I don't know why starting a new job kicks my butt, but it does. Every. Single. Time. I like the job and the people I've worked with, I've already got added responsibilities, and there is virtually no learning curve. That's nice. But I get home from work and have dinner, and then I'm done. Just flat out, drooling in front of the TV, done. I hope to be over that part in a week or two, but I fear it might take longer because I'm 7 years older than the last time I started a job, plus I'm working more hours than I did at the old one. I'm scheduled for 21 hours a week, and at the old place, that was a crazy busy week with multiple parties or a huge event. I'm shocked at how much the weather affects our business. It's been mostly cold and rainy for the last week, so we didn't do much business. Next week doesn't look like it's going to be too much better. I wish I could take my notebook and write when it's not busy, but there are cameras everywhere, so I end up wiping clean counters and stirring yogurt. I'm told we'll be swamped all the time in the summer. I hope so. Road construction on our street isn't helping matters at all, and that's going to be with us at least through this year.
On the bright side, I did get words in this week, and I discovered a few things I didn't know that will help with the story. In fact, I got on a roll the other day, and when I looked up, I had half an hour to get ready to go to work. It wasn't a problem since my commute is about 200 yards, but I was still in my jammies. I don't get dressed for work until it's close to time to go so I don't take cat fur with me.
I signed up for a year-long class today. It meets (online) twice a month and covers everything from writing to self-pubbing to marketing. My friend at church told me about it. The teacher is a friend of hers. I didn't think I'd be able to do it until I scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the page and discovered there's a monthly payment option that I can easily handle with my paycheck. With half of one paycheck, really.
So that's the excitement here. Hope y'all are having a good week.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
BSF launches for Kindle!
Blackbirds Second Flight now available for your Kindle!
Enjoy these dark fantasies:
A writer challenges her murderous muse.
Dragons and riders stage a daring rescue.
Gangsters face off over the world's fate.
Warriors duel to their deaths in the sky.
A dad battles ghosts to save his daughter.
The sidhe never forget nor forgive.
It's Malone's way, or the fur will fly.
A shaman invades Tulsa on a killing hunt.
And much more!
Kindle version!
Print versions!
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Almost exactly 3 years
Today I cashed my first steady paycheck since March 2012. I checked the calendar, and it appears my last day at The Gathering Place was March 23. Work at the fro-yo shop is going well. There is no rocket science involved. Every part of the job at least relates to something I've done before. The hardest part is being on my feet for 7 hours at a time. The second hardest part is staying focused that long. We don't get formal breaks, and I've become spoiled in the last 3 years. I take coffee and a protein bar, and nibble or sip as needed. It's not ideal, but we don't have a place for a break room, and they don't want us sitting with the customers. They're grooming me for management, so that's fun. I was talking to the boss the other day, and he commented that most of the kids that work there just want popcorn and movie money. I told him that's more or less why I'm working there, but he's got 30 years of work experience in me.
I think the new schedule is going to work nicely. The three days a worked last week, I got up, wrote, and did a few chores before going to work. The days I didn't work, I got around to writing late in the morning. I work 10-5, which is pretty close to ideal at this point, except for the whole being on my feet thing. Too bad the only way to get used to it is to do it. At least I'm getting words in. I worried I might not.
No nibbles on the house. We had one showing right after it went on the market, and then nothing. I'm not worried. Yet. Viewings should be picking up pretty soon. People will start moving to the base next month.
The weather is improving, which isn't hard, considering torrential rain is preferable to snow at this point! Well, maybe not torrential. Not for everyone, anyway.
This week:
- Blog
- Continue work on Phillip's backstory
- Research e-book formatting and marketing
- Buy some hiking socks. My old ones are MIA and thicker socks seem to help at work.
