Wow, Where Did the Week Go?

I didn't notice until just now that I haven't posted since Monday.  Wow, where did the week go?  I wasn't doing anything important.  Hell, I wasn't doing much of anything at all.  :shrug:  I guess what I'm saying is don't expect an exciting Sunday Update this week.

Things are happening in the world, of course.  Some good, some bad, some exceptionally bad.  I don't want to talk about that.  For every happy YAY spot, there are a dozen depressing BOO spots.  

We had a murder not too far from here, near one of the places I used to fish (but stopped because I wasn't catching anything there and I'd heard it's a popular spot for the junkies... needles laying around and stuff.)  That's only the second murder in close proximity since we moved here.  A little farther afield and you can add maybe a half dozen more.  Still, a pretty safe place to be, especially considering elsewhere in the country and the world.  No clue why this recent dude was murdered.  They caught the guy.  There were holes from a shotgun blast on the outside of his truck and the deceased was killed with a shotgun.  My theory is the dead guy tried to make off with the shooter's truck, so the shooter blasted at him.  Deceased jumped out and tried to run away, and got blasted.  Or he was hit inside the truck and the shooter dragged him out and left him beside the road, where his body was found.  Ah, life in the Ozarks.

We also had a drowning.  Some 14 year old kid graduated from 8th grade and ended up in water that was either too deep or too fast for him, or both.  Sad.  They're having a big gathering for him up in town tonight.  (Or last night.  I wasn't paying that close of attention.)

Personally, I've been laying low. I'm supposed to go up and get my driver's license renewed and new tags for my car sometime before the end of the month.  tick tick tick.  But I need to get the car inspected and the inspection place I used to use stopped doing that, so I have to find a new place.  Unfortunately, it's Memorial Day weekend and this is the Ozarks, so answering phones and returning calls is a low priority around here.  I'll try harder next week.  (I have to because it's all I have left of the month.)

Anyway... Sorry I was so absent this week.  Just one of those things, I guess.  I hope you all had a great week and that you have a wonderful weekend.  :hugs:

Wondering Wednesday

This morning, I spent some time wondering when they stopped just giving the tetanus vaccine in a tetanus shot.  I'd heard a while back that they were packing other vaccines in with the tetanus vaccine, which to me seems like a dirty trick for people who only want a tetanus shot.  I'm naturally suspicious of shit like that.  Anyway, I did some research to see if my facts were right and sure enough, they can/do pack other vaccines in there.  Diptheria seems to be the bug of choice, but there can also be whooping cough, hepatitis, and flu vaccines in with your tetanus shot.  This is why I am hesitant to go get a freakin' tetanus shot.  If I think I need a shot for tetanus, because I ran afoul of rusty metal somewhere, I do not want them pumping me with other stuff.  

I've been replanting trees that I find in the garden beds - cedars, redbuds, and oaks so far.  I wonder if they'll all live.  And if they do... I wonder if I need a license to sell trees in the state of MO.

I wonder why Sawyer and Finn won't let us sleep through the night.

I wonder why granulated sugar doesn't break down in frosting and remains gritty.  You'd think that the wet of the frosting would soften those granules, but it doesn't.  

I wonder why male cardinals feed female cardinals. 

That bright 'star' I keep seeing in the morning... I wonder if it's just Venus shining really brightly.  I wonder why it does that.

I wonder why some birds don't seem to have the hang of their own songs.  One bird out there is singing his song perfectly and another bird is singing it off key and missing some notes.  I wonder if he's young or defective.

I started writing again this morning.  I wonder if I'll finish this one.

Is there anything you're wondering this morning?

Randomosity

I didn't do a Sunday update because not much happened last week.  Not much exciting is happening this week either, so don't be surprised if there isn't one this Sunday either.

Screamin' fast internet.  It's deep and it's real, man.

Yeah, I just remembered... Happy Christmas Eve.  I'm making a loaded lasagna tomorrow. Loads of meat.  Loads of cheese.  Loads of sauce.  A layer of Portobello mushrooms.  Olives. I have to put a pan under it to keep it from dripping all over the bottom of the stove.  It'll be pretty epic.  Today, I need to make the sauce so it's ready for tomorrow build.  ;o)

I bought a new day planner for 2025.  They didn't have the kind I wanted, so I bought a different one.  I don't like it, but I've already written in it, so I can't return it.  Derp.

I'm trying to keep Christmas in my heart this week.  The world is not making it easy.  I won't go into the specifics here because I don't want to harsh anyone else's day.  If you've been paying attention to the news, you'll know without my saying.  

I sent my sister a birthday card back on the 6th.  Last time we talked, she still hadn't received it.  She did get the Christmas card I sent, which was mailed after the b-day card.  The USPS is drunk.

The other day I saw two bald eagles flying circles around each other and then chasing each other.  It was pretty awesome.

