Working Wednesday, October 12, 2022

~ Jenny

We’re at the tag end of the trilogy, Bob’s doing a final edit on Vermillion and I’m going to try to get through paper edits of Lavender and Pink. Seeing the book on paper instead of a screen really is reading a different book, and god knows I need to see these as different books. I have read them way too many times. In the meantime Bob is working on the end of Vermillion which, while it is flawed and needs his rewrite, will not include rescuing a seven-year-old kid by dropping her out of a two story building onto a giant red teddy bear. I appreciate his innovative approach to endings, but just no. I think it’s because there hasn’t been enough violence in the books, which he complains about (along with my penchant for putting two spaces after a period and the disturbing lack of zombie pirates in the story). For example:

So what did you work on this week?

Me? I worked with this guy:

89 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, October 12, 2022”

  1. I worked on my hydroponic gardens, of course. I cooked. I cleaned something. I did engineering. I read stuff, but that’s a topic for tomorrow. There was probably more.

  2. I had a group of friends over for a potluck dinner. That meant housework, sigh. But a clean bathroom is a nice thing to have, so it was worth it.

      2. Sometimes we invite people over (well, pre-covid we did), just to force ourselves to clean. The visit is secondary.

  3. Started my new job yesterday. This is the third library I’ve worked for, and this is by far the most laid back. No fines. They don’t charge for copies or printouts. They don’t even charge for earbuds. Also, I found out yesterday that it’s NOT temporary job. It’s permanent part time. I was under the impression it was temporary when I accepted. So I’ll give it a week or two and decide how I like it.

      1. I asked the guy who is mentoring me (he’s new too — just not as new as I am) what the lending periods are. He said “I don’t really know.” I said “ well, if we’re not charging fines, I guess it doesn’t really count anyhow,”

        1. Pam’s avatar is getting more teeth-clenched. I don’t think she’s liking the laid-back library. Or hungry?

    2. Congratulations on your new job. Our library abolished fines as well — but after 21 days overdue, the library patron is charged for the full cost of the book or other checked out item. (Patron with overdue book charge can’t use the library until the cost is paid … The overdue item is not accepted in lieu of payment after the 21 days overdue)

      1. Wow, that policy is appalling—what a way to keep the poorer people out of the library system. Some people have transportation issues or life and can’t return a book on time but would gladly pay a reasonable fine. And what if the patron had checked out 10 books? Unconscionable.

        2. Yeah. Wow, that is really shocking. 21 days is not very long. Wow. It is downright regressive — I have a hard time seeing any way that policy is designed to do anything other than keep people who can’t afford to buy books from having access to them, and decrease the library stock of books.

          Alison, are you able to push back on the at all?

  4. I’m old school, two spaces after a period, typist. It may not be the hill I die on, and I understand that modern word processing has eliminated the need for it, but it’s been a habit so long that I just feel wrong when I don’t.

    As for creative work, I did the final quilting on the sampler quilt and bound it. I took it last night to show my friends, who were very appreciative. They’re expecting me to put it in our guild’s quilt show. I may have to think about that, as I’ve been nose-close to it for a month while quilting, and I know all of it’s flaws!!

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

    I also included a picture of Wendy with her prize. She likes finding things like scrap batting, or socks, or underwear, and dragging them off with her. She lets everyone know she’s been victorious on the hunt with her ululating cry – somewhat muffled by the fabric in her mouth. It’s really funny to hear. I leave scrap batting on the dining room table just so she has something she can claim as hers.

    1. Such a beautiful quilt! You’re very talented. I agree with your friends–it should be in a show.
      And Wendy is adorable.

    2. What’s the old school reason for two spaces after a period? I was never taught that as a child, and I’ve always wondered why some people do that. Thanks!

      1. I believe it had to do with Typesetting – since the capital letters took up more space on the line, you spaced twice after a period to give them room.

