Thursday This n That... A Day Late

Welp, I totally brainfarted out on the fact that yesterday was Thursday.  I blame the office.  Due to the approach of inclement weather, they did payroll a day early which set me up for thinking yesterday was Friday.  Thus, no Thursday post.  (I have no excuses for the lack of a Wednesday post, unless you count not having anything to talk about.)

I don't really have anything to talk about today either.  My life is boring.  However, I shall attempt to amuse you for a while today before sending you off to your regularly scheduled pursuits.

It is, apparently, skunk mating season around the area.  Thus, many many skunks are wandering around in a daze and getting smucked on the roads.  Please avoid hitting them.  They're not bad animals.  They just stink.  

The big snow event of the week never made it this far south.  Yay.  I guess there's some ice out there, but I have nowhere to do and nothing to do, so :shrug:  It'll warm back up by the time I do need to go out.

I shifted my internet radio over to a station based off the band The Offspring.  They are not for the faint of heart, so I'm not really recommending them, but they soothe the savage breast sometimes.  Yesterday, a song by them popped up I'd never heard before and the title made me ROFL... "Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and Rides the Bomb to Hell".  If you're not familiar, it's referring to a scene from Dr. Strangelove, wherein Slim Pickens does, in fact, ride a nuclear bomb after its dropped.  The song was only so-so.  Sad.  Their song Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) amuses me greatly.

I told Hubs what I was listening to and promised I'd never share any of the songs with him.  Yeah, this is where our age difference comes into play.  He's totally not in a space where The Offspring or any similar band would appeal to him.  And he never will be.  And that's okay.  I share songs from my folk rock station.  He likes what I share.  (I also send them to a friend and sometimes post them to my FB page.)  Here are a few of the songs I've shared recently:

Bees by The Ballroom Thieves (they also do Only Lonely, which I love)
The Night We Met by Lord Huron
Better With You by Kris Allen (which isn't folk rock, really, but it showed up and I like it)
Big Black Car by Gregory Alan Isakov
Down in the Valley by The Head and the Heart

That last band I liked so much, I bought the CD.  It's awesome.  Anyway, when I hear a song I like, I write it in my notebook (a little notebook, not the big one I use for editing), so I can go back later and look it up.  I have scads more I haven't shared yet.  

For the record, I do not know the backgrounds or the philosophies of these bands.  I don't want to, so if you know and they suck, don't ruin it for me.  I've lost so much entertainment, I'm clutching to what I have left.

Got anything on your this n that list today?  Feel free to be boring.  The boring are welcome here.  There's coffee in the back.

Sunday Update - Week 2

Well, it was another week of 2021.  I saw something on the webz that went like this: 2021 = 2020 won.  Umm, yeah.  It sure feels that way.  But enough about that...

I'm over here still plugging along.  I wrote 8167 words last week, writing every day but yesterday.  I needed a day off.  All I have left to write on this book is the denouement.  Wrap everything up in a neat little bow.  Anyway, I took yesterday off partly because I wasn't sure how to proceed with the end.  Then, as I was trying to go to sleep last night, it hit me.  I got up and wrote the idea down.  Then shortly after I went back to bed, it hit me some more, so I got up again and wrote that idea down, too.  I can write the ending today.  Yay.

And I think I have a title finally:  Duke Noble: Consequences.  We'll see if I come up with something better before I'm ready to go to publication.

And I've been pondering cover art.  Actually, I can picture the cover in my head.  It all depends whether I can pull it off.  

Marketing?  Umm, no.  My brain is all into the creating right now.  

Last week wasn't bonza for reading.  I only finished one book.  Well, actually, it was a five book omnibus, of which I'd already read three.  So I read two of the others all the way through and the beginnings of two others to the point where I realized I'd already read them.  But yeah, technically, only one book.  Yesterday, I DNF'd four books.  Blerg.

I got in 5 days with active stuff last week.  But I didn't weigh myself at all.  It probably hasn't changed from my last record: 181.6.

In the activity was a bout of clearing the south plot.  And then it snowed, so no more progress on that.  I'm still not sure if I'll do a garden there, but the work will keep me busy.

On the baking front, I made applesauce bread yesterday.  I also planned on making cookies, too, but I ended up vacuuming and then the gumption ran out.

Not sure if I mentioned it before, but Pierre the skunk seems to have moved on.  The leaves we packed around the wood pile haven't been moved.  I'd move, too, if my whole house smelled like moth balls.  Sorry, Pierre, but your stink was becoming an issue.  May you be happier elsewhere.