Yesterday, I made pecan raisin cinnamon rolls.  They're so huge I had to use two pans - a 9x13" and a 9" round.  I ended up with 19 rolls.  Gah.  Unfortunately, I did not put enough goo inside them, so they're pretty blah.  Thank goodness I bought cream cheese frosting in a can so we can slather them up.  Yum.

The Boyz already got their Christmas prezzies.  I found a chicken and a pig - they're round and flat with some padding and crinkly stuff and a squeaker in each.  They are each too cute for words.  Anyway, the cats are mildly amused with them, but they aren't as much of a sensation as their ducks.  :shrug:  They'd rather chase baby crickets.

Speaking of which, for some reason, there's been a baby cricket hatch in the house.  It's keeping the cats occupied.  They both play with them but when the crickets are no longer fun (i.e. no longer moving), Finn is the only one who eats them.  I guess Sawyer has different tastes.

Okay, I'm done.  Go forth and have an awesome day.  And if I don't see you tomorrow, have a very Merry Christmas.  :HUGS:

Randomosity

Forgetting to blog + super-slow internet which makes blogging a pain in the ass = a dearth of posts.  

Sawyer is finally on his way to becoming a lap cat.  Sometimes this is a good thing.  Sometimes it's not so much.  He's a moose, for one thing.  For another, when he decides he's done being a lap cat, he doesn't just get down.  He rolls over and wants to play rough (i.e. he bites).  Be careful what you wish for.

This morning, I saw a video of a chick saying how happy she was to be 42 and able to go to a bar on Thanksgiving without having to worry about getting a babysitter. She finished with some nonsense about the right hating that.  Trust me, honey.  The right loves the fact that you aren't breeding.  The same thing goes for all the women who have declared their celibacy in the face of T winning.  More power to ya, gals.  Oh, and the same goes for all the people who are declaring their intent to leave the country.  Buh-bye.  :waves:

It's freakin' cold.  Sure, it's December, but I'm still not ready for freakin' cold.  

Once again, I missed fall fishing.  It was too hot to fish, then it rained a bunch, now it's too cold.  

I need to start working on Christmas cards.  And put up the tree.  And find gifts for the moms.  I'm so not ready for Christmas. I say we put it off until February.

If you're looking for something yummy and easy to make for the holidays, go to Silver's blog for today.

There's some kind of big bird in our woods that I can't identify.  I've only seen glimpses of it as it flies away.  What I have seen is gray.  And big.  Did I mention big?  About redtail size or larger.  It could be an owl, but those are darker.  It might be a goshawk, but those aren't supposed to be this far south.  I'll keep watching and try to get a better look at it.  Right now, though, it's just a ghost.

And that's it for me today.  Time to call Mom.  Have a great day wherever you are.  :hugs:

Random Thoughts on FB Groups

I've been joining different groups on Facebook lately.  It's to increase my social media visibility and thereby to increase sales.  At least, that's the hope.  Anyway, I'm encountering all sorts of new people.  Sometimes this is a good thing.  Sometimes it's not.  

Yesterday, I joined a couple book groups - strictly for book readers, no sales pitches allowed.  Cool.  I can interact with people and when they see what a lovely person I am, they can ostensibly go to my page, see I'm a writer, and buy my books.  That's the theory anyway.  One particular group has like 500K members, so I was figuring on a good reach.  This morning it reminded me why I don't hang around with very many people.  

The first post I saw in my newly joined group was one admonishing people to not say the book has a twist at the end when recommending a book.  Just saying a book has a twist is ruining it for people, apparently.  How can they possibly enjoy a book when they're constantly waiting for the twist?  Umm... I read every book as if there's some kind of twist.  Shouldn't there be a twist in every book??  I'm confused.  I left the group.  

Come to think of it, I hadn't really joined the group.  It was another one that was asking for promises I wasn't comfortable making.  And since it's a non-marketing group, I didn't want to accidentally get it confused with all my marketing groups (it has a really similar name to a couple) and then try to market in it.  I got partway through the process of joining the group and then stopped.  This morning, FB tells me I was accepted into the group and then it was all over my newsfeed.  :shrug:  Like I said, I left the group.  Life is confusing enough without having to worry about which unwritten rule I may or may not be violating.  

I'm not sure if any of this is doing any good.  It's early yet.  I figure it's worth a shot.  Can't hurt, and all that, eh?  Who knows, I might make a friend or two?  Sell a book here and there.  Something.

Randomosity

Yesterday, I had several good ideas for a blog post, but I was too lazy and didn't write them.  This morning?  Nada.  So you're stuck with this. I really need to at least write the ideas down when they're hanging out in my head.  You'd think I'd know better.  Derp.

We had free Starz movie channels this weekend.  Not a whole lot on that I wanted to watch, but we did catch two sleepers - Ordinary Angels and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.  Both lovely movies.  Yes, tears will be involved, but they're good tears.

