I have a buffer, apparently. My buffer is about 30 pages of hand-written text before I hit a point I cannot write anymore. When I type things out, even to a computer with 64 MB RAM and running at a full 300 MHz speed, it releases a bit of that buffer. I know this because that was pretty much the only computer I had access to most of the weekend.

According to the website, my apartment has been 'cleared' for entry, but there is still only one bridge getting over there; which means that in 2 hours, that bridges is going to be so packed, it won't even be funny. And I have to cross that bridge to go to my apartment, then cross it again to crash at my in-laws. And probably 1-2 hours per crossing; my laptop (though I miss it) still isn't that important in my life. I'll let it sit for a day or two, hopefully so the other cross-town bridges open up and we don't have everyone crossing the Cedar River in two lanes (they still have a lane dedicated to emergency personnel only).

I'm getting homesick and I had a couple really bad days just... being depressed as it all hit me. On the other hand, I did spend 4 days working on Flight of the Scions (yeah, I'm changing it at this point), including back histories, personalities, entire languages and social structures. I think this time, the characters will have a lot more depth to them, or at least bit a bit more likable. It also resolves some of high-speed intra-chapter personality shifts that I wasn't happy with.

I just can't write at my in-laws. Their keyboard (that split Microsoft thing that hurts my well-broken in wrists) feels wrong, the desk bumps against the bed and the chair is wrong. I just can't really get into the writing mood there, so my buffer is filled and I'm in danger of buffer overflow with ideas. I had to force myself to set aside the cultural creation for about half the world, simply because I was losing the context on the paper (writing is more like indexes for my ideas than the entire idea).

I'm thinking about writing a few posts about this entire experience, including what worked and didn't work. Not sure if anyone is interested in it, but I want to write it down before I forget the frustrations and things I thought I had well in hand but really didn't.

Mostly, I miss my bed.