Weather

I have to explain a bit before I tell you this story. First, I live in a very, very small town. When I say that, you will envision a decent sized town but I'm serious when I tell you that this is a very, very small town. The sign says 600 but that's spread out pretty far into the surrounding farms. There is the highway and that is where everything. We have on other road that runs through part of town but we're pretty much a "side of the highway" sort of town. Everyone knows each other TO AN EXTENT. You see, there are the Mormons and there are the Not Mormons. I am one of the few Not Mormons. My family crosses the line because my dad is the Fire Chief and knows everyone from his years on the fire department (all volunteer except for his job) and from his mornings down at the corner gas station where he has coffee.

I swear, the explanation is taking longer than the story. I'll quit now. You get the gist.

Okay, my car wouldn't start this morning. It's almost 9am and my mom has just left for church. It's the small church that is two blocks away and I could get a ride with her (but that would require me to visit after) or walk (TWO BLOCKS!) so I drive my car. But it was near negative numbers this morning, even at 9am. Jolene just would not turn over. So I decided to pull on my big girl panties and walk. OH CHI MAMA! It was cold.

One of the guys I know from church passes me going the wrong way and waves. I wave back.

Another car, one I don't recognize, passes me going the right way and turns around. I groan. Sure enough, the nice people in the car were stopping to ask me if I needed a ride. I assured them I was just going another block but thanked them for their offer. They made sure I meant it and drove off to their church.

I got a big kick out of telling the story when I got to church (after I coughed up a lung because this was not really what my poor lungs needed, even after a few days of recuperation out of the cold) and likening my friend to one of the men in the story of the Good Samaritan. He told me I should have "waved harder". I'm not sure what that means, exactly. *grins*

So Dad and I got my car running this afternoon. I sure hope it starts tomorrow but he's home in the morning so I shouldn't have too much trouble getting another jump, if I need it. Poor thing is in need of an oil change and I can't help but wonder if that was a big part of it. But I'll live in fear every time I get in my car for the next couple of weeks. I spent a lot of time WAITING for help with my last car. It couldn't seem to hold on to the battery well!

The little icon on my phone for the weather for the next couple of days is one single snowflake. Not snow so much as just a lot of bone-chilling cold. I really don't remember winter getting this cold in January. That's sort of a February phenomenon. I am getting really tired of the cold but I'm knitting a new cowl so I'll have a good excuse to wear it!

...I'll be dead before the day is done...

For a past Friday-Free-For-All (we should totally call it F3A) at be_compromised, I wrote a comment fic based on a picture of Scarlett Johansson in a corset (and also the song "Seven Devils" by Florence + the Machine). It started out sort of Young Riders-ish but then I decided that, if i wrote more, I would make it more Old West sort of Steampunk.

Now, some of you are too young to have seen Young Riders on TV because it was on from late high school to early college for me from 1989 to 1992. It's on Hulu, by the way. I plan on rewatching it, just to see if it lives up to what I remember. Long story short... it's about a group of young people who worked for the Pony Express in the American Old West in the mid-1800s.

I can, of course, keep both ideas. Even if I do a Pony Express sort of story, there can be Steampunk involved. I just really want Tony working on all sorts of fun contraptions while Clint would rather just ride his horse to get where he wants to go.

The reason I wrote this post... does anyone have anything to add? Would you prefer I stayed true to one idea or the other? Is there a certain idea in either genre that you would like to see?

Incidently, frea_o just gave me an idea for another Old West AU where Clint gets a mail-order bride from Russian. That is also a really lovely idea that I would like to do in addition to... although I can see how these two might meld together. Or should I keep them separated?

My head is FULL right now. I only got a little writing done this weekend because my head was more full than I thought it would be. I got some things figured out after talking with Aster but then other things got sort of muddled again.

And I needed an excuse to use one of my new icons. *points above*