This n That

 Yesterday was Thursday???  I was busy pretty much all day, so I totally blanked out on that one.

Tuesday, I took a recipe and Frankensteined it, creating what I call Choco-Nanner Cookies.  Banana cookies with chocolate chips.  They're kinda freaky and the banana flavor is getting more intense with every passing day.  And there are A LOT of them.  Wednesday, I made cake.  It was a boxed Devil's Food (because I got lazy) which I then slathered in seedless raspberry jam and then covered in vanilla buttercream.  Yummers.  Yesterday, I made twice-baked potatoes to go with the steaks Hubs grilled.  It's been a week of food, lemme tell ya.  I may have to put my arms out to see if I'm walking or rolling. In all seriousness, though, I've been eating less (via smaller portions) and walking more.  

Not sure if I already said this but I saw a bald eagle the other day.  Yay.

Gah, it's not Saturday!  I only say this, and so emphatically, because I keep having to remind myself that it's not Saturday.

I'm going to be bach'ing it soon as Hubs is going out of town for a few days.  I keep joking that while he's gone, I'm going to 1) demo the kitchen, 2) repaint rooms, 3) get a puppy, 4) get some more kitties, 5) replace the two kitties we currently have, 3) turn the spare room into an art studio.  None of these things will actually occur, of course, but it's fun to joke about.  Most likely, I will do some deep cleaning and watch a lot of TV.

There are lot of stupid people out there in the world, more so than there used to be.  I think this was planned.  Stupid people are easier to control.  

I just saw where someone in comments to one of my friend's posts said 'your an idiot'.  He corrected them to 'you're' and someone else pointed out that the commenter would never know the irony of his own statement.  ROFL

Some days, I laugh at the morons.  Some days, I just can't even.  Some days, I spend too much time blocking morons.  I can get lost in just blocking people and before I know it, dozens have been transported to Blockistan, and I've wasted too much of my valuable morning time.  :shrug: And that's just Facebook. Don't even get me started on X.

Okay, I suppose it's time to go fritter away my time on stuff.  Hopefully, some of it will be productive today.  ;o)

Friday This n That

I totally brainfarted out that yesterday was Thursday.  Thus, realizing that today was Friday, it occurred to me that I never posted my this n thats.  Derp and all that.

I'm not dead.  Not even close.  I am, however, in a stupid place.  You know the one where you're not doing anything and you're feeling guilty about not doing anything so you don't do anything?  Maybe that's just me.  :shrug:

The prezzies I bought for the neighbor kids are wrapped.  Now I just need to get the prezzies from here to next door.  I also have a tin of cookies for the across-the-street neighbors and I package of cookies for Mom that need to be mailed.  And yet, here I sit.  (Of course, right now it's too early to do anything... excuses excuses)

Sawyer decided that this morning was a good time to revisit his old vaudeville act wherein he pats rhythmically on the front of the dresser ad nauseum. This act was followed by a song routine of old favorites by his partner, Finn.  I thought we'd moved past this, but apparently not.  Silly cats.

I have a song stuck in my head.  (Not Finn's.)  So I looked it up, because I hear it on the radio a lot, but I have no idea who sings it or anything.  It's called Too Sweet and it's by Hozier... Hozier?  Really.  Okay, my brain is now channeling The Mackenzie Brothers, but whatever.  (Yes, I know... their word was hoser, but still...)  Apparently, it's the dude's last name and apparently he's some kind of social justice warrior.  Damn it.  This is why I don't go looking into celebrities.  

And now for something we hope you'll really like...  (If you don't know where that phrase comes from, I'm sorry.  Maybe if I start it out with 'Hey, Rocky... watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.'  :RAWR: 'Looks like I need a better hat.')

My hands hurt.  Unfortunately, not from writing.  Pulling a sled with logs on it used muscles I didn't know I had and there ya are.

Speaking of logs, Hubs and I were just joking around about what to do with the big trunks - especially the black cherry that's still standing.  It's beautiful wood and it would be a shame to cut it up for firewood, but it's so heavy, we'll never be able to move that stuff on our own.  So, we got the idea to carve it where it is.  I said something about doing a faun/satyr, then he said something about a tableau of woodland creatures.  Then we both said something about turning it into a totem.  With Trump's head on top.  Then Reagan, Lincoln, and Washington. :gigglesnort:  We're so funny.

Okay, that's probably about all I'm worth today.  I need to get back to marketing.  Last day for DYING EMBERS freebie and all that.  Have a great day wherever you are.  Hasta la bye-bye.

AITA

I've been getting these AITA posts in my FB feed.  (For the record, AITA stands for 'am I the asshole?')  And since I stopped and read one, they're showing up with startling frequency.  Anyway, the whole premise of these things is to lay out a story about something you've done and then ask the world at large whether you're the asshole in the situation.

Okay, I'll admit it... these things are kind of addictive.  Unfortunately, in order to see the whole story on any of them, you have to click a link or something, so I'm only going off the parts I can see without clicking.  Still, for the most part, I think the person telling the story is not the asshole.  (Occasionally, the person is definitely the asshole.)

For instance, I read one this morning about a dad who had sole custody of his teenage daughter, and it seemed like every time he got after her about anything, she's play the 'I want to go live with mom' card.  Finally, after she was particularly rotten, he gave her what she wanted.  He packed her bags and dropped her off at her mom's to live.  Within a day, she was asking to come home.  He left her there for four days and then let her come home.  Like I said, I didn't read how it all turned out, but it seemed pretty reasonable to me.  

