Working Wednesday, July 19, 2023

~ Jenny

Today, I am still packing a POD in NJ. Several snags have snagged. Unforeseen events have now been seen. I’m never getting out of New Jersey. I’ve been working on this move forever. And Bob has promised that when I get to PA, he will give me back the master of Rocky Start so I will have work there, so I really need to work to get there.

Distract me. What are you working on this week?

143 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, July 19, 2023”

  1. Right now I’m working on ignoring the loud tuneless music that’s playing somewhere in my neighbourhood at 10:49pm. I’m finding that hard work.

    And this week I did quite a lot of unpainting on my current landscape. Then I repainted some of it. It’s much better the second time, to my relief.

  2. Yesterday I sent in a requested revised re-submission. I am as nervous about it at 72 as I was when I was in my 40s. Some things never change, do they? Good luck on getting out of New Jersey. I hope you love Pennsylvania.

  3. This week I will be trying to figure out how to make bathroom curtains out of a shower curtain.

  4. Facilitating a training in Oklahoma, making the final payments on our November trip to Antarctica, and stressing about how fast this quarter is going – I’m less far along on several big projects than I need to be!

  5. Dropping off some donated cat food/items I can’t use to a local shelter, my final (YAY!) clearance with hip replacement surgeon, and volunteering at my local library.

    I am also a transplanted NJ resident – from Trenton to Bucks County and now Bethlehem. I hope we’ll be neighbors! If you get in the area, I’ll be happy to give you leads on good grocers, retailers, etc.

  6. Last Thursday evening, my girlfriend asked if I had a quilt she could give to her granddaughter – 2 1/2 yo and loves pink. I don’t usually work with pink, so I didn’t have anything ready at hand. So, I spent some time looking for patterns, and figuring out what I needed. Saturday afternoon, I went to the fabric store. Later that day I made and trimmed the blocks, Sunday morning I assembled rows of blocks, and Sunday afternoon, put those rows together. Now I have a top that looks pretty cute – it just needs to be quilted!
    https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu2Uv7vJwY2/

    Other than that, I’m spending time in Nashville, where my company is holding it’s user’s conference. It’s great to see my customers, but I’m looking forward to getting home.

    5. 2 hours and 15 minutes away from you in Paducah KY is the National Quilt Museum. I wish it was closer because it is fabulous. Fabric art. I’ve been many times and have never been disappointed.

  7. I am working on maintaining my usual sunny demeanor. It’s not easy, as events are working against me. Air quality, temperatures, and humidity are all against me – as well as my washed-out road which is preventing me from riding my bike/trike to work.

    I am doing the sensible thing, so why do I feel like I’m skiving off? I feel I’m letting the intrepid adventurer inside of me down…

    Sigh.

  8. Still trying to catch up with work at the day job. At least I’ve met the deadline with a report due last week.

    Also trying to survive the heat. In the past, we spent our summers complaining about not having a proper summer. Those times are past for sure. 30/35+ Celsius for weeks on end or so it feels. Without much in the way of cooling systems. Sigh.

    Something to look forward (though I doubt it’ll be cool-ish in there) is “Hair” at the local musical theatre tonight.

  9. Making headway on health stuff, my poor book is still on hold. But a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound confirmed that the painful golf ball I’ve been fretting about is just a cyst, which comes out later this morning.

    My ankle surgeon is great, wants one more set of images, and has already scheduled the reconstruction for the end of August. I have a PT lined up, so I should have most of my mobility back before the Minnesota winter hits.

    Progress is being made, actually quite quickly, but it feels sloooow. Looking forward to not losing spoons over this stuff.

      1. Thanks chacha1 🙂 It was rough. They ignored my warning that I burn through local much faster than neurotypical people, and that I’m on the hypersensitive end of the Autism spectrum with 5x the pain perception of NT folks. She did not stop cutting when I told her I could feel it. She then bragged about only using one vial of local instead of three.

