My newest short story "Twin Engines" is in Black Cat Weekly #217, out today.
Over the years I've posted many pictures of the House Opposite That Lights Up At Dawn to Presage the Coming of Spring (HOTLUAD). Recently, things weren't looking so good for HOTLUAD. It was vacant, subject to vandalism and showing a lot of erosion in the hillside below the house.
HOTLUAD glowed at the opposite end of the year as well, when the sun hit it at the same angle it did in March. So this week we had an opportunity to see how it was doing.
Verdict: All's well with HOTLUAD!
Someone has been doing a lot of work on it in the last few months. I'm not sure if it's owned by the same people, but two or three lots above it are also being renovated, and a lot of overgrown trees removed. HOTLUAD itself first swapped its brick-red roof (the San Juan Capistrano city-approved color) for slate grey, and then various windows disappeared and reappeared several times (presumably being boarded up and then replaced). Although the famous dumper truck did not come back, workmen's trucks were frequently in evidence along with ladders and suchlike "improvement" technology.