Thinking about it all now, I feel sad for people who think they need to ask whether they're the asshole in any given situation.  If you thought what you were doing was right when you did it, what exactly is making you think otherwise now?  Explore that before you go looking for validation online.  You can probably tell for yourself whether or not you were the asshole, hindsight being 20/20 and all that.  

I expect those things are probably not all true.  Clickbait, doncha know.  Except I never click because, while the story was interesting to read, I don't really care what the outcome was.  Does that make me the asshole?  ;o)

Back on Twit... Err, X

For the first time since 2016, I am active on what used to be Twitter but is now X.  (I still call  it twitter.  Sorry, Elon.)  If you're interested, I'm @BE_Sanderson.  I'll try to remember to post stuff, but you know me.  Some weeks I can hardly remember to post here.

I stopped visiting Twitter because of all the crap I was seeing.  I did not delete my account, because I'd be damned if I was gonna let someone else have my user ID, but I relegated it to the unused links section of my Bookmarks.  And the only thing I did with it was let Goodreads post my reviews to it.  So, I'm back to see if I can generate interest in my books and other fun junk.  So far, so good.  My password still works, and all of my goodies are still there.  Woot.  I posted a notice that I was back, liked a bunch of posts, and then posted a funny thing.

"When your KDP sales graph is sick of your shit."

Eh, it amused me.  I mean, come on... it looks like a hand flipping the bird.  And yes, that's my graph as of first thing this morning.  Today's orders are still climbing, which would screw up the whole 'this is a hand' thing, so I snapped it as soon as I saw it.

I have to amuse myself where I can.

What's amusing you today?

Thursday +1 This in That

 Okay, so it's not Thursday, but it's Thursday +1, so I'm doing this.

I don't want to suggest that we control the weather, but see, it's like this... We've noticed that every time Hubs mows, it rains the next day.  Except he hasn't had to mow in a while and now we're in a drought.  Also, back when I was fishing way more often, it seemed like every time I said I was going fishing the next day, I'd wake up to it raining.  Last night, I was talking about fishing this morning and I woke up to rain.  And another thing, I started thinking that maybe I'd still go fishing, because it's warm and warm rain is nice to fish in.  I no sooner thought that then the sky flashed and there was a big clap of thunder.  So, yeah, we control the weather.  To a certain extent, otherwise I could make it stop and go fishing. ROFL

If you think I actually believe that, you don't know me very well.  I do think it's a funny coincidence, though.  Well, we were laughing about it.

Man, it is pouring outside.  Yay!  The last time it rained like this was September 21st.  Hell, that was the last time it rained at all.  And we only got like two rains in September.  It's been dry here since like July, I think.  I'm not sure if this is going to spark a trend, but it's nice to hear rain on the roof again.  The cats, of course, are confused and have vacated their spots to probably hide under the bed.

So, I bought worms yesterday from my regular dealer.  When I started buying worms from her, they were $2.90 for a dozen.  Then she raised the price to like $3.15.  Yesterday, worms were $4.23 (after tax).  Frickin' inflation.  

My regular worm dealer is an older gal who runs a little corner store.  I wondered if she'd recognize me because 1) it's been a couple years since I've been there and 2) she's a stroke victim.  Yep, she remembered me.  Unfortunately, she's gotten more crochety since I was last there, so I've got to work on rebuilding the report we had.  :shrug: Life happens.

Fall colors here are really in full swing.  It's lovely.  And it makes me happy.  I do wish we had more maples here, so there would be more red added into the palette, but even though I didn't get to choose the painting, I still enjoy the art.

And wish that profoundness, I'll let you get on with your day.  Have a great one, wherever you are.

It's Not Saturday

For some reason this morning, I keep thinking it's Saturday.  It's so not Saturday.  Which is good.  I have company coming on Saturday and I haven't finished cleaning the house yet.

Not working a day job really messes up one's schedule.  I'm sure this happens to everyone who doesn't work outside the home, but being a writer means working 7 days a week, so that makes it worse.  Each day slides into the next.  There is no two-day-off weekend.  It's just work every day. 

Sometimes it's writing.  Sometimes it's editing.  Sometimes it's marketing.  Often it's all three on the same day.  Occasionally, marketing will tell me what day it is because I have a sale going on.  Unfortunately, the sales are always scheduled for the same days of the week.  Often, I do a Monday - Friday sale.  This last sale ran Sunday - Thursday, which kind of messed me up because I thought I had one more day to market - Friday.  Nope.  

If it weren't for scheduled TV programs, I'd be totally lost. Unfortunately, the only scheduled TV programs I watch are on Sunday night.  After that, I'm screwed.  

I also need to remember which day is Wednesday because I still do work for the family business and I need to get my timesheet to them Wednesday night so they can cut my check Thursday morning.  But I don't get paid every week, so I can't count on that to tell me what day it is.  This past week was one of those weeks where I didn't have anything to get paid for, so no timesheet to send.  I'm all messed up now.

And even as I was typing this, it popped into my head again that it was Saturday.  Derp.  

My calendar doesn't even help because the one I'm using is a page-a-day calendar with lovely pictures of birds on each day.  I love it so much, I would buy one every year, but the last year they printed one was 2017.  The one I'm using this year is from 2016 (I switch back and forth between the two I have) and October 11, 2016 was a Tuesday.  I had a wall calendar, but The Boyz wouldn't leave it alone, so I didn't bother putting one up this year.  