        I’ve told my gp I need another provider for the follow ups in 4 and 8 weeks. There’s just no way I will be able to go back to that location, even with another provider. I’ve learned the hard way that there’s no avoiding the panic attack when a provider ignores my very well-documented pain management differences. She didn’t read it, and she didn’t hear it. And no post-surgical pain killers, either. Guessing the next week will be challenging. But at least it’s done.

        Sorry to be negative, I guess I needed to vent. Really appreciate this community <3

        2. I’m so sorry, Kat. That’s inexcusable. Can you file a formal complaint? I would. And maybe talk to your gp about pain meds for now? HUGS.

          I have what I guess you’d call medical PTSD, after spending so many years being ignored and dismissed by doctors who didn’t believe there was anything wrong with me because I had an invisible illness. I’ve had some good ones since then, but I definitely get triggered by ones who treat me the way this one treated you.

          1. This! Oh my goodness, you just named what I feel. Medical PTSD. I think I have that. It’s a thing. And I got it the way you did. Ignored while I was so ill until someone figured out I probably have celiac. They took me off gluten before I could test since it was nearly 20 years ago and ppl didn’t know this was a disease. Sigh. Thanks for putting words to this for me!

        3. I’m so sorry! It’s hard to believe there are people who do not understand unusual reactions to things. It felt almost like bullying to me when it happened. Definitely do not go back there. That was just plain mean, on her part!

        4. That’s not negative, that’s honest.

          I went to the OSU dental school once after it was recommended to me. The guy shoved a q-tip of anesthetic in my mouth that didn’t seem to be anywhere near where he was going to work, and when I tried to tell him he left to go out in the hall and bitch about his vacation with somebody. Then he came back and shoved a needle into an unnumbed part of my jaw and got mad when I yelled.

          I did not consider my yelling negative, I considered it well-earned.

          1. PS – That comment was for Kat, but now that I’ve read Jenny’s dentist horror story, I am mad on her behalf, too. Geez ppl!

        6. I have the same problem – but with dentists. I say I need tons of anaesthetic, and they just ignore it. I found a dentist that listens, finally, and I’ve told him he’s not allowed to retire until I no longer need a dentist.

      1. Thank you 🙂 Really appreciate everyone here today. You guys are soothing my soul.

    3. Good for you! I’m looking forward to reports on the ankle. I think I should have the same thing done. But first I need to do the knee.
      Happy healing on every issue.

      1. If you’re interested, I’ll definitely report back. My Dr. is Patrick Yoon, he’s a teaching surgeon as well as an ankle specialist. I’m really pleased with how careful he is to listen and ask questions instead of dictating. I think that procedure will be a breeze.

        1. That is very rare among surgeons and bodes well for both the surgery and the follow up.Good luck !

  10. You will get to New Jersey, Jenny, we collectively promise you!

    The annual niece/nephews visit from Calgary to Toronto has commenced. So far we’ve visited a Dungeons & Dragons store, an auto and airplane model store (my brother clearly raised a bunch of nerds), and gone to see Hamilton – which was my niece’s dream. I was ho hum about it having listened to the music and seen the show on TV so hey all old hat to me and…it was stunning! I left in tears.

    Today is Wonderland and tomorrow they’ve requested museums – museums! I didn’t realize they knew what a museum was. They really are growing up.

    1. I didn’t particularly care to see the Lion King on Broadway, but my sister wanted to go, so I bought tickets when she graduated from high school. I was blown away. There is just something about live performance that is magic. It holds so much power. I cried when we watched Hamilton on TV. It really is amazing.

      1. I saw an interview with Glenn Close once where she said live theater “rearranges” you, and you should leave a performance feeling rearranged. I’ve thought of that often: did this performance make me feel rearranged?

      2. I had horrible cramps when we went to see A Chorus Line on Broadway and even though we went “standing room”, I didn’t feel any pain.

