57 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, October 9, 2019”

  1. I’m really resisting working on the stuff I should be doing (writing the third Garlic Farm mystery), but getting a lot done, using up old blocks and scraps by making lap-sized and cat-sized quilts. Basted nine of them, mostly cat-sized, and there are more, but I ran out of batting scraps, so the rest will have to wait until I make a bigger project and open a new roll of batting.

    Pic here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3VKEYKgE2d/

    And I got my flu shot! Glad I did it, but I was annoyed that apparently it’s “policy” that I have to sit down while I get the shot, and sitting is difficult/painful for me. People with mobility/range-of-motion issues are never considered when making policies. I guess they’re worried people will faint at the prospect of getting stuck, but really, I get injections every 4 weeks, and they don’t faze me, and sitting in those horrible little chairs is much more of a risk for me.

    1. I love your romance novels!! Please tell me you’ll be writing another one in the future! I recently re-read Charlie All Night, What the Lady Wants, and Strange Bedpersons. They’re so great – loved the stories and the character development. I’m optimistic you’ll publish more like them!

      Holding out hope,
      Charlotte

      1. Hi, Charlotte! Welcome to Argh!

        The three you mentioned are Harlequins from the beginning of my career. Anything that came before Tell Me Lies is a short category novel like those.
        I’m deep in the weeds in single title (longer women’s fiction/romance) now, so going back to the shorter form isn’t likely. But so glad you enjoy them!

  2. Cleaned the blinds, a deep clean bath. Two more sets to go. Fall cleaning. Work work is getting done. Whew. Starting the Ewok costumes tonight. First fitting later this week. The girls picked out their furry fabric. So soft. Bought enough to make pillows for their beds. Jilly ready to teach me how to crotchet. I see her next weekend, on a day trip to Victoria. I inherited my sister’s knitting and crotchet hooks. Time to use them.

  3. I am mostly finished with the Trio blanket. I’m using my phone so I am having issues posting the link. If someone in the community could post it, that would be great!

    Meanwhile, I’m on a plane and starting a baby blanket for a friend. She follows me on instagram, so no pix just yet. She plays in my church handbell choir and is expecting in early January. The group decided to have a small celebration for her in November so this project jumped to the top of the list. I’m thankful that the size of a baby blanket gives me more instant gratification. I just wish I hadn’t left the pattern at home! What I didnt remember I’ve improvised so that’s how it will be.

    1. It will be lovely no matter what and unless the pattern included spelling out the baby’s name, no one will know you went off pattern unless you tell them.

  4. Tons of home repairs and home repair scheduling.

    Four visits from two different plumbers for the SAME leak. Ka-ching!

    Annual furnace inspection resulted in replacement of motor and ingnitor switch. Ka-ching!

    Garage door is beeping frantically to tell me that it needs a new back-up battery. Message received, but no way to turn off the beeping until the battery is replaced sometime later today. Ka-ching!

    Dryer knob broke. No one will come out to repair it, but at least one guy suggested a new knob I could order on Amazon and try putting on. If it doesn’t work, it means the timer mechanism is shot, and since no one will repair, it will mean a new dryer. Either a mini-ka-ching, or a big KA-CHING.

    Mainly I’m working on not flipping my lid or having a cow. Either would be bad. Lots of deep slow breathing and meditation breaks. I know these are all little things in the great scheme of life. I just find it easier when things like this are spaced further apart in time.

    1. The beeping has stopped!!!! I can’t stop snorting out little giggles at the silence. Close to 48 hours of it, now gone!

      Phew.

  5. Upper porch reno is finally done. Really done with new floors and railings and rain gutters and all. Revelling in the peace & quiet of not having men pounding on my house for a while. And getting my writing studio back to myself. Well, myself and the pup:)

  6. Because I don’t read the manual when we get a new appliance I’m surprised when things don’t work as well as they should. So last week I was reading info on the internet about cleaning the filter in the dishwasher. That’s when it dawned on me the reason the dishes weren’t as clean as they should be. Apparently after 2010 manufacturers stopped making the part that dissolves food (too noisy). So now I’ll remember to clean the filter at least once a month. On another note the iron I bought has a retractable cord that has developed a retract at will feature.

    1. Could you put a clothes peg or something else around the cord so it couldn’t retract?
      My mom asked me when I last cleaned the dishwasher’s filter. I asked her, what filter?

      1. Clothes pin – genius – great solution I was pulling it out and fiddling with till it locked. Argh and thank you. The vacuum also has a retractable cord but now I’m fortified with knowledge to put these appliances into submission. Thanks again all.

