Folks, I’m away from the Post Office for the next…checks calendar…two weeks! After clocking out yesterday and clearing out the case and Union PO Box, I ran away from the building with all the appearance of a schoolboy at the beginning of summer.
Why is there a two-week vacation from work in the middle of winter? I have two reasons: first, my birthday is this month and when I have the leave, I take most of the month off as a gift to myself. Second, because I’m taking the Security+ certification exam on my birthday, so the majority of the time-off will be spent at this desk and reading for all I’m worth.
That doesn’t sound much different than what I do on any of my regular non-scheduled days, does it?
But while I’m going to be bound to this spot for the next two weeks, I’ll be able to make daily posts, provided I don’t get hit with executive dysfunction. Speaking of which, another chunk of writing progress was made this week!
It’s not even into Chapter 11. I need an editor who doesn’t mind Star Wars fanfiction; that, or I was shooting too low for my projected goals.
I’m betting the latter.
There are several projects and notes I’d like to get back to, plus a few ideas to try. In the meantime, look at the leek Sarah got me.
While any readers in more Northern climates might be scoffing at the excitement, I will unashamedly talk a little about the consequences of an arctic blast reaching the Gulf of Mexico: snow on the ground, and it’s actually fluffy!
Six inches of snow is predicted for the next day. This being the South, and thus beyond the reckoning of most of its inhabitants, no one knew precisely what to do about the weather. Normally, this would not be a detractor for me and the Post Office. I’d be walking out in that and honestly wouldn’t mind (until Reynauds kicked in and my hands started to hurt and curl in on themselves), but schools have been closed for today and tomorrow.
Bundled up the children and chucked them outside for as long as they could stand the 24 degrees with 51% humidity. That’s a lot drier than they’re used to, but then again, they’re not used to snow being on the ground. While it’s not the first time they’ve had snow, it’s a rare enough event to cause psychotically happy moods and a need to go racing out the door.
They lasted twenty minutes before Han discovered that, like her father and grandmother, Reynaud’s disease is genetic and hurts even when you warm back up.
A for effort, kids. They made the most of the little snow they’ve had so far. By mid-afternoon, they’ll be wanting to go back outside, having forgotten the consequences of the weather and soon to be running back inside as the temperature plummets.
It was also a first for Cooper to see snow, and like the children, the puppy lost his goddamned mind.
That area was blanketed just a few minutes before I snapped the photo. I’ve never seen a Golden get the zoomies quite that hard before.
I, on the other hand, have had enough experience with the cold weather to know that my hands won’t let me enjoy it for too long. I did go out there and played a bit –because how often do I get to hurl snowballs at my children? -before heading inside and handling the indoor responsibilities. Prepping for winter meals such as stews, soups, and so on.
I’ve managed 30 minutes of writing time today, and another 30 minutes of studying for the certification exam, but due to listening to the Silmarillion again, I’ve started up on a small project for those late-night hours when I can’t sleep due to minding the fireplace but can’t get the brain to focus on the story: map-making.
I have no idea what it’ll be used for, but it’s something to keep up the creativity and thus ward off the insanity. I also came across one of WordPress’ ‘Writing Prompts’ that caught my interest, so there may be two posts today. I’ll get another writing sprint in while the children have their afternoon “it’s snowing, oh crap that means it’s cold and we’re not acclimated to that!” playtime.
The past week has been frustrating in assigning priorities, but now that I’ve been ‘forced’ to stay home for a few days, I’ll be able to hold myself to my daily goals!
The week was full of myself saying that before I could sit down at the desk and write, I needed to make progress in my house project: handling the bigger cleaning chores before Sarah came back from her trip. Between that and minding the gremlins we had created, it’d be near 9 or 10 PM before I could make it to the keyboard.
Responsibilities are not fun, but it’ll be satisfying when Sarah comes home to clothes folded and put away, floors cleaned, and (if I’m lucky) the kids’ rooms not looking like tornados had come in for visits.
Another reason I’m trying so hard to make it into remote work as a cybersecurity analyst: I like house-spousing.
What else had happened during the week? Plenty!
Han discovered my learning how to bake and helped me figure out two recipes: shortbread cookies and hand pies.
