on the uses of railroad spikes

[edenfalling]

My brain is on strike. I have been unable to write anything for a few days, despite having about three billion ideas. I think it's the number of ideas that's the problem -- every time I think I have one pinned down into a workable form, more ideas try to jam in around the edges and the story goes unwritable again.

So.

A total non sequitur.

I actually own a railroad spike. However, I don't kill people with it. (Though I admit to having grabbed it a couple times when going to investigate peculiar noises while alone in the house.) Instead, I use it to separate sections of my bookshelves -- like poetry from mythology, or whatnot -- and it also served as a decent hammer for a few years until I got off my ass and stole one of my dad's real hammers.

I own a railroad spike because my grandmother grew up in a train depot -- her father was the depot manager -- and as such has ridiculously numbers of train knick-knacks and paraphernalia. She gave me the spike a long time ago, back when it had a miniature wooden train glued onto it.

The train fell off. I don't know what became of it.

But I still have the spike.

Really, who wouldn't want a railroad spike?