Tag: chop wood carry water

Writing down and packing up

Tuesday. Sunny and cool. Trash and recycling have been taken up, though I haven’t gone out to bring the empty bin back into the garage yet.

Today’s writing was a little bit of a struggle, but I finally wrestled 1,050 new and on-topic words onto the page, bringing the WIP to 58,300ish total words.

I probably didn’t mention this triviality here, but a couple weeks ago, the silicon strap on my Garmin watch broke — by which I mean the floating loop fell apart, leaving about two inches of Free Silicone sticking out at an angle that caught on things and was a constant danger and aggravation.

Long story short, I went to Etsy and bought a new watch band — mesh, with a magnetic clasp (let it be known that I hated the band that came with, which was too bulky and I could either fasten it too loosely or too tightly, but not — yeah. Cue Goldilocks.)

My new watch band arrived yesterday and while it was nerve-wracking In The EXTREME to get it attached, that’s behind me now, and it is perfect. I actually forgot that I’m wearing a watch at all, my wrist isn’t bruised from a too-tight strap, nor is the watch spinning around and catching on things.

So, yay. I wish the loop had torn a year ago.

All that said, it’s time to find something for lunch, by which I probably mean a Chinese pancake, and then to putting away all the Stuff I had pulled out and into a pile for the teaching of my class.

What are you doing today?

Monday at last

Monday. Sunny and cool. Woke early and had a blueberry breakfast bar at the desk while I made notes Going Forward, read over and adjusted yesterday’s work, and wrote 920ish new words. The WIP now weighs in at 57,250ish.

I need to eat an early lunch so I can make PT on time and not be starving by the end of it. Chores to do when I come home.

News is that I do not have enough people signed up to make my class viable, so I’ll be pulling the plug on that, which is both good news and bad news. I’m going to have to sit down and figure out how-or-if I can do this with less than half the optimum number of participants, and if I can, I’ll try again next session.

How’s the week shaping up at your house?

Rainy Sunday

Sunday, though I’ve somehow gotten a day ahead of myself, and keep sliding into the belief that it’s Monday.

Rainy, chilly, dim, and just not terribly pleasant. It’s a good day to build and occupy a blanket fort, actually. I may see if I can work that in, after lunch.

One thousand eighty new words written this morning, after the cats buckled down and got to work. This brings the WIP to 56,330ish words, total.

I’ve got some banking, accounting, and other thrilling chores to finish here at the desk, but first, I should eat lunch.

Who else is for building a pillow fort?

Proceeding in a Tuesdayish Direction

Tuesday. Trash and recycling set out and collected. The recycling bin is back in the garage. Breakfast was leftover leftover soup. Lunch will be … something.

Eleven hundred new words today, bringing the WIP to something approaching 53,490 words.

I was craven yesterday and did not attempt the Anthropic mess, so I have something to look forward to.

Tonight is needlework, and I’ll have to stop at the grocery on my way home — or perhaps I’ll do that tomorrow, since I have to be out early to a doctor’s appointment, anyway.

It occurs to me that it might be beneficial to find if there’s a sauna someplace near at hand. It might help with the ongoing aches and pains. I should also try to locate a reputable massage therapist. This is not a new thought, but every time I have it, I get overwhelmed by the “reputable” part. Well.

Oh. And I really do need to get a flu shot.

The cats are giving me a little more freedom today, so I’m guessing whatever it was that concerned them yesterday has passed off, so that’s good.

How’s everybody doing today?

Cats inna meeting:

 

Saturday in retrospect

There had been a question about the differences between dragons.

Herewith, a link
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So, this morning’s work was heavy on research, naming sectors, and also clan houses, which are the wages of the speedy writing days when Past Me didn’t want to stop wiggling my fingers, so when the name of the sector wherein we would find the system occupied by the planet Delium, Past Me just typed HERE, and kept on going.  Did she care, I ask you, for the work and chaos she left for Future (now Present) Me?

She did not.

I’m also Very Sleepy, and am weighing the benefit of taking a nap instead of coping with lunch, either the prepping, or the eating of it.

It’s a lovely, coolish, breezy day. I have the sliders open in Steve’s office and I can hear the trees dancing…
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So, a short nap, followed by a blueberry smoothie. I’ll have to do a little better for the late meal.

Right now, though, I need to do some chores and pay the bills obscuring my desk, including the property tax, which didn’t go up nearly as much as I had expected it to do (this is not a complaint).
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Kind of a brief, messy day, but I’m done now. The bills are paid and waiting to go out in Tuesday’s mail, so there is that.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe.

I’ll check in tomorrow.

“Anything” is just a . . . suggestion

So, that’s 1,080ish new words this morning, for a WIP total of 52,570ish.

I may — that’s may — have figured out how to write two books at once, so I’ll be setting up the framework this afternoon, after I pay my tithe to the house.
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So, the cats are expecting a Chewy order, which will arrive via FedEx. While I was paying my tithe to the house, I happened to look out the window, and there was a FedEx truck in my driveway, which stayed there for, oh, four minutes? I went to another part of the house to get something, came back, and the truck was gone.

Well, I said, said I, noticing the lack of heavy box on the steps. I guess it’s in the (open) garage.

Only it wasn’t. That’s right! In a new Personal Best, FedEx not only failed to follow the long-filed instruction to leave packages in the garage, but! Failed to unload a package at all.

I? am actually Impressed.

I’ve been plodding along through the bookclub book — it’s interesting, but not a page-turner — and I just reached the part where Our Hero had realized that the actions he takes as an Official (in this case a high-level law enforcement admin) Actually Impacts people in addition to those who have fallen under his jurisdiction, and — this is the important part — that he, as a representative of The System, needed to do better. I salute Our Hero. Really, I do. And I wish that more people in positions of influence were not only able to have that insight, but gather the courage to act on it.