Apparently, hand pies are meat pies but large enough to function as full meals. Got it from a Hobbit cookbook.
The next four days look like I’ll be staying at the house while Louisiana handles an artic blast that the residents are nowhere near prepared for, so with luck I’ll be able to sit down and write or study. Or we’ll have the power knocked out; one or the other.
Someone’s enjoying the fireplace being used, but I’m going to have to set up a guard rail before he learns what happens when a spark somehow gets through the doors and lands on fur.
When you live in a tropical climate zone but have a temperature-related excuse to use your fireplace, it’s something you want to show off.
After clearing the room of the Christmas debris, or as the holiday-folk call them ‘decorations’, I cleaned out the fireplace and laid down the first fire of the season.
Also testing out a statement from my father-in-law that our fireplace, like his, can be used as a second stovetop. His fireplace is a standalone, however, and isn’t halfway into the brick chimney. He wanted me to fry an egg with it, but I’m taking the lesser path and just trying out the old kettle.
The house is already warmer, and the weather reports say we’ll be staying around 30 degrees Fahrenheit (or around -1 Celsius if you’re anywhere not in the United States; I know, we’re stubborn about it) so we’ll be getting a lot of use out of this part of the house.
I’ll be in class readying for graduation presentations tomorrow, so I don’t think I’ll hit the daily word goals today. But I might be fortunate. We shall see!
Nearly three straight days of working on the property, practicing the recently-learned Kung Fu form (Tong Long Tao Dow, I think it’s spelled), drilling the Shii-Cho lightsaber routine, along with back-to-back camping sessions, player discussions, and writing sprints.
Photo by Cooper, the helpful golden retriever.
I need to remember that just because I’m not pulling 60-hour work weeks, I don’t need to push myself to my own limits every day. There’ll be another writing sprint later tonight, but I’m going to rest a while.
Needed to take a break from daily posts for a while, namely because life got busy for a while.
First and foremost, school is going to be starting next week, so I’ve had to make a few changes to my schedule and workplace. I’m now typing on a desktop for the first time in nearly twenty years!
Yes, it feels weird, but I’m liking it.
Secondly, you might have noticed that I’ve expanded a bit on the SWRPG page. Took to revamping the wiki-article section after a few self-education sessions on website design. Pretty soon, if they agree, I’ll also have some of my players contributing articles as they expand on their own home-brewed content.
Thirdly, Bakka has returned! Where he’s been, I don’t know, but the full belly makes me suspicious that he’s been adopted in the subdivision behind the property, so I’m happy.
Boy’s gotten big! He’s survived!
Fourth (!), we got a call from a friend with a unique problem: a male golden retriever nearly two years old needing a home. My family, from the in-laws to my wife and children, to even my parents, said that I needed to take him, that it’d be good for me, and that after the last year and the pummeling it’s taken, my soul would heal a bit.
So, meet Cooper (Buddy), folks!
Like looking at both of my old boys at once.
We’re getting used to each other and taking all the time in the world to help him acclimatize, letting the other dogs around him slowly, and getting him through as much training as possible.
Writing-wise, I had a hiccup of point-of-views for the past week, but after a few false starts I’ve gotten over the hurdle and dived into the Big Friggin’ Middle of the Interstellar Tall Tales rewrite. It’s now nearly 25K words long and will be getting into the real fun of that story. Stampeding asteroids, a chase from ‘the law’, and making a tall tale prove his legend by taking on a challenge that’s supposed to be, by every count of relativistic physics, impossible.
Published or not, this has damn fun to write.
I’ve been swamped with house projects as the family realized that I’m home almost every day, now. So much so that they wonder why it takes forever to get any of the projects done, up until I explain how much work needs to be done to get something to a manageable level and how it was put off by my working 60 hours a week at the Post Office.
Reading-wise, I’ve gone to one of the classics and picked “Ender’s Game” up again. I’ll give a review on it after a while, though it’s a debate if I’ll look at other books in the series. “Speaker for the Dead” was the only other book I had read, so I’ll have to look through the “Used” section for the next novel.
With the day coming to an end, I’ll try to get one more writing sprint done before a player discussion session this evening. Stay safe out there. folks.
Swift's Corner 