It’s been glorious here this entire month, almost always in the seventies during the day, fifties to get cosy at night. It’s as if, for right now, the world around here was designed just for humans. Three months from now I’ll be looking at bleak, bare trees and freezing my butt off, and nine months from now I’ll be broiling, but for right now, it’s paradise here. Okay, it’s always paradise here if you don’t mind bears in your garbage, but right now it doesn’t just look like paradise, it feels like paradise, too.
What felt like happiness to you this week?
I can’t wait for that brief weather interval to arrive here in Denver. We are still ranging from high 70s to high 80s.
I’ve started a new quilling card. A horse drinking from a stream. And I walked three miles yesterday without any knee pain.
I feel happiness when I’m lost in a project and my mind doesn’t have space for worries.
Yesterday there was a showcase of sailboats on the bay. It must have been an end of season regatta for the local yacht clubs. With at least a hundred boats sailing with the breeze along with colorful spinakers. Blues, greens, reds and one Darth Vader. I wish I had been closer to see if that one was also flying a Jolly Roger. I wish I were more proficient with my phone to take pictures, maybe there is a Cell Phones for Dummies book at the library. But you are right, September is a beautiful month.
I got to see a draft of the cover art for the first garlic farm mystery, and it’s fabulous! I’m a bit spoiled too, since my first publisher did really good covers, so I wasn’t sure my new publisher would live up to expectations, but it did! I can’t share it yet, but will when it’s done.
Finished the Longmire binge and was relieved when the finale was good. The writing in that show is really fabulous, and I hate it when a good series leaves on a low note. They did an amazing job of wrapping up all the loose ends with a bunch of recurring characters over the final season.
You were able to move a series from one publisher to another? How did that happen?
Oh, sorry, no. Different series. Just meant that I had really good covers for my series with my first publisher, so there was a lot to live up to when I started a new series with my second publisher.
One thing I was really happy about with my new publisher though is that they are including my backlist in the front of my new book, even though they’re with a different publisher and are not part of the series they’re publishing. Oftentimes, you’ll see publishers omit any books that are with another publisher, so I wasn’t sure they’d include the backlist. Of course, it benefits them too, since it lets readers know I’m not a novice or a one-book-wonder (which is particularly important to cozy mystery readers who like to glom onto a whole series instead of stand-alone books).
Last week I was happy that I got the house cleaned before my parents arrived. Looking forward, I’m happy that I have vacation next week and will be taking a short getaway with my hubby. We’re going to see some old friends. I will also be celebrating my birthday. It’s a year where my age will end in zero. That, I am not as happy about. 😉
I’m happy I took the two sunny days we’ve just had to create a tidy, spacious potting shed out of a crammed-full chaos. I also enjoyed massacring the remaining Virginia creeper with an axe. I felt connected to my Stone Age ancestors (I’ve not really used an axe before: it beat my pruning saw hollow).
Yes, it was a glorious weekend in Germany too. On Saturday, I attended a wedding of refugees from Iran in my church, and today I could just sit outside to read and relax. Tomorrow it will start to rain, but I won’t complain as we need it badly.
It’s 90 here. I went out to kill invasive vines and lasted a half hour
It was 90 here, too. Last week I poured a half gallon of white vinegar all over the bottom three feet of my invasive vine. Nothing but dead vine there, now, but the top two thirds are still green, awaiting gloves and scissors. Thanks, Argherinos! You wuz all right!
I just returned home from visiting a small town in the state next door where my two close college friends were (1) running a local Democratic fundraiser and (2) playing in the band to entertain everyone. The weather was insanely gorgeous with turning leaves and views of northern mountains as we drove two hours between states. The gathering was fun — more outsiders like us than I expected — I didn’t feel like I was crashing a locals’ event. Everything was comfortable. We returned home to a simple leftovers dinner. Great day.
Happiness was finally clearing my cache so that the site would work beautifully! (I really enjoy procrastinating.)
Happiness is a nice Sunday lunch out with my two cousins. I ate too much.
And the weather is nice.
Went to look at an old Shasta Trailer with a friend. It was halfway across the state and the drive was fabulous. She had the top off the jeep and we had a lovely time. I don’t know if she’ll buy the camper, but I would if I had the money. It’s a lot of work, but it’s in good shape and still has its wings…
I had to google it. Fun!
My parents have a 1970 Avion trailer that’s more or less permanently parked in a Door County campground. No one has seen the wheels since about 1985 when my grandparents parked it there!
Happiness this week is four days off in a row, spring rain on my window, and the whole house to myself during work hours. I get to binge watch bad tv, decide on my next knitting project, and not talk to anyone for hours at a time. Bliss. No gardening with the rain, but it will probably clear up for tomorrow.
I went for my first MRI after chemo and there were no new growths. It is not all clear but it is still good news, so much happiness here.
That is fantastic news, Phred, so glad to hear that.
That’s great news, Phred!
Yay, Phred!
