Everybody talks about the weather – Page 5

In which the writers goof off

So, yesterday. . .was too nice a day to stay inside and adult, so we decided to play hookey. It was, mind you, a brisk and breezy day, with Interesting Clouds against an azure sky. It was, in fact, much too breezy to go to the ocean and be in any way comfortable, so we cleverly went to Greenville.

Which is situated on the banks of an inland sea known as Moosehead Lake.

Duh.

It was 60F/16C when we left home, with a pleasant breeze, the aforementioned Interesting, and blue! sky.

At Greenville, it was 46F/8C with a strong breeze whipping directly off the water and into your face — yeah, yours, too.

Also? The town was, for our intent, at least, Not Open. Tomorrow, said the guy at the outfitter/internet cafe we stopped at, hoping for, yanno, a cafe — tomorrow, the place would be hoppin’. Well, one hopes so, for the sake of the town.

For our ownselves, We’d missed Auntie M’s, where we had more-or-less planned to lunch, by 20 minutes, the shoreside restaurant had, by the looks of it burned out over the winter, we did not wish to feast upon Chester-fried chicken in the car, so lunch was tuna salad in those weird little squishy white-bread finger rolls that Mainers do so love out of the Indian Hill Hannaford, which, alone in all of Greenville, was doing a booming business.

Allow me just to say here that fleece is a marvelous invention, and I don’t know what we ever did without it.

We decided against shopping at the Indian Hill Trading post, adjacent to the Hannaford, and, after our sandwiches were done, motored on home through Shirley, and Monson, and Guilford, and all, returning at last to the Metropolis of Waterville, where we took on groceries and stopped at the post office.

Speaking of the post office! If Candace reads here (and evidence indicates that she must), In the Teeth of Evidence, and Hangman’s Holiday arrived yesterday. Thank you very much.

We finished up the day of non-adulting by (me) reading for a couple hours, and (Steve) watching the ball game on the computer, after which we dined on grilled cheese and minute steak sandwiches, and read Chapter 12 of Visitor to each other (Chapter 12’s kinda long, so I read +/- half and Steve read the rest).

This morning, we went to gym, and I made pork-and-rice casserole for lunch, improvising! cream-of-something soup, of which we had none, by stirring some warm broth into about a cup of sour cream and pouring that over the pork chops. Worked fine.

Now, it’s time to get to work, by which I mean getting Hazenthull into trouble. When I mentioned to Steve that this was today’s goal, he said, “Well, that should be easy,” so, yanno, time to find out if it is.

Hope everyone is having a lovely Friday and that there’s a day — or at least an hour or two — of not-adulting scheduled for the coming weekend.

Captain Jack was a young man, when he went to sea

Well, we were going to go to the ocean today, but — rain. Also, exhausted. Maybe Thursday.

In the meanwhile, I do believe that all the train tickets and motel rooms have been reserved for the Big Northern Kingdom Alliance of Equals Book Tour. Details here.

Steve is in the Comfy Chair, reading The Gathering Edge, ably assisted by Belle. I have Trooper and Scrabble assisting with travel arrangements in my office. Warrior Princess Jasmine Sprite, Scourge of Field Mice, Suzerain of Toys, and Mistress of the String is, I believe, downstairs in her Princess Tower.

After lunch I’ll sit down with Book the Next (previously Fourth of Five), now that all of the various lines are sorted to my satisfaction. There’s maybe 5,000-ish words that might belong in Five of Five, but I’m going to keep them, until I’m surer of directions. In Theory, Next is due to Madame on August 15, which means I have most of June, and most of July before me. August is pretty much cut up with traveling There and Back Again, with a WorldCon in the middle. Well. We’ll see how matters progress over the next four weeks.

And, apropos of nothing other than my magpie mind, I need to find a ribbon or a piece of leather cord. At BaltiCon, a friend gave me a tile necklace that has a graphic of a dragon on one side, and, on the obverse, my favorite side, the Shakespeare quote, “Come not between the dragon and his wrath.” However, it’s only strung on a piece of green bakery twine, which you just know is gonna break, and I won’t know it, and I’ll lose the tile.

adds ribbon to list

So! back to the word factory.

Progress on Book the Next
37431 / 100000 (37.43%)

“So he’s been downgraded from menace to joke?”