    2. For museum visits with kids the Science Centre is always fun. Big hit when my son was young as well as with my cousins and I when we were kids. Lot to see and do for all ages. Of course, the ROM is good, too:)

      1. They’re teenagers now so a little old for the Science Centre. ROM definitely and the AGO – they wanted to include an “art” museum, again, much to my surprise…

    3. What? You mean those children didn’t want to visit a comics store? What is the world coming to?

      1. I think the Dungeons & Dragons store is pretty equivalent to a comic store…they’re eclectic kid apparently.

  11. Just woke up and did today’s Wordle. Now I need to go for my walk early, before it gets too hot.

  12. I am still struggling with the day job. They keep adding hurdles and it is very seriously damaging my calm. Now they are making changes to the vacation policy so that only one person can schedule it at a time and it can be cancelled should the bank deem it necessary. I would seriously consider leaving, but this area is very depressed and my hubby is still struggling to find work. Argh. This too shall pass. I am trying to focus on the good and give myself little treats. My emotional support shoes are on the way! And then I found this…

    https://streetzies.com/

    And then I had a fight with my sister. Apparently she feels that shoplifting is fun and justified as long as it’s from a big corporation. She was surprised that I didn’t think so too. I feel more purchasing of ridiculous emotional support shoes coming on.

    1. The bunnies are great.
      The sister’s position, not so much. You could maybe try pointing out that big corporations have the resources to hire security guards and prosecute …
      And you could consider reading Ramsey Rules by Jo Goodman where the heroine is a security guard.
      My sympathies.

      1. Thanks. I don’t think that she has any fear of getting caught. She is mostly just lifting organic strawberries from the self checkout at Whole foods, I think. No one is going to stop a prosperous looking young white girl. I am just really bothered by her justification. Maybe I have just worked too many crappy jobs. The corporation never pays for it. It’s usually the front line workers. Anyway, I don’t think that I am calm enough to have any kind of discussion about it. I’m too emotional these days.

        2. Also, why on earth is it necessary to shoplift organic strawberries? Is this a life or death activity? I’m inclined to be generous and assume she was taking a spontaneous position that she wasn’t really all that committed to?

          1. I’m all for taking a bite out of Jeff Bezo’s profits, but Deb is right.The consumers will pay in higher prices.

          2. Honestly it makes no sense to me and I am too upset about it to ask ina rational way that doesn’t end I “wtf is wrong with you?”

            I am going with this is young people rhetoric and she hasn’t thought about it much at all except as a justification for doing what she wants. Still, I had a lot of the practical raising of her and I am disappointed. I wonder where I went so wrong that she expected me to find her anecdotes amusing.

          3. Perhaps as we get older, the behaviours of young people are less and less understandable to us. After a car ride with my three niece/nephews last night, I said: “Okay, family meeting. How many of you brought deodorant to Toronto?” All three said they did. “Okay, it doesn’t work if you don’t use it.”

          4. Lol. I deal with a lot of Amish. They don’t use deodorant either. It can make for a long summer.

    2. I don’t like your job. Is this a local bank policy or a corporate one? Is there any way to gently press on it? Like ask them, if you pay for a trip and they cancel your vacation, will they reimburse you? In my experience, banks don’t like policies that they have to spend money. 😀

      1. Yes: that was my immediate thought. Do they expect you to bear the loss of having to cancel your holiday? Or just think you can’t ever actually book a holiday? Either way, sounds like you need a union.

        1. Alas, I don’t think that we are big enough for a union. And they are very hard to get going in central PA.

      2. Oh, I am planning on it. We haven’t had the official meeting yet and this is a reaction to our staffing troubles last month.

        I work for a small, locally owned bank that is typically better than the bigger ones, but this is just dumb. I have a list. I plan to give them politely worded hell. I don’t really want to go to the hassle of finding a new job, but the first opening that comes up in another department, I am going for it. Thanks for poor babying me. I have been feeling very ill-used.

        2. Just a warning, Lupe, and anyone who is going to argue with the higher ups. Make sure what your state laws are. You might even check with a lawyer.

          My brother worked at a computer repair company in Virginia where he landed the “best” employee award for umpteen years.

          The company set up a hotline for employees to vent.

          My brother used it.

          He was fired the next day. It took a year and a lawyer to get a minimal amount of serverance.

          Virginia is one of the “right to work” states, a line which actually means “you have no job security.”