So, I'm stuck in this time hole where I can't figure out what day it is.  In the whole scheme of things, it doesn't really matter what day it is.  Every day is like the day before.  I don't have any real schedule that depends on the day of the week.  Rarely does it even come up.  Except for weeks like this where I am actually doing something on a specific day.  

Ah, well.  I'll keep thinking it's Saturday and then reminding myself it isn't.  What does today feel like to you?  Are you one of those people who can keep track of the days or are you like me and adrift on the time currents?  

Confessions of a Gameshow Addict

Hi.  I'm B.E. and I'm addicted to gameshows.  

I probably need an intervention or something, but Hubs is an enabler.  (Psst... he watches them, too.)  And I'm not hurting anyone.  I rationalize it by telling myself I'm keeping my brain active, but let's face it... Other than MasterMinds, I'm really not exercising the brain cells.  I mean, Deal or No Deal has no mental value.  The contestant picks cases, for petesakes.  

I remember watching gameshows as a small child, so I guess you could say that The Price is Right and Let's Make a Deal were my gateway drugs.  Mom watched, so I watched.  Later, I got hooked on Jeopardy! so I was in front of the TV every night at 7 watching Alex and the contestants.  

For a while in high school, I was a participant of sorts.  It was called Quiz Bowl and then they changed the name to High School Challenge.  Teams of trivia buffs from high schools all over the area would compete on TV (PBS, so nothing network and no big fame there).  I made captain of the team my Junior year - the previous captain graduated and there was no one else to take over.  

There was a time there when I was too busy to watch gameshows.  I was working, I was a mom, I had things going on in my life.  I dabbled a little after I retired, but I was busy with homeschooling and my writing.  Then we moved here and I spent more time watching.  I got off the shows entirely while I was back to work, but since then, I've been slowly getting more and more hooked on them.

I start at 10am with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  After that, it's Deal or No Deal.  Then old reruns of Match Game.  (I will NEVER watch the new one.  Alec Baldwin makes me nauseous.)  After that, I take a break because I'm not a big fan of the newer Wheel of Fortune episodes.  Later, I'll pick back up again with shows like MasterMinds, Split Second, Switch, and Chain Reaction.  Then I stop until the next day.  

I really could be getting a lot more done if I didn't watch these things.  Oh, I do occasionally get some editing done on commercial breaks, but that's sporadic.  Maybe today I'll do something else.  But then I wouldn't get to see how far that guy made it on that show.  Or how silly the contestants are on the other ones.  It's a vicious cycle of addiction.  

Universal Conspiracy

Strange things have happened to me lately that are starting to make me think the universe is conspiring to make me look like a fool.  Like yesterday...

I was having a fairly good day at work.  I even got a nice quiet end, where I was alone and the phone weren't ringing and I could focus on some stuff.  Then I get a call that there's a delivery headed my way.  The guy gets there, I open the garage door to the delivery area, and he bringing in the pallet worth of stuff.  Easy peasy, right?  

The garage door wouldn't close.  Hit the button, the door moves a fraction of an inch, and moves the fraction back.  Tried it again.  Nothing.  Looked for causes... couldn't find any.  Tried it again.  Nada.

I call the co-worker who lives nearby.  No answer.  I call another co-worker.  He tells me to hold the button down.  I hang up and go try that.  Nope, same thing happens.  Click, move, move back.  I try the first co-worker again.  He answers and gives me a couple more things to try.  I try those.  Nope.  Try the button thing again.  Nope.  

So, there I am with the building wide open and quickly approaching the time when I am supposed to close up and go home.  Now, I wouldn't have minded staying until other people could arrive - they were 40-45 minutes out, but I was told earlier in the day, no overtime.  Okay, so I'm willing to eat a half hour if I have to, but I'd really rather not.

I call the boss.  He's not happy.  There's nothing he can do.  I just wanted him to be aware of the problem and give me the number for his associate who also lives nearby, in hopes that the big D can come and help me fix the door.  I get the number and call the dude.  He arrives.  Yay, I'm not alone in my consternation.  Dude walks around in the bay looking at things and then asks me where the button to close the door is.  I show him and then demonstrate how I held the button down like I was told.

The damn thing slides right down as pretty as you please like there was never a problem to begin with.  Felt like a fool, looked like a moron.  But that's par for the course these days.  On the upside, I had eight minutes to spare before I had to clock out.  Yay.

Anyway, that's just the latest.  A while back, I was closing the office and the alarm panel did something really weird.  Like it always gives 90 seconds to exit and that time it gave 3 minutes, plus it didn't beep or talk like it always does... beep beep beep, exit now... and it shut all the lights off, which it never does.  The next day I tell people about it, in case it's like a new thing, and no one knows what I'm talking about.  That night, when I closed, everything was back to normal like it had never happened.  Derp.

Another time, I had a customer who was totally pissed and read me the riot act, so I took down everything he said and gave it to my supervisor so she could call him back.  I warned her, so she'd be prepared, and the guy was totally not pissed when she called him.  Like only a few minutes later.  Maybe he had a Snickers.  Maybe getting it all out with me took the vinegar out of him.  

Then again, maybe it was the universe, messing with me.  ;o)

Thursday This n That

I was reading about the Milgram experiment again this morning.  I find psychological stuff fascinating.  One thing I hadn't known about the experiment before was that Milgram had polled both psych students and colleagues beforehand about what they thought the results might be, and few of them guessed the truth.  In retrospect, and knowing what we know now, it's unsurprising to me that a majority of people would follow authority even against their own consciences.  