Today’s blog post comes from one of songs that was the inspiration for Carousel Seas, “Captain Jack and the Mermaid.” Here’s your link.

Part of the water garden at McKelden Plaza, Light Street, Baltimore

In which there is weather

Well. . .nuts.

It snowed on the overnight — wet, gloppy snow, which then changed to driving sleet-and-rain, the so-beloved Wintery Mix. We woke up, early, because Tai Chi class on Wednesday, to a driving rain. The surface of the driveway was a kind of mud slurry, iced with brittle snow, and when the town plow went by, the blade was pushing a wave that would have been credible off of The Big Island.

Since I don’t believe in winter road surfing, I decided to give Tai Chi a miss and practice my small dance here at home.

However, today is also Hospital Day, so, after breakfast, when the rain stopped, I again surveyed the situation.

Long story short, the car is presently stuck in the mud. This situation will rectify itself overnight, when it’s supposed to get cold again, but for right now…the writer is in.

The cats have declared a Snow Day and are lobbying hard for everybody to go back to bed. Steve is currently under assault from Belle and Scrabble, who are practicing the deadly Synchronized Snoring.

Speaking of Belle, last night’s dream (she was sleeping on my stomach for a while), concerned a Big Jumble of people and furniture; if I had to guess, I’d say that we were living in shared housing of some kind, and our apartment/rooms were going to be painted, so we had to move all our stuff to a holding area. In the process of doing that, and relocating our four cats, I discovered in our space, a plush white cat with grey cloud markings, black tips on her ears, and a little grey mustache perfectly placed under her pink nose. She was very friendly, and obviously “knew” me. I was confused, and texted Steve, “Do we have FIVE cats?” Very vivid, especially the feeling that the cat knew me.

Well.

Here’s the quality of help I currently have to call on in my office:

If there’s a God in heaven, He’s got a silver thunderbird

When last we saw Our Heroine, she was sitting down on the couch in the Confusion Factory living room, a large orange cat on her lap, vibrating, and her ereader open to Conflict of Honors.

Outside, it was a beautiful, sunny, cold Maine day, and the across-the-street neighbor had decided to trim up her driveway, which is almost directly across from our driveway. She was using an outsize pickup truck fitted with a plow. As one does, and it must be said that she was not expert, but you don’t have to be expert in Maine to use your own private pickup truck in your own private driveway to do whatever you want to do with either.

Our Heroine read one page, two pages, three. . .

And from outside there came an enormous cacophony, metal screaming and a truck engine revving and tires skidding on snow.

Steve got to the kitchen door first.

“She hit your car!”

The next thing Our Heroine knew was that she was in the driveway, boots on, coat unzipped, looking at the smashed remains of Kineo the Wonder Subaru.

We shall pass lightly over the next few hours, while we waited for the Winslow policeman to arrive and file the accident report, and the several phone conversations with our insurance company, and come to rest in the early morning of Martin Luther King Day (in America), where Our Heroine has already called Charlie’s Collision Center (Certified Subaru Repair Facility) and achieved a promise from one Doug to send a tow truck.

It is my belief that Kineo is totaled. I am not a mechanic. Certainly, one is in receipt of a Very Strong Hint from our insurance company that so new a car ought not to be totaled. However, I can see a bent frame, and the fact that the radiator has been pushed back into the engine, kicked to the right, and down. We shall see what Charlie’s Collision says.

In the meanwhile, since I’m going through my insurance company, and we do not have rental car on our insurance, they’ve been steadfast in saying that they cannot give us a rental car. Fair enough. I will make another call this morning to find if, since this bill will eventually go to the plow truck driver’s insurance company, if I cannot make arrangements to get a rental and have them reimburse me.

In other news, Steve has a really nasty cold. . .and it’s snowing.

Today’s blog title brought to you by Marc Cohn, “Silver Thunderbird.” Here’s your link.

For the Facebook peeps, a picture of Sprite, being elegant.

It would just be nice if we could all be here, watching King Kong tonight

Yesterday, we took a Writers Half Day, knocking off for a late Chinese lunch, followed by a couple games of Scrabble.

