The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for pizza and words!

I hear ya on the off days, though... this whole week (at least) has been like that. (But nobody has brought me any pizza, and family just makes it worse...)

Anyway, got my own NaNo words in, did a little ornament work, and otherwise slogged through the day, and it's about time to trudge off for the evening. Work tomorrow, assuming the way isn't flooded; isn't supposed to be by me, but other area rivers are doing their "guess what, you idiots built your housing developments in a frellin' FLOOD PLAIN! That's why there used to be FARMS here, morons! But go ahead, keep pouring concrete on the land that used to absorb the water to keep it all from gushing downstream at once, see if I care..." thing.

--

And it's a rainy Friday morning, heading out to work soon.

Oh - we found out that the local Big Lots is being pushed out by the ever expanding Costco monster. We liked looking there, and they were the cleaner and better of the area Big Lots stores. So, yeah, another mark against this sucky week...

--

Friday afternoon, and work was a place I went to and a thing that existed which accomplished next to nothing against the backlog. But, hey, paycheck... And I shopped my way home and got myself lunch, because it's recycling week and I get myself lunch after work on Fridays on recycling weeks (even though I probably shouldn't). Let the good times roll... whee.

 

[Gatteau]

Better productive mood today. Spent some time writing at the wine bar over the lake, super quiet, smooth, serene water like glass, it was lovely. But... getting home and feeling like my writing - which is super important to me and basically my full time job because I really have nothing else important to do - is only an inconvenience on other people's days off, kinda sucks.

Also, I learned today that the old lady who used to own the bar at which my husband works now, our neighborhood bar for years, just passed away yesterday. Known as Grandma to many of us - some were related, I was not - always checking in and making sure we were all doing good any time we crossed paths, giving so many people great jobs... She was just the best. Every time I saw her she asked how my writing was going, and she was actually the first person outside of family that I let read my first book. And she said she loved it. Just so encouraging, loving, a bright presence. She will be missed. And whenever I manage to actually get it published, that book will be dedicated to her.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for productive days!

Boo for feeling like writing is an inconvenience! (I feel like that sometimes, too... particularly when family keeps interrupting me, and I can't seem to get any real traction going on finishing and subbing and all the other stuff I feel I should have gotten traction on by now... mergh...)

Sorry to read about the passing of "Grandma"...

Later on Friday, getting words going on NaNo; want to at least hit 30K tonight, and I'm only 300 words away (easy peasy - I can belt out long-winded descriptions and mental meanderings that don't actually advance the plot one iota like nobody's business), but might not get much further, even though I'm in the middle of a scene thing. Just sorta feeling like I want to crawl into bed and find something to read before sleep makes Friday go away.

Oh - the sibling got a jury duty card, just to add a cherry on the already kicktastic week. The fact that they want her to check in online is evidently cause for a mini meltdown, because she has notoriously poor luck with internet stuff. (And her health insurance is calling about something that she's convinced is bad but is probably just routine annual renewal stuff... and her efforts to get mail prescription service are requiring her to fill out more forms than she wants to... So it's been a bit of a yelly and meltdowny evening that will probably see sporadic howls and fits throughout the weekend... Just what we all needed. Not.)

--

Late Saturday morning, brief break in the rain before another "atmospheric river" slops through this evening. Really need to get my tail moving on the weekly room tidying, thence onward to site stuff (which I'm falling behind on) and ornament work (not doing terrible on that, but still have a fair bit to do on those before the painting stage) and exercise and, of course, NaNoWriMo (might have a vague glimmer of a larger plot on the horizon, but I don't want to spook it, nor am I sure it's not just a mirage or swamp gas or a weather balloon)... none of which involves typing this, does it?

Okay, lazy twerp... get a move-on...

 

[CobraMisfit]

Better productive mood today. Spent some time writing at the wine bar over the lake, super quiet, smooth, serene water like glass, it was lovely.

Oooooooooooo. THAT is how to write!



Evening, gang.

Whut up?

 

[CMBright]

Evening, gang.

Whut up?

Nice breakfast, then a trip to the zoo with a 10yo gas molecule. I rented a scooter and actually managed to wear the kid out. Of course, keeping up with the kid (even in the scooter) wore me out as well.

Found out that lorikeets LOVE nectar enough to open the nectar containers without waiting for people to assist. When I was about 6yo, I successfully navigated my Mom through the Chicago interstate system during a move. I got lost matching the zoo trails to the map.