Just now, I was at a friend's blog talking about POV choices, and it reminded me of a tense-choice I made years ago.  I had originally written Wish in One Hand in third person with a totally different general storyline.  A whole novel, shitcanned in favor of a tense change.  In case you're not a writer, that's a LOT of work in the dumper there.  I think the first draft of that was like 236 pages.  Useless and doomed to sit forever in the labyrinth of my folder system.  

I took yesterday off.  Of like everything.  I watched TV and I ate.  Bacon cheeseburgers with french fries cooked in bacon grease and store-bought cheesecake.  Yum.

Oh, we did make the decision to bite the bullet, raid the savings, and schedule a full brake job on old Cally Cavalier.  In this super-hilly country, it's definitely necessary.  That's set for tomorrow.  I drop the car off in the morning and pick it up in the afternoon.  Time to dust off The Jeepster for a little shuttling work.  Thank goodness for the second vehicle or I'd be stuck sitting at either the shop or the bar down the highway a piece for 5-6 hours.  It's too far out in the middle of nowhere to walk anywhere else.  I could take a book, but sitting for that long on questionable seats would wreck me.

Cross your fingers for me.  This is an untried mechanic for us.  I mean, he came highly recommended by a guy who knows him and knows vehicles (a retired truck mechanic actually), but there's always a concern when dealing with any new [professional, doncha know.

I'll be sitting here tomorrow like a worried mama who's baby is in the hospital.  I've had Cally for 19 years now.  

I joked with Hubs yesterday that I'm going to name the new brakes Rover.  Cuz I could've used that money to get a dog.  We laughed and laughed.  LOL, I kill me.  And he might if I keep joking that way.  Ba dump bump... ting.

And on that note... What's on your this-n-that list today?

Things I Remember Fondly

 As I was laying in bed not sleeping last night, I came up with a list of things I remember fondly...

- not laying in bed for hours thinking

- size ten jeans

- wearing jeans

- drinking

- $1.78 gasoline

- eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it

- running

- typing anything without feeling the psychotic urge to edit it

- putting 'brown' down as my hair color

- surviving on four hours of sleep

- sleeping

- having a dog

- my smokin' hot bod

- the excitement of release day

- wearing makeup

- going for long drives

- eating out

- my best friend from high school

- my childhood dog

- a whole day without something hurting

- the vocal range I had when I was younger

- enthusiasm 

Yeah, I didn't actually get to sleep until after midnight and I was up at 6, so I'm not the cheeriest person this morning.  Eh, stuff happens.  

What are some things you remember fondly?

Thursday This n That

Yesterday kicked my butt.  I didn't even really do nearly as much as I have done on other days, but man, was I ever tired last night.  I made myself stay up until 8 and then I was done.  Of course, that meant I was up at 4:30, but a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do.

The other day, Hubs carried a tree up from the bottom of the hill.  It was dead and I had pushed it over sometime last year.  We cut it in half and he carried the halves up.  Lumberjack dude that he is and all.  Yesterday, we sawed it into firewood.  Not exactly sure what the tree was - almost all of its bark was gone and obviously, no leaves - but that was some hard-ass wood there.  Maybe elm.  Possibly ash, although barkless ash really does remind me of a baseball bat and this wasn't like that.  :shrug:  Whatever it is, it will burn well.

Wood interests me... what can I say?

There are three things that I've always had an affinity for - trees, birds, and rocks.  This place is replete with all three.  I love it here.

I am a literal tree-hugger.  Yes, I hug trees.  Not that I believe they really care, but it makes me feel good.  I talk to them, too, and for the same reason.  Some of them have names - Oberon (the big fairy oak), Whitey (the little swamp oak), Little Red (our young red oak), Q-tip (because it's tall with a tuft of leaves at the top), Magic (because for some reason, it always has water in its crown and all the birds/squirrels drink there, so it must be magic).  The little elm I have in a pot is Elmer.  Hey, I didn't say they were the most creative names.

I realize I am not the most interesting of people.  This is why being actively social is so hard for me.  Trying to come up with something interesting to contribute to a group of strangers is difficult when you know you're not all that interesting.  I'm fine around friends.  They get me and they find me interesting or they wouldn't hang around me.  I also have a weird sense of humor and I'm not always good at picking up on social cues.  

Which reminds me... I was at the smoke shop chatting with a friend there about books and she was telling me about this book that grossed her out - in detail - right when a customer walked in and the look on his face was priceless.  I had to explain we were talking about a book and he was all like 'hey, I'm not here to judge' or something.  It was pretty funny.  Then out of the blue, the dude asked us how to spell something.  I didn't know him and neither did she, but he just blurted out 'how do you spell Lonnie?'  I guess he figured since we read books and stuff, we'd know how to spell stuff.  ROFL

Sometimes I encounter the strangest people.  A while back I came across this guy shouting obscenities toward the back of the Dollar General.  At first, I thought he was yelling at a dog, but nope, he was shouting at nothing.  A couple days ago, there he was again, this time on a little bitty bike, riding across the highway shouting obscenities at nothing.  Luckily, he turned and went the other way.  I was just telling Hubs about running into him again.  "Same guy?" he asked.  "I think so."  "Good, I'd hate think there were two of them."  ROFL

Life's weird.  You gotta find your jollies where you can, eh?

