- Joined
- Sep 23, 2009
- Messages
- 2,132
- Reaction score
- 1,272
- Location
- Pennsylvania Dutch Country
- Website
- www.pterosnest.blogspot.com
What a long, strange trip it's been...
Howdy! I'm back. Temporarily. I'm coming to you live from my car outside a Dunkin Donuts (the sit-down area's closed) to explain why I haven't check in. Bottom line: I couldn't. Here's what's been going on in Pennsylvania...
I've been semi-retired and working from home for the last four years or so. For financial reasons, I never got home Internet. I live close to a library and several fast-food joints where I could hang out and use their WiFi. Download stuff, head home, and work. If the library was closed, I could go to the truck stop or somewhere. Which is where I was the last time I checked in, downloading my latest assignment from the Dunkin Donuts due to the library being closed due to Covid-19. No sweat.
Then the governor of PA put us on lockdown and shut all the businesses that weren't life-sustaining. Literally overnight, I lost all Internet access. With an assignment due back the day before the library was supposed to reopen. Bummer.
For the past two weeks I've been working on the assignment while scrambling around trying to find a place where I could email it back to the publisher. I was going to bribe a computer place to let me use their WiFi for 15 minutes. The next day the governor ordered non-essential businesses closed. Scratch that. My cable TV provider said they could hook me up on March 24. The day before that they called back and said no, they have to wait two weeks. Health concerns, y'know. I got rescheduled to April 7. School closings have been extended an extra week, so I'll bet the library won't be open either. We're not on house arrest yet, but that could be coming.
Fortunately, the laptop battery I thought wasn't working does work, which is how I got my assignment out (huge sigh of relief) and how I'm talking to all of you now.
And it's not over yet. I was going to tell the publisher I wouldn't be available until April 7, but when I went to fill out my assignment sheet, I saw they'd already put me down for another one, to be sent to my inbox tomorrow (March 27). Well, the battery's working and Dunkin Donuts is still open and I need the money, soooooo....
I have been writing every day. In fact, yesterday while I was working on the assignment I suddenly flashed on the opening of Book 4 of my series. So I'm writing that now. Did about a page longhand this morning. Books 1 and 2 are still at a standstill so what the hell, just write another one. I was going to do that during my "hiatus" but now I'll be working over the weekend. Life is fun.
By the way, a judge ruled that apparently gun shops are essential, so the PA governor is allowing arms dealers to stay open. I can't get Internet so I can continue to earn a living at home, but I can go out and buy a gun. I live in one nutty country.
Howdy! I'm back. Temporarily. I'm coming to you live from my car outside a Dunkin Donuts (the sit-down area's closed) to explain why I haven't check in. Bottom line: I couldn't. Here's what's been going on in Pennsylvania...
I've been semi-retired and working from home for the last four years or so. For financial reasons, I never got home Internet. I live close to a library and several fast-food joints where I could hang out and use their WiFi. Download stuff, head home, and work. If the library was closed, I could go to the truck stop or somewhere. Which is where I was the last time I checked in, downloading my latest assignment from the Dunkin Donuts due to the library being closed due to Covid-19. No sweat.
Then the governor of PA put us on lockdown and shut all the businesses that weren't life-sustaining. Literally overnight, I lost all Internet access. With an assignment due back the day before the library was supposed to reopen. Bummer.
For the past two weeks I've been working on the assignment while scrambling around trying to find a place where I could email it back to the publisher. I was going to bribe a computer place to let me use their WiFi for 15 minutes. The next day the governor ordered non-essential businesses closed. Scratch that. My cable TV provider said they could hook me up on March 24. The day before that they called back and said no, they have to wait two weeks. Health concerns, y'know. I got rescheduled to April 7. School closings have been extended an extra week, so I'll bet the library won't be open either. We're not on house arrest yet, but that could be coming.
Fortunately, the laptop battery I thought wasn't working does work, which is how I got my assignment out (huge sigh of relief) and how I'm talking to all of you now.
And it's not over yet. I was going to tell the publisher I wouldn't be available until April 7, but when I went to fill out my assignment sheet, I saw they'd already put me down for another one, to be sent to my inbox tomorrow (March 27). Well, the battery's working and Dunkin Donuts is still open and I need the money, soooooo....
I have been writing every day. In fact, yesterday while I was working on the assignment I suddenly flashed on the opening of Book 4 of my series. So I'm writing that now. Did about a page longhand this morning. Books 1 and 2 are still at a standstill so what the hell, just write another one. I was going to do that during my "hiatus" but now I'll be working over the weekend. Life is fun.
By the way, a judge ruled that apparently gun shops are essential, so the PA governor is allowing arms dealers to stay open. I can't get Internet so I can continue to earn a living at home, but I can go out and buy a gun. I live in one nutty country.
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