“Allright. It’s four in the morning, I have a screwdriver, and something is either dead or gonna die!”

Have you ever had one of those nights? I had been up a time or two in the night jiggling handles and checking plumbing parts, but the running water noise was both getting worse and keeping me awake. The float valve had become too tired, and I had to coax it back into working order. It’s okay for now, but it will probably need replacement soon enough.

What I had said to myself kept ringing in my head when I went back to sleep, and somehow the idea of killing a noisy Professor Plumber with a screwdriver in the bathroom took hold. I’ve been in “Clue” mode all day. And another thought came around with it – too many times the protagonist in a story has too easy a time of it in the story.

I think of the Bourne Identity for instance – sure he is awesomely skilled as a spy and assassin. But nothing ever goes really wrong. Maybe I’m just too skeptical, but sometimes I’m pulling for the hero to have a leg cramp just to shut his pious pie hole up for a few pages.

Right now: I’m in the study with a computer, killing time. What have you killed today?