Category: Pets

Early Morning Fog and Late Night Dogs

Technically, I suppose, it’s not all that early when I step outside at dawn for my coffee and pipe (tobacco, folks, don’t forget I’m a Fed and can’t do that), when I consider that my kids are already up. They were playing games in the living room, waiting for me to toddle down the hallway, struggling with the buttons on my shirt, before asking for breakfast.

They fight bedtime so much but they sleep like logs for several hours. If they only knew how much they’ll want that sleep when they’re my age.

So, the kids are munching on breakfast and I’m out here, ingesting the coffee and waiting for the stimulant to hit my system when I snapped this moment in the morning fog.

Living out in the woods makes for a crappy internet connection, but damn if it isn’t pretty.

Yesterday’s day off had some payoff! Tried the writing sprint for 30 minutes and walked away with over 800 words in Adventure Two! I’m aiming to hit my personal goal of getting that chapter posted by this Saturday. Normally I struggle through the evening and get maybe half that much before I konk out at my desk, but I was rested and able.

Plus, the evenings all week have been filled with Side-Arc sessions! Players have been wanting to pursue their character development stories and see what else I’ve had in store for them! So, it’s been panicked plotting and rushed voice-acting practice every day before I start the video call.

Hello, my name is Jacob and I’m addicted to RPG running.

I have Side-Arc sessions for the next two days before the Main Arc session on Saturday, and I’m coordinating with the players’ decisions and mapping out where their stories will be going down the timeline. I’ll be making the attempt today and tomorrow to get that chapter finished, but I have to remember that the further I write, the bigger those chapters are going to be.

(This is reminding myself to also get those character pages finished for the party, so they’re not confused)

Just as I finished the session and started heading for bed, I found these two old men on the rug behind me. They don’t seem impressed with my plot-writing, but they’re good company.

It’s time to sling letters and walk my 12 miles. Stay safe, readers.

-JB Swift

A Surprise Day-Off! Plus: Casey!

Either a few stars aligned to grant cosmic power over the schedule, or the Postmaster had taken my statement of needing mental health days seriously (if the latter, I’m grateful but genuinely surprised), but I wasn’t scheduled to go in on my non-sched (not-scheduled for those outside the post office) this week!

I would say that today would be filled with writing and editing, but I had to prove my words to children this morning: “You can play as soon as you get your chores done”. These kids pay attention to my actions, so they’d notice if I was doing the things I wanted to do instead of my own chore list.

Being an adult isn’t fun.

Those chores are done, though, so I can take a little time and get some writing done before the next crisis. I might take a page from Kevin Hearne’s book and set a writing sprint time, since those seem to work for him and other writers.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of a moved rug for the floor-cleaning chore, Old Man Casey has taken up a post in the office to listen to me plunk away at this keyboard.

Time to write, folks!

-JB Swift

Old Man Casey is looking better (he’s fat!)

Old Casey had lost a LOT of weight in the past year. Between him wanting to stay outside most of the time and having a stupidly high metabolism, he kept looking like an escapee from a gulag, even when I doubled his feedings.

But we had a vet appointment and a talk about his habits. I followed her instructions and tripled his feedings, as well as making him a mandatory indoor dog. I think since he’s turned 11, he’s realized that staying inside is the best bet. Now, he’s chunky! So we’re scaling back the feedings and letting him get his play time outside instead of just in the living room.

5yr has her first pet

In what I can only assume is my way of processing grief, I was moved by a statement from my wife while she and the kids were looking at the animals in the pet store (needed litter box cleaning supplies): “Oh look, this hamster is old! She’s probably already at her halfway point.”

I looked at the thing, decided it was cute, and my daughter needed a pet to take care of. That third part is my rationalizing so I don’t have to think that I’m taking in an old critter so I can process the grief of my grandfather’s death.

So, meet the newest thing to take on my surname: Daisy.

Already angry, just like a Swift.

Teaching the feral kitten about our dogs

So, we’ve had a kitten show up on our back porch. Little girl was starved, flea-infested, and terrified of everything that breathed. It’s been two weeks and she’s flea-free, a healthy weight, and now comfortable with me picking her up. But she’s been wary of the dogs, and I suspect for good reason. But my dogs are all old and patient, so I’m letting the feral kitten (named Lyssa for her rage) sit with the old dogs and get used to them.

Update: she’s sleepy and mad that she can’t unleash her fury when comfortable in the little cat stand we have.

I’m back!

After taking off the month of May, and not forcing myself back into the routine the first week of June, I’ve returned to the blog site!

Which turned out to be a good thing for several reasons. May was a hard month this year, for myself and my fellow US citizens.

For myself, it was work stress and pet stress. Casey, my oldest dog, has really been showing his age lately. He’s slower, doesn’t play as much as he used to, and does not want to leave my side whatsoever. I’ve been keeping him inside most of the time now, as the weather in Louisiana doesn’t really agree with him anymore. But don’t worry: he still has an appetite, he will at least paw at me and the family for pets, and he still loses his shit at the sight of a squirrel and I’m suddenly having to chase him through four acres of land, so I know his quality of life is still good.

For my fellow US citizens…well, it’s been painful and maddening. But I’ve promised myself I wouldn’t use this platform to explore my personal politics much, so I’m going to avoid those kind of essays at the moment. If I get frustrated enough (or drunk enough) I might explore those writings. But for now, this is a storytelling site and I’m keeping it that way.

Speaking of storytelling, May was very productive!…and I can’t post a damn thing of it yet! Speaking of being frustrated.

The novella is pretty much outlined and the Sidewinder story is almost ready to be put up. I’ve run into some fun complications, though. Mostly of my own doing, as I obsess over giving my players as much information as they need and try to present that information as if it were a fiction in development (because to me, it is) which has demanded a lot of my focus. Not to mention my old adversary: Work Exhaustion.

We’re in the summer months, and 12-15 mile walks in Louisiana heat will beat the ever-living hell out of you. I’ve found myself waking up at my desk numerous times, Word document up on the computer with barely anything written on it, and I start cursing at myself as I wander off towards my bed.

That said, I’m going to keep making the effort to write, post, and edit my work as I go along. I have several pages here that need detail and attention, so they’re moving up on my priority list. Stories, what-ifs, and writing projects will soon follow. Till then, happy reading, folks!

For everyone patient enough to reach the end of the post, I present to you: Casey! As he is almost every time we go outside now!

Old man won’t leave me until I all but push him away and say to go pee in the grass.