58 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, October 27, 2021”

  1. My work email has 863 in the inbox. They have been read for the most part… and one day I hope to categorize them into their proper folders… but alas, that won’t be today.

  2. I finally went food shopping! Well, technically I online ordered my Shoprite groceries so we don’t have the food yet, but still… we only have to suffer through one more day of a bare pantry and fridge. (seriously, I’m down to condiments and wilted carrots that are growing roots).

    Also, finishing up Wilde Christmas to send to my editor. 🙂 Yay!

  3. Today is the last day of my vacation. I haven’t quite decided what to do with it yet. I reached my soft goals for my Etsy shops and hit my target of small paintings for my little local show. I need to wire them for hanging band price them, my least favorite part….

  4. I get so much junk mail in the gmail that I’ll never get it all cleared out. I’m afraid I miss important things because it’s just so overwhelming. I try to unsubscribe on a regular basis and I SWEAR I never signed up for half these things.

    I get one email a day from a friend who likes to send me a morning funny, the occasional real-life business thing that’s important and the rest is just someone trying to get me to buy something. Sigh.

    I’m juggling the day job, the newsletter job, a mother of the groom jacket, a wedding dress alteration for a different wedding, along with a bridesmaid dress and my daughter’s birthday jacket from last March. No handmade Christmas presents this year – unless I give honey or vanilla. Those I have plenty of.

    I kind of wish I could bring my sewing machine to work to get stuff done in the slow hours of the day… Don’t think my boss would be happy with that though. But Maybe?

    1. I’d be pleased and impressed with honey from a beekeeper. And I don’t even eat it myself.
      May I suggest, a recipe or two depending on preferances and skills? Even silly ones “elegant morning toast” (with honey), for someone who laughs about not cooking, hot toddy for someone always cold, Or skin care, I’m sure honey is excellent somewhere on the body. Lets you show you see each person even if they all get the same gift.

    2. Like Clancy, I don’t eat honey myself (the only reason I have not succumbed to the fascination of bees) yet I certainly feel it is always an acceptable present. How much more so for people who do eat it!

  5. Today schools are closed. We are in the midst of a Nor’easter or as some weather people are renaming it a bomb cyclone. Whatever. I put the mental brakes on when changes happen and think to myself what was wrong with our cozy term Nor’easter? Anyway trees and waves are crashing all along the South Shore, Cape and Islands. All the boats are in that I can see from the bay. And I am writing this in anticipation of power loss.

    Yesterday I cleaned the medicine cabinet but really just rearranged everything. I may someday need that bottle of mercurochrome. Why did I buy those jars of hydro and cell renewal and eye cream, my wrinkles are already established. And then there is that tube of ointment that I paid $120.00 for but could only used ten days worth, it’s a steroid, but I don’t want to toss it.

    We did however finally clean out the freezer, had to take everything out of the bottom basket and found out the drawer releases and it was easy to get to places. The fun part was putting it back. No seniors were harmed in the process.

  6. In my work “to do” list I’ve got over 500 things – most of which have been resolved, but I haven’t had time to go back and look at that. Meanwhile, my personal email box has an alarmingly large number. I occasionally go back and delete stuff, but then lose impetus after about 5 pages and it grows again.

    On Saturday, I took an actual in-person quilting class. We had a person in for a “Gemstone bling” class. It was a new (to me) technique where you iron freezer paper templates onto fabric, cut them out and sew them together. I got about 1/4 done in class, and came home and almost got the rest done that afternoon before hitting the wall.

    After a long Sunday morning (playing handbells at the 8 and 9:30 services, singing at 9:30 and 11 ), I took apart my last couple of seams on the gemstone and put it together correctly. While I was on a roll, I also constructed my three “holiday blocks”. At our meeting on Thursday night, various folks at the quilt guild had individual kits for creating a block. You buy them, complete them by December, return them and you’re in the running to get all of the blocks that were created. My group had two for sale – one will create a cute snowman quilt, the other an interesting pieced quilt. I also couldn’t resist a paper pieced tree block.

    Yesterday, I happened to be walking by and saw that my fall-blooming camellia is indeed blooming now It’s exciting to see it (as well as the other buds). My other camellias have buds too, but I won’t see those blossoms until February.