      2. Many of us were taught two spaces after a period in typing class. On a typewriter all the letters are given the same amount of space unlike computer fonts which adjust for the size of the letter. So when you use a typewriter the double space emphasizes the amount of white space between sentences so your eye is not confused by the extra white space around small letters like i or l. On your computer those skinny letters don’t have extra white space around them so no need to emphasize the white space after a period.

        1. I retrained myself to just do one space after a sentence but I still occasionally do two spaces after a colon.

    4. That’s another beauty. 🙂
      One of my dear departed cats used to be a sock thief. She’d find one and drag it around the apartment, ululating.

    6. I’ve recently started back into transcription work after a break of about 5 years. During that timeframe it has apparently become the new standard to single-space instead of doubling as I was taught in high school (and have been doing diligently for decades since). So I’m in the process of re-training myself, which is frustrating, but there you go!

      I love the quilt – eye-catching colours and a beautiful pattern

      1. Your high school must have been out of date. Single space after a full stop has been standard since word-processors/computers replaced typewriters – in 1986, in my job. Although I daresay if you didn’t work in publishing, maybe people didn’t realize proportional spacing changed the rules.

    1. Hi, April. I wrote that a million years ago so I’m going to have very little recall of any of it. Sorry, but best of luck with your podcast.

  6. I am still in a creative funk, with some deadlines approaching, which is not the best feeling.

    On the bright side, I am reasonably sure that I am covid free, which is a relief as we are supposed to go to Ithaca for a little vacation next week.

    And we had a long, emotional conversation last night about how I don’t want my partner to take a second shift factory job. I’m not sure that I handled it as well as I could have, but I want to see my person every day. And I think that he would really hate the repetition of factory work. And it’s really hard on your body.

    1. Great news on being covid free. I dated a guy from Ithaca who went to school up here, back in my ’20’s; his parents were professors at the Cornell.

      The important stuff: Kevin. Does he want to take a factory role because of not making money? because he is bored? That is a tough one.

      1. Ithaca is lovely. It’s like this little island of liberal sanity in a sea of redneck.

        His compelling argument was that he was afraid that if he waited too long he would settle for something he didn’t want. And my witty rebuttal was, “So you are going straight to the bottom of the barrel?” And he laughed.

        I think that he is afraid and not sure what to do. And he thought that he would learn new skills, which he would, but not particularly transferable ones. Also it would look weird on his resume to go from Director of Public Services at a fairly large library to entry level factory work.

        And I have worked in a factory. It is hard. We don’t need the money that badly yet and I would like him to end up somewhere he can work long term.

        1. Totally agree with everything here – although you can always leave work like that off a resume. Hey is he networking? Best book ever on networking for job search (and it is ‘dippable’ so you can even leave it as bathroom reading): https://www.amazon.ca/Guerrilla-Marketing-Job-Hunters-3-0-ebook/dp/B004WL8LMC/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2BV0BWE6EQNI2&keywords=guerilla+networking&qid=1665592057&s=digital-text&sprefix=guerilla+networking%2Cdigital-text%2C94&sr=1-4

          1. Thanks! He has been reading a lot of books about interviewing. I will get him this one. And I am trying to get him to make a LinkedIn. He is very resistant to social media of any kind.

          3. Thanks, Tammy. I just checked it out from the library. I’ve been kind of flailing since I lost my job in 2021 (and really for a while before that). Maybe this will be the jumpstart I need.

        2. That is a pretty big shift job wise, you are right to be worried about his health. However they probably have a probationary period, and he can see if he can hack it. For him it might be about meeting new people and trying new things. If he feels stagnant, at least it means moving forward.

          1. He definitely needs a change, but factory, in my experience, is pretty stagnating. If you are Union, you are only allowed to do certain things within your job description. I wasn’t Union and did anything and everything that came my way, but that way lies burn out. Mandatory overtime and working in hot or cold depending on the weather.

            I am all for a change of pace, but I feel like this would be a dead end.

