Tag: the writing life

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:

Apologies and short catch-up

We seem to have gotten behind here.  My apologies.  Allow me to sum up.

On Saturday, February 21, I gave my presentation at the Waterville Public Library to a small, but enthusiastic room.  Questions were asked and answered, books were signed.  I had a good time.

I came home and collapsed, got up Sunday, did some work on the WIP, cleaned up the chaos in my “business office,” and noticed that my back was hurting.

Aha!  I said to myself.  Self, this is a perfect time to test the pain-killing features of a thc gummy (1/4 strength).  Possibly, I was not wrong; nonetheless, it wasn’t my best thought ever.  It turns out that thc, even in small amounts, gives me a Really Ugly high, which I could have put up with, if it had nailed the pain, which it didn’t.  Worse, it didn’t even put me to sleep.

Followed Monday, with back pain and exhaustion, being treated with Motrin Duo, and today, Tuesday, when I though I had gotten ahead of it, and actually worked an hour on the WIP this morning  before the pain came screaming back, so that’s two lost days, and I?  Am not amused.

I am feeling somewhat better this evening — witness the fact that I am writing to you here.

I thought I had to go out tomorrow for a bone density test, and was weighing the wisdom of that, but it seems I misremembered, and the test is on Thursday afternoon, by which time, she said sternly, I hope to GHOD I’m back to what I like to call normal.

So, in terms of catch up — y’all didn’t miss much, and I’m actually glad you missed most of it.

Here’s a pic from my talk on Saturday. Photo by Kiri Guyaz.

Office Closed Tomorrow

Exercises in Futility Number Five Thousand Four Hundred Thirty-Three.

Google Home Assistant: And! I can do more things now. You can ask me complex questions and I’ll be able to answer with help from Gemini!

Me: Hey Google. Why did the AI companies steal my life’s work?

Google Home Assistant: . . .I’m sorry. I don’t understand.

Yeah, me, too, Google. Me, too.

Well.

The WIP currently stands at 129,943 words. I’m still fixing the baby fixes. Once that’s done, I need to write some scenes and put them where they belong. Deadline is April 15.

I have Remarks for my event on Saturday. I have also a Reading.

It is not supposed to snow on Saturday, but it will snow on Friday night.

In the meanwhile, and as much as I haven’t been around this week — tomorrow, February 20, the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory will be closed. Thank you for your understanding.

Everybody stay safe.

Tali and Rook, birdwatching

See how the mainsail sets

Tuesday. Partly cloudy and warm-ish. A good day for a ride, actually.

I’m just back from Bath, having come the Long Way Home, getting the car washed and picking up a Forbidden Sandwich at Subway, this in addition to the peppermint mocha and ricotta-cherry Danish I treated myself to at Cafe Creme after my doctor’s appointment, which?

Was a success of its kind. I got my levothyroxine dosage put back to where it’s been for the last decade or more, and I was given an A1C test (first time for everything, I guess), and scored a 4.5 of whatever it is they’re measuring, which they seemed happy with, and since there was no new medicine attached to whatever it is, I’m happy, too.

Also? No more doctor appointments and only one test on the time map until November. Unless Something Comes Up, which — fingers crossed.

As mentioned above, I came home via Rte 1 and 27, and was able to honor the Ancient Pact to sing along with “Sloop John B” when it popped up on the radio. I also tried to sing along with “Wild, Wild West,” but I really only remembered, “I love her eyes and her wild, wild hair,” which I sang with Verve.

I’m now going to tinker with my Remarks, remembering to eat my Forbidden Sandwich and to go to needlework.

What song(s) did you sing along with this morning?

Today’s blog post title brought to you by The Beach Boys, “Sloop John B“

Upcoming scarcity of Rolanni

Sunday.

No screaming today, though I’m being hard on myself for not getting “enough” done on the WIP. That I’ve rearranged several chapters and rewritten four more is the merest bagatelle.

I really need a time-turner.

This week upcoming has me phoning The Earth tomorrow. Tuesday, I’m wanted in Bath at an Unghodly Early Hour, with needlework in the evening. Firefly visits her vet on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday is blessedly free. Friday morning, Sarah’s scheduled to come in and clean, and it is also the 2nd anniversary of Steve’s death. I’m giving a talk at the library on Saturday afternoon, when it’s supposed to — *checks wunderground* — ah. Downgraded to “snow showers.” Much better.

It is entirely possible that I will not be much around for the balance of this week.

Everybody be well. Stay safe.

I’ll look in as can.

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.

For Art! and Science!

I . . . have been remiss in updating the blog, for which my apologies.  The last couple days have been not much worth writing about anyway — mostly reading and doing daily chores, with intermittent sadness.

That said, we move on to!