          My advice — not that I know anything — is to talk to your immediate boss and, with the boss’s support, approach the next level and/or HR. Be very specific about what isn’t working and possible changes. Stay calm. Don’t get emotional or even suggest threats. If there is no positive response, you at least know that. And, you’ve saved your reputation with the bank so that you can stay until you can leave on your own terms.

          I totally agree with Tammy and Jane, by the way. But take care of yourself.

          1. Pa is very similar to Virginia, I believe. And I don’t plan to be argumentative or upset. I plan to ask logical questions and request everything be put in writing and added to the company handbook. I feel the need to voice discontent, instead of seeming to accept it. I did this before at the library. It didn’t work, but I didn’t get fired. And at least I can feel like I did something.

          2. Any time you hear blah blah about a state being “business friendly”… they are not likely to be labor friendly.

    3. The day job has long been in my rear view, but I remember someone always had to gum up the works with new rules and guidelines. I think of it as a new person trying to make their mark in the organization. Like cutting out the afternoon break but smokers could still go outside and smoke. Or a new program that we would have to learn and implement which eventually gets dumped. I like your little treats comment I could always find small amusements to boost my day. You have to for your own sanity.

    4. OMG!! I love those shoes!!! If I wasn’t afraid I’d fall off of them, I’d go get them immediately. Shades of Bet Me!!!

      1. They have the kitten heel ones, too!! And many colors of them. But at $165 I think I’ll have to pass. So sad.

        1. Totally Bet Me. I hate wearing mules and slides, though that low heel is tempting. I am going to pass as well, but their existence makes me happy.

    6. PS – don’t laugh but…I have a pair of shoes, in the pink row, that except for the bunny ears totally look like those shoes…

    7. I am day 2 of term 3 and I am doing my best to take everything as generally as possible. I need to leave for my mental and physical health, but as a civil servant it’s pretty secure and I get a lot of reactions similar to “😲😯 in this economy?!!”

      Sending vibes for a better situation.

      1. Vibes to you.
        When I told my principal I was leaving teaching (after fifteen years) he said, “Why leave? The first fifteen went fast, didn’t they?”

  13. I just looked at Lavender’s Blue on Amazon. A fourth review is up.
    Somehow Amazon thinks one 4 star review and three 5 star reviews averages to 4.7 stars.
    Maybe it’s just sheer incompetence over there.

  14. I’m not doing anywhere near enough creative stuff, and need to sort that somehow. I’ve been getting to grips with the big research project I volunteered for, and feeling – as I did when I first worked on it twenty years ago – like I’m having to reinvent the wheel in isolation. Which I’m not going to do again. I’m going to pick up where I left off – regardless of the current guidelines – and do my best to find evidence for the handful of local routes I’d really like to be rights of way. After that, I’ll see how I feel.

    Otherwise, I’ve been sorting out my gardens – weeding and editing and harvesting. The allotments are open for charity on Sunday, so I’m trying to get my plot looking good, and plan to be there all day, chatting to visitors and encouraging everyone to grow more fruit, veg & flowers.

  15. I’m working hard at coming up with 365 topics for my next Llewellyn book (it’s a “365 day” book, so I need one for every day). Then I need to work hard at writing it fast, so I can get back to the novel.

    But first I need to get out into the garden, since it is the first day in the week I’ve been home from traveling that it isn’t either scorching hot, pouring rain, or Canadian smoke.

      1. We had bad smoke the other day from some BC fires. It was worse than the smoke from the fires that were 16 kms away!

    2. Do you want to do an Exploiting You post here? Post the topics you already have, and the kind of thing you need and let Argh take a crack at it?

      3. Thanks Jenny, I appreciate the offer, but I’ve almost got it. Just need another 22. Thinking of, “Witchy thing.” “Another Witchy thing.” “Even more Witchy stuff.” What do you think?

        1. Is there more theme to it than 365 days of witchery? Nothing in my past week seems relevant and I can’t think farther back in the fog. What about Packing for a Witchy Vacation? I should have used something other than logic to find my suitcase. (It’s black. It’s thin. It was in a shadowy spot in the closet where I thought it was, but didn’t find it the first time through.)