          2. Totally agree this is likely a dead end – and it’s one that consumes energy and time that could be put to better use in a job search. However, if he needs something that gives him purpose, has he thought about volunteering on a board or a committee in some capacity that can be captured on his resume in a compelling fashion?

          3. He has talked about volunteering, but he is in a ‘worry himself into immobility’ phase. We will work on it. Thanks for the ideas and support. It’s a great outlet for me.

          5. Have a look round in different sectors, My company is in Events, Conferences and Training, they had to let a lot of people go during lock down and now the company has trouble recruiting as people left the industry.

  7. I finally scheduled all my doctor/dentist/eye doctor appointments for this year, which is very important because my medicaid runs out at the end of the year, so I’ll have to start paying for health-related things again T-T

  8. I’m afraid I’m with Bob on the spacing. (I hope he replaced them globally rather than individually. If he was doing them one by one, I understand his need for violence and zombies.)

    I’ve been jumping from task to task and not really accomplishing much. But I spent a couple of hours digging out the goutweed I’ve mentioned previously (in preparation for transplanting a lilac that is not doing well in the shade). Even getting a small section done was satisfying, but there’s so much to do. And because I’m behind, as usual, I’m racing the calendar and hoping the weather stays nice.

    1. I’m not good at retraining and I like two spaces, plus it gives Bob another thing to feel superior about while only taking him five seconds to fix. Win/win.

          1. Double-tapping is a technique; you shoot a person twice in rapid succession. Needless to say, Bob wrote those parts.

  9. I put my kid on the plane yesterday so after 5 weeks of having first both and then one of the girls home, we are back to being two old folks on our own. Before she left, I managed to photograph a cardigan I had knitted for her previously and write a post about it. https://knitigatingcircumstances.com/2022/10/05/wearability-wednesday-vodka-lemonade/

    I am really struggling with fatigue still, 18 weeks post-covid, but I’m back at work full-time. I guess that’s progress.

    1. I love that cardigan, but I love her dresses more. It’s a good thing she’s not close by or I’d be raiding her closet.

      1. Thank you, and everyone else, for nice comments on this sweater. It was great to finally see her wearing it, since I had finished it over 2 years ago. It was a good visit.

      1. No pocket. But of course the great thing about knitting is that if you want a pocket, you just knit one. And if you want it longer or shorter or a-line or fitted, etc, you can knit it that way. Some day I will knit one of these for me and I’ll think about a pocket.

  11. By my standards I had a huge accomplishment this week. Ever since I discovered that grocery stores are not stocking the shelves with onion relish, which made me start a quest for it, it became an obsession. Even Trader Joe’s didn’t carry it. So, I decided to make it myself. I looked up pickled onion and found a recipe with just a few simple ingredients and it came out great. This could start a trend. I thought about adding matchstick carrots to the next batch. Maybe even carrots and parsnips. Seriously obsessed.

    1. Parsnips improve anything, as far as I can tell. I vote parsnips, with or without the carrots. Well, actually with sounds great!

    2. My friend went to France and tried to find Djion Mustard, there is a shortage where he was for some reason, he came back with the lone jar he found for his mother, his sister had to go without. He showed me the supermarket photos, the mustard shelf was usually empty or filled with only an imported brand that was in plentiful supply

      1. My solution… he could have got some from the shops in London… but he considered that cheating

        1. I read something about that. Maybe the rapeseed (canola oil if grown in Canada) crop was damaged by weather in France this year? Major catastrophe for French mustard.