Today, given the news that Winter, is, indeed and at last, coming to Central Maine, includes a trip to town to pick up necessities that we would have gotten on our next Regularly Scheduled Trip to Town, early next week, however! That is now inked in as a Storm Day.

This is what the next few days look like, here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory:

Winter is set to arrive in stages, starting tonight with a session of freezing rain, moving into Sunday with 1-3 inches of snow and ice expected. We get a breather Sunday night into Monday, except for temps ‘waaaaaay lower than we’ve been used to even on the overnights thus far, then Tuesday? Stuff gets real.

Tuesday Watching a potential winter storm. Snow during the morning will become a mix of wintry precipitation during the afternoon. High 19F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 100%. 5 to 8 inches of snow and ice expected.

Tuesday Night A wintry mix early will taper to a few snow showers late. Low 19F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 70%. Snow and ice accumulations less than one inch.

Wednesday will be calm, with a little freezing rain on the overnight to keep our hand in.

On the one hand, 60F/16C on December 25 in Central Maine is Just Wrong.

On the gripping hand, I was enjoying this shovel-free time.

What’s the weather look like at your house?

Today’s blog post is brought to you by Rhoderic Land: “King Kong Tonight.” Here’s your link.

It’s got 8 cylinders; uses ’em all; and an overdrive that just won’t stall

It snowed overnight, wet, sticky stuff that looked pretty on the trees; maybe an inch, all around. It’s mostly out of the trees and off the road, now, though there’s still some on the grass.

Around mid-morning, we received the propane truck. We had expected the propane truck last week, but paperwork in the office is backed up to the point that the delivery guy still thought he’d be topping off a 50 gallon tank, rather than totally filling two 120-gallon (for the purposes of polite conversation, these are understood to be 100-gallon) tanks. He was able to do some monkeyshines with his truck computer so that he could complete the delivery, and we now have two hundred gallons of propane in the tanks and ready for the generator to draw on.

So that would be everything done except paying the bills.

This morning I also fulfilled a long-time dream. I placed a stick-up spot-light inside my side of the shared bureau and? I can see my socks and my tshirts. Yes! It is no longer a pitch-black cavern in there, but a delightful little oasis of light, which I control with the tap of a finger.

*so happy*

And? I have more happiness in my future, because I bought a whole bag of these little stick-up lights, and they are destined for the insides of cupboards and closets to the farthest, darkest corner of the Confusion Factory.

Let there be light, indeed.

In news that may be of more interest to the wider community, the book description for Alliance of Equals has appeared on its Amazon catalog page. Be aware that the description may be considered to contain spoilers, and, also, that the hardcover edition of the novel will not be published until July 5, 2016 (count backwards 60-90 days to calculate the possible appearance of the eArc edition).

Also, work continues on The Gathering Edge. It currently stands at a smudge over 53,000 words. We’re shooting, as we always do, for 100,000 words. Here, have a snippet to prove we’re working:

“You’ve asked me to develop new outlets, negotiate partnerships, build viable routes, and earn us a profit! Tell me, denubia — what is it that you think a master trader does?”

Today’s blog post title brought to you by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, “Hot Rod Lincoln.” Here’s your link.

In which progress progresses

So, yesterday. . .

I had some bagels from the bakery down on Bay Street. Let me just say. . .Worst. Bagel. EVER. Steve asked me what was wrong with it. I said, “Christian bagel.” Seriously, bagels shouldn’t crumb like bread. Also? Ideally, they should taste like. . .bagels.

Anyhow, I gave Steve a ten dollar bill and asked him to please stop at Bagel Mania on his way home from getting his car’s oil changed and tires rotated to buy me some REAL bagels.

Ten bucks buys 15 bagels from Bagel Mania, most of which are now residing in the freezer, but of course I held some out for Immediate Consumption, and had one for breakfast this morning. Mmmmm, bagel.

After the Great Bagel Influx, and lunch, we went down to the contractor’s office, credit card in hand, and put half down on the generator. It has to be ordered in, so the installation date at this point is the ever-popular “couple of weeks.” Part of today’s excitement will be to call the propane company and get ourselves on their radar.