        2. I don’t have enough of a grasp of the concept of the whole thing to be of any use to you.

  16. I think I have my lines almost down, so that’s great. I finished a skirt and am on to the top.

    In not so great news, I spent half a week trying to figure out why my car was indicating one tire was low when the first guy was all “your tire is fine, must be a faulty sensor.” I didn’t have the time to drop off the car due to my work schedule and pay for a $140 diagnostic + whatever else, so I drove around on a “fine” tire for a few days and it still kept saying the tire was low. Turns out that when I got the tires rotated, they didn’t change over the sensors right and it was the wrong tire indicating. Had to get a new tire. Well, at least that’s all over with.

    Also my therapist is retiring, so now I have to look for a new one. Some organization that’s not my HMO (which hates therapy) will supposedly let me use them for $20/pop and will look for a list of people for me to try, so we’ll see how that goes.

  17. The dotter and I did back-to-school shopping. Not all, but most. Pencils, erasers, colored pencils, notebook paper, binders, composition books, pouches, scissors, Purel, Kleenex, glue sticks, post-its, yada, yada, yada. $250 so far, with another child to go (whose list is not yet posted.)

    I decided not to grow any more Purple Super Hot Peppers. They score too durn high on the Scoville scale for me. The Red Fire Peppers are Hot Enough. I turned over the one plant with all the ripe peppers to the dotter to plant near her jalapeños because they’re very pretty and ornamental (and if they cross-pollinate, her peppers will get kicked up a notch. Jalapeños are wimpy.)

  18. I’m reading Lavender’s Blue in between my day job, helping my sister prep for her first interview after 20 years as a stay at home mom, my niece figure out budgeting before she goes away to college and range time. I’m loving it and wish I could call in sick but today is a meetings day. Thank you Jenny and Bob for writing this and I wish I already had the other two.

  19. Flailing around with revisions again/still, but it looks like I’ll manage to get to at least a few writing sessions with friends this week—in person and on Zoom. I figured out that a decaf americano with almond milk is low enough in histamine that I can order something at the lunch place where we meet—was feeling rotten about sitting there without buying anything. We’re camping Friday night, so tomorrow I need to start prepping food for the trip—more low histamine muffins and flatbread, probably. Will spend almost more time cooking than camping!

  20. In the epic words of Roseanne Rosannadanna “if it isn’t one thing it’s another”.

    Today’s errands include gathering all my returns and receipts to go back to the store. They are all local and because I can’t resist a sale.

    Next is fixing my phone. I you-tubed a video on repairs and here I thought gorilla glue and a binder clip would do the trick to put the case back together. It’s way to convoluted for me so it looks like a new phone is in the works. I do not want to get glue on any of the parts inside.

  21. I feel as though I haven’t been working on anything except staying reasonably cool (without resorting to a bathtub full of cold water), but in actuality I finished the revision of my big moviemaking book (cut 4K words!). Now await the proof copy so I can go through one more time to be sure the text is clean for new ebook.

    Also did a fairly significant amount of yardkeeping and am keeping birds & not-so-feral cat alive.

    One of my favorite patent agents is leaving the firm. I’m sad. 🙁 The turnover in our group is…excessive. I rate it the best firm I’ve ever worked at, but the agents & attorneys have brutal workloads and I can’t see that anyone’s coordinating that side of things practice-wide. At my level, training / mentoring is lacking. If I hadn’t been doing this work for 30 years already, and if I couldn’t work from home, I’d still be overwhelmed & unhappy too. 🙁

  22. Moving house is hell and stressful, but one day it will finally be done. Best of luck.

    Working on maintaining my Zen approach to the day job and not getting stressed by some of the crazy decisions.
    I did hop into a dataset which was not strictly for work and found that the average annual rainfall in the km grid square where i live is 1249mm (49 inches) and the annual avg temperature is 9.5C with an average of 15C in the summer…

    Not working on my writing or anything creative, and not reading as much as i wish (but it’s because i am prioritising other things).