  12. I’ve been finishing stuff. Got my holiday novella up at Amazon for pre-order and then tackled an unfinished quilt that’s been sitting around for at least fifteen years waiting for me to take up hand-quilting it again. I finally accepted I’m never going to hand-quilt the (really huge) border (or anything else because it’s just too hard on my hands and elbow — there’s one other partially-hand-quilted larger quilt that I still need to figure out a plan for), where the quilting would barely be visible anyway, so I machine-quilted it, and now all I have to do is add the binding and hand-quilt four small blocks that I didn’t realize were unfinished, and it’ll be done. Hoping to get those four blocks done before another fifteen years pass. https://www.instagram.com/p/CjlG1BJL63q/

    Oh, and I’m working on NOT getting covid. It feels like everyone who managed to escape it until now are succumbing. My next-door neighbors came home from a camping trip yesterday and let me know they were all positive. And my tenants (both of whom are EMTs) tell me they’ve been seeing an awful lot of first-timers recently. Really glad I haven’t succumbed to peer pressure, and I’m still wearing a mask, even when I’m the only person in the whole grocery store wearing one.

  15. I finished the depressing proofs (they’re almost always depressing), and have a short poetry book due tomorrow as a follow-on, with the hope of something more substantial after that. It would be really good to have that now, since I don’t feel up to much else, and definitely not anything that involves moving my head around. Did manage to photograph the garden yesterday, though mostly from a chair, and have done a rough edit today so I could do a couple of Instagram posts – this one’s a couple of views of the garden: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjnthP6M6Lb/

    1. I already follow you on Instagram but I hadn’t seen this yet. It’s beautiful–so peaceful looking.

      Mine is “an unweeded garden that grows to seed/things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.” A summer dealing with mastectomy and complications did not position me to turn out anything so pretty. I’ll do better next year!

      1. That sounds like at least half of my allotment this year, and I don’t have a good excuse. Just need to fail better next year. At least most of the weeds are marigolds.

    1. I agree with your other comments: that is almost unbelievable and it does look like fabric. Thank you for sharing that great picture.

  17. After having Thrift Books accept my pre-order for a book being released next week and then cancelling it for a third time, I finally did what I should have done in the first place. I went on ebay and bought an ARC for less money. I really don’t mind not having the cover art, I just want to be able to read a book my library doesn’t plan to purchase. I will probably have to break down and buy an e-reader one of these days, but I am not there yet.

    2. I resisted for a long time, but then Jenny had the Crazy for you stories only available in ebook, and Ilona Andrews had shorts only available that way, etc.

      Now I love it. I do most of my borrowing from the major library that is three hours away and no one can tell what I am reading, which is nice.

      I also succumbed and purchased a subscription for kindle unlimited and it has had the positive effect of limiting my impulse buying of cheap ebooks. So I come out better each month, even if I don’t use it. But if I remember correctly, your budget is tight, so the biggest benefit would probably be the library. Some big city libraries let you apply all online for a card and then borrow at will. It’s great.

  18. Doing nothing much of anything. A little bit of cleaning. A little bit of dog-walking. A little bit of reading. A little bit of cooking (cabbage sausage soup tomorrow as it’ll be raining). Trying not to double-space after the period.

  19. Today I conquered the Brooklyn Coney Island DMV and finally got a state ID. Honestly anything else I accomplish today is just icing on the cake.

  20. I’m definitely old school and put a double space after a period.

    This is my week to celebrate my birthday; somehow I managed to get several appointments scheduled during it so it hasn’t felt fully celebratory. All appointments are now fulfilled; my hair has been done, my teeth have been cleaned, my mammogram came out great (and they are now considering letting me go back to yearly appts instead of every 6 months!), my car has been inspected and is improved by new tires and windshield wipers. Besides regular chores, I also made myself put the new registration sticker on the windshield while we still have nice weather. Now I can finish the rest of the week celebrating.

    I have done something fun every day, after the appts, just nothing major.

  21. Finished researching & writing the conclusion to my holiday novella. One more read-through and I’ll be ready to put it up for pre-order. Also did some work on the blog.

    Investigated The Rom Con, which is happening next August in Anaheim. I have never attended a romance convention but this one is too close to miss, and too well-targeted (they are explicitly promoting inclusive romance and own-voices writers). I’ve inquired about attending as an actual author, but if they are full up or just don’t need a straight white writer, I’ll go as a fan. If I *do* get to go as an author, am wracking my brain about what kind of promotional giveaway I could create that wouldn’t cost the earth.

