The Thing About Fire Hydrants

Some people may have read my Monday night tweets about my temporary fire hydrant hint fiction obsession and go “What the hell?”, “Who’s that crazy person?” or, alternatively, have a finger-jerk reaction near the Unfollow button.

The thing is, me and my brain have a secret code to make sure we understand each other.

Due to multitasking at work, crazy running around and my stubbornness in trying to write this week’s chapters for Strings of Retaliation, my brain overheated on Monday. It completely refused to focus on the writing task at hand and to make sure I really got its point, it started making up story about fire hydrants.

Because that’s what happens when my brain overheats: it picks the most random stuff to go crazy creative about. I swear it has a mind of its own!

But as my brain pointed out on Monday:

Life is much more surprising when you allow fire hydrants to live.

So the obsession was annoying but not a torture per se. It did mean I had to shut down the computer and stop trying to get the chapters written.

So I listened.

Another unmistakable sign my brain often use is singing. When I’m tired, I catch myself humming or singing softly. “Catch myself” being the operative concept; I honestly can’t tell how long I’ve been singing. And it’s the same song throughout the day too.

That means I need to pour myself a bubble bath when I get home and make sure my brain is completely turned off by the time I get to bed so I can sleep like a rock.

That’s tonight’s plan.

All this to say that I’m sorry but there won’t be any of Lorelei’s adventures to read this week. There are, however, three more of my fire hydrant hint fiction (just so you know I didn’t lie about the obsession thingy). Amazingly enough, they each have a very distinctive tone and style (the zen-like philosophy I shared earlier notwithstanding).

*sighs* Crazy brain…

Alone in the dark, the hydrant couldn’t weep for the smoking lady.

Dehydrated hydrant. Dancing flame.

“I’m a cat person,” says the fire hydrant.