    My daughter is home for a couple of months so I am hanging out with her, which is nice. Also despite bad weather i am making the most of the summer and swimming and doing as much outside as possible. I know we are really lucky not to be in the heatwave that is in Southern Europe, but the temperature has struggled to get to 16 C (61F) in the last few days with little sunshine. Not surprising given the data i got today.

  23. I bought an AeroGarden for 70% off on Amazon Prime day, and set it up. I had been coveting one for years in a garden catalog, but they were very expensive. The darn grow light stays on for 15 hours, so I had to find another place for it! Otherwise, I will be having lettuce, soon.

    I was supposed to see the Optometrist today, but she postponed it. I’m going tomorrow. I’ve waited this long, already…. The near eye of the monovision is still not clear, and reading is a pain with a magnifying glass. It will most likely take two week to get any glasses I might need. Sigh! Waiting…

    I finally went to the Urgent Care this morning because my head felt like it was going to explode, and I have a cough that keeps me awake, and my doctor had no appointments available. I now have a low dose steroid and a cough suppressant, and I was advised to get a different anti-histamine, as I’ve been taking generic Claritin for years. I also bought some more Mucinex. Yay, allopathic medicine!

    Jenny, I hope all obstacles melt away, and you get on your way, very soon! Keeping fingers crossed for you.

      1. Deb. That was not in the instructions, or I missed it. I will READ the instructions better when I feel up to it. I’m just shutting the door on it, right now. Thanks for the info.

    4. I got an aerogarden not too long ago, too, and I love it! I’m on my second planting of about half the spots. It took a while to get used to the UFO level of brightness in the kitchen. I think my husband may have eventually nudged the off hours around so it lines up better with when we sleep. I feel like a little bunny or something when I stand there and eat raw lettuce while staring out the window into the middle distance…

  24. After dropping everything and turning the very full 2nd master into a mini apt and moving kids into it last week, I’m working on as little as possible. Which currently looks like noodling around with ideas for a 2 week Fast Draft while drinking electrolytes, accompanied by Pyewacket draped over my foot purring.

  25. I submitted a review on Amazon on Sunday and it has not posted yet. I hope they are aware of how frustrated people are with them and something is in the works for change. Not holding my breath, though.

    I wrote a poem about a cross dressing Thanksgiving cactus and created a collage to go with it. Such fun.

    I continue to work on my wip with the support of my awesome accountability partner.

    I am about to vacate my house so my daughter has privacy for her therapy session. Last time I went to a bar, had a virgin bloody Mary and wrote a vignette. It was so fun I am going to do it again!

    1. A poem about a cross dressing Thanksgiving cactus. . . . Can you share it? I kinda think that specific cactuses pose as Thanksgiving or Christmas in the first place. You have a great idea there.

      1. Alfonso: Ode To A Cross Dressing Baby-Daddy

        Dreads, that’s what his limbs look like
        Green dreads grown long with age
        Stretching towards the sun

        Absorbing light with his companions
        Who shared the windowpane
        Females on his left and right

        Good thing they were not human
        Humans would have judged harshly
        He and his females were mixed classes

        Cactus & succulents was Alfonso’s tag
        Miranda was a String of Hearts climber
        Tillie a fern Maidenhair, virgin no more

        They had enjoyed a threesome
        Now baby dreads resided gracefully
        In mama Miranda& mama Tillie’s pots

        When Thanksgiving rolled around
        Fecund Alfonso baby-daddy
        would take on the role of centerpiece

        His flowing dreadlocks festooned
        With brilliant pink blooms
        Alfonso would preen and laugh

        The silly humans inhaling theirfood
        Not knowing a polyamorous
        cross-dresser
        And proud papa sat among them

        Judith Jennings

  26. Today I go to see an allergist about finding an antihistamine that works better for me. In order to have testing done today I went off most of my meds Sunday afternoon which meant I couldn’t use my c-pap machine. So I am both drippy and groggy today. I wasn’t able to get a definitive answer from Medicare as to whether they would pay for this round of testing so the whole thing will probably be an itchy crap shoot. On the upside, I found 3 bottles of the eye drops the new eye surgeon took me off of so I can see if adding them back into the mix helps. He said he thought my eye problems were caused by allergies, but then removed the drug I used to control them. I hope this new doctor is more helpful. I saw her once years ago when she wasn’t very helpful,but that turned out to be caused by acid reflux,not allergies, so I am hoping for better results today.