We found the cat forest with lions and other cats. We also found the Great EscApe and the gorillas, saw the jungle gym but not any of the orangutans. Not to mention the elephant area. Kid enjoyed the carousel, I enjoyed watching the kid.

Kid and I both had a blast at the zoo today.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Right now, more rainclouds are up; the latest atmospheric river has washed in.

And hooray for good zoo days! One of the local zoos had a lorikeet exhibit for a while, and I really enjoyed it. Now they have a parakeet thing that's rather less fun... I mean, yeah, fun for little kids and photo ops, but I liked the lorikeets more.

Sigh... I miss being able to go places. Even if I could, family would tag along, and it would be better just not to bother between the sibling melting down and Mom just not being able to walk far (but not actually saying anything, just complaining incessantly about walking)...

Anyway, Saturday evening, and got a few things done today. Should've done more, but then I always should do more. I really am the laziest of lazy twerps. Right now I'm keeping an eye on the transcription site, hoping something pops up that's worth my while to bother with but not holding my breath. Really should be pushing myself harder on that, too, but too much of me is itching to get my NaNo count in, and it's more of an occasional-book-splurge-or-lunch income thing, not a do-this-or-starve thing (and a it-might-look-slightly-better-on-a-resume-to-at-least-have-something-I've-tried-new-in-the-past-decade thing)... Will call it a wash if nothing decent turns up by a quarter to seven/sevenish.

 

[Gatteau]

Aw, it's been so long since I've been to a zoo! That sounds awesome! When I was living in Portland, their zoo had a fantastic Christmas lights display throughout the whole park, even themed along with the animal enclosures as you walk through. I think (hope, rather - I am a huge advocate of no Christmas-ing until December; let's enjoy all our holidays in the right order, people, Thanksgiving is great in its own right) it's still too early for that, but I do miss that little holiday tradition, and was just reminded by your zoo story.

BD, would you mind sharing the transcription site you use? I have been wanting to find some such thing to provide a skooch of extra income when I have down time. If you wanna keep it to yourself, no competition, no worries, ignore me - just figured I'd ask!

Apparently we've been having "weather inversion" here, where it's actually colder down in town than up on top of the mountains, so it's been all sopped in and foggy in the mornings until the sun finally comes all the way out and it burns off around noon. It kind of sucks all around though, being wetter than usual but not actually snowing. And it would be really nice to have some more snow, considering the ski resort is set to open in less than a week! I'll be exploring a different mountain this year for the first time (since our home resort was pretty devastated by fires this year and may not be able to open at all

) which is both terrifying and exciting. But everyone says it's super cool over there, so yay adventures...!

 

[Brightdreamer]

BD, would you mind sharing the transcription site you use? I have been wanting to find some such thing to provide a skooch of extra income when I have down time. If you wanna keep it to yourself, no competition, no worries, ignore me - just figured I'd ask!

It's Rev.com - they do transcription and closed captioning, and if you can do foreign languages that's also a thing. There's a primer and a little test (I passed, so it's not hard), and sometimes there's a waiting period before you're activated. You'll also need to be able to provide valid ID (driver's license kind of thing); mobile phone photo-provide. It won't earn you a full-time job or anything, but you can usually get a little extra here and there. Rev link here

I've also heard decent things about Lionfish as a transcription site, but haven't tried it.

 

[Gatteau]

Cool cool, thanks a bunch!

 

[Brightdreamer]

And it's a rainy Sunday morning, a bit of a breeze picking up, and relatives are already being yelly... and if I try to hide behind headphones they'll randomly decide to drag me into it and get upset I don't hear them.

Mergh...

Also, the book I'm reading, while not bad, is feeling a little... limp, I guess. A little too similar to another book by the same author, only I think that one did it better.

 

[MaeZe]

Wind is good. Gave me an excuse yesterday not to clean up debris from the last wind event. There was a break in the rain but ... with another windy day in the works I put yard cleanup off until this storm passes by.

I have a lot to do and time to do it but no motivation to get my lazy butt off the couch.

Yesterday I worked on edits from the comments my beta reader made. She did such a thorough job, I'm impressed and grateful.

The comments offered insight into what would confuse a reader but not me because I know all the backstory. It's helping me find a happy medium between dripping backstory out while still giving the reader enough to not be confused.