Monday midday already. Sunny and cold. I put paper plates of seeds out on top the snow on the deck. I prolly shouldn’t have done, but I miss seeing the birds. The cats are fascinated and the new sliders in Steve’s office gets them right up close and personal.

I called Dead River this morning, while I was still sitting under the glow of the Happy Lite, and was therefore taught the new method of oil delivery. Back in the Old Days, the oil truck came on — oh, Tuesday. Or possibly every other Tuesday. But, they delivered to a schedule, which they could be expected to keep, to top off the tank. This was … simple. We have now graduated to a more complex system, wherein oil usage for a particular address is calculated, using known data, and when the oil tank at that particular address reaches what ought to be one/third full, an oil delivery is triggered.

I pause here to mourn simplicity.

The helpful office person I spoke with at the crack of dawn this morning explained this to me, though she could not tell me when the delivery would be triggered. We left it that a truck would come by sometime this week to top off my tank, and then I will Observe the System in Real Time, so that I may see for myself how well it works.

Moving on. Yesterday, my back hurt, and my hands hurt, and — let’s just say that I was a hurtin’ person, enough that I was aware that I was hurting. After I finished my work with the WIP, and had written a draft of my Remarks, I decided to field test a gummy. For Science!

I cut a gummy in half (taking it from 10mg of THC to the 5mg  recommended for newbies), which dose is said to make one feel calm and subtly relaxed. It made me feel that I had drunk way too much wine.  Not a pleasant buzz, but rather a “shouldn’t have had that last glass” light-headed-and-unsteady feeling. I mention here that the muscle relaxants and prescribed pain relievers also make me lightheaded and foolish on my feet.

On the plus side, I was feeling no pain. I spent the next while drinking lots of water, and eating snacks and listening to my audiobook, and eventually the “too much” feeling went away, and pretty soon thereafter, I went to bed, and slept very well.

And when I got up this morning, I was still pain-free.

So! Conclusions. Do gummies work for pain relief? Yessir, they do, and they don’t make me sick. Most of the prescribed pain relievers and muscle relaxants really make me sick. Already, I’m ahead of the game. Do gummies work as a muscle relaxant? Seems so, since the pain hasn’t come back today. And let’s not discount that lovely night’s sleep.

Obviously, I’m going to have to be very cautious with them, and I may want to conduct a follow-up experiment with one-quarter of a gummy, to see if I can get relief and! still be able to function.

But that’s for later.

For today, I spent the morning reviewing the WIP and have less than 50 pages left to read. I’ll be doing that after lunch, which will be bean and veggie soup out of the freezer. Unless I decide on something else.

Tomorrow, I will start the day off by opening the tax portal and will hopefully finish filling in the necessary forms before it’s time to go to needlework.

Wednesday morning, first thing, Tali has an appointment with her vet, and when I come home I will begin reviewing beta reader comments, and starting the process of producing a final draft of the WIP.

Doesn’t that look tidy and fine?

So! Who else is tidy and fine today?

Ah.  One of the things I let get past me was the Celebration of Talizea’s Gotcha Day, on February 3.  Here, we have Then:

And now:

 

I gotta get another hat. . .

What went before Thursday: So, I bought a stability ball today — also known as a Giant Yoga Ball — on suggestion of PT, and by doing so I learned several things.

Thing One. I had to go to Wal*Mart to obtain this item. Now, I haven’t been in a Wal*Mart for at least 8 years, and at that time, I was in the Augusta Marketplace store and it was filthy and ill-kept, misfiled, and nerve-wracking to be in — you know, like all the stores are now. The Waterville store, today, was — spacious and well-lit, the shelves were stocked appropriately, signage (with a notable exception, which I will share) plentiful and easy to see. The gentleman in the red vest and ID tags who I stopped to ask where I should look for a Giant Yoga Ball told me that I would be going to the back of the store, to the Sports section, and then he used his phone to tell me that Giant Yoga Balls could be found in Aisle I-15.

Thing Two. Being as I had to walk to the furthest corner of the store to find Sports, I did have plentiful opportunity to look about me, and discover those things reported in Thing One. When I got to Sports, however, I found I-14 and I-17, but not Aisle I-15, which would be my luck. I asked a young lady who was stocking shelves, and whose face immediately said she didn’t want to have anything to do with me why there was no Aisle I-15, and the young man who was her partner said, “Oh, no, I’ll show you,” which he did (I-15 is, in the Waterville Wal*Mart, where they file the bicycles), and when I said, “There are no Giant Yoga Balls here,” led me to the exact shelf, which is where I learned Thing Three, which is!

You have to inflate the Giant Yoga Ball when you get it home. It comes with a cheap, plastic, manual air squeeze, and it will, conservatively, take me three days to inflate this thing. However! I have the ball in house, and have started on the inflation project, and I’m calling that progress.

I am now needing to get to my backlogged email.