In other news, I think I have the method figured out for working on two writing projects at the same time. I think I’m going to be helped by the fact that the two projects are completely dissimilar. I guess We’ll See.

Taking a break now to do my duty to the cats and PT homework. Then! To the couch with me, notebook and pens in hand.
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. . . Dolly Parton and Tim Curry?

And if you lie, you will lose it

This morning’s cat census here

Tuesday. Sunny and already warm. Trash and recycling at the curb patiently awaiting the advent of the trash truck.

Back with Jethri today and writing the rest of a sticky scene. It still needs work, but, hey! First Draft, amirite? The WIP now stands at 51,490ish total words. Next scene, tomorrow, already sketched in on the pad, and ought to be more fun.  For writer values of “fun.”

I have, I think, figured out what to do with the character from Chicago, and her friends, too. Now, all I have to do is find time and energy to do it. I know — some of us wish we had such problems.

This morning, I purchased a ticket to view Coyote vs ACME on Thursday, September 3, which makes next week Media Rich, as I’m also seeing a play on Sunday.

Social butterfly, ayuh.

Crafts, this evening, and before that I have chores, correspondence, and lunch to cope with.

So! What’s on your schedule today?
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So. . .somebody just stole my recycling.

I mean, not the mixed recycling that is in the covered wheeled bin, but the broken down cardboard boxes that were in the open recycling box. I s’pose somebody needed cardboard?

I wouldn’t — well, I don’t — care, particularly, except that I’m in a very wobbly state where I’m kind of second- and third-guessing everything, and when I looked out the window, and saw the bin was empty, while the rest of the trash was still where I’d put it, and the wheeled bin was still upright and had its lid down — I thought that maybe I’d been inattentive enough to have put out an empty bin. Which is nonsense; getting that bin out is non-trivial, and I clearly remembered that there had been cardboard in the damned thing when I dragged it out to the curb earlier.

Sigh.

Speaking of which, I just read some advice in an advice book on how to remember if you’ve done one of those things that you’ve been doing daily for decades, today, and the advice was to PAY ATTENTION.  Which, while reasonable, isn’t, oh, I dunno, helpful.

Anyhow — off to do my chores.

Today’s blog post title courtesy of Eric Clapton, “It’s in the Way That You Use It”

 

Dance with me, I want to be your partner

How does that dance go? One step forward, two steps back?

Today’s writing session saw me delete one of the two scenes I wrote yesterday in favor of a better scene that I will write, um . . . *squints* probably Monday? Because! Today’s writing session also saw me making Meticulous, Step-by-step Notes for the next five scenes. No, I don’t know how many words that will be.

The WIP currently stands at 49,370ish words.

And I really do need to go to the grocery store.

After lunch.

How’s your day progressing?
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Back from the store. Groceries put away. Strawberries over ice cream et. Desk cleared. Duty to the cats dispatched. Got some pots ‘n pans to wash, after which it’ll be Coon Cat Happy Hour, and I’ll be pouring a glass of wine and finding someplace comfy to sit and read.

Everybody have a good evening. I’ll check back in tomorrow.

Today’s blog post title brought to you by Orleans, “Dance With Me,” recorded in a Simpler Time.

Friday’s cat

This morning’s editor was paws-on:

Friday. Sunny, breezy and cool as I type here in Steve’s office, both sliders open to the day, and sleeping cats all around me.

Sarah has been and gone, leaving a clean house behind her.

I’ve written about 1,150 new words, but stalled because I have to Figure Something Out. The WIP right now stands a bare 170 words from 50,000. Well. Maybe I’ll Figure It Out and not only finish the scene, but cross over into Half Done, Optimists Edition.

For right now, and what will be a good assist in the Figuring Out Department, I need to put the house back together and decide whether or not I want to go to the grocery store. Actually, I don’t have to figure that out — I don’t want to go to the grocery store. What I have to decide is do I need to go to the grocery store.

First thing, though — put the house back together.

So. Are you going to the grocery store today?

Where were we?

Earlier today:

To the best of my knowledge, it’s Thursday.

It is definitely sunny and breezy. The weatherbeans are calling for warmer than it has been, but not Stoopid Hot. Windows and sliders are open at the moment, but the pest control guy is due in an hour, so I’d best close up before he gets here.

Only about 820 new words today, finishing out the scene I was working on yesterday. Did some tweaking, which lost me some words, there, but that’s writing for you. The WIP currently weighs in at 48,680ish words, and 207 manuscript pages. Or, short form: progress is still progressing. Jethri’s got a meeting with the Combine commissioners coming up, and there’s some other business elsewhere that needs to be checked in with, so I’ll just be puttering around the house, and letting the backbrain work.

I ordered in a drag-behind cart that goes up and down stairs! It’s supposed to be delivered today, and I’m excited. Also, go! me! for thinking ahead of time about how I really don’t want to do my back the favor of carrying my Stuff to class in a bag over my shoulder.

I have a ticket for Unabashedly at the Opera House on August 30, but I haven’t yet been able to nail down tickets for Coyote v. Acme. I also need to decide if I actually want to buy the Hadestown DVD. In theory, I should be throwing/giving Stuff away, not acquiring more. Well. Maybe I ought to make sure that the DVD player still works before I get out the credit card. There’s a plan.

So! What do you have to decide, today?
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My teaching cart arrived, and has been constructed (go! me!) I am now officially ready to rock ‘n roll.