I have a hard concept to get across to the reader why there is a village of people who are primitive on the one hand yet knowledgable about the modern world on the other. They don't have much technology themselves having had to survive in a wilderness without much in the way of tools like microscopes and electronics. It confuses people without an explanation. The key is how to make that explanation very short and fit it into the story without sounding like exposition.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for useful betas!

Later on Sunday, and 'tis wet out there. And dark now. But mostly wet.

Family is being too loud to bother trying transcription tonight, so I think I'll just pop open Scrivener and see how I can screw up my MC's life tonight in my NaNo story, though it's still pretty screwed up from where I left her last night. Just ordered an Xmas thing for a relative (actually the second thing for the holidays I've ordered; I'm trying to do shopping early this year), so that's done; he likes Cougar Gold cheese from the WSU Creamery, and it's best to pre-order early on that.

Okay, off to be the evil deity of my own fictional universe for a while...

--

Evil deity tasks performed for the night; out of the frying pan and into the fire, then out of the fire and into an even bigger fire...

And we just heard an almighty creak... crruunnch... CRASH out in the woods. Flashlight checks show nothing in the yard, but we'll have to take a peek in daylight. There's a huge maple that's been doing poorly for a while; any given branch on it would count as a good-sized tree...

--

Monday afternoon, and first off, we did find out what came down. The old maple lost a large part of itself (which has been rotting out for at least 40 years), but it managed to miss our house, the neighbor's house, and the little seasonal creek. Did take out a very old and collapsed shed, and hopefully it did a number on the danged laurel from the neighbor's yard that's eating our yard.

And the late morning jaunt up to the hospital for Dad's follow-up went well... more or less. Mom and Dad both needed a blood draw, and the idiots totally forgot about them and left them sitting there for over an hour. Mom was Very Not Happy with them and let them know it. (They did at least let my 90-plus-year-old father use their danged bathroom, after making him wait that long, so at least Mom didn't have to clean up his pants.) So I got a lot of reading done in the car while waiting for them. (Master of Djinn, by P. Djeli Clark; murder mystery in alt-1920's Cairo in a world where magic was brought back, so you have tech and magic and a radically altered global political landscape. So far, very enjoyable, and I love the characters. Wish it could be faithfully adapted to a streaming series; lots of great mind's eye candy.)

During all this, the sibling called to let me know the power was out at home. I hopped on my phone to check the power company site, and we're smack in the middle of a large red outage swath. So I signed up for update texts, even though last time I did that they never told me squat.

Well, they seem to have changed that.

I got a text right back.

And five minutes later.

And every fifteen minutes.

For over two hours. (Did I mention I was in that parking lot a long, *long* time?)

Fortunately, power came back on before we got home. And we're danged lucky; there's a town that has almost no way in or out for storm damage, and last I heard the little town of Forks (from "Twilight" fame) was doing helicopter evacuations.

Mergh.

Anyway, we wound up getting power alternative dinner options just in case the storm's not done with us.

And I'm finally home and out of the frellin' car and the frellin' parking lot with the car-shaking gusts of wind...

 

[Friendly Frog]

We had the nephews over for the weekend so naturally, by Monday I have caught some bug from them. (Not COVID, they got tested before coming, we tested negative today.) Can't say I'm happy with another case of the sniffles but it sure beats the other one. I'm going for lots of tea and a pile of fresh hankies today.

Got stood up by two people today who were coming to collect some items I offered up online to make some space in the garage and attic. It's been years since I tried to get rid of some things online so I wasn't sure how things had changed but it's been a mixed bag so far.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Boo for bugs and unreliable people!

Tuesday, late morning, and the weather's calmed down but it's supposed to chill off a bit (hopefully not down to door-clunker/freezing temps yet). Sinuses are seriously sinusating again, dang it... Anyway, the sibling's taking Mom to her PT appointment, so I should try to catch up on some of the stuff I didn't get to due to spending so much of yesterday in the car. (I mean, yeah, I read over 100 pages in a darned good book, but that doesn't get site work done, or ornaments, or writing, or...) Since I don't like being out in the workshed while they're out in a last-gasp vehicle, I think I might either write or do some site stuff. Should do site stuff, but part of me really wants to make a run at a good NaNo number today... closin' in on 40K.