    So, the pictures – camellia, tree block, snowman block, Goshen star block and my Pink Tourmaline gemstone block

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CVhz1hYrh2M/

  7. We packed, as is our agreement. He’s not officially working, we will both spend 2 hours a day towards moving. I spent about half an hour of that helping set up (insisting on) a system which included a place to put the pile of random bits that he didn’t know what to do with, eg: very old watch that may have died but may just need a new battery that hasn’t been replaced because now he has a mobile phone that does all the watch things.

    In 2 hours, he packed one box of books. (Books! Are there easier things to pack? If there please tell me. We could use a lift)

    He reported “that was mentally challenging”

    It is going to be a long month.

    1. I agree that books are the easiest things to pack. Perhaps he got sucked in by all the good stuff he has, which makes it mentally challenging to put into a box.

      I will advocate for smaller boxes for books. Those suckers do get heavy. I saved my larger boxes for things like yarn.

      Good luck!

      1. I got boxes that had had 6 bottles of wine from the supermarket: sturdy, small enough to carry when full of books, and quite good for paperbacks.

      2. It was not a large box.
        Really, all boxes are easy lift and carry. Until we get to sculpture, which I’m not doing, even little bronzes are heavy.

        He’s abstract, I’m concrete. Somehow any material things that make it past his general indifference become His and hard to let go. Hence the long held defunct watch.

  8. I’m having a lazy week. I’ve been feeling slightly under the weather, on and off, so I’m not pushing myself. I’ve done eight hours at the day job (only ten left before their budget runs out). Feeling a bit strange: I’m in transition, but it’s a long-drawn-out process.

    Had a newsletter out the blue from Scrivener yesterday, which made me realize NaNoWriMo starts next week, and I could actually do it this year. Got clear, though, that I don’t want to. Want to stick to my plan of a big sort-out and repurposing of my workroom.

    Also had an email from Penguin, asking if I wanted any work. Glad they haven’t forgotten me, but explained I won’t be free before the new year at least. (Because of my plan, plus I need time off to recover.)

    Did some gardening yesterday, but it’s grey, damp and windy, and likely to be so for a while. Must plant my bulbs in containers, though.

        2. So could mine! I bought a new pair of shoes, but couldn’t find them when I was packing for my trip to France. Now that I have been home a whole 3 hours, I still have no idea where I put them.

  9. I’ve been preparing a new story idea for NaNoWriMo.

    This Friday will be four weeks since my surgery, so I can “return to sedentary work,” on Monday. I’m not going to stress over actually hitting the 50K words of NaNoWriMo, but instead will be using it to get back into a daily writing routine. I’ll count it as a win if I add words more days than not (with a few days off for doctor appointments and Thanksgiving).

    1. I can’t believe it’s almost NaNo! I’m not starting from scratch like a true NaNo, but I’m hoping to ride the NaNo energy wave and get some real progress made.

      1. I’ve been thinking about doing NaNo too. But I’m realistic enough to know I can’t hit 50,000 words. I would be overjoyed if I can use it to get back into writing as I used to. I’m trying to work out whether I can arrange work and everything else to make enough progress to count it as a win rather than a frustration and more stress. Based on my lack of progress at the work-work this week, it’s not looking good. But I need something to change.

        I’ve always wondered why it’s November and not, say, January, February, or March.

        1. MJ and I tried a February version one year, but I dropped out early on. I do think it’s quite a good month for it, though, if you’re in the northern hemisphere.

    2. Ha! I could easily write 50,000 in ten days – as long as it wasn’t my own work. Ghost writing is easy compared to something that I really want to write. Don’t you think it should be the other way around?

      I’m not writing anything this year. Well, maybe a short story that’s floating around in my head, but definitely no NaNo. I don’t need that kind of pressure.

      1. That’s interesting, Kate. I would think it would be the other way around.

        I’ve never tried NaNo before, and the pressure’s worrying me. Well, one of the things. November is looking to be such a busy month–as it usually is–and I’m already stressing about it. And I haven’t done anything to prep. . . .

        And I’ve just found out we’re hosting Thanksgiving, which I’ve never done before, oddly enough. We’ve always traveled to siblings and parents since it’s just the two of us. So, there’s that.