    1. My allergist says that getting a definitive answer from Medicare is a challenge. (I enquired about getting tested again when I finally–finally!–get on part B in the next few months.)

    2. I hope that works out for you. Everyone reacts differently to drugs, it seems. Finding the right ones is so important.

      1. Well, all the tests came back negative! The allergist said that perhaps I had outgrown my allergies, but since my symptoms persist, I doubt that. She did give me the name of 2 generics to try so perhaps one of them will help.

        1. It’s a long shot, but read up on histamine intolerance and see if it sounds at all like you. My allergist said he never diagnosed it ten years ago and sees it regularly since Covid. You basically produce more histamine than you can metabolize due to a lot of triggers that aren’t necessarily allergies.

  29. Working on a letter my my aunt and this week’s creative writing project. Then starting my list of “fill the well” touchstones.

  30. Getting ready to drive to my cousin tomorrow and to my brothers on Friday. Mini family reunion. New Kiddies to meet. Traffic has been a mess the last few days, getting worse. I’m getting out of town and hopefully drivers will come to their senses while I’m away. Like don’t drive your tractor trailer into an overpass. Nephew is creating high anxiety for my niece. He is doing everything to make the clean out of my sister’s apartment truly horrendous. There will be repercussions for bad behaviour.

  31. We finally had a nice day today. Sunshine, low humidity, decent air quality, temps in the low 80’s. I went blueberry picking this morning and came home with 10 lbs. They are all packaged and in the freezer for use this coming winter. Then I was lazy and spent a few hours in my hammock swing in the backyard, in the shade of a tree reading. I made myself go for a couple of walks before I ate dinner so now I don’t feel quite as if I wasted too much of the day.

  32. We’re in Canada! Yay! I’m working on eating all the food Joey’s mum places in front of me. It’s all lovely. We’re gonna gain 38kg each at the very least. She’s frosting a cake as we speak. We’re being spoiled rotten. I might never recover. 🙂

    Last Friday, day before we left, I had this woman over to teach me how to manage my sewing-machine, aaand we made it work! I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to use it, but it looks like I might be after all. She said she made a video of me sewing on it and pictures too, so I’ll get those onto Instagram at some point. She told me she wouldn’t come back for another session because I don’t need her since I have talent enough to manage it myself. That was very sweet of her, I thought. Think she has more faith in me than I do but we’ll see, I guess, once we’re back from all the vacationing.

    I was going to bring my kumihimo-stuff so I’d have something to fiddle with every now and again here, but I just… didn’t. Joey’s mum and I started talking about it yesterday though, and she went: “I do loom-knitting, I will teach you!” We started yesterday, she’s teaching me how to knit a cowl. It is so much fun that I ordered my own loom-kit (which arrived here about an hour ago). I LOVE this woman!

    Okay so, speaking about Joey’s mum, I have a question for the writers/ghost-writers here. She’s been thinking of writing a book about Joey and her life with a child (and now adult) with his medical condition, because it’s been quite the ride. She doesn’t have faith in her own writing-skills, however. She was wondering if a ghost-writer would be the way to go to tell her story, since she doesn’t feel confident writing it herself? If yes, what’s the best way to start a project like that? If English was my native language I would’ve jumped at it myself, but unfortunately it’s not.

    Rumours are Sven and Joey will be on TV this Friday (CTV Barrie, evening news I think), because they are cool and interesting disabled gamers. So if anybody’s curious about things like that, that’s when to watch. 🙂 I might(!) be in it as well, if the TV-dude thinks I’m interesting enough. Eek.

      1. We think(!) the 6pm news, but I can pop back tomorrow post-interview and let you know. We should know for sure by then.

      2. CTV-update: We’re not gonna be on tonight because a tornado decided to pop by for dinner, so they’re gonna cover tornado damage instead. They might(!) still wanna do a story on it at the start of next week, but it’s not sure yet. I think I’m following you on Instagram, Sure Thing, so I can keep you updated through there if you like.