I think the new schedule is going to work nicely. The three days a worked last week, I got up, wrote, and did a few chores before going to work. The days I didn't work, I got around to writing late in the morning. I work 10-5, which is pretty close to ideal at this point, except for the whole being on my feet thing. Too bad the only way to get used to it is to do it. At least I'm getting words in. I worried I might not.
No nibbles on the house. We had one showing right after it went on the market, and then nothing. I'm not worried. Yet. Viewings should be picking up pretty soon. People will start moving to the base next month.
The weather is improving, which isn't hard, considering torrential rain is preferable to snow at this point! Well, maybe not torrential. Not for everyone, anyway.
This week:
- Blog
- Continue work on Phillip's backstory
- Research e-book formatting and marketing
- Buy some hiking socks. My old ones are MIA and thicker socks seem to help at work.
Countdown to Tuesday
I'm about as ready as I'm going to be for my new knee. Mr. L will take me to the hospital and probably wait around until I get out of surgery and into my room. Then he'll probably head for home until I need him to come get me. Bedside manner is not in his vocabulary. The hospital is an hour and a half away, so running back and forth is not practical. Staying with me is not practical, because he has stuff to take care of at the house. I'm okay with this.
I got the trailer of trash emptied at the dump this morning before it got busy. I hope it got busier after I left, but with last night's rain, I think people were getting a slow start. The community service guys did a great job emptying the trailer as they do every year. The trailer is back in its spot in the driveway awaiting its next task.
My nest is prepared. The shower stool and new lawn mower blades arrived this morning. I assembled the stool and tested it. It should work fine. Cost $24, which is more than the $5 we spent for the elaborate transfer chair, but our bathroom was not set up for that chair to be usable, so we'll put it back in the yard sale for the same $5.
The Week Ahead:
I got the trailer of trash emptied at the dump this morning before it got busy. I hope it got busier after I left, but with last night's rain, I think people were getting a slow start. The community service guys did a great job emptying the trailer as they do every year. The trailer is back in its spot in the driveway awaiting its next task.
My nest is prepared. The shower stool and new lawn mower blades arrived this morning. I assembled the stool and tested it. It should work fine. Cost $24, which is more than the $5 we spent for the elaborate transfer chair, but our bathroom was not set up for that chair to be usable, so we'll put it back in the yard sale for the same $5.
The Week Ahead:
- Survive
- Begin trudging the road to recovery
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Back from Vacation; Preparing for Total Knee Replacement
We survived vacation and the roller coaster ride of excitement offered by Amtrak schedule changes. Through it all, Amtrak personnel were wonderful. If you've been following my A-Z Challenge posts, you're getting the highlights of the trip. I won't repeat myself here.
I think our Blackbirds Second Flight Hangout went well. As a result, I was inspired to spring for the Webinar Jam Studio package before the annual price increases in a week. I'm playing with it now, and Stephen, Wendy, and I will do a private test webinar on Tuesday. Some of it's intuitive, and I think I missed a few things, so I'm going to check the tutorials, which are pretty good to see what I haven't figured out--mostly how to get the test webinar to save and post to YouTube. It should have done so in private mode, but I don't think it did. Wait! It did. I went to the YouTube site and clicked on My Channel, and both private tests are there. (Mostly, it's a video of me looking around the screen and muttering to myself as I explore the interface.)
I had my pre-op appointment on Wednesday, and everything should be good for my surgery on the 21st. I love how blase (I don't know how to get the accent on the e; pretend it's there) the surgeon is about the procedure (this is a good thing). I picked up my recliner the same day, and we moved it into the house. I'm starting to set up my "nest." Mr. L will be in San Antonio next week, so I should be able to get everything done with the house while he's gone. He moved the piano into place in the living room, making room for the dining room furniture to be moved into the living room for the time being. In theory, I helped him, but nearly anything I tried to do to help resulted in me being in his way.
The yard was a fright after three weeks away, so I got most of it fixed up this week. I still have the store to mow, but it's supposed to rain all week. Next weekend is going to be a busy mowing time.
