Our Gang’s Dark Oath is a journal entry by Jack Rusher, published here Friday, January 04, 2008. It is part of Journal.
Patch work: spit and baling wire.
We had a fire in the boiler room last year. Destroyed some important equipment. I’ve been meaning to get down there, shovel in a load of coal, mend the pipes, and get the machine running again, but life intervened.
There’s kind of a tradition around here to make something every day in January, and in the best Januaries to publish something every day. So, end of December, down I went. The pipes are mended, fresh steam is floating up to the Rhetorical Device, and — though things are a bit creaky — there’s motion to be seen.
The proprietor hard at work.
It’ll take more oil to lubricate the gears, and a team of winged monkeys to maintain the transmission, but barring any unforeseen tragedy we’ll have another twenty-seven pieces up here by the time February rolls around.
This whole business is a game I play against myself, and I’m sure you’ve got your own games to play, but consider this a challenge to anyone else who has developed a crust of rust over the last year: this is your chance to do something about it. Today. You might get another chance tomorrow, but you won’t get today again, and every day you don’t work is another day until you’ll be as good as you want to be.
Anyway. Up to you. Drop me a line if you give it a try. I’ll come by and take a look.