    Have completed negotiations with one of my monthly advertising destinations for 2023. Need to negotiate with my cover designer, because the rebranding has stalled.

    Was planning to do baseline yardkeeping (i.e. watering) after work today, but nature did it for me. She woke me up at 5 a.m. actually, with a legit thunderstorm.

    1. Re: promotional giveaway: Stickers are fairly inexpensive to have made and are pretty popular with romance bookstagramers, etc. Something cute, maybe with a snappy quote that you could stick on a water bottle or laptop case…

      1. Con Riley had the cutest stickers made for her ‘Heppel Ever After’ release leading up to an event in the UK. They’re definitely an appealing idea. 🙂 I was thinking I’m so very unknown that the best giveaway would be something people could read. (Like: look! here’s a sample! if you enjoy it I have 50 more! LOL) I have a novelette that would make for an affordable printed-up booklet. Affordable in the sense that I could actually afford it even though it would physically pain me to spend that much money (they recommend 3000 copies of any giveaway). I mean, if I’m *ever* going to spend that much on promotion, this seems like the venue for it.

        1. Could you put a QR code to the e-book on something more affordable, like a bookmark or business card, and save printing costs? People get a million of those at conferences, but maybe they will keep long enough get to the download page.

  22. We have been finally replacing the closet doors we took out to do the floor, oh, a year ago. They were all bifolds and we turned them into either French doors or regular doors. I’m so happy we did that, the closets feel so much more spacious now. I also emptied the pantry, painted it, put new (better) contact paper on the shelves, and filled it back up. I’m waiting on a soup can holder thingy and a lazy Susan to get it finished. Then it’s on to the linen closet!

    We have also been getting the yard ready for winter and pulled all the tomatoes in the patio planter. On plant we thought wasn’t going to give us anything has hundreds of tiny tomatoes on it! Paul put a bunch of stuff away and I scraped weeds out of the sidewalk cracks.

    I also worked on cleaning and reorganizing the laundry room, which is turning into a monumental task but I’m almost done. There was cat litter everywhere. The cement floor is unpainted in places and has picked up the cat urine smells. I finally found a cleaner that actually pulls the scent out so I’ve been doing that too.

    1. Oh please – what is this magical cleaner? My co-worker is suffering from mouse-died-in-car odor problems. Nothing has worked for her yet.

      2. Have you tried Odo Ban?
        It has been a long time since I need to use, but it was effective in the past for me.

      3. This stuff is called OdoBan and I got it at Home Depot. There are all different formulations, including one that is a jar you open and it absorbs odours (kinda like baking soda in the fridge). I haven’t used that one but if it works like the concentrate did, it should help. There are also sprays for fabric and such. It’s very inexpensive.

        Now, just to explain, this is an issue I’ve been fighting for months. We think Pumpkin developed diabetes just before we had to put him down so he was peeing everywhere, Toodles has had a bladder infection so she was the same way, and the puppy has peed in there while she was being house trained. I was constantly mopping. One of the cats crawled in behind/under a small cabinet and had been peeing there (I have no idea how either cat would fit but someone did), so there was a spot I didn’t even know I had to clean!

        There is no smell in the laundry room today. None. I’m so impressed.

        1. One of the downsides of living by the water is critters and now that fall is upon us they’re looking for their winter habitat. Also it doesn’t help that my neighbor has four bird feeders hanging off the porch. We have crawlspace under the house and wouldn’t you know that they will go to the farthest corner to die. So I have been putting odor absorbing pellets strategically placed in plastic containers and hope no one comes to visit. I’ve found ready made containers at the dollar store and have even dumped out the contents after use and refilled them with a product called DampRid. We had a cat once that when she went to the vet became so upset she peed in the car. I put a container of pellets in the car and the odor was gone within a week. My son hit a skunk this week and I made a container for him to put in his car, but he has to take the car to the wash first.

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