    2. Is it a vacuun cleaner?

      https://www.lg.com/uk/support/product-help/CT00008384-1403659308549-not-listed

      You are not alone, my family went to HK in the summer with the promise that the accommodation had air conditioning. After a hot sleepless night, my mother figured out the settings were wrong and we finally had cold air. We told my uncle, who had lived next door for a number of years. He made my mother reset his unit, all those years he had just lived with it.

    3. I read my whole manual when I bought the new dishwasher this summer. I don’t remember it saying I have to clean a damned filter. Of course, since it only works if I wash all the food off the dishes first, there shouldn’t be much to clean…

      1. Some have a grinder,(think garbage disposal). I know Bosch doesn’t. Bob Vila had a post. However the once a month was news to me.

  8. Work work has been nuts and the weather has been crazy.

    Last week I was really sick so was a slacker, except at work work which I can do in a very hot room stuffed with dogs so that’s okay.

    Sunday I did yard work outside in the wind until I could barely breathe. My lungs are not friends with the wind. It was supposed to be the last warm day we had so, wind or no wind, I had a garden to try to put to bed.

    Monday morning I dawned sick as a dog again and the weather dawned warm and clear and windless! I could have slacked off all day Sunday and worked Monday! As it was, I still did 3 hours of yard work (mostly moving mulch). I finished all my errands and chores just in time for the snow to start.

  9. I still can’t get any freelance work. Am feeling stressed about it, and trying not to be. I’ve just joined an association of freelancers, in the hope of more/better information about work opportunities. I’m also going to put a package together to send to a firm I used to work for in-house, thirty years ago, in the hope of getting work on illustrated books – especially gardening books – again. But they’ll be distracted by the Frankfurt book fair this month, so there’s no sense in sending it before November.

    I was astonished by the association’s suggested minimum hourly rates, which are about 40% higher than I’m getting paid. Which would make a huge difference to me. I ferreted around their forums, and discovered most members are working for non-book-publishing clients. I can’t at the moment think of any prospects for me; and I do love books. On the other hand, it would be jammy to actually earn a living.

    I’ve started digging over the allotment, which is infested with couch grass and bindweed. At the rate I’m going it’s going to take all winter. I’m also still working on my planting plan for the garden – which also needs a lot of hard work before I can plant the structural stuff.

    1. Have you tried applying for a listing through Reedsy, Jane?

      Reedsy, among other things, helps authors attain editorial services, so they curate a list of editors. Some very good editors who’ve worked with the major publishers. Each editor gets vetted before they make the list (which would likely be a given for you), but once you’re on the list, any writer who needs an editor can purchase your services. This could up your workload while also giving you the flexibility of choosing which projects you’d like to work on.

      The company is actually based in UK/Euro although their services are online so open to anyone needing editors, which means a large pool of writers gets access to your listing. It’s a good source for both writers seeking professional editors and editors seeking work.

      I haven’t used their services as yet, but a writer I know did and she found a fab editor who was spot on (and honest) about what she needed to work on re her novel.

      Not sure this helps, but thought I’d put it out there:)

  11. Getting through week 3 of meetings, appointments, keeping up with ‘housework’, and paperwork. Next week the annual mammogram. Got a phone call to preregister. Makes no sense because you still have to show up a half hour before the appointment to check in. Could it be that they are just looking for their payment? I dunna know.

    1. There’s a wonderfully efficient service here: a travelling van parks in a nearby hospital car park, and I’m usually in and out in ten minutes. You don’t even have to pay for parking.

    2. I had mine three weeks ago and also had to preregister, same place I’d had them ever since it opened. The only useful part of the preregister was that I had them remove my mother as a next of kin since she died last year at 95.

  12. I’m working on sending my HP laptop off to get fixed, the external metal skin is pulling off of the back of the screen. It works just fine, but I never flip it inside out to use as a tablet, which is one reason I bought such a fancy one. And I never close it, so it stays home. So I’m trying to send it off as safely as possible, which means I find a huge cache of ancient saved passwords and other stuff which I need to delete. And I need it, it’s my baby! Also, I work on it.
    So I’m slowly getting it together to send off to I’m not sure where. Far, far, away, I think.
    On the bright side, I did get a flu shot, cleaned my rooms, cleared off the desk, and paid some bills.

  13. I went to my first Extinction Rebellion protest in Hobart. We didn’t stop traffic, just walked across in front of them with our signs when the lights were red, and handed out leaflets and waved flags. I worry that I’m not doing nearly enough for the kids and grandkids, so this felt like a good thing to do.

  14. I have started direct-sowing seeds for summer vegetables, and will need to do more after work today because it’s supposedly going to rain tomorrow. I need to start some more trays, but I have run out of seed raising mix. Again.

    I also have to dig out some of the volunteer tomato seedlings that have come up from last year’s crop, because the tomatoes are mostly moving to a new bed. And because I don’t need fifty tomato plants all clustered together. Or, you know, at all. I should be able to palm some off on coworkers though.

    I have made zero progress on the new knitting project, but there’s no hurry for that.

  15. We had a commercial tree service prune up our douglas fir because it is way beyond our capabilities anymore. It was spendy but they ground everything up and we ended up with 2 yards of ground bark to mulch our plant. We have already spread a yard of it on paths on the hillside.

  16. Finished my taxes, 6 days before the deadline, so I’m pretty chuffed. 🙂

    Got through twenty boxes in the back house – 16 left and then I cast a gimlet eye at what remains after the purge. There will be a Purge II (looking at you, Susie Cooper dishes) once I assess.

    1. YOU HAVE SUSIE COOPER????
      Sorry. I have more of it that I can ever use. A huge set of her white scallop edged set from the fifties and then a couple of beautiful pieces in a kind of oatmeal with green and peach intaglio glazes. Love them. Clarice Cliff was more exciting and dramatic in both life and design, but Cooper was just steady and good and lovely.
      Check with local antique stores or see what it’s going for on eBay.

      1. I have the wedding ring pattern in green/peach. Love it, but we’re looking at downsizing, and just how many sets of dishes do we need? I agree with your sentiments both about Clarice and Susie.

          1. Oh, SIGH!

            Fast Women caused me to google them both and Spode and all kinds of china. It’s all very, very pretty. So what do I have? Correll. Plain white, the square pattern, one of every size plus a spare medium plate or two.

            Worse, left to my own devices, I’d use disposable plate and cups, but the dotter is environmentally conscious and has infected me with the disease. Paper or plastic? No, I have in excess of twenty shopping bags, cloth or canvas, not counting the insulated bags for frozen goods.

    2. This is where you have to be ruthless and don’t think twice. I really don’t need dish sets anymore, but when I’m at Home Goods and can’t find anything that I need I make my way over to the cups and check if there are any white mugs with a design. There my goto purchase and now I’ll only buy two. This summer it was a design with an imprint with shellfish, last year it was with a bead design. Then there were the ones with a floral design. Tuesday I saw coffee/tea mugs with a basket weave design and bought two.

  17. I’m working on being not sick, while project managing a playbill at work. The latter is going pretty well. The former, less so.

  18. My afternoon preschool class went on a field trip to see spawning salmon. We had the most perfect weather and saw many fish. Yesterday it was amazingly stormy–thunder, lightning, hail, torrential rain so it was a relief to wake up to clear skies today.

    1. Did any of the pre-schoolers ask what spawning was? (Full disclosure: I taught pre-school for a year. Those kids will ask anything.)

      1. Ha.

        They are more interested in the idea of the salmon dying than they are in what spawning means other than laying eggs.

        Preschoolers are surprisingly morbid.

  19. I have no idea what the hell happened to my day. Or my week. Or…well, you get the picture.

    I did make myself go do my fasting blood draw, the paperwork for which has been stuck to the front of my fridge for over a month. More annoying than anything else, as long as no bad surprises turn up in the results.

    Still wrangling sick foster kittens (who mostly seem fine, but still need the rest of their medicine and eye drops regardless), working on a Llewellyn annual article, and not accomplishing All the Things.

  21. I made a truly amazing cake this week. I have made this cake for decades and have been the family champion at it for a decade or two, but this one was enormous! I don’t know why this one turned out so tall (other than using jumbo eggs), but it was a definite personal best. And it tasted great, too.

  22. I started work-work at 5am today so the main thing I’m feeling is tired. So tired.

    Other than that, I worked at getting fitter by walking for 3 hours a day 3 days in a row. I didn’t feel fitter at the time but hopefully it worked anyway. I’ve been fairly steadily increasing how much I walk and it’s almost become a habit, which is great.

    1. I lost 51 pounds by walking places I formerly took the bus and it did great things for my mental health as well as my physical health. Since the benefits don’t show immediately, I try to vary my routes and find new things to see to keep myself going.

    2. Keep up the good work! You might find it easier if you tried walking half as long every day. I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to make a 3 hour block in my schedule every day.

      1. Oh, me too. Last weekend was an exception. But I’m trying to build up to full-day and overnight hikes and the only way I know of to get fit for walking all day is to walk all day 🙁

  23. I read How The Light Gets In, by Louise Penny. Excellent, even though I hadn’t read all the ones that came before it. And I actually read, rather than listened.

  24. I am working on becoming competent at my new job (the actual work is very much like the work I’ve been doing for 30 years, but the processes are very very different).

    Also on expanding another one of the novellas. So far it has doubled in size and may eventually come to rest as a short novel. It was an early one, so a lot has happened to these characters in the series universe since I wrote it. 🙂

Comments are closed.