in the drawer, doing nothing, for waaaaaaaayyyyy too long now! Summer is NOT a good time for editing. The nights are just too nice and there's too much going on. Editing is really a winter type of thing. Still, it has to be done if I ever want to be published so I'll have to make time somehow.

We had a minor tussle at my house with the boy last night. Seems he was caught using "inappropriate" language at the summer camp he goes to. He and a few friends were playing a board game and he thought (incorrectly!) there were no adults in the room when he let the F-Bomb drop. (Yup, the nuclear warhead of invectives, folks!) The head of the entire camp had just walked in behind him and the boy hadn't noticed. He got a written reprimand (which I agree with, BTW!) and I had to sign it to show I was aware of what he'd done. Now, the boy is almost thirteen and I know he uses such language regularly when with his peers (I did at 13!) so I wasn't too shocked, I just explained to him why it wasn't appropriate in a formal setting like the camp. When he got home however, The Wife was not nearly as understanding. She had a minor meltdown over it (granted, she had a few more reasons than just the word, but it was still a bit over the top to my way of thinking.) and started throwing out threats and punishments galore. After she was done verbally lashing the boy and he'd split to his room, she wanted to know why I wasn't more upset about it. I (being the wonderful, honest, man that I am!) had to point out that it's hard to yell at him for using a word he hears thirty times a day . . . FROM HER! Alright, and from me too - occasionally!) I also pointed out that cursing at him, for cursing in public, was probably not the best approach.

She was not pleased with me.

To her credit though, she realized the silliness of the situation after about 15 minutes. She was really just worried about him being tossed from the program (not really a danger: the guy who runs it -and wrote him up- thinks he's a great kid and wants him to work there next summer as a CIT) The Wife is in no way comfortable with the idea of leaving the boy home alone and wants to make sure he has somewhere to be in the summer. I can understand that but I still say: "pick your battles". If you yell at him over little things, he'll stop listening when you're getting on him for major things. God knows, I could turn my folks off just like a radio tuner by the time I was a teenager . . . they sounded just like the adults from a Charlie Brown cartoon : "Wha-Wha-Whaa-Whaaaaaa . . ."

Of course, my chuckle-head of a son thought it would be really funny to make jokes of the situation once she'd calmed down, and almost got himself into real trouble for being a smart ass! The boy figgers all subjects can be turned to something humorous (Hmmmm . . . wonder where he picked that up?) and doesn't realize that it's not a good idea to poke fun at the angry Momma-Bear, even when she's trying to stay calm. Ah, the genius of a thirteen year old!

I gotta say though - some of what he said was pretty damn funny. The Wife (surprisingly) did not agree. ;-)

Later!