Excellent!
Yay for good news, Phred!
Yay, Phred. 🤸🏽♀️
I spent 3 hours on Saturday shoveling the ash left over from a huge bonfire and seeding the area with grass seed. And then 2 hours yesterday walking up hill and down dale. Happiness is that my body coped. I’m hardly even stiff today. I’ve been trying quite hard to get fitter and it’s so nice to have that paying off.
On an unrelated note, I finally understand why Americans grumble about summer and adore autumn, when I’m the other way round. It’s because your autumn temperatures are my mid-summer temperatures. We’re still in spring here, which gives me a double happy: I’m loving the sunshine and increased warmth and I’m loving that there’s months and months of it to go.
I’m on vacation in Southern California. ‘Nuff said 🙂
Happy? Dinner (Texas Roadhouse) and shopping with the dotter.
Walmart’s Lawn & Garbage department has given way to Christmas trees and paraphernalia, which ought to bother me but my Christmas tree is already up, lights on. More correctly, it never came down from last year no will it this year. I’m an ex-Scrooge, keeping Christmas in my heart all the year long. 🙂
I still Bah! Humbug!, but now it’s about things like Daylight Shaving Time, or Valentine’s Day, or that I Don’t Care If You’re Not Irish, Wear Green Or I’ll Pinch Ya day. I pinch back, closed fisted.
I’m in New York working. We have a great team, which makes me happy. We are staying and working near Central Park, one of my favorite places, and on Saturday I came upon the Central Park Dance Skaters. It was wonderful. Multiracial, multigender, multiage (though it skewed middle-aged); open to in-line and 4-wheel and even some folks who didn’t have their skates. It is like a church basement roller rink and a disco and the morning after a hard night at Studio 54… and just so pure. And they are there every weekend all summer long.
It was my birthday followed by my son’s birthday. I got books I wanted and puzzles I can’t wait to do. And for Chris’ birthday, we went to the LA County fair and ate poorly. Have you ever had a Krispy Kreme Chicken Sandwich? It was actually rather good. Also, I got an audition for a TV series called The Boys. So working on a middle London accent. Fun. Fun. Fun.
My parents and younger sister came out from San Diego for a brief visit, and I went in to Schenectady to spend time with them there, since that’s where my middle sister lives. I usually see them about once a year, when I go to them, so this was a great bonus. The sister who is usually nasty to me was consistently nice, and also had organized all our plans ahead of time so we didn’t have the usual long and annoying debates that ended up in no one getting to do what they wanted. Having the family together, including nieces, was just lovely. Plus the weather was spectacular (low 80’s both days, cool at night), we got to wander around Saratoga for Art in the Park day, and eat some yummy food.
And I was home a day and a half later, showed them all the things I’d done to the house since they’d last seen it, introduced them to the adorable foster kittens (two of whom are probably leaving this week, which is both a happy and a sad) and then got to go out into the garden.
Plus my parents handed out unexpected checks to us, which is always a happy. Using mine to chip away at the mortgage, which is VERY happy.
We hosted a dozen relatives for a casual dinner for my MIL’s bday. I made red velvet cake, but the frosting came out so runny I thought we’d have to serve it in a gravy boat. My MIL volunteered to take over frosting duties and did a fabulous job. She saved the cake–which may have been the day’s best present.
My favorite parts of the week were running into a friend at the train station one night on my way back into the city from a doctor’s appointment in the boonies. This is the woman I keep meaning to call to suggest we do something together but never call. It is totally ridiculous because the more we talk, the more I learn about her interests and what kind of thing she might like to do together. Since I have given up on dating, I seem to have transferred that anxiety to potential friends. Which is stupid since she is the one who saw me and called out to get my attention. I just need to look up what is cheap and pedestrian friendly on our side of town before I see her at book club so that I can start the conversation when I see her tonight.
My other favorite times this week were dropping off baby presents at the grandparents’ house and staying for another 2 hours just to chat. I was horribly late getting there, but Ben and Carol were wonderfully forgiving and I really enjoyed hanging out with them.
My happy this weekend was getting stuff done. I’ve had a wanna-be hacker try their best to get access to my wordpress site (morons) which has been a good trigger to continue to get all of my online stuff under control. It will take a while, but good progress was made on the weekend. I also found out that I can use Plus e-mail addresses with my e-mail system which will save me from having many many e-mail addresses to reduce the risk of one e-mail address being hacked and losing everything. Yay.
The other happy was figuring out how we can protect our mothers estate from my brother’s evil ex. Which has been a big relief for him. Mum’s still alive but everything that we’d been reading was that the ex can make a claim on the estate when Mum dies – and given everything that she’s been doing it’s a given that’s what she’d try to do as well.
Greta Thunberg fills me with joy. No matter what she says or where she says it. I want to begin doing something every single day to raise a ruckus about climate issues. It won’t be big, and I can’t afford to go on strikes, but I can do some squawking.