Then we went for a Plot Drive, up and aroundish, through Athens, Harmony, Canaan, and suchlike. Back home, I discovered Yet Another communication from the ACA, instructing me to immediately do something that it was impossible to do, even though meticulous following of their directions did not produce the described result (Honest to ghu, the ACA has gotten me to the point that I doubt my own sanity. I had Steve come into my office to read and follow the instructions, and — they didn’t work for him, either. What a relief.)

After that, we threw in the towel and watched Big Hero 6. The coon cats are big Baymax fans, while Scrabble’s hero is GoGo.

Today started with a phone call to the ACA to be Perfectly Sure that the urgent email could be ignored. Then, I called the local health insurance provider and had them go through my regular meds, and. . .today I will regretfully be moving my prescriptions to Hannaford, where the cost for all three will be $0, as opposed to $110.

I’m really ambivalent about this; I’ve been with CVS since we moved to Waterville — twenty years and counting — but money talks.

And I’m really ambivalent about that.

For those who may have an interest, the Seventh and Last Week of the Do It Like A Delm Challenge began yesterday! We have three entrants so far, but we’re waiting to see yours!

Here’s a link to the rules.

Here’s a link to this week’s entries thus far.

Speaking of Doing It Like A Delm, Offworld Designs is (again) taking orders for Liaden Universe® t-shirts, polos, and long-sleeve denim. In addition to looking positively delm-like on you, these shirts make fine presents. I hear there’s a Big, Present-Giving Holiday coming up in a few months — and here’s the thing you need to pay attention to: OffWorld Designs makes embroiders and screenprint these to order. That means that they wait until they have a Big Pile of orders before doing the printing and embroidery. So you want to order early (and often) if you want to be sure to have gifts for Christmas.

Here’s your link to Offworld Designs Liaden Universe® infopage. NOTE: you need to click the thumbnails for pricing and product details.

In Weather News, we here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory are at about a week of rain, starting this afternoon, so if I want to go into town, I’d better get moving.

Here, have a picture of Trooper waiting for the rain.

Trooper's not worried about no stinkin' rain. — Trooper’s not worried about no stinkin’ rain.

Words could never explain, I just wish it would rain

So, let’s see. . .

It’s hot, for Maine values of hot, and it’s gonna get hotter. Next week, in fact, is looking to be a scorcher from edge to edge. Well. . .it is August.

Let’s see, today started with the arrival in the mail of the eroyalty checks. Steve and I will therefore be having a week at the ocean, for a much-needed ohmighodwillthisyearjustSTOPalready break. We have Planned this excursion so that we will have two viewings of fireworks over the sea. Clever, no?

Today also encompassed Cleaning, which meant a strategic deployment of the Cat Eating Machine, which did not find favor with the Feline Contingent, as Per Usual, though they seem to have forgiven me, now. I suspect it may be too hot for even a cat to hold a grudge.

I’m taking a blog-writing break from cleaning off my desk, which has become cluttered with notes that had been sitting on the kitchen table, Awaiting Attention. Sigh. We really need a House Desk. And a House Secretary, why not, while we’re at it.

In other news, the Alien Artifacts and Were anthology Kickstarter campaign has passed the $9,000 mark, which means that! Two new anchor authors have been added: C.S. Friedman, and David Farland/Dave Wolverton.

Though the goal of this campaign is $10,000; I would just like to point out a stretch goal to those who may be on the fence. If funding reaches $15,000? All the authors in both anthologies will receive a penny a word raise! Lest you scoff at the power of a mere penny — for a 5,000 word story, that’s an extra $50, which is more than enough to buy a lobster dinner where I live.

Here’s the link to the Alien Artifacts/Were Kickstarter.

Also! Monday, August 17 — that’s the day after tomorrow! — we will begin receiving and posting your photographs in the Do It Like a Delm challenge. Rules and general information may be found at this link.

Today’s blog title brought to you by The Temptations, “I Wish It Would Rain.”

And — there are three cats in my office. Photographic proof:

He walked up to me and he asked me if I wanted to dance

Well, rats.

I had a dental appointment this morning, which I wasn’t exactly looking forward to, being the fan that I am, though I was sorta looking forward to this afternoon, if you take my meaning. Unfortunately, the dentist’s office called at 8:30 with the news that my hygienist was out sick and could I reschedule? In fact! the receptionist said, someone had just cancelled, and she could fit me into that slot — would that be OK? I said sure, thinking the cancellation would be sometime this week, rather than. . .