Yesterday, Lear the buck stopped by for some noms.  He's antlerless now, but that broken ear will always tell us who he is.  He looks good and yay, he made it through all the hunting seasons.

That's it for me for the week.  How did things go in your world?

Sunday Update - Week 52

I wish I could say this was the end of 2020, but we still have a few days left to go.  Although, saying that reminds me that I have a boatload of year-end stuff to do this coming week.  But we're not here to talk about what's ahead, are we? 

I wrote every day last week for a total of 8531 new words.  Duke Noble is now sitting at 28536 words and 96 pages.  Not sure how long this one will be overall, especially since I feel like I'm ramping up toward the climax.  :shrug:  If it turns out to be a novella instead of a novel, I'm okay with that.  It'll be tight without a lot of fluff.

In marketing news, I've been working pretty steady on posting about the sale to FB and MeWe.  I've moved a lot - for me - of free copies of Wish in One Hand that I hope will turn into sales of the other books once those copies get read.  And I've sold 3 sets of the entire series.  Today's the last day for all of it, so we'll see.  I haven't seen any page reads from this.  Or from the SCIU sale earlier in the month.  Is KU not a thing anymore?  :shrug:

Last week, I finished a couple of good books and DNF'd a dud.  I'm pretty close to finishing my final goal of 90 books for the year.

In baking news, I made an apple cranberry crisp using a different recipe.  It's pretty good.  I also made a double batch of applesauce bread.  For Christmas, I didn't bake anything but I did do steak with sauteed portabello mushrooms and sauteed shrimp.  Hubs declared it a winner.

We didn't do anything for Christmas.  I called my mom.  Hubs called his mom.  I got a Merry Christmas chat message from Owl.  A certain awesome person - she knows who she is - gave me Black Rifle coffee for Christmas.  Yummers.  It didn't arrive until yesterday, but that's okay because it gave me a whole other day to celebrate.  I made a pot yesterday afternoon and we sat around drinking coffee and smoking and playing poker.  Fun times.  I also made a pot of it this morning.  And it came in a OD green bag with a big red cross on it - emergency medical coffee.  Mobile Army Surgical Coffee.  It gave me a happy.  

Speaking of arriving yesterday, I finally got the Christmas card from my Mom.  And two other Christmas cards.  And my paycheck that was late arriving.  No word on whether my nephew-in-law in the Navy every got the package my sister sent him back in mid-November.  Of all the mail that needs to get where it's going, holiday packages for the troops should've been a priority for the USPS.  Anything with an APO address.  Seriously shouldn't have been that hard to get the stuff to the troops.  Gah.

In yard news, a cedar just off the yard has begun falling over.  The thick, wet, heavy snow that turned to ice last week was too much for it.  The root base snapped on the uphill side and now gravity has a hold of it.  

Not the best picture, but if you look between the reflections, you can see how the trunk has tilted.  It used to be as straight as the other trees.  =o(  I feel like one big squirrel leaping onto it at the right time could push it over.  Sure, it's just one of many trees, but I love my trees and I hate to see any of them die.  On the upside, this could be the key thing that gets me a chainsaw.  When it falls, it'll block off a couple of trails, and we can't have that.  Bwa ha ha.

In other news, it appears that Pierre has moved on.  The leaf litter we put all around the wood pile hasn't been disturbed and the stink is dissipating.

The deer are still coming in bigger herds than usual.  And we've been seeing an old buck lately.  Not anyone we know (we think).  He's lost his antlers already and he looks kind of sad.  I think if this ends up being a harsh winter, we'll lose him.  Everyone else is looking good, though.  Loads of healthy does and yearlings and fawns.  The cycle of life continues on the Sanderson homestead.

How's things in your life?  Did you have a nice Christmas?  Get anything good?

Sunday Update - Week 51

One more full week of 2020 to go.  Either I screwed up the count this year or this horrible year actually has 53 weeks.  I wouldn't surprised either way.

Writing went really well for the first couple days of the week.  Then I hit a spot where I wasn't sure what I was doing was any good and crashed.  I ended up deleting some words which I though helped because I wrote a lot the next couple days and then the 'this is crap' hit and I crashed again.  As long as I don't think about it, I can write.  Once I start thinking about it, it falls apart.  Admitting the problem is half the battle, right?

I'm thinking about having a sale this week.  Not sure what it'll be for or whether I'll even have it at all.  I'd like to finish this year with a bang, even if it is muffled.  

It was an okay reading week.  I read a few really good books, including one I finished yesterday that'll be in next week's wrap-up.

In baking news, I made a batch of my Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies - the ones with oats and peanut butter.  There are like two left.  

The dumping of snow we got last Sunday/Monday is almost totally gone now.  The only spots left are where Hubs shoveled and made piles here and there.  I managed to get out to the store on Tuesday and got plenty of corn for the deer, which is good because one day there we had 33 stop by for breakfast and another day we had like 20+.  Now that the snow has melted off and they can forage again, they shouldn't be bunching up like that anymore.  :fingers crossed:  We really can't feed a herd that large every day or I'll be spending all my time running back and forth to the feed store.  

Yesterday, I went into the woods to blow off stress.  I started by working on sawing up a fallen tree.  It took some time, but I got the top 3-4' off and onto the wood pile.  Then Hubs came down and we worked on putting leaves around the wood pile to see if Pierre the skunk is hanging out in there.  Today, we'll go out and if the leaves are moved, we'll know he's still using the pile as his den.  

The second pile farther down the hill has signs that other critters are going in and out under it in four different spots - one with dirt scattered like something is making a burrow.  No stink, though, so whatever is habitating there isn't Pierre.  I'd like to think bunnies and maybe a ground hog.

Looking out the back window yesterday, I noticed one of the cedars just off the yard had tilted slightly.  When I checked it out, you can see where the base of it cracked.  We assume the weight of the snow pulled it sideways sufficiently to snap one of the anchor roots.  The tree seems to be okay, even with the slight tilt.  We'll see how it fares over the summer and whether it turns brown.  =o(

I also spent some time this week attempting to save several little 7-10' cedars.  The weight of the snow had pulled them all over so their tops were laying on the ground.  Once we got the snow off, they came back so they're standing mostly straight now.  Stupid heavy wet snow.

Well, that's about it for me.  Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom.  Here's hoping for a good week for us all and a bunch of Happy Holidays this week - including a Merry Christmas.  :hugs:

How's your week go?

Thursday This n That

 We now have 6 bucks frequenting the yard - Arthur, Lear, Midas, Captain, Val, and Spike.

A couple days ago, I glanced out the back window in time to see a skunk ambling his way to the wood pile and disappearing underneath it.  I have named him Pierre.  He's a big dude with a little giddy-up in his step, like one of his back legs is ouchy.  We've never seen a skunk here in the neighborhood.  Smelled one a couple times down near the river, but never even smelled one up here - including Pierre.  (We had the windows open, so we definitely should've smelled something.)  As long as Pierre doesn't cause us any problems, he's free to live under the wood pile.  Hell, if he doesn't stink, he may have been living under that pile for years without us knowing.  If he starts causing problems, we'll find a way to encourage him to move elsewhere.

I don't know why this never occurred to me until I saw Pierre, but Pepe le Pew is a French skunk with a Spanish name.  Maybe Pepe hails from the Spain/France border.  Perhaps he's Basque.  :chortle:

Yesterday, I made applesauce bread.  This time I put diced apple in there.  Yummers.

Thanksgiving is a week from today.  Feel free to panic.  I know I am.  I haven't even gotten a turkey yet.  It's always just the two of us for holidays.  I feel bad for my family up in Michigan.  No one is coming to Mom's for Thanksgiving this year.  I mean, my one sister who lives close will be there, but she's always there, so while it's nice, it's not special.  My brother and other sister won't be coming with their families for the big special family gathering.  Sad.  Gah, I just realized that also shits out Mom's yearly shopping trip with my sisters.  Every day-after-Thanksgiving, it's a family tradition for the gals to go Christmas shopping.  (Not 'Black Friday' style shopping.  No getting up early, no stress.  Just a nice trip with the girls.  I used to go, too, but I live too far away now.)  Double sad.  =o(

I'm trying really hard to not let all of this crap get to me.  This really has been a shit year, though.  Nothing hugely horrible has happened.  We're all still alive.  It's just a constant droning of pain in the background - like that one bone you broke years ago that still hurts when the weather gets bad.  Sometimes you can forget about it or ignore it, but it's always there, waiting to flare up and hurt like the dickens.  It's either a constant ache or the fear of more pain to come.  Yep, that's what this year has been.

And on that cheery note, I'll let you get back to your day.  Hang in there, everybody.  :hugs: