Another grim, grey day. Not sure whether there was actually any rain, but no sun of which to speak. Our high was only 52˚F, and it is currently 51˚F, with a windchill of 49˚F. We are looking at an overnight low of 45˚F. But the sun will be back tomorrow, we are told, and it should be much warmer. I hope so; this is misery. Speaking of misery, I woke at 4:30 a.m. (!!!), wide awake. I lay there until 5 a.m., when I finally gave in, got up, make coffee and oatmeal, and worked on one of the mosasaur papers for a couple of hours. And I read two papers I discovered I needed to read to finish the introduction: "Extinction of fish-shaped marine reptiles associated with reduced evolutionary rates and global environmental volatility" ( Nature , 2016) and "Ecomorphological diversifications of Mesozoic marine reptiles: the roles of ecological opportunity and extinction" ( Paleobiology , also 2016). Then I read two more chapters of Dune , and then, at 9 a.m., it was time to wake Spooky – who was actually already awake. About 10 a.m., I sat down at the prep table and worked on Winifred for about an hour, but, by that point, I'd been awake and working, thinking, since just after five, and I was really too tired to be handling sharp objects around fragile fossil bone. I gave up about eleven, and by noon I was playing GW2. It seemed, at least, harmless. That was my day, mostly. --- Some possibly illuminating lines I wrote on Twitter (shudder): 1. I am struggling to at least stay focused on doing science, but it's hard, and fiction just seems an utterly absurd luxury the world can no longer afford. (Yeah, people will yell at me [for saying this].) 2. And do not pretend that this is not something new. Since at least 2016, we have been in territory largely uncharted in the history of America. 3. And yes, I hear that tired old chestnut, "NOW is when we most need tales of the weird and fantastic, to take our minds off the horror of reality." Maybe so. But that does not mean that, faced with that horror, I can still spin those stories, no matter who might need them. --- This month is the tenth anniversary of the filming of the book trailer for The Drowning Girl: A Memoir , which is kind of hard to believe. I think it happened towards the latter part of the month, but I need to check. Anyway, I'm going to use the anniversary to light a fire under my ass and get the trailer back up on the front page of my website. Right now, it can be seen at Vimeo . Please have a look at the current eBay auctions . Thank you. Later Tater Beans, Aunt Beast 3:33 p.m. (yesterday)