Men do not generally understand that women need to cry.  The idea confuses them and the act makes them very uncomfortable.  Eh.  If I don't have myself a good cry every now and then I get emotionally constipated and cranky.  Gotta open the pressure valve and let it all out.  Better to do that then have an explosion of monumental proportions wherein you do or say things you will regret.  Jus' sayin'.  It's also better than drowning it in food or worse, booze.  Go for it.  Have a good, old-fashioned, ugly cry.  You'll feel better.

Finn is the funniest little kitty.  He likes to drink water off his paw.  He'll actually stand with one paw in the water bowl and then lift it and lick all the water off.  Repeat until his thirst is quenched.  Unfortunately, this leads to wet kitty paw prints all over the floors.  And on my shirt if I don't notice his feet are wet before I pick him up.  He's so pick-up-able that I don't really mind.  Finn's my little love muffin.

Speaking of cats, I took three pieces of paper, folded them in half and I use them to make a little paper tent tunnel that the boyz love to knock down or try to run through. And once the paper is all flat on the floor, they like to lay on it.   It distracts them for a while, which is always a good thing.  

With the WIP on hold to marinate, I need to decide which book to work on next.  I also need to figure out if I should pick up where I left off or start over from the beginning like I did with Duke Noble #2.  I do not plan on starting anything totally new.  I have too many unfinished projects to forge into unknown territory.  For now, though, I'm just marinating.  

Okay, time to pour some more coffee down my gullet and get the day started.  I hope you enjoyed this thoroughly random post this morning.  I'll try to remember the post topics I thought of and write those for this coming week.  Wish me luck. LOL

A Few Thoughts for a Nothing Morning

I wonder if the person who coined the term 'windbreaker' for that certain style of jackets giggles every time they hear it.  "farter'... hehehe

For some reason, Sawyer is obsessed with feet.  Socks on, socks off, shoes, no shoes.  He must have the feet.  Finn, on the other hand, is obsessed with used tissues. He couldn't care less about new tissues, but blow your nose in it and set it down... haHA.

I got the Boyz a couple of dog toys - a mallard duck and a raccoon.  The duck was the goal, but I bought the raccoon, so they'd each have a toy to play with.  Nope, they just love the duck.  The first time one of them grabbed it by it's neck and ran through the house with it... achievement unlocked.

By the way, the Boyz have been weighed.  At 8 months old, Sawyer is 11.5 pounds and Finn is 9 pounds even.  Sawyer's my chonky boi.

So, I was laying in bed last night not sleeping and thinking about the demise of my writing.  And wouldn't you know it, the answer of 'where the hell do I go with the next book?' hit me like a bolt out of the blue.  Of course, I am up to my ass in alligators, so finding time to write will be difficult, and I may be burned to a crisp if I try to write while doing everything else, but there it is.  

Speaking of busy, the past couple of days, I've been working 8 hours... with a half hour lunch in the middle... then coming home to do spreadsheets.  And finishing at about 8:30p.  Yeah, add writing to that... :snort:

Oh, and then I play with the kittens before going to bed, because I don't want to neglect the babies.  Poor Hubs.

And that's about it.  Time to call the Michigan office before I have to get ready to go to the Missouri office.  Yay.  

Random Update

First thing in the morning is a bad time to blog.  I have kittens to wrangle and coffee to drink and I have to smoke out in the sun porch now, so I can't exactly sit here while I'm doing it.  Then I have to get ready for work and whoosh, out the door I go.  Nights ain't all that great either.  I get home from work and I'm a totally toad.  Eat dinner, watch a little TV, maybe read a few pages of someone else's words and then I'm off to bed.  Weekends?  Well, there are errands to run and I spend a lot of time decompressing away from the computer.  Cuz like I sit in front of a computer all day long at work.  So it's not like I'm quitting blogging.  I still want to blog.  I just don't have the energy or the brain power to do it as often as I'd like.

And there ya go.

I haven't been reading much.  I haven't been baking at all.  We won't talk about activity.  And I weigh around 160.

They changed the office hours at work a smidgen, so we're not open until 5:30 now.  Which means I get home a half hour earlier M-Th.  Yay.  

Sawyer has this thing where, right after Hubs cleans the litter box, the dang kitten jumps in and then attacks the litter.  Totally ruins the feng shui in there.  Weirdo.  He's also our soccer star.  And he's obsessed with the ceiling fans.  Finn is our quiet boy, except when he talks to himself.  Walking around the house meowing little meows under his breath. He also likes to play in my hair, which occasionally turns into attacking my hair.  Scalp ouchies.  Bummer.

We've been hearing coyotes a lot lately.  Which does not bode well for the fawns should they arrive early.  Hopefully, the 'yotes will move along before the actual fawning begins.