September 29.

Sigh.

Turns out Belle’s a Crystals fan. Who knew?

In World News, we are receiving reports that the Liaden Universe® shirts are arriving at their Forever Homes. If your hasn’t arrived yet, watch the skies.

In the interests of Compleat and Accurate Reportage in re ebookery, I must say that Smashwords has surprised me. I received notice yesterday that the epub of Writing Neep that I created at D2D and then submitted to Smashwords, has been approved for their premium catalog. This despite the lack of the Magic Words. This is interesting. Sadly, since it’s already in distribution through D2D, I had to take it off sale, to avoid duplication.

Today’s going to be a hot one here in East Winslow, the first in a series of progressively hotter days. Well, it is summer; I guess we’ll give it a couple high-80s/low-90s days. The cats are already practicing being melted, and, honestly, I should get on with chores before I melt, though the dental cancellation threw me off.

Well, one more cup of coffee, and — onward!

Belle taking her turn communing with the treasures

Today’s blog post brought to you by The Crystals, at Belle’s request: Then He Kissed Me. Here’s your link.

Updates and Appeals

Asking favors first:

1. If you’re one of those speed-readin’ ebook-buyin’ folks, who have already purchased and devoured A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume III, please consider writing a reader review at Goodreads, BN, Amazon, Baen, or the site of your choice. Early reader reviews help potential readers/buyers of the paper edition, and those who may be on the fence about purchasing the e-edition to make up their minds. Thank you for your help.

2. In case, you missed yesterday’s post, the deadline for order Tree-and-Dragon shirts is fast approaching. Off-World Designs will be screenprinting and embroidering the order they have in hand by the end of next week, at which time, they’ll start “saving up” orders until they have enough to make up a new batch. Here’s your link to the Korval items at Offworld Design. NOTE: This link takes you to a search page. In order to learn more about each shirt, and/or to order, you have to click on the shirt of your dreams; this action will take you to a detail page.

3. I recently did an interview on behalf of A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume III, for the Baen Free Radio Hour. (In case you missed it, here’s the link.) This, oh, I don’t know — the dozenth? — podcast we/me/he have done, and we’re always pleased to be asked. But! We’re soliciting listener feedback. Are these presentations useful/entertaining for you? What do you listen for? What background information would you like to hear more about/less about? And the ever-popular etcetera.

So endeth the appeals.

* * *

Updatery. . .

Let’s see: Steve got home late enough on Thursday that by the time the pizza was gone, and the bottle empty, it was Friday. The cats are re-sorting themselves in order to provide coverage for two humans, and I’m feeling a little less under pressure to be All Things to All Coon Cats. Scrabble, of course, has long held the belief that I can take care of myself, with a little gentle poking from time to time; her primary mission is Steve, and she’s now back on the job full-time.

The preordered Constellations destined to be signed by us and then sent on to Uncle Hugo’s to be mailed, which were supposed to have arrived earlier in the week. . .have not yet arrived. There seems to be some confusion about Just When they will arrive; more news, perhaps, on Monday.

The result of my last visit to the vampyres has been read, and my thyroid medicine has thereby been adjusted upward another smidge, with a third blood test to scrutinize the serum levels in six weeks. Here’s the thing, though: the thyroid numbers themselves were normal, which they have been, since forever; but the numbers indicating how much hormone the pituitary gland is having to push out in order to make the thyroid do its thing is still elevated; the increase in meds is to try to take some of the pressure off of the pituitary.

What else?

My ribs still hurt, sigh, though the knee hardly hurts at all; and! it’s rainy and cool here in beautiful Central Maine, with thunderstorms due to start rolling in around 1:00. Tomorrow, the weatherbeans say the temperatures will leap back into the mid-to-high 80s(F/29C), so I’ll just revel in 69F/21C today, thanks.

In other news, I have a whole stack of dance videos here, and I’m thinking maybe I’ll just lay on the couch and watch other people exercise while I listen to the rain. That’s a good use of a rainy Saturday, ain’t it?

Everybody have a good weekend.

Oh! Steve brought me flowers yesterday. Aren’t they pretty?

Red vase with flower. Photo by Sharon Lee