Tomorrow Sarah comes in the morning to do the cleaning, and I believe I will be blocking out the rest of the day, which will give me 4.5 days to concentrate on reading/writing until I’m next needed elsewhere. I may, in fact, make a weekend of it, and order in, so I can keep focused on the WIP, with short breaks to blow up the stability ball.

So! I have what passes for A Plan. I note that this Plan may mean that I will be not much around the Internets. It’s OK; I’ll be working.
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Friday. Cold and intermittently sunny. Sarah changed her hours to Saturday.

Woke up at 5:30, got up at 6, sat with the Happy Lite, ate breakfast and was reading the WIP before 8. Read 200 pages, did a couple loads of laundry, broke for lunch — chicken Alfredo from … I have no idea, actually. Pasta Americana? It was good and I have leftovers, which is also good.

The story is not nearly as terrible as I had feared. In fact, it’s pretty good. So that’s a relief. I have 68 days until I have to hand it in, and even though I have to Really End It, excise those 9,000 words, and probably write … two? more fill-out scenes, I should be able to make that deadline.

Beta Readers! If you are still reading, do not despair! My Method is to do my read, then read your comments, once I have the story in my head in its present shape. You are, in a word, Still Relevant — very much so! — and I look forward to your notes with anticipation.

The stability ball has been inflated, and the cats are of the opinion that nobody needs a ball that big.

Dead River, after assuring me yesterday that my delivery was scheduled for today — has not yet delivered. I’m in no danger, but I would very much like to know why it’s suddenly become difficult to deliver oil to this address.

I still need to finish my Remarks and choose something(s) to read for my Event on the 21st.

The missing 1099-MISC arrived today, which would be my luck, because I wrote to the issuing party regarding its whereabouts yesterday. I now have to block out the better part of a day to enter everything into the accountant’s portal, because the thing is purposefully designed to force you to fill it in All At Once. In former years, when I was working from paper, I would have been filling the forms in as columns were added, and paperwork arrived, and the manifesting of the last 1099 would mean that I filled in one final line, reviewed, and took the whole packet down to Oakland on Monday morning.

Stoopid portal.

What else? The now-called Business Office, formerly Sharon’s Office, looks like a bomb hit it again. I used to write and do business in here, and . . . I can’t figure out how I did — oh, no, I do know. By this time in the Proceedings, the manuscript would have taken over the living room, and Steve would be reading it while I did the taxes, and I would have been able to keep up better with the day-to-day paperwork because Steve would have picked up the laundry and the cooking and the dishwashing, because he would rather do those things than the taxes.

deep breath

Nope.  Still Not Preferring this timeline.

Last night, I collapsed into bed earlyish and asked the Boox to read Cuckoo’s Egg to me. Now, I have read Cuckoo’s Egg manyManyMANY times. It is, in fact, one of my favorite books. I know this story. But listening to it is a Whole Nother Experience. I have not had this particular sensation of . . . newness . . . with the other books — all old favorites, because I’m still learning — I’ve listened to, so that’s interesting.

And that I think catches us up. I’m going to take some time to excavate my desk.

Ah.  Today’s blog post title brought to you by Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Thursday open for bidness

OK, let’s see…

Thursday. Sunny and cold. Feeling much more the thing than yesterday, which — just let’s say that it was a day when you drink peppermint tea and honey because your stomach hurts and that turns out to be a bad idea.

Got in an early four hours with the WIP this morning, and have verified that I’ll be removing about 9,000 words. This is not a surprise; I kinda sorta knew I was going to hafta do it, unless I Thought of Something. Which I haven’t, so — into the Pull File they go, and maybe they’ll be useful later.

I have a doctor’s appointment at 2:30, and need to verify where I’m going. Also, I have emails that I need to answer, and! I need to tell Draft2Digital that, yes, I do want Pinbeam Books to be listed with Bookshop.

Still waiting on that one outstanding 1099-MISC.

I see that the judge overseeing the Anthropic Settlement has extended various deadlines for opting in, out, and sideways, which will likely put back the expected payout schedule, originally projected to begin in August. Granted, I never expected to see any money from this “settlement,” but the whole thing’s so infuriating that even reading the subject line kicks up the blood pressure.

And FedEx has just arrived to deliver a letter, so it looks like the range for hitting my house really is between 11:15 and noon. Which is actually useful information.

Trying to figure out if I want to try to see John Mellencamp’s off-Broadway fine-tuning of his play at Ogunquit in October. I expect if I want to do that, I’ll have to reserve a room at Ogunquit realsoonnow. Must lookout prices.

For now, I need to do my duty to the cats, and then heat up the soup I didn’t eat yesterday, ref stomachache, and — oh, yeah, find where the heck I’m supposed to be at 2:30.

How’s everybody doing today?