Well, that's about all I've got time for this morning.  I'll try to remember to stop by on Thursday.

Brain Clutter

They're doing that thing again where you list the states you've lived in and visited.  Someone was all like "I'm not putting that info out there for the hackers".  I'm ambivalent.  If the hackers haven't already seen this about me, well, that's how it goes.  Anyway, I made a map.  Red dots are where I've lived and blue dots are where I've visited.  (The placement of the dots is random and don't indicate exactly where I was in any given state.)

Six states lived in (MI gets two dots because I lived in each peninsula at some time or another.  Not every Michigander can say that, doncha know.)  I'm done moving around and pretty much done traveling.  I might still drop into OK, but only because it's so close to here it wouldn't be a haul.  For as much as I'm in AR, that dot ought to be like purple or something.  LOL

In further interest of putting things out there the hackers could always play with, today is my anniversary.  18 years of wedded bliss.  And no, that is not sarcasm.  I love Hubs more today than the day we married and I'll love him more tomorrow.  No matter the ups or the downs, we remain strong together.  Oh, and tomorrow is my birthday.  I joke that I made him marry me the day before my birthday so he would never forget one or the other.  I'm 52.  If the hackers don't already have that info, I'd be totally surprised.

I saw something on FB.  2022 is as far from 1970 as 1970 is from 1918.  Let that sink in.  

Some days I feel old.  Some days I feel like a kid.  Either way, the prevailing thought is 'there's no way I can be x years old'.  But I am.  I finally bit the bullet and listed 'gray' as my hair color on my fishing license.  The ol' DL still says 'brown', but it really is more than 50% gray now.  I figure when the gal at the DMV tells me my hair is gray, I'll put it on my driver's license.  Since MO licenses last for like 9 years, that'll happen next time.  LOL

Something struck me the other day.  The longer you live, the more memories you have to clutter up your brain.  Yeah, it's obvious, but I hadn't really thought about it.  No wonder I can't get to sleep.  The ol' brain is constantly flipping through the memories - on random.  Mom's got 30 years on me, so I'm not sure how she ever sleeps.  Imagine how many more memories her brain has.  Sheesh.

And on that note, I'll let you get back to your regularly scheduled lives.  Lord knows, I've got a bunch of stuff to do today... that'll probably turn into stuff I need to do tomorrow.  LOL

Have a great day!

Randomosity

I'm totally scatterbrained right now, so here's a randomosity post...

I started writing again last night.  Shroudlands Book 2.  I only got out about 850 words, but I like them, so it's all good.  

The other day a reader contacted me on FB messenger, asking if I had any plans for more SCIU books and whether it would be any time soon.  The answer is yes and no.  Yes, I have plans, but 'any time soon' is problematic.  I'm one of those writers who had to follow where the words take me.  If I try to force them where they don't want to go, it all comes out flat and crappy.  You don't want flat and crappy.  Right now, the words are taking me down the fantasy path.  They might take me back down the SCIU path soon, but I can't tell that ahead of time.  It is what it is.  I was bright enough in that moment to encourage her to try my other books, though.  Time and Amazon will tell when or if she follows through with buying those.  Since she's buying my books in paperback, I have to wait until they ship to see they were purchased.  

I've been watching Grey's Anatomy reruns again.  I tell myself I won't, and then invariably, I do.  It's an addiction.  

We're supposed to get snow again tonight, I think.  Blerg.

I need to make granola bars.

My mom got one of those Ancestry DNA test things.  The results are pretty much what I thought they'd be.  Scottish, Prussian, Eastern European on her side.  The genealogy told me that, so it's good to know the tree is on point there.  No native American, so that myth's now firmly put to bed.  My sister also got hers done, but she hasn't got the results back yet.  Since hers and mine are the same, it'll be interesting to learn what genetics Dad brings into the whole thing.

I'm enjoying discovering more new music.  I have pages and pages of songs that I still need to look up, but it's a neat little side timesuck.  I like this one - Colder Heavens by Blanco White - a lot.

And I think that's all for me today.  Anything random going on in your world lately?  Are you as scatterbrained as I am?

Randomosity

So apparently Facebook went down yesterday for about six hours.  I noticed because as I play poker, I like to scroll through the feed when I'm not in a hand and when I tried, I got a note from my browser that there was no Facebook.  I shrugged and went on with my day.  I totally forgot about it until later when I clicked my link and in my feed people were talking about the outage.  Some people are joking that Facebook banned itself.  Others are joking that this outage was due to some whistleblower and Zuck needed to shut down to delete stuffs.  

Last night I made a dish for dinner using chicken, onions, baby potatoes, and mushrooms sauteed in butter with salt, pepper, and basil.  Dished it up and drizzled BBQ sauce over it.  Pretty yummy stuff there.  Hubs has been off chicken lately, but he said it was good, so there's a win.  Yay.

