Whaddya mean, it's Summer already?!
Jun. 11th, 2011 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aearwenGood gods! It's June already!!
Where did the year go, I ask you? Seems like I was complaining in here about the cold, rainy winter weather not all that long ago, and here it is, Summertime all of a sudden. In what seems like a blink of an eye, we're into our summertime weather (late afternoon fog lasting until mid-morning, then mostly sunny over the noon hours.) With the breezes that haven't exactly calmed down after Ostara like they usually do, it isn't quite warm outside - although when one gets out of the breeze and in the sun, it warms up soon enough.
I actually got outside and dug in the dirt a bit yesterday - set out some gladiolusses (gladioli?) and a royal purple bearded iris that somehow survived on the top of my fridge for months after being forgotten up there. I've always wanted deep purple irises, so hopefully the thing will now begin to prosper. Meanwhile, Hubby took a hedge-clippers to the "stump" of wisteria that he calls "Cousin It" so that it isn't reaching out to try to climb back up onto the house again. Trimmed the front hedge and is threatening to mow up the leaves & clippings later today.
The blue jays have stopped ripping off the dry cat food we leave out for our outdoor kitty (Miss Piggy/Princess/Droolbucket - depending on what she's doing and how we're feeling at the moment) and now it's the ravens who are dipping in. This, of course, makes sitting at the back door great fun for our indoor mini-monster (bengal kitty Sadie) as she dashes from one window to the next trying to "stalk" them.
My days have been less productive than I would like, partly because I'm not sleeping well due to that dratted left shoulder and forearm spasming a lot at night and waking me up, and partly because I have a dull toothache that likes to turn ouchy every once in a while. I'm a mess! I just deal and grunt through it, tho - no insurance means one simply learns to live with a lot of stuff.
Oldest son JJ is currently down in Long Beach at the Special Olympics Summer State Games, competing in shot put and the 50-meter dash. He loves these trips: a charter bus trip down and back, rooming in the Cal State Long Beach dorms for a couple of nites, dinner out, a dance, all kinds of special stuff in "Tent City" for the atheletes.
Oooops! Sadie found another raven! Now she's standing there, disappointed because it flew off. We'll just sit down right at the edge of the screen door, she thinks, so they can't see me next time. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, cat. Whatever makes you happy...
Daughter Súl is recovering from another "Clown Crawl" Friday nite. "Clown Crawl" is where a whole bunch of folks put on outlandish clothing and/or paint their faces like clowns, meet up at a specific bar at a specific time, and then essentially go bar-hopping for the next few hours. Súl's outfit last night was truly beyond belief, but I could see in the pictures she took that she really enjoyed herself. She treated a friend to the evening as well, and friend needed the lift (after hurting herself on the job at Walmart and discovering the job was too hard on her health to keep.) Friend doesn't drink, so that meant Súl had a designated driver who could see to it they came home last night rather than crash at some friends' house on the couch. Needless to say, however, she was really dragging this morning at our "Koffee Klatsch" at 8AM.
Heard from Squeek up in Oregon - he's decided that it's just too expensive for him to own a car up there. So he's got the thing listed on Craigslist.com and is hoping to sell it so as to make the deposit on renting himself an apartment of his own. He just had a performance review at his job, and they're happy with his work. He's also getting in on the ground floor of a newly-organized SCA household forming up there, so he's doing a lot of Ren-Faire-ish type stuff. So I'm pleased that things seem to be progressing well on that front.
My brother in AZ is also doing much better - likes his new digs, although is curious about how things will go down when the 1-yr lease is up for renewal. Seems his SiL has found herself a Sugar Daddy (older and with LOTS of money, where she has a gambling habit. One wonders how long it will take for the guy to wise up, eh?) What I find very satisfying is that he's looking forward to things now: he's waiting on word from Social Security about his disability and planning on driving over here for a week's vacation in July if the money comes through. I can tell, just from talking to him, that the weight of the worry over that house in Scottsdale has fallen away from his shoulders, and his tone of voice is up-beat and positive. I can't tell you all how much it means to not have to worry about him!!
Once I finish my posting in here, I'm gonna have to knuckle down and really work on music the rest of today and tomorrow morning. I have one piece that has to be transposed into a key the singers can manage, and I have to get a whole slew of page protectors so that I can put together all my music for the program in a coherent fashion. Then I gotta start practicing. On the other hand, I'm starting to itch to order myself a cross-strung harp (the one I want is currently on back-order.) If I had a Bucket List for myself, learning harp would be near the top, as it is the one instrument I have always wanted to learn to play. I'm almost in the position to buy one now, and the need to wait a bit is getting wearing. We'll just have to see how much longer I can hold out.
Finished another chapter of IDD this week and have it up at the Lizard Council for comment & concrit, and am slowly working through the next one. I have a side tale that I'm hoping to get finished in time to compete in this next month's ALEC voting too. My Muse keeps throwing ideas at me, and I keep ignoring her and pointing at IDD - and Changeling and Strange Melodies and Not Quite As Expected and a few others - and telling her "we gotta finish those first!!" No more new stuff until all (or most) of the WIPs on my hard drive have been finished, damn it!!
The only thing other than the LOTR WIPs that I'll let her work on is my O-fic novel that needs the massive re-write. I look at it at least once a week, and sometimes I manage between 300-500 words on it. Eventually, that will add up... At least, that's what I tell myself...
