Unwelcome Interruptions

Spring. It's here.

I think.

It wasn't here on the weekend – 6 inches of snow – but the temps in the high 60s during the day on Monday took care of any lingering chill.

As I write this blog – while watching Dancing with the Stars – the weather guys break into the show. Darn, I won't get to see Shawn Johnson or that Sex in the City actor dance. Note: I'm pulling for Rodeo Rider Ty to win. I'm guessing Hugh Hefner's girlfriend or the Microsoft guy will be the next voted off the dancing island.

Back to the weather. In Oklahoma nothing is certain as far as weather is concerned. Snow, rain, high winds, tornados - all in the last four days. The weather guys are on the tv screen. They don't dance. Okay, maybe some dancing around the subject. They are talking amongst themselves since their storm spotters don't have any good footage to send them. The consensus seems to be that even though the National Weather Service has issued the "Tornado Warning" (as opposed to a mere "Tornado Watch") the local guys don't really expect any tornados. But, with the "Tornado Warning" out, it's current policy for all the network channels in Oklahoma to cut from the normal programming to the high tech weather forecast centers. We're treated to the Doppler radar map and storm tracking projections. I might get rain in about two hours. Sigh.

Wait! Now they say the warning is going to expire! Yes! Yes! Now I can at least see Medium! Or most of it. Seems it's already started. As the weather guys fade from sight, Alison is having her opening dream sequence. The dream thing is my least favorite thing about the show – I know it's just a plot device for showing her psychic visions, but I don't care for it. Makes me tired for her. She never gets a good night's sleep, between her dreams and her kids. Hey, is there a show on television with better child actors than Medium? If there is, I haven't seen it.

My co-author and I have several "works in progress" featuring psychics. One of them actually has no dogs or cats. Bet you thought we couldn't write anything without four-legged furballs in it! Good psychic mysteries are harder to write than you might think. Your psychic hero or heroine can't get so much information from his or her sixth sense that the mystery is solved before it even gets started. The psychic clues have to be vague enough to leave room for the reader to get involved in the detecting, otherwise it's not really a mystery. I love Charlaine Harris's "The Grave Secrets" series. That psychic finds dead bodies. That's pretty much her whole bag of tricks so far. As with any good series, the characters grow and change. I can't wait to read her next one.

Medium is about half finished. The weather guys claim they are only interrupting commercials. Right! They are slow to get back to normal programming from each commercial and I'm missing the first few seconds of the show. Sigh. Reminds me of when I was living with my parents. My dad is the consummate channel surfer. He hates commercials with a passion. If you watch television with him, be prepared to miss part of your show after every channel break ends. He usually overestimates the length of the commercials and is slow to surf back to his starting place.

I've lost the thread of this episode. Maybe this blog too. The interruptions add up and it's easy to lose track.

Which reminds me of plots and subplots, present and past, dreams and reality – too much switching back and forth can lose your readers. I hate time shifts in books and film. But that's a subject for another day.

It's raining outside. Medium is over.

Wonder who scored the lowest on Dancing with the Stars?

Evelyn David
http://www.evelyndavid.com