We're at that point in the year where I have no idea what to wear.  Too hot, too cold, too hot, too cold.  Shorts and then sweats and back to shorts.  Put on a sweater, take it off.  

I'm up to almost 300 million in poker now.  When you're playing with 20 mil at a whack, it's easier to go up quickly.  There's also the chance you'll go down just as quickly if you aren't careful... and lucky.  Like I was at 200 million and went down to 91 million over the course of a day.  And it took a couple weeks to get back to 200 mil.  :shrug:  Yesterday, I jumped from 245 to 298 thanks to a couple good hands and some other minor wins.  Waxed a couple of people when I went all-in with pocket aces.  That netted me 37 mil.  Got another 10 mil with a flush on the river.  I was third on the leader board for the week for that buy-in level last I checked.  Go, me.

My arms are still pretty much toast from the work I did.  This makes reading hard.  Holding up a book or an ereader for any length of time exacerbates the ouchy.  Typing for too long is also a no-no.  This is the excuse I'm using for not writing again yet.

Yes, mousing is also hard, but I try to limit that when I play poker.  And I don't play for too long at a stretch.  Play a little, take a break.  I think this might be the key to getting back to writing/editing.  Do a little, take a break.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  We'll give that a whirl today.  Maybe.

I cleaned my bathroom.  This is notable because I haven't done it in months.  Because reasons.  Now it's so pretty!  Makes me not want to take a shower in there and mess it up.  

I really need to cut my hair.  This, too, will mess up my bathroom with hair bits which I will have to vacuum up.  Which reminds me... I have to shave my legs, too.  Blerg.  Too much information?  LOL

And on that note, I'm going to wander off.  Got anything random to add?

Short Random Post

It's morning.  It's Monday.  Not sure what the day will bring.

I hadn't weighed myself in almost two weeks because I've been eating and not exercising.  And I didn't want to see what that meant for overall poundage.  Well, I weighed myself this morning.  Lost 2.4 pounds.  Go figger.  Stress for the win? :shrug:

I spent a lot of time this weekend watching movies.  I finally sat down and watched Chronicles of Riddick.  I thought it was before Pitch Black, but it wasn't.  Then I saw Riddick was on, so I jumped into that partway through.  It was a lot like Pitch Black.  I mean, I liked it, but it wasn't really wildly new ground.  We also watched The Razor's Edge with Tyrone Power.  It's based on a Somerset Maugham book.  Interesting.  Not something I'd watch again, but I'm glad I watched it.

I just got a call that something I've been waiting on is ready to go, so I'll be jetting out of here shortly.  Sorry for the short post.  See y'all tomorrow, depending on things and stuff.

Since I'll be AFK (away from keyboard), if you leave a comment, I'll get to it when I get home.

Links and Things

I saw a neat idea on FB this morning.  Homemade heat packs.  A local pet rescue organization was looking for volunteers to make these because they're perfect for baby animals and for pets recuperating from surgery.  I don't have a sewing machine, or I'd give it a whirl.  Hell, I might make one by hand for myself.  It won't look pretty, but it'll work.

If you're interested in the pet rescue, go here.  If you've got a favorite rescue in your area, maybe you could make heat packs for them or share the idea with them so they can have volunteers make them, too.

This morning, Silver James posted a yummy recipe.  (She does recipes every Tuesday.)  

In case you're not following my Totally Amateur Container Gardener blog, I have a link over there about plant sex.  (Okay, it's about my zucchinis, but plant sex totally figures in there.)

If you're not reading NOT THE BEE, perhaps you should.  If you're familiar with The Babylon Bee, they're a satirical site.  This is like that, but not satire.  They're real articles on the conservative side of the spectrum.

Seen a bird but don't know what it was?  Go here and click on Instant ID Help.

If you watch Dr. Pol, you might have seen him working with Hopewell Ranch.  These folks do good work.

And that's it for me today.  If you have an interesting online place to go, don't post the link, but give enough information so I can search it myself and maybe add it to the end of this post.  (I don't allow links in comments, unless it's someone I know and trust.)

Randomosity

When I can't think of a long enough thing to make a whole post, you get this... randomosity.

Yesterday, I learned of something disconcerting.  A friend of mine had been throw in Facebook jail.  Her only recourse was to appeal the decision, which she did only to be told that they're awfully busy right now and might not have time to get to her.  So, she's off FB for the foreseeable future.  And she doesn't post anything controversial.  Guys without their shirts on.  Funny cat/dog pics.  Goofy memes about coffee.  They didn't even tell her why, other than to spout the standard 'violated community standards' crap.  Gah, I am so pissed I can't see straight.  Anyway, they didn't touch her author page (show your support and go like it if you're on FB), but she can't touch it either.  She can't even log onto FB to look at stuff.  Bastards.

