Blog Without A Name

Notes from two weeks on sick leave

Still drifting lazily toward Total Wellness, and remaining somewhat weepy, which is annoying, since I associate that sort of thing with being Very Ill, and I was not, and certainly am not now, Very Ill.  Despite which, I can report that listening to the Simon and Garfunkel Channel on Pandora is Not Recommended.

What else?  After all my grumbling and grouching, and a marked failure to train Dragon Mobile (Dragon depends on the speaker saying the same word EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, and I never, ever say the same word the same way, speech being one of those hit-and-miss things for me at the best of times.  Poor Ophelia and I fought over Every. Word. It was dreadful; she did try, but I had to let her go.)

Having fired Ophelia, I went back to Hey Google! (which I like marginally better than OK Google.  On thinking about it, OK Google is actually hard for me to say, since I start too low on the OH part, and kind of strangle the last –gle.)  Hey Google is pretty forgiving — I can sing, I can be stern, I can be cheerful or tearful. . .I think I’ve only been misunderstood once and I’ve been using it a lot, mostly as a tea timer (best tea timer ever!), and to add things to the grocery list.  Deleting things from the grocery list is a bit more of a challenge, but we’ll get there.

Back on the topic of being ill — I lost a few pounds — all the way down to 188! — but have drifted back to the old baseline of 190, which I assume means I’m pretty much Over This Thing.  I would like to get to 184, at which point, according to the Wisdom of the BMI scales, I shall stop being “overweight.”  Mind you, I probably don’t want to lose those six pounds enough to stop eating bread and butter, or drinking my glass of wine in the evening, so the goal will very likely remain unconquered.  But it’s important, after all, to have goals; otherwise, you don’t have anything to hang on the walls.

Fifth of Five and I have reached an impasse, and I have issued the Ultimate Threat — Fine; if you don’t cooperate, I will not finish you, and the story will be frozen in place exactly where it is now!

So, we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’ve been amusing myself by putting together the tax paperwork.

It snowed and wintry-mixed on the overnight, and I went out before breakfast to cope with the deck and the stairs, and to get the car swept off and de-iced.  It occurred to me as I was clearing off the windscreen that today marks two weeks exactly since the last time I was out of the house.  Maybe I’ll plan a trip to the grocery store tomorrow, in celebration. . .

Hope everyone’s feeling healthy and hale.

Books read in 2018

8.  The Faded Sun: Shon’jir, CJ Cherryh (re-read) (e)
7.  The Faded Sun: Kesrith, CJ Cherryh (e)
6.  My Brother Michael, Mary Stewart (re-read) (e)
5.  The River Bank, Kij Johnson (read aloud with Steve)
4.  Still Life, Louise Penny
3.  Thick as Thieves, Megan Whalen Turner
2.  The Furthest Station, Ben Aaronovitch (e)
1.  Romancing the Werewolf, Gail Carriger (e)

Health Report

Thanks to everyone for your concern and advice.  I am on the mend (as is Steve, who’s two days ahead of me in this Health Adventure).  Yesterday, I had enough brain to work on the taxes for an hour, and this morning I can actually talk without setting off paroxysms of coughing.

I’m also well enough to start fretting about the week’s worth of Undone Stuff of all descriptions littering the landscape.  I do know better than to try to get them all caught up Now, and will continue upon the Conservative Course.  I feel brainly enough to do some Handwritten Note work on the novel, if not nearly sharp enough to get on with the actual manuscript.  This is definitely an improvement over not having enough functioning brain to read, so — yay!

The coon cats have been constantly on the case, though this has called for some reworking of the standard shifts.  We’re more frequently seeing two on/one off, with Scrabble doing fill-in as she’s able.  At the moment, I have Sprite with me here at the desk, Scrabble behind the tax box, Trooper on roaming, and Belle downstairs, taking her Quiet Shift.    Belle will come on again around noon, Sprite will go off-shift, and Trooper will get his quiet shift around 3.