It's Wednesday

For those of you who are like me, today is Wednesday.  (And yeah, Wednesday is usually an Outside the Box day to post, but I have nothing writerly to say, so here I am.)  Knowing the day of the week this week is especially difficult because tomorrow is a holiday in the U.S., so it feels like a Friday.  

So close on the heels of the time change, this week is a total clusterfuck for figuring out the day and the time.  Make sure to cut yourself some slack this week.  It's not your fault.  You're stuck in this weird timewarp thing.  

Personally, I had to remember to send my timesheet to the office last night because I usually send it out Wednesday night, but payroll is today instead of Thursday because of the holiday.  Which was something the office had to deal with, shifting the payroll day and all.  

Poor Hubs was on the phone yesterday making plans for things that have to get done and he started talking about getting together with the person on Thursday when it struck him that's Thanksgiving.  Oops and apologies to the other party.  It'll have to wait until next week.  

We have some stuff we have to get done today, because otherwise, it will either have to wait until next week or we'll have to venture out into the shopping orgy on Friday to complete our errands.  And nobody wants that.  Plus, one of the places we have to go will be closed on Friday, because it's not just a one day holiday for businesses that don't sell things people might put under the tree.  Which is why my office is closed until Monday.

I'll still be working.  I have a project the big boss handed over yesterday and I'd like to make some headway on it before the office reopens on Monday.  My part has to be done before they can do their part and all that.  

Not working a normal job certainly doesn't help with the whole 'what the hell day is it?' thing.  Writing and spreadsheeting can be done anywhere between when I wake up to when I call it a day.  And it frequently is done outside of office hours.  So holidays don't really make that big a difference in the flow.  They still screw up what day it is, though.  Blerg.

So, consider this post a kind of public service thing.  It is WEDNESDAY.  What you do with that information is up to you and whether you hold it in your head?  Well, by lunch I may be back to thinking it's Friday again.  :shrug:

Thursday This n That

First thing this morning, I read an inspiring story about a guy who did some amazing things in WWII.  Joseph Beyrle.  They need to make a movie about HIM.  Except I fear Hollywood would find a way to mess it up.  Anyway, it's good to start the day with something positive.  

Speaking of positive, my friend-editor was talking on FB about how hard it's been to get and stay motivated.  I said something about how we should try to push each other and maybe invite our mutual friend, too, so we'd be like a triad, but then we'd need special names like superheroes.  So she created a private group for us to do just that.  She's awesome like that.  

Of course, not too long after I joined the group and made my statement about what I'd like to accomplish through the end of the year, I received an email with four spreadsheets to do.  By the time I got those done, I was too pooped to accomplish my daily goal and I said so.  Then she poked me.  I didn't get two pages of edit notes entered, but I did get one done, so the poking was definitely helpful.

Things have been blerg lately, but I'm trying to get positive.  Getting positive isn't easy, but where I'm really falling down is staying positive once I get there.

I saw a funny on FB this morning.  What's the difference between Lebron and Kyle?  When he's under pressure, Kyle makes his shots.  LOL.  Yeah, if you don't think that's funny, can't help ya there.

I have a sink full of dishes that I don't wanna do.  I will, but not just yet.

Hubs and I went fishing yesterday.  It had been a pretty nice day so far, and even though we knew a cold front was coming through, we thought we'd give it a whirl.  On the way, we stopped for nightcrawlers and it was getting cloudy, but still quite nice.  Another five minutes to the lake, parked the car and started to get the stuff out of the backseat when WHOOSH.  Big, cold wind out of the north hit us.  Blew my hat right off.  (I saved it.)  Screw the wind, though, I wanted to fish, so we went to the kinda-sheltered side.  When I took the lid off the worms to get one out, the lid blew into the water and away it went.  My tackle box tipped over and scattered stuff.  I was laughing like an idiot.  Hubs was grinning.  We fished for about an hour and then gave up because we weren't catching anything and the temperature was dropping hard.  Eh, it was still better than an hour sitting here.

My camera battery died.  Not just needing a charge, but dead-dead.  So I put it my backup battery.  It was also dead-dead.  I ordered new batteries that came with a charger all their own, so here's hoping they work and that my camera isn't the problem.  I'd hate that.  I mean, the camera is 11 years old, but come on.  The batteries should be here tomorrow.

In order to make a big enough purchase for free shipping, I also ordered two CDs I've been wanting.  The Fray and The Head and the Heart.  Yes, I still listen to CDs.  I still listen to tapes, too.  =op

And on that note... after dragging myself away from the distraction of watching music videos... I'll let you get on with your day.  Unless you want to take another moment and leave a comment, of course.  

Why I Forgot to Post Yesterday

Wow, I totally brainfarted out and missed yesterday entirely.  This is Tuesday, right?  Yep, my computer says it's Tuesday.  

I did remember it was Monday at some point yesterday because I called the office.  After that, yesterday was a blur.  I started out my blurry portion of the day by calling my usual tire shop to find out if they could get me in for replacement of my two front tires.  The only tires they had in my size were made by some company I'd never heard of that we discovered were located in China.  I called the other place - which is right across the street from the first place.  They had no tires in my size but they could order some and have them in later in the week.  And I'm all like 'I only have one day to get this done', thanked him, and hung up nicely.