I went out fishing yesterday and the first thing I did, before I even got a worm in the water, was to fall on my ass.  In their infinite wisdom, they put huge rocks all along the river/creek, so now, in order to bank fish in my favorite spots, I have to traverse some iffy terrain.  Loose rocks underfoot... fell on my ass.  Unfortunately, I fell with my left leg underneath me, so it got bent all the way to my ass - something it hasn't done in 27 years.  And something popped.  It hurt like hell and I think I screamed.  So, there I sat wondering if I'd well and truly screwed myself.  After a time, I figured I'd better get up and see if I could walk to the car.  It didn't hurt anymore, but sometimes that happens.  I got up.  And stood there, still not hurting. Then I wiggled my leg.  Still not hurting.  Then I bent my leg back and forth.  Lo and behold, my leg bent like it used to.  Something must've broken loose.  Old scar tissue?  Anyway, it still bends.  I ache all over this morning, but it still bends like it did before my accident.  Happy accidents do sometimes happen.

Oh, I caught three fish afterwards.  Then I went to a different place, walked all over there and caught one fish.  

Oh and I accidentally kicked up a flock of teals.  And their were osprey at the other place. I love it here.

In case you're not following my new blog about gardening, I now have zucchini seedlings coming up.

Yesterday, Lumpy's son - the yearling buck - was playing by himself,  Tilting his head like was going to fight another buck and jumpy all around.  So cute.

The trees here are filled with tweeting birdies.  Loads of them.  But I haven't laid eyes on any of them and their songs aren't such that I can say I've heard them before, so the birds remain unidentified.  Might be finches.  Did I mention I love it here?

Okay, off you go to your own regularly scheduled lives.  I'll be back again tomorrow with a similar post.  Although, now that I've written this, I have to come up with more random things to say.  I bet I can do it.  ;o)

Randomosity

Sorry about yesterday.  I had a plan to write a blog post and then I got doing my usual morning stuff and then I had to call the office and then I decided to go fishing.  By the time I got home, I somehow thought I'd written the blog post and so I went on about my day.  This morning, I realized what a total brainfart that was.  I'd feel better about it if I'd caught even one fish.  

I was only gone for about 45 minutes.  When I got to my fishing spot, I discovered they were doing more work on it.  They're now repaving the roads.  The crew hadn't arrived yet, and they park itself wasn't closed - just the ramp was closed - so I went on in.  I found myself a spot where I figured I'd be out of the way.  After a while, I started to hear large equipment moving up near the entrance, which made me totally paranoid that they'd pave me in.  So I left.  

I would've gone elsewhere, but I was on an eighth of a tank of gas and I don't carry much money with me when I go fishing.  So I went home.  

Just as well.  I had stuff to do.  Like transplanting my lettuce sprouts.  (Did you know microgreens are just lettuce sprouts?  At least, that's what I read the other day.)  I got that done.  Twelve egg things into four ice cream buckets.  Woohoo.  And yes, I ate one of the sprouts.  It was good.  

This morning, after another fun-filled night of not sleeping well, I opened my inbox to find my cover artist had done the back covers for UatB and CU and needed my approval before she makes them into PDFs.  So I whipped the email open and checked them out and... There was a mistake in the blurb for UatB.  It was a mistake that carried through all my stuffs - like Amazon and my blogs and pretty much every other place I had it listed.  Way to go there, brainiac.  And I'm the one who's tough on people who don't proofread their stuff.  :adjusts big red nose and floppy clown feet:  I fixed it all and it should be fixed live on Amazon shortly.

Some days I wonder if I'm actually as sharp as I pretend to be.  Derpy derpy derp derp.

Anyway, I hit the ground scrambling this morning and now I'm toast.  Like I went to stand up and my foot was asleep.  Only it's my head.  

I'd go get gas and try fishing again, but I hear thunder in the distance.  Maybe I'll just go read a book and hope my brain wakes the hell up.  

How are things in your world today?

March the First Random Rantings

The new wall calendar I bought for 2021 kinda sucks.  By some stroke of genius at the company that prints the calendar, all the numbers and holidays are printed in light gray.  Light gray, people.  Can't read the freakin' thing from more than a foot away and even then, I need my glasses.  It's a WALL calendar.  I should be able to read it while it's hanging on the wall three feet away, for pitysakes.  So, in order to be able to read it, I have to go over the dates with a pen before I hang the damn thing on the wall each month.  (Yes, I could sit here and do the whole damn calendar all at once, but I'm lazy.)  (And yes, I could go buy a new calendar, but I already paid for this one and I'm a tightwad.  Also, I wrote on it, so I can't return it.)

The bird of the day is a parrot.  I have mentioned before... I hate parrots.  No, seriously.  I do love birds, and I'd be fine with parrots in the wild if I hadn't lived with a parrot for 3 years... and if the parrot hadn't been owned by a mentally abusive asshole.  I can't even look at an African Gray without the anger that relationship caused bubbling up.  And I left that dude in 1998.  The parrot has become a mental symbol of abuse for me.  I probably should see someone about that.  :shrug:  It's not harshing my ability to live, so I probably won't bother.