    2. You might actually be a good person for that memoir, Shass. You could structure and write it, based on interviews with Joey’s mum, and then she could make sure you’ve got her voice – catching anything not-quite-Canadian-English as she goes through it.

      1. You really think I would be able to do that? I appreciate your vote of confidence, but I have no idea how these kinds of things work. I have only ever written fiction, and never published anything anywhere. My writings are hidden where no one gets to see ’em.
        Is there a good place to find more information about ghostwriting and how to get started, or alternatively how to get hold of someone who can do it, if I or she decides I’m not the right person for it? Is it expensive to hire a ghost-writer for work like this? I can go on Google and do research of course, but I trust Arghers about a billion times more than I trust Google.
        Lots of thanks in advance!

        1. I think you’d be good because you’re already invested in the story, and can obviously write, but I’m not the person to ask about how ghost-writing works, I’m afraid. The only time I tried doing it (for a photographer), the author couldn’t believe how long it was taking. I think he thought I’d be able to write his book without any input from him. So I would warn you: it’d probably take a LOT of time and energy. I think often ghost writers have some kind of royalty deal, and/or a fee, depending on how well the book’s likely to sell. The Society of Authors website (in the UK) might have some information.

  33. I made a trip to York Fairgrounds (PA) yesterday. Dropped off my dragon and two landscapes. The fair opens on Friday. Keeping my fingers crossed. Tonight I’m working on a Christmas Elf (roughly 80% complete) for another fair. Soon as the elf is done, I’ll finish a pitt bull (about half done right now).

    1. Ann, do you live in York? I think I’ve mentioned in comments before I grew up there (almost all of my and husband’s US relatives still live there). I did not realize they’d moved the fair from Sept to July. It seems like that would be ungodly hot!

      1. Nancy – no, I’m in central Baltimore County. York is about an hour away. It’s been decades since I went to York Fair. It is pretty hot right now. Today’s heat index made it feel like 101 degrees this afternoon. Ugh. Thank goodness I work inside an office.

  34. I’m trying to be as creative and positive in my reactions as possible. I am applying The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and I am trying to avoid being complainer without recourse. People complain in the corridors but never raise their valid issues in the meetings where it can be minuted.

    I realise that there is something terribly wrong in the class. I’ve said so repeatedly but was told it was because of me. Not being heard caused the burnout to get worse. I dropped from 44kg to 41kg. So I have part of a plan to get the issues out in a suitable forum.

    I worked on consistency – a little bit every day on the hoard. So mudane matter’s.

      2. I really do love you, Jenny. Not for being on my side, but for seeing this from your previous teacher’s frame of reference and saying something.

        I know where my faults lie, so I can safely say that my methods are not the cause of the situation.

  35. I’m mostly working on getting my friend home from London. I’ve got her en route to Singapore so far, after a fairly revolting unexpected layover in Doha, but my airline has shat itself again and there are suddenly no seats home. So a further stop in Malaysia might be needed. Poor thing will be mostly dead by the time she gets down here.

    For myself, booking everything on the fly from a radically different timezone is just a touch stressful, and meant I was up at 2am in case things went wrong. Which they did. Lucky for us both I have today off. And I’m going to see Bangarra live tonight, so that’s something to look forward to!

  36. Moving family from Iowa State to son’s new position at Texas Tech. So sold our pied a terre in Ames and moved that stuff with theirs to Lubbock (follow the granddaughters!) Ran out of reading matter (the 6 books from Waveland MS Library, [our full time home on beach], too dark) but putting up son’s books for him–discovered two I’d given them of Jen Crusie’s and I was cruising’! Crazy for You begins with such density of interrelated characters–but what a joy. Showed me I’ve been reading schlock. Now on to Bet Me–greater joy–8 fully developed characters + two families–just so much deeper resonance with multiple characters vs. Current Fad: do spinoffs for each of the characters, doing two per novel. Can’t wait to reread others knowing this is the master and all else are pale imitations.

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