Blog Trek

Preparing for Christmas and the Winter Weather

I awakened this morning to find everything white--frost covering buildings, trees, shrubs and grass while a beautiful white mist blanketed the neighborhood.  It almost looked like snow, and very much reminded me that I'm not in So Cal anymore, Todo (or Taffy, in my case.)

By late morning, the sun was out and I made sure I put on all the vent covers outside, raked Taffy's excavations in the flower beds level and pruned the flowers off some bush growing outside my dining room window that has been attracting flies more than bees--yuk!  I see another project in my future--cutting the whole thing down next spring and replacing it with something that won't make my patio a place I don't want to sit and have lunch on under any circumstances.  By the time I had finished my projects, Taffy had gone behind me and dug another big hole at the side of the house.  I took cinder blocks that were about to be discarded and used them to deter her from returning to the scene of the crime.  What is it with dogs and digging up the flower beds?

My next project involved painting the trim in the spare bedroom.  Things are finally shaping up in there, but everything needs two coats, plus I had to use a sealant on all the trim, which was painted the same baby pink as the walls and still shows through in places this evening.  At this rate, it will take me the better part of 2 months to complete both bedrooms, since I have the same issues in my own bedroom, except it's painted a dingy celery green.

After that, I decided enough time had been devoted to the house and I went out.  Pier One was a welcome sight--all glittery and filled with red, green, silver and gold.  I found a suitable secret santa gift for the office party tomorrow and then headed for the new Sears Outlet, where I managed to do some damage in the exercise equipment and bought my own Christmas gifts--a bicycle and a treadmill at killer prices that made them impossible to pass up.  Since Taffy has become less willing to take long hikes as she ages, I have to find other ways to get my exercise in, particularly with the winter obviously here.

Now I have to complete the Christmas shopping for the family.  The traffic was slow moving and plentiful today, and I know it will only get worse the closer we get to the 25th.  I made a vow to myself that I'm going to start putting gifts away much earlier in 2010, so I don't have to join the mad Christmas shopping rush next year. 

Letting Go, and Knowing When to Do So.

I'm about to find out how much I have or have not missed the cold of a Massachusetts winter.  The high on Sunday is projected to be in the 30's.  One of the lows I saw posted on my homepage for the next week mentioned 18 degrees.  Not quite the minus 18 degrees I saw when I looked at the outdoor thermometer one morning in Worcester, but low enough to make me very glad I took my heavy, ankle-length woolen coat into the cleaners at the end of last week.  I dragged that coat around through all my moves since leaving Boston, only wearing it one Christmas for the annual office bash at the Sportsmen's Club while we were experiencing an abnormally strong cold snap, and on my trip up to New York for New Year's.  However, since the coat was still in excellent condition, is in a style that doesn't date, and kept out most of the elements and didn't fall prey to moths, it arrived with me in Portland and will be put back into use.

Some of my clothes last many years.  Others barely a season.  Sometimes it pays to spend a lot of money on an item, and sometimes it doesn't.  I know there's probably an analogy to life or writing in there somewhere, but I'm not going to look for it.  I'm only going to congratulate myself for not throwing out my winter gear, unpack my Sorel snow boots and sub-zero gloves, and wish I had kept that brand new snow shovel I got rid of when I lost the outdoor storage in Highland Park.

Being a bit of a pack rat pays off.  But you have to know where to draw the line between items that may well come in useful in the future and things that should go to another good home after a rest period in Goodwill.

Maybe that's the writing analogy--knowing when to keep and continue to work on that half-finished story you just found at the back of the filing cabinet, or when to consign it to the shredder. 

When I left Highland Park, I shredded my first novel.  It had resided in the bottom of the closet for years.  I would never want it to see the light of day after I pass from this mortal coil, even should I become a famous writer and my children could use the money.  It wasn't worth the time and energy I would have to spend researching, rewriting and cutting all those needless words.  There were passages and even chapters that were salvageable, but oh, so much more that was not.

I didn't need it as a crutch anymore--I had long passed the stage when I needed to see a completed novel of mine that I could hold in my hands and marvel over--I had two published novels that are easily visible on the internet any time I want to look at them.

I didn't even hesitate as I commanded them to the shredder, except to hope that the sheer amount of pages didn't burn out the motor.

Back in Business

Productivity can mean many things, and I may have tried to touch all of them over the last few weeks. 

I completed INDELIBLE and started submitting it.  I started working again on the sequel, SWIFT JUSTICE, and the third book in the series, MAINE ISSUES. 

I bought paint and started to turn my spare bedroom from a baby pink nightmare into a tastefully decorated guest room.

I continued working my way through a laundry list of "to do's" that had to be completed before the end of the year, and found myself adding to said list more than I took off it.

I even split my home project list into two--priorities and Things That Can Wait Until 2010.

How did life get so complicated?  And how did my dining table disappear under various piles of paperwork that seems only to grow, even as the pile of filing for the dreaded tax season continues to increase in size as it sits on my little desk in one corner of the kitchen?

