Tag: coon cat logic

Anything can happen day

What went before: Wednesday. Sunny and cold. Snowed a couple in on the overnight and today the beans are calling for temps near 50F.

My lap is Cat Central at the moment with Tali and Firefly, bumping, purring, prancing, and putting my tea in peril.

The plan for today is to write, write the small breaks for chores and meals. I really really want to get this book done.

What’s everybody doing today?

Dictated with some difficulty to my phone
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Firefly, Queen of the Toys

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I have Done Work. I’m not how much work, because I am now entering the squishy bit of the narrative, where I was just writing stuff down to hit a stopping point.

Tomorrow, I think I need to go back and mumblemumble, which will in theory help me to see the firm ground to the Real The End.

In the meantime, Steve’s computer is upgrading to COSMIC DESKTOP, which is reported less quarrelsome than GNOME. Not that I’ve noticed GNOME being particularly quarrelsome, but I’m not a developer or a programmer, and System 76 does all the quarreling on their side of the transaction before ever it gets to me.

The cats are politely rampaging all over my office, in a gentle attempt to point out that it is Happy Hour.

Spoiler: It is not.

God She knows how we’re going to weather the time change. P’rhaps I’ll lock myself in the basement at 4 pm.

And so glad to hear, as I emerge from a day of staring at words, that congress doesn’t care to stop the little man from burning the earth. So I guess that’s fine, then.

Sigh.

Everybody stay safe. I’ll check in tomorrow.

I hate this timeline.
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Oh, dear. So not a fan of COSMIC, which has sorted my desktop files into a configuration that possibly makes sense to it, but does not make sense to me, and — I can’t reorder them. This is not only Not Cool, but it’s actively upsetting. I need to have the files in a Certain Place that makes sense to me.

Sigh.

Also, I lost my cool wallpaper, which is a shame, but not fatal.

Have written to System76 Support. They’re gonna love me, over at Support.

Same as it ever was…

Saturday. The almost-full moon is casting tree-shadows over the snow in the Long Back Yard.

I wrote new words today! And did actual Brain Work on the WIP. And changed the bed, and did a load of laundry, and one’s duty the cats; made lunch and was able to eat it, after.

Yes, we have reached the part of the whole pain thing where — POOF! All gone. Just joking. You may now carry on with your life until I decide to randomly take five freaking days and fill them with pain and despair.

Sigh.

The cats were very happy that I joined them in Steve’s office to work today. It really is the preferred space for serious endeavors, though the comfy chair in my office is, of course, very nice.

I made the Executive Decision to join Cook Unity, and have ordered in four meals, which will be delivered on Friday. This means I am guaranteed to have four (hopefully) good meals to eat, and will take the whole Cooking Angst off of my Angst Plate, which is currently overfull with Deadline Angst. I’m viewing this as a short-term thing to lower the overall anxiety in the household. Since they say I can cancel or put it on hold at my discretion, as soon as the book’s turned in, I’ll be doing that. Yes, I need Staff. Also, probably, a keeper.

Looking forward to next week — we have Rookie’s second birthday on Monday, March 2. All of Tuesday is reserved for errands, with needlework in the evening. Wednesday, Thursday, and most of Friday I am Free to Write, and on Saturday?

I’m going to a magic show.

So, I’m really, yanno, happy, that my back has decided to return to normal.

Yes, I’ve seen the news.

How’s everybody doing?

Oh.  Here’s a picture of Rook helping me make the bed.

The marvel is not how well the bear dances . . .

What went before: Wednesday. Snowing and partly sunny.

Despite the distress it will of course cause his fandom, I am forced to report that Rookie the Cookie is a Schmuck. Or possibly only a Jerk. He’s been knocking stuff off the shelves in the Tech Room — notably, bottles of liquid toner, which apparently make a lovely thud-SMACK sound when they land (honestly, it’s a very distinctive sound; I can recognize a toner bottle hitting the floor from two rooms away). I expect he doesn’t really know that I can’t easily pick the damn’ things up right now, but — aargh. Get a cat, they said, they’ll be fun. Get a Maine Coon Cat, they said. They’re very interested in their people and like to engage.

In other news, despite having felt somewhat better last night, I’m back to Square One (minus the THC) this morning. It occurs to me that I better line up a ride to my appointment at Thayer tomorrow afternoon, which — aargh x 2. I hate bothering people to do stoopid stuff for me.