And, that’s all the news.  Being sick is even more boring than working on a book.

Everybody stay safe.

Books read in 2018

Just a note here:  If you are one of the legion of readers with fond memories of Kenneth Graeme’s Wind in the Willows, you owe it to yourself to read it’s sequel, The River Bank, by Kij Johnson.  Like Wind. . . I think it’s best when read aloud, but do read it.  It’s terrific.

6.  My Brother Michael, Mary Stewart (re-read) (e)
5.  The River Bank, Kij Johnson (read aloud with Steve)
4.  Still Life, Louise Penny
3.  Thick as Thieves, Megan Whalen Turner
2.  The Furthest Station, Ben Aaronovitch (e)
1.  Romancing the Werewolf, Gail Carriger (e)

Adulting

Welp, I wouldn’t’ve told you I’d gotten well enough to actually have a relapse, but there you are.  Stupid disease.

ANYhow, I’m shutting the place down.  No Confusion will be manufactured until I am well.  I am forthwith instituting a Schedule of re-reading old favorites when I’m awake, listening to classical music, and napping whenever I fall asleep.  Also, yes, very likely a doctor’s appointment, though ’twas a doctor’s office which wrought this in the first place.

Yes, the sound you hear is the deadline screaming.  We’ll cope with that later.

Everybody stay well.

Well. . .nuts

So I caught Steve’s cold, and it’s a doozy.  The Original Plan had been for me to go into town this morning to do grocery and banking things, then come home and write.

Clearly, I’m not going to town in this condition, but I’m still going to have to figure out how to write with a splitting headache, hacking cough, and muscle aches, because that can’t not happen.  I’m thinking the schedule for the day will be:  nap for an hour, work for twenty minutes, lather-rinse-repeat.  All the while staying hydrated.  Easy-peasy.

This is what comes of hanging out in cancer centers and doctor’s offices, I suppose.  And, as a Special Bonus, it probably also means that!

Sprite’s vet visit, twice re-scheduled, will be re-scheduled again.  I think this time I’ll just throw in the towel and Call Back When Things Are More Settled.

Real Life is so inconsiderate…

Everybody stay healthy.

 

So my fantasy becomes reality

Well, this is how it is.  I have a blog post I want to write about the error of confusing the artist with the work.  I’ve been putting it off for a few days now, and thought I’d do it today, but — press of work.  Which is to say, pay copy.  The blog post will have to wait a few more days.  Or weeks.

I also have about a dozen emails in the inbox that I ought to answer, but that’s not going to happen, either.  Or only in fits and starts.  (I’ve got something like 450 emails in my box; never did really recover on that front from being away at the end of September.  Possibly, I’ll just kill them all and start over.  It’s an attractive option, anyway.)

I do have a couple favors to ask of you before I slip back behind the curtain for a while.

  1.  If you’ve read Neogenesis, the twenty-first novel of the Liaden Universe® created by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, please consider leaving a reader review at Amazon, BN, Goodreads, or other places where readers hang out.
  2. If you want to talk about Neogenesis, there’s a spoiler thread — here.
  3. Degrees of Separation: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 27 is now available as an ebook from Amazon, BN, Kobo, iBooks, &c.  It is also available as a paper book from Amazon only.  Some folks are just settling back into Real Life and have missed hearing this.
  4. If you’ve read Degrees, please consider leaving a reader review at Amazon, BN, Goodreads, or other places where readers hang out.
  5. If you’re a Patreon subscriber, there’s a new podcast posted:  Steve reading “Cutting Corners.”  Have a listen.
  6. Also, if you are not a Patreon subscriber, but would like to hear Steve read “A Day at the Races,” here’s your link.

And that is all I have for the moment.

Everybody be good.  Call your mom, walk your dog, tell your bestie you love them.

Today’s blog post is brought to you by Simon and Garfunkel, “Flowers Never Bend With the Rain Fall.”  Here’s your link.  Enjoy.

I’ll be over here in the corner with my assistants, working.