  10. Started sorting the small “office for him, which became the dump everything in” room. Cleared a shelf, organized the stuff, piled of books in categories, garbage bag full, recycling out at the curb, vacuumed the outdoor cushions ready for winter storage, etc, etc. Same old, different week. Judged short stories, read and judged the to be short listed stories. Some good ones. I was despairing over substance in the past year. BIL is coming back tonight, leaving Sunday. Going for walk now before the winds pick up again. So much rain and wind since Friday.

  11. I’m tossing things too (took a huge load out of the garage to the dump last Saturday) and doing the winter prep–cleaning windows (only did the outside, on the theory that I could do the inside any time, also I hate cleaning windows and I’m really bad at it), putting away decorative lawn things, and such. Today’s list includes changing to the winter comforter (the cats “helped”), washing the slime off the deck, slapping a bit of paint onto the new outside door, doing protection magic around the perimeters of the house and property line, and as a bonus, unclogging a slow kitchen sink. [Easy one–put in a bunch of baking soda, pour lots of vinegar on top and let it bubble for a while, pour a kettle of boiling water down the drain. Works most of the time.]

    Also, I’m still plugging away at polish edits for the book due to Llewellyn in 13 days. Not that I’m counting.

  12. Thanks for the reminder about wine boxes, there’s even a big box liquor shop near here. Maybe tomorrow’s 2 hours can include him collecting some.

    I’ve saved boxes but we’re getting low already. Used to go to supermarkets for boxes when I moved(almost yearly!) but I also used to live in a much colder place. I really don’t want to introduce bugs esp since some of this is going to end in temporary storage. Used to hold wine seems a better bet than used to hold bananas.

      1. shhhh! I
        ‘m moving over here, I need my illusions unbroken.
        like: (I’ve done this before, it’s not that bad(true, when I was twenty & everything I owned could fit in a small car)) vs (last time was a nightmare and we have 10 years more stuff now)

        even new boxes have glue. And the giant roaches that live here specifically eat dead wood, cardboard is wood somewhere in it’s past. but new boxes cost $3+ each and turns out the liquor store is happy for you to carry them away

        1. Try office depot or a place like that and ask them if theyll save you the nice copy paper boxes with lids. Those are great for books and other things.

  13. Work at work has been straightforward. Why, the automatic boilers nearly run themselves. Work email is straightforward, too. 97% are to and about the corrections officers, not about us staff. I don’t need to know which pods are in lockdown, or which programs are running, or myriad other details about officers and inmates. They use a mailing list that includes us. We are expected to separate wheat and chaff so that they aren’t bothered by it. That’s a lot of deleting.

    Personal email is much easier. Everything with an offer gets deleted. Some things I read and delete. Right now, there are 11 undeleted emails in my in box, all having something to do with Medicare. It’s Open Enrollment time and I only have Part A.

    Some things aren’t really work. I roasted some red potatoes and onions. I’m broiling a ribeye. I have leftover mac & cheese. All that will go in my lunchbox for dinner at work. I thought about including a slice of Texas Toast, but with potatoes and pasta, that’s just too many carbs.

      1. I stayed strong. Tomorrow is another day. Also, the microwave at work isn’t working (I have a toaster, electric skillet, and a George Foreman grill, so no hardship) but I ate the dinner… cooled. I will plan tomorrow accordingly. Boneless pork chop, green beans (no salt added) and Texas toast. No microwave required.

  14. Got my freezer cleaned out; yay! Amazed at the amount of protein I have in there; I need to start cooking more at home. Also, slogging through various doctor appts; saw my ophthalmologist this morning, which means I’m peering at the screen to see what it says. (Eyes still dilated.) I need to look through The Ashland Shakespearean Festival offerings for next year; my family is going to try to meet there, Covid permitting. I meet with a personal trainer tomorrow, to try to recover from the past year+ of slothliness.

  15. Today my work was getting my booster (done). Next I plan on making beef bourguignon using James Beard’s recipe and my Instant Pot. I modified the recipe years ago and it works out really well for me. It is a great way to use up my husband’s home- made pinot noir (it is drinkable but not tasty. But for some reason it makes excellent wine sauces).