I feel animosity toward all the imaginary fingers that clutch at my valuable time with their needs, wants and threats ("if you don't do this now, you'll lose the opportunity to complete it before it expires, requires additional funds to bring it up to date, etc., etc.") and long for even an one evening that doesn't involve Working On Something Other Than Writing or even Vegging On The Couch.

I despair of ever being Caught Up.

Whatever that means...

Things are Coming Together

Just when I thought I was going to be perpetually overwhelmed, the stiff uphill climb seems to finally be heading toward level ground.  I finished my monumental task--INDELIBLE's synopsis--and started sending out queries. 

After spending months of frustrated waiting, the management company of the apartment I rented in LA sent me back the funds they had deducted from my deposit to repaint and recarpet, after I had only lived there 11 months, paid them a full month's rent to store my furniture for 11 days until the moving company picked it up, placed area rugs over most of the wall-to-wall carpet and cleaned the place from top to bottom before leaving for Portland.

I took the written test and passed, giving me an Oregon driver's license.  I took my car in for servicing and then over to get it inspected so I could pass emissions and every other requirement for Oregon and mail off the paperwork and check to Ford Motor Credit.  They have to attach a copy of the title and then mail it back to the Oregon DMV.  What a long-drawn out and complicated procedure!  And I thought California requirements were tough...

The breakages have continued without abating--currently, my toaster-oven, only a year old, shorted out.  The shower hose fell apart and the door fell off the mailbox.  This morning, I replaced the old handheld shower and have to say, it's true--it really is a snap, five minute job.  I bought the new mailbox.  Now let's see if I can get the old one off the post it has been sitting on for probably the last 20 years at least, judging by the condition of it.  I had planned to replace it, but it seems my plans become immediate, not future projects.

I wonder if I will ever get the inside of the house repainted while I am replacing everything else in my life instead?

The Roaming and Bad Blogger

I don't know where the summer went.  It was hot--people here told me I brought the So Cal weather with me when the temps hit 105 & 106 degrees.  I abandoned thoughts of painting the inside of the house and opted to hack the undergrowth after I recovered from a broken rib.  I decided I had to get more sleep after I fell and broke said rib at 6:30AM while walking the dog.

I worked on some final items with a coaching client.  I finally worked on my own synopsis for "Indelible" and coughed out a first draft 2 weeks ago.  My online critique group members got to work on it, but one just returned from a month at their vacation home and is now watching the fires burn behind their home.  We are all keeping our fingers crossed that they keep safe and their home does, too.  In the meantime, I have comments from the other critique group member to work on over the Labor Day weekend.

Work has consumed a considerable amount of my time, as home health tends to do.  I am also working out of 2 offices sometimes, which means more driving.  But I remind myself I have health benefits and I am going to take 2 paid vacation days for the first time in about 7 years when my son, Christopher, comes up to visit in the middle of the month.

Rain may thwart my plans to seal the back deck this weekend, but I have plenty of other projects, including that synopsis to whip into shape so it can start making the rounds instead of "Indelible" turning into The Project That Never Gets Finished (not happening in my world.)  I did get the tagline finished, so I'm really almost through with this large project, fifty pages of book 2 and 2 chapters of book 3 also completed in first draft, but no further work taking place on them until "Indelible" sells, either as a stand-alone or as the first book in a series.

I guess after that I will have to get on with revisions on another series I started some time ago and then shelved.  I have plenty of material to work on for quite a while before I actually have to come up with brand new ideas, although like all writers, I could certainly do so.  I might even want to make Portland the back drop, instead of having to jump on a plane to do research yet again.

I have decided I am going to take the rest of the year off as far as travel is concerned.  Visitors will just have to come here.  Taffy and I have hung up our traveling shoes until 2010.  We're enjoying our new house and home too much to roam too far.

Taking a drive up to Mount St. Helens with my son and then possibly taking a weekend up in the Seattle area to visit friends sounds like enough adventure for us right now.

People who know me well will wonder what's come over me, but after 2 moves in 2 years, I need some down time.

The Move is Over

I finally got through with my move.  Despite the market, I managed to get a loan and move into a house, but I had to spend 17 days in a hotel with  the dog to accomplish that, not something I would like to repeat again.  Living and working out of a hotel is no fun, especially since the dog had to go to work with me every day, and due to my limited budget and nightmare dietary restrictions, so did enough baggage to require me making at least 2 trips between the room and the underground parking garage or hauling the valet cart (or whatever the correct term for that is.) 

I ended up eating dinner in bed and then staying there under the covers to watch TV all evening.  I had no desire to call anyone--what do you say?  "Hello.  I'm living in a hotel and driving around all day with the GPS to find my patients?"

However, said GPS has defnitely been invaluable.  I could never have found said patients with any accuracy or in a timely manner if I had been trying to use a Thomas Guide or even Mapquest, since I had no access to a computer during that time, either. 

After closing on the house and moving in, I was confronted by no water the first night, since the elderly couple I purchased from had shut off the water a day earlier than they should have and I had not been told by the City of Portland that although they provided my sewer service, my water came from another source.  My plans to steam clean the carpets went by the wayside, as did my plans to take a shower!  I ended up buying a couple of gallons of water at Safeway along with a couple of cheap pots and boiling water so I could at least wash my face and hands.  My realtor called to offer me a bed and a shower at her home, but I declined, determined to stay in my own house, finally.

