Tag: reading

Doctor, Doctor, Mister MD

What went before:  Yesterday was all errands all day.  The cover art for Diviner’s Bow is with the framer, and I should have it back by mid-February.  There came up for discussion the always interesting question of which band did the superior version of “Good Lovin'” — the Grateful Dead or the Young Rascals.  Facebook is leaning toward the Rascals.  I now open the question up to those reading here.  Here’s the Dead’s version.   Here’s the Rascals’ version.

Onward.

Tuesday. Cloudy and cool. Snowed a tiny bit on the overnight. Trash and recycling at the curb.

Woke up sneezing and hacking, so — no sewing circle for me today. Grr. I did mask everywhere I went yesterday, and a good thing too, I’m thinking.

Breakfast was an English muffin with cream cheese and an orange. I only have two of the little oranges left. *adds to list* Lunch will be … um.

Rookie decided to help me choose my day wear this morning, and as a result got locked in a closet for a few minutes. I called him; he answered; and I let him out. It’s nice to have a cat who answers when he’s called.

Having been let out, he had to go get Grandpa to Show Him, I suppose, but neither one could get the door open again.

So, I guess today is stay at home and poke at things, but not too energetically.

I think my next audiobook will be Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, another frequent reread for me. I finished reading Midlife in Gretna Green last night. I had a good time with it, and there are six (?) more, I hear.

The backbrain has been providing snips of scenes and various insights for the next book, so Not Writing is paying its dividends. I plan to continue Not Writing today.

What are your plans for the day?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunny Sunday

Sunday. Sunny 16F/-8C. Said to be headed for a balmy 32F/0C.

Later, there will be the sweeping of the steps and the walking out to get the mail. Right now, there’s a waffle in the toaster oven, and sausages in the pan. A Sunday Breakfast. Lunch may either be chicken or a yam. I leaning toward the yam at the moment, but that could change.

USPS informs me that I will be receiving the proof for the second try for a hardcover Sea Wrack. . . .

Despite having slept late, and the sun pouring into my office, I’m fighting an urge to take a nap. Perhaps another cup of tea is in order.

For those following along at home, my new read is Midlife in Gretna Green by Linzi Day.

Today’s to-do list includes the already discussed sweeping and gathering, and the preparation of lunch. Have some data entry to do, as the last credit card bills detailing 2024 expenditures have landed.

Before all that, I may really take my second cup of tea over to the comfy chair and sit in the sun while I listen to another chapter or two of The Goblin Emperor. I must say that the audiobook experiment is producing … unexpected benefits. I’m finding it remarkably soothing to just sit and let someone read to me. Of course, I know the book very well and the narrator is well-matched to the text.

So, another lazy-ish day here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, and I can’t even been cranky at myself.  Really, I’ve earned this.

So, that.

How’s everybody doing?

The cure for anything is salt water

So, yesterday, I looked at the long-term weather, by which I mean, the weather over the next four days, because this is The Changing Land, and one dare not look too far into the future.  My climatic explorations revealed that tomorrow, Sunday, the weather was to be warm(ish) (by which I mean 36F/2C) and sunny(ish).  The last snow has long since melted off the roads, and the Long Back Yard is showing more grass than white, so driving wouldn’t be a challenge in any way.  And I thought to myself, “Self? You could drive to the ocean.  After all, we’ve already applied sweat and tears.”

Saturday. Snowing. And so I am taught what I already knew: Do not plan drives in Maine in the winter.

Breakfast was hummus, naan, grapes. Second cup of tea brewing. I don’t have a clue about lunch. Need to stick my head in the freezer and see what’s there.

I should go out today to put gas in the car and grab some milk. Should’ve filled up the last time but one that I was out and about, but I was already feeling not quite the thing and standing out in the cold breeze while the car gassed up didn’t appeal. So, as a consolation prize, I can stand out in the snow. Which — it seems to have stopped snowing for the moment. Nope, started again.

Finished The House in the Cerulean Sea last night. Someone asked me to discuss my reactions. Honestly, it was — OK. A bit heavy-handed, but I can see why it won awards. There’s a whole population of people out there who need heavy-handed and confuse it with art. I did like the kids, and laughed a couple of times at the dialog. Not a Glowing Review, and I wouldn’t have given it a prize, but I’ve certainly read worse. Shaker of salt: Readers of this review will do well to recall that I found The Martian infuriating, though I am assured by All The People that it’s brilliant.