I’ve written to my PCP regarding pain management — the idea being that, going in the front door with back pain (yes, I’m doing my PT homework) needs to be supported by another approach, because even my therapist said that this will keep happening, only as my core gets stronger, an episode will last … less long. What I want, of course, is The Grail: something that will kill the pain, or get it down to manageable levels, and neither make me sick or fuzz me out, so I can write. And so I’m not a danger to myself or to the cats. That’s important, too. As is eating. It’s ridiculously hard to eat when you’re in pain.

The cats are taking good care of me — well. Firefly and Tali are checking in regularly to administer lap-sits and purr therapy.

Rookie’s knocking shit off the shelves in the Tech Room.

In addition to pain management brainstorm, I arrived at the opinion that I should also figure out ways to work even when I’m feeling this bad. So! I have moved Writing Operations to the comfy chair in my office (which has been Back Pain Central), rigged up the laptop with my favorite keyboard, and brought the WIP, and the portable hard drive here, too. So, hopefully, I’ll be able to continue with fixing stuff that’s already been written, and that this episode of painful nonsense will vacate before I realio, trulio need to start producing New! Copy!

So, that’s the somewhat muddled news from the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

How’s everyone doing?
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So, that was no fun at all.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself but I may have gotten around the Horn. Of course, I’m shaky because I haven’t eaten anything for 3 days except peanut butter crackers (Note to self:  Buy peanut butter crackers; the damn things are lifesavers.) to buffer the meds.

I do have a ride lined up for my appointment this afternoon, so that’s good, and my intention is to actually have breakfast and then come back to the comfy chair, do some work on the WIP, and not push things. And eat snacks. What a time to be out of hummus. Bad planning, past me.

Firefly is on my lap and purring.

I’m almost done my Russian Caravan tea Christmas present (Note to self: buy more Russian Caravan tea).

And that’s that’s the fascinating Thursday report from the cat farm and confusion factory.

Dictated to my phone.
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Did some work on the WIP, actually ate food. Steve Symonds gave me a ride to and from the hospital for my test, so that’s taken care of. Managed to get the cat fountains changed out, which has been really bothering me. I’m such a bad cat mom. Talked to the accountant, and — ouch. Not unexpected, but still. Ouch. I’ll pick up the papers on Monday, when — fingers crossed — I hope to be Fully Operational.

In the meantime *whispers* my back is not hurting, which places as a Minor Miracle, and what I really want to do is go curl up (figuratively) and read Local Custom.

May I just say what a great job we did with Local Custom? The gradual unfurling of the leaves of character, the! worldbuilding!, the things that are said so very plainly and yet don’t mean the same thing to the person you’re talking with and — I swoon. No, really.

Damn, I wish I could write like that.

Also? There’s a description — a Very Detailed Description — of a counterchance board. I. Had. No. Idea.

So, anyway, I see the tax stuff, and that I have to Move Monies in order to satisfy the IRS and the State of Maine, but yanno what?

Imma go read.

Everybody have a good evening. I’ll see you tomorrow.

No…really. I will.

Tali collecting overdue ear scrubbles:

Wednesday on the move

Wednesday. I was not prepared to find 6 inches of snow on the ground when I got up this morning. I had been informed that there would be snow showers today, but that last night would be “clear.”

So, anyway, got up to find 6 inches of “clear” on the ground, and had literally just gotten my boots on to go out to deal with the steps and making a path to the garage so Tali could keep her appointment with her doctor, when the plowguy swooped in and started in to work.

Best. Plow. Guy. EVER.

Relieved of snow-clearing duties, I had a cup of tea, some cottage cheese, and grapes. Then I gathered Tali up from her bird-watching post and bore her, not without complaint, to her appointment. Tali is pronounced healthy and beautiful. She Officially Weighs 13.0 pounds, and she has had her 3-year distemper shot. Her toes were also cut off, all the way around.

For those interested, it is still snowing, very lightly, and is expected to stop around 11:30.

My business today is to finalize my Remarks and choose passages to read. I will probably make broccoli potato soup for lunch, and use my new! food processor to make a batch of hummus. I have two lemons, though I’m not sure I possess a juicer, anymore. I had a glass one from my grandmother, but I haven’t seen it in a while. Of course, I haven’t needed to juice anything in a while.

Tomorrow will begin another 5-day sprint on the WIP, taking beta reader comments into account. I think I have chicken breasts in the freezer. Might be I should bake one or two so that I’ll have easy lunches to draw on. There’s a plan.

Upon arriving home, and being freed from The Cage, Tali relieved her feelings by smacking Rook in the head several times, and then having a mouthful or two of dry food to replace the resources depleted during Her Ordeal.

I made myself a cup of hot chocolate, and considered the question of whether or not I’m going to try to install my blindster today. If it works, I can order in three more and there’s the sliders dressed.