So I called Wallyworld.  They only had two tires left in my size.  (It's a popular freakin' size, for pitysakes, so WTF?)  And they were a brand I have used before, albeit not the brand Hubs was hoping for.  I told the Wallyworld dude to hold on to them for me and I'd be there in 30 minutes.  (It was actually 45 because I forgot I needed to get dressed, too.)  Since I was already going to be there, getting tires put on the car, I told him I needed an oil change, too.  Saved myself another stop, so yay.

After I get there, I tell the guy again that I need two front tires.  He informs me that it's Wallyworld policy to never put new tires on the front.  The newest tires should be on the back.  Which is anti-intuitive considering my car is front wheel drive, and I told him so, but if I wanted these two on the front, I needed to sign a disclaimer holding W blameless.  Whatever.  Fine.  Put the new ones on the back and rotate the back to the front.  "That'll be $5 extra."  Fine.  Whatever.  And off I go to do some shopping while I wait.

After getting all my non-perishable goods... because I so did not need my ice cream melting while I waited for my car... I went back to the waiting area to sit and eat the breakfast sandwich I just bought.  I walk in and some other dude goes 'do you own the Cavalier?' and I'm all like 'yeah'.  Well, he informed me that because my back tires were old, they couldn't put them in the front because it's against W policy.  They'd be happy to put 4 new tires on.  (I bet they would.)  Or I could just put the new ones on the front and sign that damn thing.  Okay.  Fine.  WHATEVER.  Give me the damn form.

I also got a stern warning that my oil was low when I pulled in.  Like not registering on the dipstick low.  Which is kind of impossible since Hubs just checked that and he doesn't let my car get low on oil and it doesn't leak oil - it just burns it faster than a new car, so he adds it when necessary.  

After I finish my sandwich, I reach for my phone to call Hubs and let him know where I am in the process only to find that my phone is not in my pocket.  It's not in my purse either.  Heavy sigh and big hopes that nothing goes wrong between W and home.  (I didn't lose it.  It was on the charger when I got home.)

So, I finally get it all done and am free to go on about my merry way.  I pull around to the front of the store, go in and get my ice cream, produce, and other refrigerated items.  Go through the same cashier.  "Miss me?" I said and she laughed.  Vicky's awesome.  

I leave there with my stuffs and head for the feed store.  When I pull up in front of the warehouse doors, I can see there might be like 4 bags of whole corn left.  I'm not so lucky.  In the store, the manager is helping another customer, so the secondary dude who loads feed into cars tells me in a snotty voice that they're out of whole corn.  If I'd been there Wednesday night, they had some.  If I'd been there Thursday... or Friday... or even Saturday morning... they had some.  He seemed almost gleeful that I'd missed the boat.  I should've told the manager to fire the dude.  Anyway, the manager finally gets done with the other customer and I ask him if they have corn chops in stock.  (Same stuff, only chopped up instead of whole and about 30c more a 50 lb bag.)  He says sure.  I get 4 of those suckers and head out to where the primary feed loading dude can put the bags in my car.  Primary dude is awesome. 

Two and a half hours from the time I left, I'm home.  But my brain is fried.  

So that's why I forgot to post yesterday.

City Folk, Stay Where You Are

Dear City Folk,

Stay where you are.  Seriously.  There's nothing for you out here in rural America except strife and hardship.  

We have ticks and oak mites and chiggers.  We have five different kinds of venomous snakes.  We have black widows and brown recluse spiders.  We have European hornets and mahogany wasps and assassin bugs and assorted other bitey bugs.

We have roosters crowing at all hours during the day.  And coyotes howling at all hours during the night.  One neighbor has guinea hens and those things kick up one heck of a racket - day and sometimes night.  And when the animals aren't making noise, it's so quiet out here it'll drive a city person insane.

There is no Chinese take-out and no pizza delivery.  If you pick up hot food, it'll be cold by the time you get it home.  Hell, you're lucky if you can find a Burger King or a Wendy's within an hour's drive.  For grocery shopping, I have a choice between Walmart and the grocery store that gave me food poisoning.  And most of the restaurants around here are in the health department report with bad marks for cleanliness and food safety.  

Speaking of groceries, the fancy foods you can get in a city aren't for sale here.  Oh, sure, there's a guy with a truck who stops here and there selling seafood, but you have to get there early.  

Bookstores?  Not around here.  Drive an hour maybe.  Same with movie theaters.  And anything cultural.  Symphony?  Opera?  Live comedy?  Forget it.  There's a museum... I hear it has a really large collection of teacups.  

Our power goes out regularly.  I heard tell of a time a few years back where power was out for 10 days because a tree had fallen across the line that ran at the back of some dude's cow pasture and they couldn't find it.  Our phones are pretty good... if you use a landline.  Cell service out here blows.  We regularly get weekenders wandering around with their phones like their dousing for water.  If I have to use mine, I walk out and stand in the middle of the road.

Speaking of roads, ours have no sidewalks, bike paths, etc. and sure as hell no shoulders.  Seriously.  If you break down, get a flat, etc., you better hope no one's coming up behind you.  There's no place to pull over.  Call a tow truck?  Last person I knew who called a tow-truck had a two hour wait.  Triple A?  ROFL.

And there's no such thing as public transportation.  You want a bus?  You'd better enroll in public school because that's the only place you'll find one. Subway?  Only if you want a sandwich.  You thought you hated driving to the airport before?  Here, it's a 90 minute drive to an airport with 8 gates and one piddlin' restaurant.  And there aren't many direct flights anywhere.  Uber?  Umm, no.  Lyft?  Ut uh.  Taxi service?  ROFL.