Tangentially, the bird's name was Maurice - after the Steve Miller Band song lyric.  Can't listen to that song either anymore.  Thanks, asshole.  You win.  I'm still thinking about you twenty-three years later.  Thinking nasty thoughts, but still there you are.  It will be happy day when I read your obituary*.

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with people?  Women for putting up with crap like that.  And the significant others who can't seem to stop abusing the people they are supposed to love.  Over the years, I've talked to many women who've been abused.  I don't seek them out, but it seems like once we become friends, the stories come leaking out.  It's a LARGE pool of people, folks.  Way larger than I think the statistics reflect.  Way too large considering that we're all supposed to be nice to each other, now more than ever.  Feh.  

Okay, well, that last part could turn into a full-blown, hours long rant, so I'll stop.  

What's pissing you off today?

*Yes, from time to time, I put his name into the search engines.  Part of me feels safer knowing where he's at - even after all these years.  And part of me is, in fact, waiting for the happy day when I learn he's been hit by a bus.  I cheered when I learned his mom died.  What a piece of work that chick was.  The world is a better place with her gone.

Tuesday Stuff n Junk

I do posts like this when my brain is incapable of holding a single thought long enough to write an entire post on one subject.

Yesterday, a comment to yesterday's post arrived in my inbox for moderation.  They said something nasty about me and then tried to coax me to their religion by implying it could fix me or some such nonsense.  ROFL.  You'll note the comment did not make it through moderation.  Comments like that are deleted.  My readers don't need to see that crap.  

I'm kinda derailed with my writing/editing/etc. Thus, my previously stated schedule for having Duke Noble out is on pause.  This may be due to my not being able to hold a single thought in my head for any length of time.

In release news, my friend Silver James' latest Red Dirt Royalty: Twice the Temptation (through Harlequin) is available in ebook format as of yesterday.  (Paperback due out on the 9th.)  Also, the children's book my friend Cedar Sanderson illustrated - One Hungry Werewolf went live today.  And another acquaintance Sarah A. Hoyt has a new book out today, too - Draw One in the Dark (urban fantasy).  Yay for all of them!

Facebook keeps trying to suggest pages that are supposedly 'for me'.  Umm, no.  About one in five, they get it right.  Like the Michigan photography page or the lighthouse page.  Eco-freako pages?  Nope.  Feminist pages?  Nope.  Trans-whatever pages?  Ut-uh.  Leftist loony pages?  No way.  Football pages?  Yeah, they missed the part where I quit football cold turkey and never looked back. 

Speaking of football, until this morning I had no clue who made it to the Super Bowl.  The Chiefs, apparently.  And that was because they're Missouri and a news-weather site I follow said something about the weather on game day for the Chiefs.  Meh.  I have no clue who they're playing and I don't really care.

I know I mentioned thinking about creating a garden.  I'm not sure if I mentioned I'm leaning toward a container garden I can set up on my deck.  It would get rid of the need to fence the damn thing to keep the deer out of it.  Anyway, it's an idea.  It wouldn't be too hard, either.  And we have most of the stuffs to get it going, or we can get the stuffs cheap at the thrift stores.  Basically, I need dirt and seeds.  And probably those platforms with casters so I can roll the plants around to get the best sun and protect them from storms.  

PBS is showing a new version of All Creatures Great and Small on Sunday nights here.  It's a pretty good show, if you can distance it from the books.  (If you never read the books, you're home free.)  They've also got a show called Miss Scarlet and the Duke - a mystery set in the Victorian era, I think - that's kind of fun.

Okay, I probably better get a start on my day.  What's up with you?

Getting Older Sucks

Gah.  I feel like someone spent the night beating me with a bag of oranges.  Of course, I did this to myself.  No, not the bag of oranges thing.  I have other ways of abusing myself.  

For instance, I spent about an hour yesterday clearing brush from the neglected south plot.  That's the one we worked on last winter and then let go fallow again over the summer.  Eh, it gives me something to do.  

Then I helped Hubs with finishing the toilet repairs.

Then the cat bit my thumb while I was trying to give her an aspirin.  Molar chomp.  (Yes, I super disinfected it.)

And lastly, I wrote over 2K words last night.

So basically, I hurt this morning.  Getting older sucks.

Might do it all again today.  Well, with the exception of the cat chomping on my thumb.  You shouldn't give a cat aspirin more than every 48 hrs anyway.  (Baby aspirin.  Coated.)  Of course, we're supposed to have shitty weather, so maybe not even all of the other stuff.  Writing definitely.