Still Not Writing. This morning, my brain offered a tentative scene, and I did remember to go laLaLALACANNOTHEARYOU! This is much easier to do when you have a co-conspirator who is more than willing to talk at you for hours on end about Name Your Obscure Science or Engineering Theory, and then demand to know what your favorite Danny Kaye movie is. And why.

Today’s chores include the aforesaid gassing of the motorized chariot, finishing the laundry, nibbling at the taxes some more, doing research, and figuring out what’s for lunch. Oh, and choosing my next book to read. That pretty much amounts to a lazy Saturday.

Is your Saturday lazy or busy?

Today’s blog title brought to you by Isak Dinesen, “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.”

Recovering writer is recovering

Wednesday. Sunny and chill.

Breakfast was rice cakes with cream cheese and grapes. Finishing up first cup of tea. Lunch will be leftover quiche.

The bed has been stripped down to the mattress — which Rookie found very exciting. The spread is drying, which will take FORever; blanket and coverlet soon to be washed. Opened the windows briefly to let the good air in and, hopefully, drive the bad air out. I missed a picture of Rook stretched full length in an open window, head high and proud, his fur ruffled by the (icy) breeze, looking every inch a Winter Lord.

I am feeling much much better, obviously, and yes, I am trying to not overdo myself into a relapse. I do note that I’m still hacking and that I’m going to have to send someone out to get me some more Robitussin, which I forgot to put on the grocery list yesterday.

In reading news, I put Lord Julian aside for the moment; he had been such a good friend in illness that it would be wrong in me to thrust him away in a fit of convalescent pique. I read instead last night from The House in the Cerulean Sea.

The plan today is to perform one’s duty to the cats, finish with the washing, reassemble the bed, and work on the short story — which now has a better, and more fitting, title:  “Core Values.” I will possibly find it necessary, as I did yesterday, to break in the middle of the day, and listen quietly to a chapter or two of The Goblin Emperor.

A simple, even a modest, plan but mine own.

What are your plans for the day?

Proof of life:

Day 5

Tuesday. Cold and dim.

Slept hard and late. So that‘s good.

I did not gather the trash and recycling yesterday, and am not going to do so this morning. Next week sees a return to Schedule.

Breakfast was muffin, orange, tea. Kettle on for second cup of tea.

Today, I’ll make a grocery order and have it delivered. I suppose I ought to do that earlier, rather than later. I also have a pile of stuff that was put aside for page proofs, which, yanno, I really don’t want to do, not least because they fall into that large category of things that are insipid and pointless to accomplish without Steve on-hand to offer insights, angles of approach, and random snipery.

I *would* like to spend some time with my story, so I may throw adulting to the wind and do that. What’s the point of being an adult if you don’t get to decide when NOT to adult?

I’ve started reading the 6th installment in Lord Julian’s adventures — A Gentleman of Unreliable Honor — and I’m beginning to get a little annoyed with him. This is either an artifact of having read so many in a row, or because I actually am feeling better and therefore more irritable (the author does now and then drop a narrative stitch; nothing major, and no business of mine, really, but I hit one during yesterday’s reading and gritted my teeth).

As reported elsewhere, the cats are at their stations.

. . . and so it goes.

How does it go with you?

Tuesday morning cat census:

Chilly Monday

Monday. Sunny and cold.

Still sick, fever down but sticking around. Robitussin deployed.

Lord Julian is earning his fee, hitting the sick-bed entertainment sweet spot of being an undemanding read with competent characterization, and engaging puzzles.

I need to call the chiropractor and cancel that appointment for today. And I won’t be going to the sewing club tomorrow, though I will be keeping my appointment with the PCP. He wanted to see me for a “mental health” check-up, but he can extend himself to a “flu, progress of” check-up, which will really be more useful for both of us.

I hear the kettle boiling, so I should go deal with that. Also breakfast. I’ll figure something out.

How’s everybody doing this morning?

Last Day of 2024

Tuesday. Grey and cool. There is no snow in the Long Back Yard, though there is a skim of ice on the front steps. Trash and recycling at the curb. First cup of tea in hand.

Breakfast is destined to be a PB&J on an English muffin with a follow of red grapes. And more tea, naturally. Lunch — I have so many options for lunch. Really, I’m embarrassed.

So far this morning, Rookie has played fetch — he’s really good at bringing the ball and placing it at my feet — tried to lay claim to the deer antler that has been sitting peaceably on a lower bookshelf for years, and peeled all the sticky notes off of the to-do list. Sigh. A Morning Kitten. *Just* what I need.