 

[zanzjan]

Hello peoples. Coffee?

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hello peoples. Coffee?

Yes, I know...

 

[Friendly Frog]

For however much I love the smell of coffee, the taste never did anything for me. So every steaming cup just says 'tea' to me.

Dang, now I crave tea with so much honey the spoon stands up.

*shuffles blanket-and-hankie-fort to the kitchen*

 

[Brightdreamer]

Agreed that coffee smells so much better than it tastes. (At my previous job, putting things on shelves in a grocery store, I used to stock bulk coffee bins.)

Tuesday afternoon, and not a terribly productive day, if more productive than yesterday. Got a little site stuff done. Got some ornament work done. Swept off the back stairs and the back patio (we're getting a furnace oil delivery tomorrow, so I wanted to make sure the back stairs were deleafed after the recent weather, then I went on to sweep the back patio because exercise). Got about an hour before I need to contemplate starting dinner. Probably going to make hamburger patties, because we have hamburger and I already did "assisted meat" recently. So now I'm trying to decide what to do with my hour, here... tempted to poke NaNo for a bit, as I'm still eyeballing 40K today... more if I get on a roll.

 

[MaeZe]

Darn it. My heart has been going all a-fib on me for the last two hours. Normally it doesn't stay that way. It's reminding me I can't eat any of those donuts or drink coffee. I did drink a couple cups of de-caf which to me tastes like hot water.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Wednesday afternoon, and this morning was an unexpectedly hard freeze (had to thaw the car door, and I had to do a quick run around the yard rigging the humm feeder lights; one had frozen almost solid, and the humms were Very Not Happy with me).

Work existed.

Shopping existed.

And the salmon are back in the little creek down the road, which is probably a dumb thing to find cool but I do. (Not sure, but they might actually be kokanee...)

And nuke-your-own-dinner night has been called. I'd be getting extra writing in, but family will. Not. Shut. Up.

Mergh...

Oh - Mom actually got her booster shot today! Somehow she found out that the local Rite-Aid had walk-in boosters from 2 to 3, and she got one of the last Pfizer boosters (which is the one she wanted; most side-effect issues she hears of seem to be Moderna). So that's a weight off her mind. We'll have to see if we can get Dad his booster one of these days...

 

[E.F.B.]

Welp, I thought I posted over the weekend, or sometime close to that, but as I don't see a post from me, I must have logged on and then got distracted.

The big news of the moment is that on Saturday, I reached my goal of editing my WIP to under 100k! There's still the final chapter to tighten and then it's back to the beginning to focus on fine-tuning more of the story itself.

I think the word count will come down even more as I shape up the beginning chapters because I'm confident there are pacing issues there. The response from my crit group while reading those chapters, while positive, was indicating that the pacing was slow enough that they were starting to think this was a happy little farm story, whereas their responses have indicated that the pacing gets way, way better later on. So, gotta do something to shape the beginning up. Those who've read my Sisyphuses will know I'm by no means a gritty story writer, but I don't often write total fluff, either. There's adventure and drama in there and I need the beginning to point to that better. I can do this.

Other news is that I'm currently stalking Best Buy for a PS5. The fact of the matter is that while dad would like to be the one to order it for me for Christmas, he'd wait until the 20th of December, if not the 24th, check the website, and be mad that it's constantly out of stock. The only way to get one right now is to check the site every day, every hour on the hour, which dad isn't going to do, so mom and I agreed that I'll have to be the one to do it if I want one any time soon.

After 4 days of site-stalking, I caught a restock this morning(pretty sure I missed one earlier in the week, but oh well) got the thing in my cart, was waiting for it to do the thing of confirming my account that they're now doing to try to thwart the bots AND MY INTERNET DROPPED. *THROWS SMIBBLES* Of course, by the time it came back, the PS5 was out of stock again. As the darned wifi has been glitching at random for days now, I am most likely going to have to do the checking of the site and the entire purchase on my phone. *snorts and growls because small screens are annoying*

 

[Brightdreamer]

Hooray for editing goals!

Boo for dropped internet!

Thursday afternoon, and at least it didn't freeze last night.

Work continues to be an exercise in futility.