We have the City Wide clean-up on the 18th, so Mr. L and I backed the 16' trailer into the shop and have been filling it up. We're thankful we're having to look for junk we want to throw away. The trailer is about half full. I'm going to toss some branches on before I take it on the 18th, but I'm not sure how much else we'll come up with for the load.
I plugged the power cord into the dead MacBook Air, and the charging light came on. I'm going to see if it greens up. If it does, I'll try starting the laptop again. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. I hope so.
Junior found his way into the garage sometime on Thursday. We got him out today. Well, WE didn't get him out. We left the doors open, and he found his own way out. He used the litter box we put in there for trapped kitties once (it took him a while to find it, because he didn't use it once, too). We put food and water in there this morning, but I don't know if he was in long enough to drink or eat.
The Week Ahead:
I think our Blackbirds Second Flight Hangout went well. As a result, I was inspired to spring for the Webinar Jam Studio package before the annual price increases in a week. I'm playing with it now, and Stephen, Wendy, and I will do a private test webinar on Tuesday. Some of it's intuitive, and I think I missed a few things, so I'm going to check the tutorials, which are pretty good to see what I haven't figured out--mostly how to get the test webinar to save and post to YouTube. It should have done so in private mode, but I don't think it did. Wait! It did. I went to the YouTube site and clicked on My Channel, and both private tests are there. (Mostly, it's a video of me looking around the screen and muttering to myself as I explore the interface.)
I had my pre-op appointment on Wednesday, and everything should be good for my surgery on the 21st. I love how blase (I don't know how to get the accent on the e; pretend it's there) the surgeon is about the procedure (this is a good thing). I picked up my recliner the same day, and we moved it into the house. I'm starting to set up my "nest." Mr. L will be in San Antonio next week, so I should be able to get everything done with the house while he's gone. He moved the piano into place in the living room, making room for the dining room furniture to be moved into the living room for the time being. In theory, I helped him, but nearly anything I tried to do to help resulted in me being in his way.
The yard was a fright after three weeks away, so I got most of it fixed up this week. I still have the store to mow, but it's supposed to rain all week. Next weekend is going to be a busy mowing time.
We have the City Wide clean-up on the 18th, so Mr. L and I backed the 16' trailer into the shop and have been filling it up. We're thankful we're having to look for junk we want to throw away. The trailer is about half full. I'm going to toss some branches on before I take it on the 18th, but I'm not sure how much else we'll come up with for the load.
I plugged the power cord into the dead MacBook Air, and the charging light came on. I'm going to see if it greens up. If it does, I'll try starting the laptop again. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. I hope so.
Junior found his way into the garage sometime on Thursday. We got him out today. Well, WE didn't get him out. We left the doors open, and he found his own way out. He used the litter box we put in there for trapped kitties once (it took him a while to find it, because he didn't use it once, too). We put food and water in there this morning, but I don't know if he was in long enough to drink or eat.
The Week Ahead:
- Dental appointment and get haircut on Tuesday. Maybe get the truck washed and vacuumed.
- Stop in to talk to countyVA rep on Monday.
- Take temporary disability paperwork to Temple VA rep on Wednesday to get that process started
- Start up my old Windows laptop this week to see if I can recover my Mom's hard drive to an external drive -- it's read only when I plug them into my Mac, but it should work fine on a Windows machine.
- If I am able to recover everything, send the drives back to her and Dad.
- Get the "nest" set up (Hook up TV, DVD player, move clothes downstairs, etc)
- Declutter the parlor (April's decluttering task)
- Clear off the kitchen counters (again). They'll stay that way until somebody returns from San Antonio, then they'll be filled with stuff again.
- Find as much stuff as possible to toss onto the trailer for the clean up trip to the city dump (this trailer size costs $70 any other time of year, but on this day, it's free)
- Resume work on Polar Bear on the Loose
- Continue trying to entice Junior to let me touch him