Remarks first.

How’s everybody doing?

Here is Tali, post-Ordeal:


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Made hummus. Had to check the interwebs again to figure out how to make it do, since just sliding the switch to “puree” did not evoke the desired motivation. Turns out you need to press the handle after deciding between “chop” and “puree”.

Despite which, much the easiest way to make hummus so far discovered by this household. I did not find the old glass juicer; I’m of the opinion it left the household sometime back (Note to self: buy juicer), but the lemons were easy enough to squeeze by hand.

Having now accomplished an Accomplishment — Remarks.

Tuesday morning, with biscuits

Tuesday. Sunny and cold. How cold you ask? Five-Fahrenheit-feels-like-minus-five-Fahrenheit.

Trash and recycling are at the curb, boxes of books are in the back of the Subaru, I’m sitting in the comfy chair in my office getting a dose of sunlight, and Firefly is marching around on my lap slapping my face with her tail.

No, wait, now she’s laying on her side making biscuits, no — now she’s tucked up under my chin and gazing soulfully into my face. She’s purring really loudly. So I guess that’s my good morning.

Last night, I watched the first episode of Riot Women and I’m having a good time with it. For values of a good time. They are, after all, talking about a subject that interests me greatly as an old woman, which is the sudden facility to become invisible once you’re past a certain age. This is especially interesting to me because I passed most of my early life as an invisible person, when I wasn’t being told I was lazy and stupid.

Firefly, for those keeping score, is now sprawled across my lap, smiling up at me, purring, and continuing to make biscuits with one paw. I would say that this is a spoiled cat.

In a few minutes I’ll be getting up to get breakfast, which will be oatmeal, chocolate chips, and almond butter and then I’ll get on the road to get my haircut and to deliver books.

What’s on your schedule today?

Late Saturday check-in

Well, then. That was Saturday.

I drafted my Remarks for my library event. I think they may be the wrong Remarks, but you can’t revise what you don’t write down. Still need to figure out how I’m going to handle the reading/what I’m going to read. I’m torn between several small scenes or one big one. May have to resort to flipping a cantra piece.

Spent part of the day loading the apps I usually use on my phone to my Samsung tablet, where they will be larger, which — in theory — will help with this current bout of eyestrain.

I also made a couple more adjustments to the new toy. It did a very credible job of reading several chapters of Getting Rid of Bradley to me last night while I just laid in the dark with ninetyleben pounds of coon cat on me, eyes closed and listening. Rookie, predictably perhaps, has really bonded with Zach.

What else? Oh, Had an email from the owner of Oliver and Company who will be handling the sales table during my event, and it seems we Have A Plan. Always good to have a Plan.

Happy Hour was a touch early tonight, and now the cats have scattered. In solidarity, I have a glass of wine with me here at the computer, and my stomach is informing me that I need to rustle something up for dinner RSN.

Tomorrow starts a Warming Trend, with temps soaring into the mid-twenties and thence into the! thirties! By ghod, it’s practically summer!

Speaking of tomorrow, next week is going to be busy. Yes . . . busy.

Tomorrow, now that my knees and hips don’t hurt enough for me to notice, I’ll change out the cat boxes, only a couple days late.

Monday, first thing, I have a PT appointment. Tuesday morning, I have a haircut scheduled, and needlework in the evening; Wednesday, I need to visit the vampyres, which may be an excuse to have breakfast out; Thursday, I have a podiatry appointment, and I should probably go to the grocery somewhere in all of that. Friday morning Sarah comes by to clean, and in the afternoon, I want to go to the tea at the library. I have a pretty flowered skirt and a top hat, so clearly the sartorial part of the venture is well under control.

Tomorrow, I will also be starting my read of the WIP, so that’ll be fun.

And that? Is the state of affairs at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

Friday morning 10 a.m.

Friday. Cloudy and sort of snowing. Cold.

Firefly has once again joined me on my lap to celebrate the happy lite and to look out over the long backyard. She even had a taste of my tea. Firefly has previously not liked tea, but Sprite used to demand a drop out of every cup, so it looks like she’s found both Sprite and Belle’s books.

I slept badly, and have been arguing with myself about whether or not I’m going to eat breakfast. I think I finessed that. Macaroni and cheese is breakfast, right?

Today the taxes take top billing, followed by writing my remarks for my talk next month. After that, we’ll see.

How’s everybody holding up?

Dictated to my phone

Rabbit Hole Thursday Part II

And my tablet has arrived. Thank you, Robert of FedEx for ringing the bell, and wishing me a good day. Screen signed and package inside. 11:37 am

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New tablet. OMG so cute!