Hell, we don't even have street names.  We have Farm Roads and Private Roads and Highways.  When I first moved here and had to give someone my address, they thought I lived on FARM ROAD.  No, no.  That's not the name of the road.  It's a Farm Road with either a number after it or a letter.  Farm Road 1122 or Farm Road YY, Private Road Q or Hwy 245.  That's the name.  

Face it, city folk, the learning curve for moving to the sticks is steep and twisted.  You're better off staying where you are.  Trust me on this.

Sincerely,

Every Rural Citizen in America

Thursday This n That

So, let me see if I have this right...  I, a person who has never owned slaves and hates the idea of slavery of any kind, will be forced based on my skin color to pay reparation money to people... people who have never actually been slaves... based on their skin color, because I am automatically guilty of things my ancestors may or may not have done to their ancestors who may or may not have been slaves.  Makes perfect sense.  :note sarcasm:  While I'm at it, let me whip out some money to pay reparations for the branch of my family tree that split off sometime in the late 1800s and became Nazis after my direct ancestors left Germany.  Makes about as much sense.

Shit like that makes my brain hurt.

We're having some beautiful weather this week.  I hope this doesn't encourage the trees and plants to sprout and bloom and then we have another cold snap.  It did that one year and all the blossoms on my redbud tree died.  That was sad.

I've started following the comedian JP Sears on FB and MeWe.  He's a hoot.  

In other happy news, I was contacted by an author I follow.  He messages me when he has a new book out.  YAY!  I snapped that sucker right up.  Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of edits on my Kindle and I'm trying to be all adult and junk so I can't read his book right yet.  If I weren't being adult, I'd set my editing aside (heh, like I need a reason) and inhale his book.  However, and utnostly, I made promises to get this book done and I will do that before I treat myself.  :dangles carrot:  

Yesterday morning, I was at loose ends - taking a break from editing and not wanting to just sit around - and I mentioned to Hubs that I might go out and finish some yardwork stuff.  He reminded me that we were going to do windows sometime this week and asked if I wanted to put that off until Friday.  Well, nope.  Windows and yardwork... same same.  Something to do that needs doing.  So I started working on the windows while he finished up his work and then he joined me.  I did the insides, he got a ladder and did the outsides.  Took about three hours to do the five windows in the sunroom - inside and out.  (Those are not tilt-in.  Thunderation!)  I'll get through the rest of the house windows by myself today and tomorrow.  

Thunderation... Have you seen the new Geico commercial with Captain Ahab helping a woman find a parking spot?  When he says 'Thunderation!' I about fall over laughing.  Every time.  Too funny.  And so now I've been saying thunderation because it's funny and it makes Hubs laugh.  Gotta find the fun where you can these days.

Okay, that's enough out of me.  What's the this-n-that skinny in your world?

Yeah, I'm Still Alive

 I forgot to post yesterday.  No real reason.  Maybe my brain was too wrapped up in this weather crap.  :shrug:

Speaking of which it's negative 9 outside right now.  Nine below zero...  41 below freezing. :shudder:  And it's just under 64F in the office.  The furnace - which isn't really a furnace, it's a heat pump - is having trouble getting the house up to it's usual 68F.  Plus it's always colder in the office.  But the thing is running and as long as it's running, life is good.  The two space heaters in the garage are keeping the areas where there are pipes at 40F.  Anything above freezing is bonus.  I do not want to see the electric bill for next month.

Having a bathroom in the garage is kind of a pain in the ass.  I mean, it's good for washing yucky things in the sink out there rather than in the nice bathrooms, but I don't think either of us have used the toilet in there in 8 years.  If there were no bathroom out there, we wouldn't give a rat's furry, white hiney how cold it was out there.  

We got about four and a half inches of snow from the first round of snow dumpage.  It's supposed to start snowing again tonight.  Maybe an inch or two more from that.  Blerg.

From a FB page I follow about local weather, I got a link to a site that tracks power outages.  We haven't lost power at all.  I saw someone on FB talking about potential rolling blackouts in the area due to shortages of natural gas (due to the NG wells freezing), and a neighbor stopped yesterday to tell Hubs he heard our power company might be considering doing that, too.  Fingers crossed they don't actually have to do it.  I mean, it would only be for 30-60 minutes at a time, but blerg.

One upside to all this is that I've been making yummy things to eat.  For instance, yesterday I made frittatas for breakfast and then stew for dinner and also coffee cake.  Sunday, I made a vat of spaghetti with a side of garlic bread.  Saturday I made chili and cornbread.  I now have a freezer full of leftovers and Hubs will have to roll me out of here when this is over.

In other news, the weather is making people cranky.  I watched people basically yelling at each other in several threads on the area road conditions.  Dudes, chill.  Yeah, people are asking the same questions over and over without reading the other threads where the questions might be answered.  Yeah, it's pretty logical to think if road X and road Z are crappy, so is road Y.  But for the most part these days, logic has flown the coop.  More so when people are concerned about their safety and their needs.  They're hoping against hope that THEIR ROAD will be okay because they need to get to work or to go buy milk and bread and baby formula.  While their asking might be annoying, it's not really hurting anyone.  Sheesh.