I finished *another* book last night — Lord Julian is a quick read, so that puts me at 61 books on the year (57, if we don’t count endless rereads of Diviner’s Bow  and a re-read of Salvage Right). I do have the third Lord Julian on deck, but, really, I’m not finishing that one today.

This morning is sewing at St. Mark’s. This will be my first foray, I hope of many; and I have an appointment with the chiropractor in the afternoon. And that neatly accounts for my day, give or take a chore or two.

This is the last day of a very bad year, and I stand in dread of what next year will bring, because, absent a death or two, it’s looking to be worse.

What are your anticipations for the new year?

Last Sunday of the year (second in a series)

Sunday. Dullish blue and cool. The weatherbeans tell me that we’re going to hit 40F, that it will rain this afternoon, and won’t that be a mess? Just in time for 50F/4C and Even! More! Rain! tomorrow, when I actually have to go out.

Breakfast was a carton of skyr while I wandered around the house, Looking. With luck, lunch will be salmon cakes. The oven’s heating for sugar cookies, which I never got around to yesterday.

Today I will be Not Writing. I will also not be looking at the Tax Packet, because — no. I will instead be baking sugar cookies, which I never got around to, yesterday, and touching up the spots left paintless by the various installations of smoke alarms and thermostats, not to mention the scar that was Sprite’s contribution to decorating the dining room. I will perhaps knock off early to read, or maybe look inside my embroidery basket. A Structure of Looseness, today.

Against all expectations, I did finish reading another book — A Gentleman Fallen on Hard Times — and I started the next in the Lord Julian series, A Gentleman of Dubious Reputation.

And that’s all I’ve got right now.

What’s everybody reading?

Sunny morning with oatmeal

Um. Thursday (not Monday). Sunny and heading for a high of 30F/-1C on the day.

Breakfast was oatmeal with raisins and walnuts. Second cup of tea is brewing, and I have a sugar cookie standing by. Ashley’s due in at 10, so I should pick up cat toys and such-like in a bit. I have leftovers in the fridge, and! salad stuff, so — Choices for lunch.

Last night, I figured out (I mean, it’s not hard; the instructions are right there on the internet) how to forward calls coming in to the so-called “landline” to my cellphone, in an attempt to solve the one-handset-short problem. It will also serve as a test-run, i.e. Do I really need the landline? I think it’s just part of the Fidium package, so that will be more informational than, “Gee, I can save some money by getting rid of this.”

Last night, I also finished reading Alliance Unbound, and if you couldn’t hear me yelling, “NoNoNoNOOOOO — DO NOT– oh HELL, JR!” you must’ve had the music up ‘way loud.

I have this morning updated my Books Read in 2024 List. I doubt I’ll finish another book between now and the changing of the year. I have A Gentleman Fallen on Hard Times cued up, so it could be that I’ll finish it in a couple days. As matters stand at the moment, I read 59 books in 2024 — that includes three separate post-submission readings of Diviner’s Bow, and a prep reading of Salvage Right). For those who are curious about what else I read, the list is here

Today’s to-do includes picking up for Ashley, writing a letter, working on the short story — and of course, performing one’s duty to the cats. That’s it. Almost a lazy day.

I will pause here to ask for an end-of-year present. If you have read any Lee-and-Miller, Miller, or Lee book during 2024, please consider leaving a review — or several reviews. Thank you for your help.

And now, the question! What’s going on with you today?

Lifters never fall

Sunday Catchup:  I took the day off, did some embroidery, played with cats, read, watched Red One, which I really enjoyed, and will probably watch again.

Monday. Cloudy, now.

Breakfast was a cinnamon roll, because I could. Lunch — dunno. Mac ‘n cheese, maybe.

Stayed up late because Firefly wouldn’t let me get up until we’d seen Ross fairly settled on Finity. Then I had to open the next book to show her that they’d kept their word. Honestly, four years old and nothing but suspicion.

In the Realm of Shameless Self-Promotion! Sea Wrack and Changewind ebook has broken 400 the hard way! Amazon, 367; Apple, 15; BN, 3; Kobo 16. The ebook drops on December 17 — that’s tomorrow!

Today it’s back to the proofing mines. Firefly has already checked in, and Rook arrived for his after-breakfast lap-sit and cuddles. Trooper is in his box on my desk, snoring.

And that? Is all I have. Yes, yes, the non-stop glamour; how do I keep it from ruining me?

What’s everybody up to, today?

Today’s blog title from Diviner’s Bow.