Thursday, August 29, 2019

Thursday This n That

2019 is the year of the bugs.  Oh, we're still dealing with the grain bugs from last year.  And there are always the spiders and crickets and cockroaches.  And ticks and mosquitoes.  It's all part of living in the woods.  But this year has been bad.  The oak mites are particularly rampant and rabid this year.  Then Kira got fleas.  (We're knocking them back, but it's an ongoing thing.)  And Tuesday, unbeknownst to me, the bags of corn I bought and hauled in the back seat of my car, were infested with maize weevils.  To the point where you could actually hear them inside the bags - crawling, scratching, chewing... :shudder:  Lucky for us, Hubs noticed before he loaded them into our attached garage, so they never made it inside the house.  I carted them back to the feed store and got some non-infested bags of corn.  Then we unloaded the car and proceeded to deep clean in there.  Dozens of weevils, crawling all over everything.  I even had them on the ceiling of the car - one dropped onto my shoulder and crawled toward my cleavage while I was driving home from exchanging the infested feed.  Gross.  I'll be so happy when cold weather arrives and knocks the damn bugs back a bit.  All I can say is thank goodness weevils don't bite.  That would suck.  Literally. 

Scrolling down the BookGorilla newsletter last night looking for free new books to read when I passed a cover that looked extremely familiar.  I scrolled back, certain I couldn't have seen what I saw.  Yep, there it was - Accidental Death in the BookGorilla newsletter.  I didn't do it.  I can't afford an ad in BG.  And since I didn't do it, it was listed at full price - $2.99.  It's pretty far down in the newsletter and I didn't see any sales as far as I could tell, but hey, it was a pleasant surprise.  Who knew BG did stuff like that.  Gee.

I woke up late this morning, which is to say, around 5 instead of around 4.  (Or in the case of yesterday, around 3.)

I had some time before a doctor's appointment yesterday, so I stopped at one of the local thrift stores.  Before this year, I thought they only carried clothing, but on a whim, I went in and looked around.  Way in the back, they have tons of books.  So, anyway, yesterday their stock was a little thin, but I still managed to pick up 6 paperbacks and 3 hardcovers.  All for $2.  Nothing really groundbreaking in there, and I've already DNFd one, but I'm happy with the haul.

Around here, the thrift stores get a little lean in the summer, what with all the tourists and summer people picking through everything.  But it rights itself in September when everyone starts cleaning out.  I really hope someone out there donates a lot of old crime novels.

A friend who knows I circle the thrift stores looking for books put in two requests.  So now I have a sticky note in my purse with two titles to look for - a Nelson DeMille title and something by Eric Larsen. 

I went to school with a guy named Eric Larsen.  Probably not the same guy.

Okay, that's enough out of me for now.  What kinds of things are you throwing into the this n that today?



5 comments:

  1. The metro area had a tornado and high straight winds Monday night. We came through fine, as did the kids. The BiL not so much. They lost a strip of shingles on the main part of the house and half the garage roof. 😟

    Adidas is now partially paralyzed in her back legs so she can't really walk. She's not in pain, eats, drinks, does business (just not in the litter box). She seems content in her soft bed, on a puppy pad which we change through the day. She meows. Demands attention. Not sure how long she'll last. Vet just shrugs and says as long as we don't mind the "critical" care, let her be. So, we're letting her be.

    Loki is my 5 am alarm. He climbs up on the bed between the sheet and the bedspread and attacks my feet. The bedspread provides some protection from his sharp little vampire-kitty teeth. The sheet? None at all!

    Loki also likes wadded up paper "balls." He grabs them in his mouth, stalks off and then "plays" with them like a cat with a mouse. 🙄

    Boone is a worry wart. Loki freaks him out (Can't hurt the little thing!) and he goes in to check on Deeders about once an hour, which pisses her off because he noses her while she's sleeping.

    Jake is just Jake. Mostly mellow, loves to ride in the car, ignores the cats, barks at things moving down the street, and snoozes a lot. Life is good. I want to be Jake. 🙃

    I'm writing. A little. Better than nothing. I need to update my website with the new links on the Nightrider books. I think I'll do that when I get off the web.

    And that's my this. Tomorrow is Friday. Yay.

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    1. Oh no. Your poor BiL. I'm glad you and the kids are okay, though. Double oh-no for Deeders. :hugs: LOL, I'm pretty sure I couldn't handle a kitten again, but they are so much fun. Poor Boone. And yay for Jake!

      Yay for writing, even if it is only a little. I hope you got your links updated. Which reminds me that I have some back matter to deal with before my next sale. Drudge work is the worst.

      I hope your Friday went well. And today, too.

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  2. Congrats on showing up in the BookGorilla newsletter! I hope it brings you sales!

    It's definitely the year of the bug. A record 8 scorpions, as well as the usual critters. Do geckos count as bugs? I've been invaded. They don't seem to do any damage, but I accidentally killed at least three.

    A second burner on my stove stopped working. Well, one is dead, and the other only runs on high, even on Simmer. My dinner boiled over before I noticed it. I hope it's just the elements, if I can figure out how to change them.

    It would be cool if you went to school with that Eric Larsen!

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    1. Thanks, Deb! I haven't seen any movement on AD, but there's always hope.

      Eww, scorpions. LOL, that reminds me of an old Calvin and Hobbes where Calvin writes a paper "Bats are bugs." Maybe the geckos are there to eat your scorpions... do they do that?

      Ack. I hate when burners go wonky. I have two that are running hot even on low. It totally sucks.

      Yeah, it would be cool, but my Eric Larsen never struck me as a writerly type person. If I remember right - which is iffy on the best of days - he became a mechanic. Not that mechanics can't be writers, too, but it's not a typical thing.

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    2. Sadly, the scorpions are bigger than most of the geckos. Still, I think they eat gnats -- I really should look it up!

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