    Then if I have no side effects and it does not rain (highly unlikely), I will do some work out in the yard.

  16. My sister was given a knitting kit using stranded cotton for a newborn, which she passed to me. It doesn’t feel very soft, so I decided to ignore it and make her something with baby wool.

    Started making a baby’s cardigan, consulted various books and then found a lovely pattern on a helpful youtube video by Clydknits, I am aiming for 6 month old, since it may take me a while.

  17. I’m working on figuring out a functional daily routine that promotes me moving forward on my goals, instead of Extreme Procrastination followed by Panic Work Because I Procrastinated. So far so good. Also I started therapy, which doesn’t feel productive in the moment (or even for the rest of the day when I feel emotionally exhausted), but seems to clear out the emotional underbrush so I can move forward the rest of the week.

  18. The foot surgeon’s office communicates better than all our other doctors put together. I email a photo of my foot with my questions and hear back within an hour. Tomorrow I’m going for my 2nd extra appointment — although the foot is healing fine, yesterday’s photo might have shown some infection (meds were ordered from my pharmacy as soon as the photo was seen). Also, the foot needs better bandaging than my husband can do. Although I doubt that the stitches are really infected, the antibiotics have made me sleepy, so I’m not cross like I was. My work at the moment is to heal; I’m happy to have a surgeon and her practice who are so helpful.

  19. I really have my work cut out for me this week as I lost my passport, state ID card, credit card and debit card while I was in Paris a few days ago. And my phone isn’t working because the SIM card I bought in France, which didn’t work there, also doesn’t work here. I have the one I took out of my phone when I bought the supposedly international one, but I can’t get the French one out to try putting the old one back in. I think I will have to take it back to Target and ask the guy who sold me the card that worked at home, but not in France to reinsert the card he sold me, since he had no trouble manipulating the little buggers. The customer service supervisor I spoke with while I was in France said she was sending me a new one, but since I have yet to pick up my held mail, I don’t know if the Post Office ate that one or not. That is, if they will accept a copy of my passport as ID. And then I have to go to my bank and deal with them and call my credit card company. I filed a police report that I can show them regarding the loss or theft, but as it is in French, I anticipate some red tape at the very least.

    However, I am very glad I scanned a copy of my passport into my BIL’s computer before I left, because he was able to send it to my hotel in Paris and the airline staff at the airport swore that I matched the picture and so I was able to board. A desk clerk at my hotel was incredibly helpful and I really think that a young man named Hisam at United Airlines saved my sanity. After spending hours with me yesterday walking me through the process with the airline and telling me what to do for the police report, he personally checked in my bag, assigned me a better seat and walked me out to the gate today. I don’t know how much they pay that kid, but I can tell you that it isn’t enough. Especially since although I went to the airport yesterday so that I would know I would be able to fly today, when I came to check in this morning, there was little or no record of the supervisor’s approval in the computer and I had to repeat most of the process again today. Thank God I had a copy of the police report in writing!

    2. Oh, no! Aunt Snack, that’s my worst nightmare! Do you know how you lost the documents? The most important loss to report is the credit card (my wallet was stolen this past summer). Was making the police report pretty smooth or difficult? Hisam sounds like your guardian angel. I am so glad you made it back to the US on the same flight you’d booked.

      You should be able to get a new debit card just by visiting your bank. The credit card can be overnighted (if you ask) (and for free). I replaced my driver’s license (similar to your state ID card) over the internet. But the passport — yes, it can be done but it will take awhile.

      I’ve been looking forward to hearing from you when you returned from France. How was the rest of your trip? You posted that several bits of official stuff hadn’t arrived by the time you left the US. How did that all work out?

      1. Google locked me out of my email because they wanted a security check when I tried to log on from my brother’s computer. Since that involved using a code they texted me on my non-functioning cellphone, I was locked out of my email the whole time. Finally, my brother got the brilliant idea of reapplying using his email, and that triggered the sending of the original pass, which by that time had long since been approved. Although it was late enough that we had jettisoned earlier plans for travel to Scotland, I did go to Toulouse and Albi. for 2 days. I managed to set a new record for getting lost on that trip, but I had a wonderful time, especially at the Lautrec Museum. Not only has Lautrec been one of my favorite artists since my first year of high school, but the museum itself is in a castle dating back to the 1500’s. It was originally a bishop’s residence and the walls are over a foot thick. The sun came out in time for a walk in the formal gardens before I had to leave for the train station, which almost made up for the fact that I got horribly lost on my way back. Fortunately, a girl with a smart phone who spoke about as much English as I speak French (not nearly enough!) came to my rescue and we both made the train.