Of course, I have no idea what I’m doing and I’ll need to find a translation for what the icons mean, but I repeat: OMG so cute!

Ahem.

So, after a brief, doting new-parent, delay, dinner is in the oven — a chicken breast patty with a slice of mozzarella on top, and crushed tomato sauce on top of that, under a tin foil hat in the oven.

Leftover peas for veggies, I think, and maybe a slice of bread.

Yeah, that sounds like lunch…
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Well. Speaking of rabbit holes. I sat down with the Boox, which has made Many Assumptions about how people deal with their devices. I’ve managed to figure out how to annotate, which is, along with the e-ink tech, what I wanted the thing for, so that’s a plus. Having figured it out, I’m not sure how useful it will be, but it’s early days.

I increased the font, monkeyed with the refresh rates, got the stylus paired, and a bunch of all those other things that you do when you get a new device. I’m still a little hazy on what the symbols on the navigation bar mean, but I halfway solved that by changing them out for symbols that I recognize.

I’m baffled by the absence of what is to me a recognizable home screen, but there’s probably a way to finesse that, too. Later.

The biggest frustration so far is that the on-board manual ain’t on-board. It helpfully gives you an address where the document ought to be on the device, but it’s not there, and the web download instructions simply make no sense. Oh, and I just tried that address from this machine, and there isn’t a manual for the B&W Go-7, which would explain why it can’t be downloaded, hey?

Well.

Tomorrow is, they say, another day. However, I really can’t play with my new toy all day tomorrow. No, I mean that.

I did a second go-over of the tax questionnaire, but I didn’t make my phone call, so that’ll have to happen tomorrow.

The cats have been checking in on me. Tali has made it her habit to join me here in the business office after lunch, which is very pleasant. Rook usually checks in a couple times, but he really does love his basket back on Steve’s desk. It’s funny that Firefly will use the basket on my desk — last known as Trooper’s Basket — but neither of the new kids use it anymore, though they liked it a lot when Grandpa was still with us.

So, I guess that it’s for the day.

Everybody stay safe.

I’ll check in tomorrow.

Rabbit Hole Thursday

This never happens

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Thursday. Sunny and cold.

Firefly came to join my in the comfy chair this morning, and spent some time gazing up into my face, and kneading, and rubbing her cheek on my hand, and offering her chin and belly for rubs. She’s never this demonstrative. After she had expressed her devotion, she curled up on my lap and went to sleep, which, yes, also never happens. She’ll sleep next to me on the couch or on the bed, but she hasn’t been a lap-sitter.

Needless to say, I spent an extended time in the chair, thinking thoughts, and trying just to Breathe. It was nice. She did finally stretch and jumped down, with a very high tail, and we both got something to eat.

Before I forget: Chocolate tea is much improved by a dash of half-and-half, but I think it will not become a favorite with me.

Today, I am on FedEx Watch. They’re being cagey, and will only say that the package is on a truck and will be delivered “today.” They usually come by between 11 and noon — in fact, yesterday’s note was left at 11:11, so — fingers crossed. I don’t, of course, dare to go into the back of the house or downstairs, but it’s not like I don’t have things to do.

. . . like go down the rabbit hole of new Motorola phones, because I have never bonded with the free Pixel 9 Pro. I mean, it’s a phone, and it does the phone-like things that I need done. It weighs too much, and it gulps down battery power like a chimp with a crate of bananas, but apparently all the new phones are power-hogs, and Seven! Days! Between! Charges! is a thing of the oh-so-long-ago.

I was briefly tempted by the Moto G Power, but — yanno, the Pixel works, and whatever it did yesterday to produce that spark of “Yanno? You can be replaced.” has already faded.

So, late getting started here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory — call it half a writer’s day off. I do very much need to call the CPA, and work on my talk for the Waterville Public Library in a couple weeks. And play with my new tablet if/when it arrives.

Realsoonnow, I’m going to have to start doing my read of the WIP, but that can wait another day or two. I also need to put some serious thought into how I expect to stay solvent after this contract is finished — that was one of the subjects Firefly and I touched on. She likes this house, as I do, and wanted to make sure I wasn’t thinking about moving. I’m not. I mean, yeah, it’s too big for one old woman and three cats, because ghosts don’t take up that much room, but the reasons for the house — this house (all on one level, in town, near shopping, the cats’ vet, and the not-exactly-a-hospital) — are still good. Plus the ghosts. Steve put a lot of care into making this a Lee-and-Miller History House.

So, that’s where I am at mid-morning.

How’s everybody doing?

More morning pics: