Sunday Update - 2026 Week Meh

It's Sunday.  There was a week.  It had a number.  I'm too apathetic this morning to go see what # it was.  Despite my general malaise this morning, the week was actually pretty okay.

I did a pretty good job of writing this week.  6334 words and I wrote on 5 out of the 7 days, so woot.  I ended the week at 49879.  Yeah, I know... so close to 50K, but it didn't happen and I'm not kicking myself for it.  I'm still fighting with myself mentally about whether this book is crap.  Eh, if it's crap, it's crap.  I'm enjoying writing it, so there.  =op

Marketing went.  I moved 12 whole copies of UNEQUAL.  :toots tiny horn:  This week, we'll see if I can double that number with whatever book I choose between now and tomorrow morning.

I started reading a book this week.  Twice Shy by Dick Francis.  It's not really grabbing me yet, so we'll see. 

Due to the heat, I only baked once this week and that was a pizza.  Hell, even general cooking is at a low point.  Last night, we had fish (pan fried tilapia that took like 5 minutes) and salad.  Tonight will probably be pork and salad.  Because I am slightly deranged, I might make Irish Soda Bread this morning, while it's still cool enough.

In activity news, I was not very active.  It was all 'water plants', except for going grocery shopping and one little wander around the yard - which I had to truncate because it was too damn hot to be out there for too long.  (I'm VERY ready for summer to be over.)  Weight: 180.6 - one would think I'd be dripping the pounds right the hell off in this heat, but I'm not.  

Speaking of plants, the greenhouse is doing okay.  The peppers are going well.  The tomatoes are okay, I guess.  The two I repotted are struggling - especially the grape tomato - but the two beefsteaks are green, and one of those was a transplant off the other one.  I have hopes they'll fruit if it ever gets cooler.

Ugh, I just looked at the temps for today/this week.  It's supposed to get to 102F here today and still be up in the 100s through Wednesday.  This is NOT what I ordered for early September.  Meh.

And on that note, I have to go water the greenhouse while it's still in the 70s.  Not sure what else I'll do today.  Hide from the heat and try not to move around too much.  (Yes, we have central air.  It's set at 75 and I still get too hot.  Damn menopause.)

Have a great day wherever you are.  Stay cool.  Peace out.

Friday This n That

 It's... :looks at a calendar:... Friday?  Okay, if you say so.  In case you didn't notice from my Marketing Tuesday post, I've been off by one day all week, so you shouldn't be surprised I missed posting on Thursday again.  Derp.

Mmm, coffee.  Too bad it's not doing its job.  Lazy coffee.

I happened to walk around the yard the other day.  Between the heat and the deer, my outdoor gardens are all roached.  My poor irises... =o(

The cats are enjoying being allowed out onto the sun porch.  They're not allowed out there without parental supervision, though, so we scoop them up and bring them inside when we're done smoking.  With Finn, I just say OUT and walk toward him and he scoots inside.  Sawyer tries o hide under the tables/chairs to avoid being carried out.  Silly kitties.

I don't know if I said, but they re-chipsealed our road.  It's made the whole thing infinitely more noisy.  And dusty.  And for tailgaters, they're risking getting a stone chip to the windshield.  All in all, though, I guess it is better.  :shrug:

Speaking of tailgaters, I hate that.  I never tailgate.  (Okay, maybe when I'm in the city and you can't really help it there, but even then I leave more space than anyone else.)  Out here in the back of beyond, there's really no point in tailgating.  You'll never encourage me to drive faster that way.  In fact, I drive slower when I've got someone inches from my back bumper.  It's safer.  (And it pisses them off, which is an added benefit.)  Pass me, you dumb shit, and enjoy your speeding ticket.  I'm rarely in any hurry.

Yes, I am rarely in a hurry.  Yes, I still speed.  It's usually 5 over.  I don't know why, really.  It just is.  I'm not committed to it, though, so yeah, you'll also see me doing 5 under because it's a nice day or what have you.  If I ever get a ticket for it, I'll accept it as the price I have to pay for being a rebel.  

ROFL

Oookay, I should probably go start my day.  At some point, I have to hit the bank and deposit my check.  I might swing into the DG on my way home.  Exciting times, eh?  Have a great one, wherever you are and whatever it is you might be doing.  :hugs:

Marketing err... Tuesday

 Yeah, I didn't manage a marketing post for yesterday because, well, there wasn't anything going on.  It was the last day of the month and I was being anal.  Anyway, the freebie this week runs from today through Saturday - the perfect time to pick up a meaty read for the holiday weekend.  And what better book for Labor Day Weekend than BLINK OF AN I.

This fast-paced read is a glimpse of one possible dystopian future, and it shows what can happen when we lose sight of the individual in favor of the group.  Labor... group... Union.  It all flows, trust me.  Anyway, it's free, so read away.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079X142G2

I love this book.  People may say I'm biased, though.  You'll have to find out for yourself, and you don't have to pay a red cent to do so.  It's also available on KU, if you're already paying red cents for that.  

(Yes, I am writing this last night when I should be sleeping, so forgive any weirdness.  It comes out more when I'm tired.)

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 34

So, here we are again at the Sunday Update.  It wasn't a banner week for productivity, but life's that way sometimes.

I only wrote a couple thousand words.  I blame a combination of being too damn tired to stay up and write and a slight case of the 'this book is stupid and no one will want to buy it'.  The latter may also be part of the being tired thing.  I need to remind myself that I'm writing this book for myself and I enjoy it, and snap for anyone who doesn't like it.

Marketing was done and books ordered numbers were limp.  I moved 12 copies of RHI.  :sad trombone:  On a happier note, I did sell a book - AD.  Of course, that one is only 99c, so I made 35c.  Woot.  My total $$ for the month of August is sitting at $3.22.  

I'm still not reading much, but I stopped at the thrift store in town and bought another 8 books.  Some of those were NF and meant for our shelves - John Stuart Mill, TH Huxley, Living Free - but I also got a Louis L'Amour, a Dick Francis, and a couple of fantasies and a SF from authors I'd never heard of.  I'm calling it a win.  So far this year, I've spent $2.65 on books, which reflects how much money I'm making at writing.

I tried a different chocolate-chip cookie recipe.  This one has coconut.  The recipe said it made 48 cookies, but looking at the ingredient list made me think the batch was going to be huge - I mean, 2 CUPS of butter? Really? - so I halved it.  I still ended up with 48 cookies.  They're okay.  

On the activity front, I did stuff this week.  I watered the greenhouse 3 times, repotted some stuff, fell through the deck, did some cleaning, did groceries, ran errands.  It was a busy week.  Weight: 181.4 - so no, I was active, but not burning enough calories to offset the intake.  Blerg.

Speaking of greenhouse stuff, like I said, I repotted some stuff - two of the tomatoes and a couple of the trees.  The 'maters were looking peaky, so I figured it couldn't hurt.  If they die from the repotting, I'm not really losing anything, and they could come back and fruit this fall.  The trees had to be repotted, but after I crushed the pot they were in it was more crucial.  The beefsteak tomato is okay, but not producing flowers yet.  The bell peppers are all looking amazing, but no flowers yet either.  I have two potato little potato plants that appear to be thriving.  The carrots? I'm not holding out hope for those, but they aren't dead yet.

Oh, yeah, the 'fell through the deck' thing.  I bet you thought I wasn't going to talk about that.  It was embarrassing, after all.  Well, you see, the greenhouse was strategically placed over a couple of already roached deck boards.  I've been really good about not stepping on those boards when I'm in the greenhouse, but I was repotting tomatoes and when I carried the grape tomatoes in their new pot for placement in the greenhouse, I wasn't paying attention to where my feet were going.  I heard the board start to crack and managed to set the tomato pot down, but then my foot went through and I fell back.  I ended up on my ass with one leg dangling through the hole up to my knee.  I got myself out and upright, and finished my chores.  I'm bruised, but nothing's broken - at least not on me.  When I went down, I crushed the plastic pot holding my buckthorns and one little sycamore.  I also bent one of the struts on the greenhouse.  Derp.  Just call me Gracie.  

Okay, time to refill my coffee and get on with the day.  Have a great one, wherever you are.  :hugs:

My Trip to the Library

 I went to the local library on Wednesday.  The experience wasn't good.  I used to LOVE the library.  It provided me with my means of escape from the world.  What's not to love about that?  

When we first moved here, I stopped by the library to get a library card.  I needed two forms of identification and one of them had to be a utility bill to prove I was an actual resident.  Since I don't generally carry around utility bills, they wouldn't let me have a card.  They wouldn't take my checks as proof or my voter registration card. The first form was already my driver's license, so that didn't help.  After that, every time I went to town, I'd forget the damn bill.  Eventually, I gave up trying to get a library card.  Years past.  Recently, I tried to sign up for a card online, so I could get Hoopla.  

Yay, that worked!  I had Hoopla and I could use it to watch things on Roku.  Yay.  Then it stopped working.  Why?  Because my local library system which covers all but one of the local libraries here, had stopped their Hoopla contract.  Hoopla had raised their rates and were now too expensive.  Or so the librarian said.  

Unfortunately, I have no other use for the library.  I can't check out books because I only get up to that town every 90 days - when Hubs' prescriptions need refilling - which would mean I'd either get slapped with a boatload of late fees or I would need to make a special trip.  Derp.  

Anyway, the two gals at the library acted like I was bothering them.  There was no one else at the place.  I guess that could be understandable.  I was talking about Hoopla and they didn't care about Hoopla.  They tried to convince me to try their other services.  I didn't care about their other services.  It was then that I tried to find common ground.  Books.  