        1. What an adventure! Sounds like you lost all your ID and money cards at the beginning of your week in France. I have constant problems with Google locking me out — same deal with needing a second machine in order to reopen the account. AND you got lost, too? Eek.

          I’m so glad that you had good times seeing your brother and visiting Toulouse and Albi. I don’t remember much about Albi, but I didn’t get to Toulouse and regret that. It’s nice that you have good memories from such a difficult trip.

          1. I had 4 weeks with my brother and SIL as well as the time in Toulouse before I lost everything. My problems started when I tried to book my train back to Paris for my return. We waited too long to buy a ticket back to Paris and all the seats on the fast train that stops near the airport were sold out. So we bought a ticket to a central Paris train station and that is where my troubles started. I think I left a zipper case either at the information desk where I got directions for taking the Metro from the train station to CDG or when the turnstile I entered to get into the Metro closed on my backpack and ripped it open. I had to carry a travel sized C-Pap machine in my pack, which made it much more tightly packed than usual. I was also nervous about losing the C-Pap, because it was a rental, and if I lost the thing, I would be billed $800.00 for a unit that was much noisier and less effective than the one I have at home. My regular mask and tubing were incompatible with the smaller machine so for over 4 weeks I had to use the mask that came with the rental machine and it wasn’t a great fit. As a result, I didn’t sleep all that well. It ws a bunch of small inconveniences that by themselves weren’t that horrible, but added up to a distinct decrease in my capabilities.

            Next time I think I will go for a shorter trip and just leave the C-Pap at home.

    4. Eek, good luck with the bureaucracy, Maybe OCR scan the police report so you can email it to people and they can google translate it themselves, it might save you some time.

      Also remember to email United Airlines and tell them that kid is worth his weight in gold. When you find people who go above and beyond, it’s always good to make sure they’re appreciated

  20. OMG. What a nightmare you’ve been through. I hope it all gets sorted soon. Sending huge hugs.

  21. Just cleaning, doctor appointment and Board of Elections meeting. Tomorrow Pixie goes for a dental.

  22. I’m much better about keeping my work inbox clean than my personals.

    NaNoWriMo: Still undecided. I have a dozen possible projects but I think I might have to change my schedule a bit to get back in a real writing groove. Specifically, I think I need to work my way into getting up an hour or so earlier to write before work, because writing *after* work is just not happening these days. So I need to go to bed & sleep earlier. Obviously I’ll start the painful way by simply getting up earlier.

    Aside from traveling across the country and back (which was WORK); writing a good chunk of a new novella while in Florida; and dealing with Return to Day Job (signed in to 173 emails yesterday, signed off with 15), all I’ve accomplished is completing my Cologuard kit and sending it off. 🙂 The joys of aging.

  24. I did the most recent update to my member list (still have one more awaiting) and approved a proposed budget for a ladies’ group meeting this coming Saturday morning. Will have to request that the treasurer suggest appropriate amounts for a dues increase, as the current dues amounts haven’t been changed in many years and aren’t enough to cover expenses. Rest of the week looks pretty Zoom social — a Spook-tacular Zoom tea in 45 minutes, a Zoom meeting tomorrow evening, and another Saturday morning. I’ve been working out what to wear: today is my “Practice Safe Hex” sweatshirt with a Sorting Hat the kittens have been snoozing in for the last week. I meant to try for some makeup in a becoming shade of Tasteful Green, but haven’t actually seen any at the boring places I shop.

  25. The floor is done, we’ve been running around doing everything needed for buying a new truck, spent last weekend with friends, Paul got a new tattoo (a portrait of his mom), and I’m figuring out the cleaning priorities as we have friends coming next weekend.

    The floor is done and I’m beat.

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