Speaking of writing, I left off last night at the very beginning of the climax scene.  Then there has to be some denouement.  Not long before I get to THE END now.  Of course, lately it's been 'write a whole bunch one day, and only write a little bit the next couple days' because of hands and wrists.  Lucky for me, I am a fast typer.  Unlucky for me, the faster I type, the more it hurts to type*.  But when I'm on a roll, I don't consider typing slower.  And hey, it almost never hurts while I'm typing.  That comes later.

I took an anti-inflammatory last night before bed.  Fat lot of good that did.  Probably should've taken two.  Eh.

Fortunately, the more I move around this morning, the less it hurts.  Sleeping does that sometimes - makes everything seize up.  I should be right as rain... or as right as an old gimpy chick can ever be - by sunrise.  

Like I said, I'll probably do it all again today.  If not today then soon.  The alternative is laying around the house being a lump, and that never does anyone any good.  But oh, how I long for the days when I could do anything physical I wanted and not pay for it the next day. 

Getting older sucks.

*No, voice to text software wouldn't work for me.  I have considered it.  My brain doesn't work that way.  I'm constantly editing while I type.  'Type type type delete delete delete type type delete delete, reword this move that go back to earlier in the text looking for something find a typo there fix it go back to the end and start typing again get up to get coffee forget where I was and have to go back and read several paragraphs to get in the groove again.'  I don't think you can do that in voice to text.  I can't imagine what the actual text would look like afterwards.

Late Night Ponderings for a Morning Post

It's a quarter to ten and I'm writing this to post in the morning.  I'm kinda tired, but I'm waiting for the cat to use the litterbox so I don't go to bed only to get up in an hour.  Life with a geriatric cat.  :sigh:

The world has really gone batshit crazy.  It's like 2021 looked at 2020 and said 'hold my beer'. 

People... or a certain subsect of people, I should say... are calling for another section of people to be put on a list, or rounded up, or blacklisted somehow.  It's a creepy glimpse of Germany in the late 1930s.  I saw and shared a meme thingie on FB with a made-up quote from George Orwell about how he'd written a book to warn people against behavior like this.  He wasn't alone.  Aldous Huxley, Ayn Rand, Ray Bradbury... myself, if I can include myself in that list of literary greats... all wrote books warning against this stuff.  Pity not enough people listened.

The company I've used for years as my internet browser said something about the tech companies not doing enough to censor people, or something like that.  As of today, I have a new browser.  It's called Brave.  We'll see.  I had thought, you know, browsers... how can they do anything political?  Umm, yeah.  

I was thinking today about building a vegetable garden and maybe getting some chickens or rabbits.  I found an article that was really into the whole critter-proof garden thing, complete with diagrams and lists of tools you NEED to buy to do it.  Umm, no.  Then I found another article that was totally relaxed about the whole thing and didn't make it seem like a major home improvement project.  That's more my style.  You don't need an engineer or a wad of money to put something together that won't blow down in a stiff breeze or collapse at the sight of a deer.  I have ideas now.

I'm still writing my book.  44291 words as of tonight... err, last night... err... maybe I should just set this to post and go to bed.  Here kitty kitty kitty.  Time to go to the litterbox so mommy can go to bed.

Rambling at Year's End

Stuck in the between when the holiday is over and the new year hasn't begun, when I have no idea what day it is. (Worse than usual.)  The lost final week of a lost year.

At some point today, I have shopping to do.  They're predicting craptastic weather starting tomorrow, so the big decision is whether to go south and get groceries today and go north for cigarettes tomorrow, OR do both today.  Cigs are a half hour north.  Groceries are a half hour south.  Doing both today would put me on the road for 2 hours today.  Not that I haven't done that in the past.  Yo, former road-warrior here.  But it has been a while since I did hauls like that and these days, if I have to drive a lot, I'm a toad for the rest of the day.  By the time you see this to comment on it, the choice will have been made.  

At some point this week, I have to finish the spreadsheets.  Oh, I finished the ones for the pay-job yesterday - all twelve monthly ones, and three others input to throughout the year.  I also got some smaller personal sheets done - books acquired, the weight/activity log, the one where I keep track of my marketing.  I have the big Sales Totals spreadsheet and the Books Sales Data sheet that feeds it left to do there.  And I have to update the one where I keep all income and outgo for the writing biz.  That one makes me have a sad, but ignoring it doesn't make it go away.  Ignoring it would be like sticking my fingers in my ears and humming to avoid having to hear bad news.  It is what it is.

I also have to do my yearly wrap-up blog posts.  

And I should probably start thinking about taxes.  Blerg.

I have three books left to read by the end of the year to meet my updated goal of 90 books.  The one I'm reading now, though, is longer than I thought it would be, so I might not hit 90.  We'll see.

Eh, it's time to call the office.  I'll catch you all later.  What are you up to this week?  Getting ready for 2021 or trying to hide from it?