On a lighter note, I saw someone made a meme that shows a snowy road.  In answer to the question 'how are the roads?', it has a dialogue bubble popping up from the road itself saying "I'm fine. Thanks for asking:.  Humor is the key, man.  I saw another one that showed a snowy, steep road and said something like 'Texas Driving Tip: Stay Home.  Y'all aren't conditioned for this.'  It made me LOL because my brother in OK messaged me yesterday with something along those lines.  We're Michiganders, folks.  The pictures I'm seeing of the 'bad roads' are pretty tame compared to what I used to drive through on a regular basis.  It's all relative.  I saw another meme that said something about 'don't laugh at southerners for not being able to cope with the cold and snow, we don't laugh at you northerners when it gets hot up there'.  Umm, yeah, you do.  And you should.  Share the laughs.  Sometimes laughing is all you've got to keep from crying.

Know what I mean?

What are you finding to laugh about today?

One last thing that I hope makes you smile.  Through all this snow and frigid temps, we have sparrows singing their little hearts out.  They're all round like feathery tennis balls right now, but they're finding something to sing about.  Maybe they're just happy we're leaving them loads of sunflower seeds so they have stuff to eat without having to scratch through the snow.  And we're happy to do it for them.  

Dear Brain

Dear Brain,

I love you like the dickens, but you really have to shut up at night.  I mean, you're like a kid who chugged an entire bottle of Mountain Dew and chased it with those paper tubes filled with flavored sugar.  Yes, I know... they're called Pixie Sticks... hush, Brain, I'm talking here.  

Despite your insistence, I do not need to revisit minor events in college, rename all the dogs at the shelter, hash over a phone call gone wrong ten years ago, wonder whatever happened to my high school friends or that kid that ate paste in Kindergarten... Yes, Brain, his name was Kevin, and that's a lovely picture of him, but I don't care right now.  Hush.  

Neither do I need to plan a garden, rewrite a scene in this book or figure out scenes for the next, organize my cupboards, or go over that hand I lost in poker.  I don't need to plan for tomorrow or next week or next month at 10pm.

Stop showing me videos of past events, people, pets, vacations, and tragedies.  Stop playing songs I haven't heard in years.  Stop trotting out the photo albums.  I don't want to look at them when I'm trying to sleep.

If this doesn't cease, I will be forced to medicate you into silence.  And no one will be happy about that.

If you love me half as much as I love you, you'll just knock it off already.  Please.

Sincerely,
Too Tired to Function

Thursday This n That

They have nicotine patches, which begs the question...  Why aren't there caffeine patches?  Man, I could really use one of those this morning.  Okay, several of those.  Don't judge.

Which reminds me of a funny I saw on FB yesterday... 'The idea of a domestic housewife implies that there are feral housewives.'  :gigglesnort:

The zucchini bread is almost gone for another year.  :sadface:  

Last night, Hubs and I watched Trump's rally in Gastonia, NC.  Wow.  The positive energy was palpable.  And it kind of restored my own positive energy - especially when there's so much negativity around these days.  If you haven't seen one, I'd totally recommend it.  Here, Newsmax was covering it. Not sure if anyone else was.

Years ago, a comedian (not sure which one... Carlin?  Williams?  Wright?) pointed out that the word politics comes from POLI - meaning many - and TICKS - meaning blood sucking organisms.  :gigglesnort:

Speaking of comedians, I've been watching reruns of Deal or No Deal.  I'm not sure what it is about that show that's so enthralling.  Part of it is the host, I'm, sure.  I love Howie Mandel, always have.  He was a hilarious stand-up comic.  He was a good actor on St. Elsewhere.  He's pretty good at the game show host thing, too.  Otherwise, it's just people picking cases and making decisions about whether to take the 'deal' or keep on picking cases in order to find out if the million is in their case.  Not much too it, really.  But yeah, enthralling.

I've also been watching Match Game a lot.  And of course, Perry Mason.  Last night's Perry Mason had a gal I see on Match Game a lot.  Too funny.  Oh, and Perry Mason has had Leonard Nimoy on it and DeForest Kelley.  (For people not in the Star Trek know, that's Spock and Bones.)  I wonder if Shatner ever did Perry Mason.  I know he did Match Game.  And I saw Scotty on Hazel the other day.  ROFL.

Okay, I've yattered enough this morning.  Got anything to yatter about?

To-Dos or 'The Guilt of Taking a Day Off is Killing Me'

I didn't accomplish anything yesterday, which, I guess, was the point.  I said I was taking a day off, and I did it.  Today can't be like yesterday, though.  

I mean, I had to do two days worth of dishes last night because they were driving me crazy. (I ran the dishwasher this morning so I didn't have to listen to the damn thing, but it was totally loaded.)  My to-do list is staring at me accusingly, reminding of things I should've already had done.

-vacuum
-dust
-cobwebs
-sunroom floor
-sales spreadsheet

It's good to take a day off after you've been busting your butt, I guess, but I always feel guilty.  So, today's going to see those things done.  And I need to work on a blurb for Cinder Ugly.  

And take a shower... cuz, ew.

And the weeding needs to get finished.  And raking.  And the windows.  And I probably should clean out the junk drawer and wash those glasses we never use...

Being an adult means having a lot of stuffs to do.  Whether I'll get everything done this week is anyone's guess.  But hey, at least I'm not bored.

Heh, does anyone else remember being told "if you don't have something to do, I'll find you something to do'?  Hell, I've said heard it and I've said it.  It's a mom thing.

Anyway, time to get my day going.  What's on your to-do list?