Hope you all have had a good week. Until next time...
Where did the year go, I ask you? Seems like I was complaining in here about the cold, rainy winter weather not all that long ago, and here it is, Summertime all of a sudden. In what seems like a blink of an eye, we're into our summertime weather (late afternoon fog lasting until mid-morning, then mostly sunny over the noon hours.) With the breezes that haven't exactly calmed down after Ostara like they usually do, it isn't quite warm outside - although when one gets out of the breeze and in the sun, it warms up soon enough.
I actually got outside and dug in the dirt a bit yesterday - set out some gladiolusses (gladioli?) and a royal purple bearded iris that somehow survived on the top of my fridge for months after being forgotten up there. I've always wanted deep purple irises, so hopefully the thing will now begin to prosper. Meanwhile, Hubby took a hedge-clippers to the "stump" of wisteria that he calls "Cousin It" so that it isn't reaching out to try to climb back up onto the house again. Trimmed the front hedge and is threatening to mow up the leaves & clippings later today.
The blue jays have stopped ripping off the dry cat food we leave out for our outdoor kitty (Miss Piggy/Princess/Droolbucket - depending on what she's doing and how we're feeling at the moment) and now it's the ravens who are dipping in. This, of course, makes sitting at the back door great fun for our indoor mini-monster (bengal kitty Sadie) as she dashes from one window to the next trying to "stalk" them.
My days have been less productive than I would like, partly because I'm not sleeping well due to that dratted left shoulder and forearm spasming a lot at night and waking me up, and partly because I have a dull toothache that likes to turn ouchy every once in a while. I'm a mess! I just deal and grunt through it, tho - no insurance means one simply learns to live with a lot of stuff.
Oldest son JJ is currently down in Long Beach at the Special Olympics Summer State Games, competing in shot put and the 50-meter dash. He loves these trips: a charter bus trip down and back, rooming in the Cal State Long Beach dorms for a couple of nites, dinner out, a dance, all kinds of special stuff in "Tent City" for the atheletes.
Oooops! Sadie found another raven! Now she's standing there, disappointed because it flew off. We'll just sit down right at the edge of the screen door, she thinks, so they can't see me next time. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight, cat. Whatever makes you happy...
Daughter Súl is recovering from another "Clown Crawl" Friday nite. "Clown Crawl" is where a whole bunch of folks put on outlandish clothing and/or paint their faces like clowns, meet up at a specific bar at a specific time, and then essentially go bar-hopping for the next few hours. Súl's outfit last night was truly beyond belief, but I could see in the pictures she took that she really enjoyed herself. She treated a friend to the evening as well, and friend needed the lift (after hurting herself on the job at Walmart and discovering the job was too hard on her health to keep.) Friend doesn't drink, so that meant Súl had a designated driver who could see to it they came home last night rather than crash at some friends' house on the couch. Needless to say, however, she was really dragging this morning at our "Koffee Klatsch" at 8AM.
Heard from Squeek up in Oregon - he's decided that it's just too expensive for him to own a car up there. So he's got the thing listed on Craigslist.com and is hoping to sell it so as to make the deposit on renting himself an apartment of his own. He just had a performance review at his job, and they're happy with his work. He's also getting in on the ground floor of a newly-organized SCA household forming up there, so he's doing a lot of Ren-Faire-ish type stuff. So I'm pleased that things seem to be progressing well on that front.
My brother in AZ is also doing much better - likes his new digs, although is curious about how things will go down when the 1-yr lease is up for renewal. Seems his SiL has found herself a Sugar Daddy (older and with LOTS of money, where she has a gambling habit. One wonders how long it will take for the guy to wise up, eh?) What I find very satisfying is that he's looking forward to things now: he's waiting on word from Social Security about his disability and planning on driving over here for a week's vacation in July if the money comes through. I can tell, just from talking to him, that the weight of the worry over that house in Scottsdale has fallen away from his shoulders, and his tone of voice is up-beat and positive. I can't tell you all how much it means to not have to worry about him!!
Once I finish my posting in here, I'm gonna have to knuckle down and really work on music the rest of today and tomorrow morning. I have one piece that has to be transposed into a key the singers can manage, and I have to get a whole slew of page protectors so that I can put together all my music for the program in a coherent fashion. Then I gotta start practicing. On the other hand, I'm starting to itch to order myself a cross-strung harp (the one I want is currently on back-order.) If I had a Bucket List for myself, learning harp would be near the top, as it is the one instrument I have always wanted to learn to play. I'm almost in the position to buy one now, and the need to wait a bit is getting wearing. We'll just have to see how much longer I can hold out.
Finished another chapter of IDD this week and have it up at the Lizard Council for comment & concrit, and am slowly working through the next one. I have a side tale that I'm hoping to get finished in time to compete in this next month's ALEC voting too. My Muse keeps throwing ideas at me, and I keep ignoring her and pointing at IDD - and Changeling and Strange Melodies and Not Quite As Expected and a few others - and telling her "we gotta finish those first!!" No more new stuff until all (or most) of the WIPs on my hard drive have been finished, damn it!!
The only thing other than the LOTR WIPs that I'll let her work on is my O-fic novel that needs the massive re-write. I look at it at least once a week, and sometimes I manage between 300-500 words on it. Eventually, that will add up... At least, that's what I tell myself...
Hope you all have had a good week. Until next time...