I mentioned that I was a writer and that I actually had books in their library at one point.  I figured they'd try to look me up in their computers, but no.  They looked at me like I was stupid.  (More so the one than the other.  The other was acting like I wasn't there.)  I was tempted to walk back into the stacks to see if my books were still on the shelves, but the girls were giving off a whole 'get the hell out of here, so we can go back to gossiping' vibe.  Finally, I gave up, shrugged, and waved.  "Thanks! Have a great day."

Thinking about it all today, I remembered that for the past 13+ years, they've been trying to raise money for a new building.  There's something somewhere that shows how much money they've raised toward their goal, so I know they have money.  And even though that money is slated for a new building, it burns my butt that they can't keep the Hoopla because it's 'too expensive'.  Who the hell is using the actual physical library?  There's never anybody there when I drive by.  Wouldn't their usage rates go up with Hoopla?  People around here could borrow ebooks and movies, etc.  It boggles the mind.

I don't expect to ever see a new building on the piece of land they already own for the new library.  By the way, the new library will have a whole huge bank of computers for the locals to use.  (That was one of the things they really touted up during a fundraising drive several years ago.)  Computers to use, but not more space for books.  Books are passe.  :shrug:  

Apparently, so are writers of those books.  I mean, I didn't expect fanfare, but a 'hey, cool' and a 'what do you write?' would've been nice.  

Anyway, that's my local library.  I was unimpressed.  Of course, I've been unimpressed with them for years.  The librarian who was there when I donated books wasn't impressive, and she spelled my name wrong when she put my book in her 'new at the library' section of the paper.  Derp.

It's all pretty sad, when you think about it.  I'm a writer.  I'm a reader.  Libraries and I should be like peanut butter and jelly.  Instead, we're like peanut butter and sardines.  Then again, libraries seem to be less about books these days than about the computers and other junk.  I'm an antique, I guess.  And libraries as I knew them are fossils of a forgotten, happier age.  =o(

Thursday This n That

 I remembered again.  Here's hoping I actually post this at a reasonable time.  

In my local paper this week, there was an article about 'social isolation', like that's a bad thing.  I read the article out loud of Hubs, and we laughed and laughed.  Yeah, we show most of the signs of this so-called bad thing called social isolation.  Know what?  We don't care.  ROFL

Speaking of social, I ran errands yesterday.  I spoke to several people - the pharmacy gal, the bank chick, the postmaster, the chick at the library, the gal at the thrift store and the one at the DG.  The day before I did Walmart and the feed store, and I was my chatty self at those places, too.  See?  I'm social.  Unfortunately, my social tank is now empty and I will happily go without seeing another person besides Hubs for at least a week.  Whew.

Speaking of the post office, I actually wasn't there to harangue the postmaster about our shitty service.  I went there to verify my identity so I would be able to access my own damn information on the Social Security website.  The postmaster didn't think I could do that at that location.  He even went to a different location himself, just last week.  Anyway, it turns out I can do it there, but I needed to bring an email code they should've sent me when I signed up for the site.  Except I don't remember getting any damn email code.  Gah.

As for the library, I went there to prove I was who I said I was because my Hoopla has been out since the end of June, and I figured it was a thing with my local library.  When I signed up with Hoopla, they did kinda hint that I should stop by my local library to finish the process, but I never did.  So, when my Hoopla went tits up, that's what I figured had happened.  Nope.  My local library system is no longer providing Hoopla.  It's too expensive or some such rot.  The gal had some suggestions - like inter-library loan of DVDs of programs.  1) I never did set up my DVD player.  2) I don't get to that town often enough to not incur late fees on borrowed library items.  :shrug:  I'll be trying to connect through another library for my Hoopla fix.

ARGH! Sawyer just filled the litterbox.  Man, can that boy poop.  His new name is StinkyButt.  (Not really, but you know how it goes.)

I did my yearly fall earlier this week.  Don't ask.  Anyway, I have some interesting bruises on my thigh and my upper arm.  I told Hubs he needs to start calling me Gracie Lardass.  (It's French - Lar D'ass.)  Anyway, nothing's broken.  To borrow a phrase from Toy Story... I'm into 'falling with style'.

Okay, that ought to be enough for anyone.  Have a great day wherever you are.  Peace out.

Marketing Monday - Rumor Has It

 It's Monday and I'm marketing, so it must be Marketing Monday!  Woot.  This week's offering is RUMOR HAS IT.  

Step back in time to the old, hard-boiled detective stories with RUMOR HAS IT. Right now, it's absolutely free! Pick up your copy today! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZNXQKPC

I'd say more but it's hard to type.  I have ouchie hands this morning.  :shrug:  Go download the book.