Eight Weeks to a New Foot – Page 2

Sufficient unto the day are the submissions thereof

So, these things happened today:

Trader’s Leap, the twenty-third novel of the Liaden Universe® co-created by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, has been turned in to Madame the Publisher at Baen. . . .Leap weighs in at about 122,000 words and concerns itself with the doings aboard Dutiful Passage. The action in . . .Leap happens concurrently with the action in Accepting the Lance (due out in December). The action happens so concurrently, in fact, that for most of last year, . . .Lance and . . .Leap were thought by their fond authors to be one novel. No publication date as yet. If I were guessing, which you’d think I’d know better than by this point in my life, I’d say look for it in bookstores late in 2020.
“A Visit to the Galaxy Ballroom,” a short story commission by Baen.com in support of the publication of Accepting the Lance, has also been turned in. Look for it on the front page of Baen.com in mid-November. The story will be free for everyone to read.

I still have one more professional commitment to fulfill, which it would soothe me to have it turned in before I hit Foot Surgery Day on October 18. It’s not technically due ’til the end of November, but, since the future is an Uncharted Country, I’d like to get it off the decks.

I also need clear the detritus of Having Written A Novel from my desk and its immediate surrounds, clear away the stack of administrivia that’s been waiting for attention, and make some more arrangements for my convalescence. My greatest fear for the recuperation period is that I will succumb to depression brought on by boredom and inactivity. I mean, you wouldn’t think I’d be bored, given that mountain of books over there that I call my TBR pile, but I’m pretty much used to getting up, getting around, and getting out. Also, I’m Particularly Unskilled at Just Sit There and Rest™.

Well. Practice makes perfect.

We have made some efforts to make the Command Chair interesting. Steve has very kindly put a birdfeeder outside of the Command Window, which looks over the busy street at the front of the house. The chair also faces the Big Screen, so I’ll be able to have waterfalls and fireplaces on view, not to mention — hey, let’s get crazy! — actual movies. And, yanno, I do have a laptop, so I won’t be cut off from civilization entirely.

So, anyway, that’s what’s going on at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory on the first of October.

What’s going forward at your house?

And I’m known by the name of Old Johnny Dhu

Yesterday arrived cool and cloudy. We turned off the heat pumps and opened all the windows that will open and it was just…glorious.

Today is more of the same, with a tad more sun, and the windows in my office, by far the most window-rich room in the house, are open and the curtains are belling in the soft breeze. If I hadn’t seen Maine do this before, I’d be declaring to y’all that Fall Has Arrived. As it is, I’ll just mention that this is a welcome break, and that I’ll be working in the comfy chair in the window today.

For those following the saga of the Blue Scooter, the new wheel arrived yesterday. Happen it will be changed in for the leaky wheel today, depending on Steve’s schedule, and I’ll be able to start with some practice, RSN. I’ll also need to call the War Engineer, Builder of the Goblin Room, to stop by and noodle me up a ramp, or a pulley system or something so I can get in the front door when I come home from surgery.

This week coming, I have an appointment with the surgeon, and also with the nice ladies who will be doing the housecleaning while I’m off my feet, so they can see exactly what they’ll be getting into.

Also — I know you’ve all marked your calendars and have been planning for this event all year — next Sunday is Scrabble’s 17th birthday (observed).

As above, work continues on the WIP, which very nearly had a title last week, but…no. Sigh.

And, that? Is what’s going on here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory — business as usual: calm on the surface and frantically busy beneath.

Hope all of you living in the northern hemisphere are enjoying the drawing down of summer, such as it may or may not be, and also a peaceful weekend.

Today’s blog title comes to you from Gaelic Storm. Here’s your link.

When last we saw our intrepid heroine. . .

. . .she was waiting for the delivery of her Command Chair.

The chair arrived just past 10 am on Wednesday, which you can’t get much more “between 8 am and noon” than that. It was promptly tested by human and cat — Trooper taking the lead, as he so often does. There’s a little futzing to be done with the computer table, pretty much we’re set there.

After the chair delivery on Wednesday, Steve and I went to Kennebec Pharmacy and Home Care in Augusta to view knee scooters and other necessary items. There were no scooters on the floor, nor could we view one. We were told by the breezy clerk that scooters are very popular, that no, there wasn’t one on the floor, that all the scooters were all the same, and that, when someone came in who wanted to rent a scooter (at $120/month, charged by the full month), the guy in the warehouse would put one together and bring it over. We were also told that Medicare would not cover the scooter rental — which was Actually Good to learn.

Speaking as someone who has managed to arrive at this point in her life without having to interact much with the medical service establishment, I wish that the customer service people would not Just Breeze Through Things, like we’ve all done this before, and not meet newbie questions with impatience or non-answers. From my perspective, it would make a difficult situation a little less fraught. I realize that it’s no one’s job to make my life easier or less fraught, but, still…

Anyhow, I was — how to say this gently? — NOT IMPRESSED with the cavalier supposed customer service, so Steve and I left. On the way home, we stopped at BagelMainea for — bagels! Fifteen bagels. I feel wealthy. And very glad to have a freezer.

We also stopped at Home Depot and bought one of the two remaining canopies to install on our deck. When our neighbors decided to build an addition to their house, they chopped down their Big Tree, which coincidentally shaded our deck. Without the tree, it was too hot to sit on the deck many days, and the canopy is the solution to that problem.

After we got home, and, since Medicare won’t pay to rent a knee scooter, I decided to please myself, and purchased a KneeRover Quad All-Terrain, which will be here at the middle of next week, giving me lots of time to become proficient in its use.

Yesterday, Steve and I (with Scrabble’s supervision) erected the canopy, tested it and found it good. Today, it is of course, raining, but that’s OK, too. After a ‘way too wet spring, we’ve been having a too-dry summer, so, Rain Good.

As reported elsewhere, I have been going through the manuscript line-by-line and as soon as I post this blog entry, I’ll get back with that.

Y’all have a good weekend.