Got a little bit before I have to start dinner, but am still tired from work (which is still incredibly stupid, to be tired after a five hour shift, but there it is.) Also, as of this afternoon, not one but two of my radio presets in the car have switched to Xmas music. And not even good Xmas music; the same increasingly-old, increasingly-small playlist they've been playing for ages. Not before Turkey Day, you jerks!

ETA - And if anyone needs a little laugh, Rifftrax has the full version (with commercials!) of the much-lamented original Star Wars Holiday Special up on YouTube, for free: Link Here

--

And it's Friday afternoon. Seeing a little sunshine between clouds, but the rain's coming back soon last I checked.

Someone's leaving our shift, making us short staffed again. Figured it would happen sooner or later. (And apparently someone on the Monday-Tuesday shift may have died? They sort of rushed the announcement... In any event, there was a last-minute chance for overtime on their shift, and I didn't go for it because I really have stuff to catch up on and wasn't sure if I was needed for driving relatives anywhere and I also just plain didn't wanna.)

Sigh.

Right now, the rest of the family is back at Rite-Aid, hopefully getting Dad his COVID booster. (Rite-Aid's apparently doing walk-in boosters from 2 to 3; Mom got hers a couple days ago. Kicked her a bit, but she's happy she got it and only wished she'd known what kind to get in time for it to be fully effective by Turkey Day. Apparently, J&J recipients are encouraged to get either Moderna or Pfizer boosters, not wait to find another J&J.)

--

And it's Friday night, and I officially crossed the 50K line on NaNoWriMo tonight.

Also, since they officially threw the doors open for everyone to get boosters, there was a flood of people trying to get COVID boosters at Rite Aid today; they got down there before 2, and Dad still only managed to get the last or second-to-last slot. So they were down there for a good long while... We wound up getting take-out IHOP for dinner. Which is always a win, because I don't have to cook.

Now, time for go to bed...

 

[Friendly Frog]

Nice to see the writing and editing going well!

Part of me wants to get back to writing something that isn't a Sisyphus but with everything else going on I feel like I can't justify the timesink writing usually is.

All I seem to do these days is nag, nag, nag. For everything that goes right or gets done, two other things go wrong, break down, explode, etc... Winter's coming and I'm ready with nothing for it. And in the end you just feel you have nothing to feel satisfied with. And it seems like you never manage to get on tops of things, always trying to catch up and feeling like a failure while at it.

Part of me feels like it's wrong that I remember the last time I had a nice happy laugh because it's so rare nowadays. I'm getting bitter and grumpy and I don't know how to stop it.

Ah there I go again, nag, nag, nag. Going to go outside and rake some leaves. Might as well do something constructive and leaves don't talk back.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Been there, done that on life being nothing but an endless slog of things going wrong and being miserable... (Still there and doing that, actually...) Though writing is more than a time sink: sometimes it's a needed escape, even if you're just writing the words in your head.

Saturday morning, sinuses are sinusating yet again. Time to do the weekly room tidying, then I have site stuff I ought to be catching up on, workshed stuff to do, exercise to accomplish, and that NaNo story to polish off (going to be rather rough-edged, but it needs the closure). Main decision is whether to listen to random music while I tidy or whether I should listen to more of the Overdrive library loan audiobook that I've been listening to at work; I only work one day next week, after all, but if I pick a little at it each day I'm off I'm more likely to finish it before I have to return it. (The Tiger and the Wolf, Book 1 of Echoes of the Fall, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Sort of a mythical Bronze Age secondary world fantasy, where all the people and tribes are shapeshifters - including some who can shift into extinct animals. Decent so far, if a bit slow on the setup.)

--

And it's Saturday evening, and got some things done, at least. Will probably lose part of tomorrow to shopping, because apparently nobody else can buy dinner options (yet they all can complain about a lack thereof). Mergh... Right now, am waiting to see if any doable transcription jobs pop up within my limited skill range, but it's not lookin' promising. If/when that falls through, I have a tiny bit to finish off on NaNo to call it something like "done", then I might do a quick note-to-self review before calling it as done as it's gonna get. (Still don't anticipate revisiting it, though. Really a scattered mess that then tried to become a series pilot on the thinnest of premises, which is so not something I'm capable of tackling even if it were any good.)

 

[Friendly Frog]

Yeah, you're not wrong. Maybe I just should restart writing for myself. Clearly I'm not coping with life as well right now anyway. Can't hurt to try and get some endorfines flowing with story construction... Would be nice to get out of this funk.