Once the furniture arrived, my trial by fire was not yet over.  How is it that looking for the contents of my kitchen I ended up unpacking items like wind chimes, which I needed like a hole in the head, and finally coming across things I desperately needed only after emptying half a dozen boxes filled with the contents of my china cabinet, my nicknacks and my table linens?  I existed with plasticware and the cheap pots from Safeway for the better part of a week before I finally located my silverware, spatulas, frying pans, etc.  I found that "Kitchen" was a very loose term on the labeled boxes sitting in said room.

After 3 weeks, I finally found my shower curtain rings, which I had already replaced in total frustration, and the set of new kitchen knives I had purchased shortly before my move.  They had ended up in the garage, hidden in one of the plastic containers I had packed myself.  How that box ended up out there is anyone's guess.  Apparently it must have been one of the last things off the truck and the movers had decided the garage was as good a place as any to store it. 

Now I have a two day trip pending to Seattle, to attend a course.  The company I work for is sending me up there.  Normally, an out-of-town trip with expenses paid would sound like something I would enjoy, but after everything that has gone on this year, I want to just sit in my house and enjoy it for the rest of 2009.  Ending up back in another hotel (with the dog, again) doesn't sound like a thrill to me.  More dragging bags and the pet taxi around and coping with meals.

Since becoming both gluten and lactose intolerant, eating out is a minefield.  I have to read menus in restaurants very carefully, scan all ingredients in the grocery store and travel with powdered creamer for my coffee at all times.  My worst nightmare is an Italian restaurant, which is filled with wheat & dairy--pasta, pizza dough, cream sauces, butter...  The last time I ended up in one, when a writing group went there for dinner, I had to eat a seafood salad that was considered an appetizer because it was the only thing on the menu that was safe for me.  I watched all the other members of the group enjoying bread, pasta, soups and then dessert.  I went home and ate a bowl of Rice Krispies because my stomach was still growling.

I'm so looking forward to this trip...not.

Everything in its Time, or the Muse that Won't

A synopsis is like a bowl of treacle.  Not something you would ever want to put your foot into, outwardly calm and innocent-looking, but wickedly difficult to shake off.

I churned out 6 pages of "Indelible's" synopsis last week.  The first page came fairly easily, but as the pages progressed, everything went downhill.  I found myself putting in detail after detail as I slogged my way through the chapter by chapter outline looking for necessary plotpoints.  I lost my focus and the essence of the story.

Last Sunday evening, I made it to the Fiction SIG for the first time since last April.  The other members greeted me like the prodigal I was, then we got down to the meat of my work.  Their comments were pretty much the same as my thoughts--back to the drawing board for everything past page 1. 

I had the same false starts with the blurb for "All That Glitters."  I tried to force it out and failed, then after I stopped fighting my muse and relaxed, it came in words and sentences. 

This past week, I started jotting down thoughts that came to me.  It'll all work out, as long as I let things progress in their own time.

The balky muse.  I had to have one.

A New Year and a New Look

I like the changes Vikk has made to Blog Trek.  Now, if I would only translate good intentions into action, but I'm working on the synopsis of "Indelible," I'm down to the last 50 pages of the hard copy 3rd draft and almost ready to launch.  This has been one l-o-n-g marathon, but I gave myself permission to take my time and get it right, even while struggling through my aunt's crisis up in Canada, two foot surgeries and a move that I wasn't anticipating and definitely didn't want to tackle.

Life interrupts, but I refused to go down without a fight, and this project is winding to a fast finish.  I even have a logline:

Sometimes the dead can reach out to the living.

How's that for a teaser?

New additions to Blog Trek

Hey there, it's me, Vikk, the one who rarely posts. If you aren't up to speed with all that's going on with our Heather, then you may not know that she had a new book published in 2008 titled ALL THAT GLITTERS. Take a look at the new ferris wheel widget on the side provided by Amazon and you'll find both of Heather's books listed, as well as mine. If you didn't buy her book last year, click through on the cover and do it now.

Now, I wonder what that woman is up to this year?

A Brick In The Head

Since I'm writing a Thriller series, I thought it more appropos for me to give a brick in the head weekly award than a slap on the head. 

I have been so busy lately, that I have neglected Blog Trek again.  Giving this weekly cyber-award will let me keep on target with all my own deadlines while updating the poor ole blog on a more regular basis.

I have seen some pretty stupid things, lately.  They have given me fodder for thought, and hopefully will to the readers.

My first brick goes to the healthcare worker in the hospital who did not ask a patient if she was lactose intolerant (allergic to milk products) before telling her that eating yogurt on a daily basis would be beneficial to her health.  Perhaps it would to many people, but not to this woman, who endured weeks of gastro-intestinal miseries until I pointed out that yogurt comes from cows. 

She might deserve a half-brick for not knowing the origin of yogurt, but since she also did not know that cottage cheese and sour cream came from our friends the moo-moos, I have to put her in the category of the ignorant.

Since giving her yogurt away, she reported a lot of relief.

Go figure.