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Day’s Verse:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Hebrews 12:1
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I bet you thought nothing else has been happening in my life since NaNoWriMo took it over 13 days ago. In assuming this, you would be right — and wrong. Things that have happened:

1. One of the experienced women in our group of four report coordinators has left. She went to Astra Zenica and a higher salary. The other experienced woman just interviewed today for a different job within CRL. This leaves me as the most effective worker in the group, a truly terrifying thought. One woman has worked there since February, but she is almost at retirement age and, frankly, needs a lot of hand-holding to get much done. I have picked things up faster than she does, and I understand processes and procedures she has been doing since she arrived nine months ago and still doesn’t understand. Where it might take me 45 minutes to ship a draft report, it could take her an hour and a half, or — with one notorious final — a full day, and even then she made a mistake that required an amendment. Not a good prospect for the reporting group. Last week, with one lady on vacation and the other leaving, I shipped 18 reports, six (or so) of them Final reports.

2. I spoke at FNF last Friday night. Fortunately, Nora had already scared away the uber-conservative visiting parents with butt charades, so I didn’t offend anybody.

3. This morning, riding to the train station, I ran over a screw. It punctured my back tire with a vengance, going all the way in up to the head of the screw and instantly producing a flat tire to shame all flat tires (see pictures). This happened about two miles from our apartment, with four miles left to the train station. I had no cell phone and no contact information for Ian, even if I did have a phone, and I knew I couldn’t walk the four miles in 30 minutes to catch my train. Out of desperation, I walked my bike to a random house, knocked on the door, explained my situation, and begged for a ride to the train station (a phone call would do no good, me not having Ian’s number).

Amazingly, the woman introduced herself as Valerie and said, “Sure, let me just call my work to let them know I’ll be a little late.” She then drove me, a total stranger, to the train station amid my profuse thanks. Tomorrow I will leave a very, very sincere thank-you note on her porch where I left my bike all day.

So things have happened. Now back to your regularly scheduled broadcast.