An Enlightening Evening

Just spent nearly three hours working on The End of Winter! Go figure. Started from the beginning and started reading and correcting. I've decided I actually hate most of my stories. They just suck all around. But its ok. Life's too short to bother worrying about it. 

I'm just shy of halfway with the first read through. I've been cutting, correcting POV since I seemed to have flip-flopped all the way. LOL. Most of it is utterly boring but there is a little story in there. This is one of two NaNo's which have a full arc. I know beginning, middle, and end. So, I'll do the read through, patch up the holes, fill in the gaps, and let go of it. 

I've felt so bad that I'm pretty much resigned to being done with it all. It currently isn't a decision I'm feeling regret over. And that is somehow amusing.

Birds of a Feather

You may think that who your friends are not important. You may even say that you'd never behave the way some of them do. This isn't true. My Mama used to say you are known by the company you keep and I've always found it accurate. 


If you pay close attention to who you hang around and how you act you will begin to notice the way in which you emulate them. Your speech, your mannerism, and even your opinions begin to sync with those in whose company you spend the most time. You may have already had people comment on your being "just like" someone else. It actually will take a conscious choice to not do it but the longer you are around someone, the more it becomes ingrained.


Several years ago I realized I had picked up a couple of habits I found annoying from some people I worked. Well, I was them 5 days a week for 8 hours a day. It was a close working environment. They weren't earth-shaking habits but they were things I didn't like to see in myself. I noticed that my whole attitude was being affected and when I was with certain people, I actually felt worse afterward even though we got along well. I had to start monitoring my own behavior to try and break the bad habits I picked up. Even I was surprised by how much I was being affected.


Choose friends wisely because you will become them. At the least, be the best person you can be so those you meet will become more like you.

Dead and Dying

We got a little rain at the end of the week but nothing since. It is about 5 degrees cooler but that isn't enough to even notice when it is this hot. Walking across a parking log is miserable and even a room at 80 is cool once you get inside.

How bad is it? It doesn't get much worse. Crops are dying. People are dying. And if storms follow this heat wave, they will probably be horrific, probably spawning tornadoes as the cooler fronts slide in. More people will die. At the moment, it is 92 here, the coolest it has been in weeks at noon.

US Record Heat

Ponderings and Perturbances

I've been a bit frustrated, as my title would indicate. At least, I think it does. I haven't been writing blogs for a while now. Not because I don't actually want to but I simply haven't felt that anything I was thinking or feeling or doing was noteworthy. It is a difficult place to be for someone who wants to write. I've done a bit of writing on a couple of stories but it amounts to almost nothing. 

The truth is that I've been completely exhausted for weeks now. I have slept just fine, well, at least, as well as I ever do. In fact, some nights I slept so hard that it was hard to get up. I felt like I'd just been several rounds with Morpheus and he was winning. 

Pain is really the only thing that gets me out of bed. Anyone know the Greek name for pain? Oh, here it is -  Algea was a spirit of pain! One of several daimones (demons) who wreak havoc on the world. I'd love to loll around for an extra hour in that lovely midway land between sleep and waking that seems to ease you into a day. I can't. I am awakened by gouging, wrenching pain either in my lower back, my hip, or my neck. End results is exhaustion piles up.

I've made efforts to keep the house clean. I no longer have Sue to clean for me. She got a full time job, two weeks ago. She needed one as my little housekeeping gig wasn't enough. However, all I can do is a little every night. I've been doing laundry every few nights. With the water conservation, they want only full loads but I'm not waiting a week to do laundry and spend hours putting it away. My machine is one of those water efficient ones so I'm already using less than the average and my bill has gone up steadily as they increase cost. So, I've saved nothing by it.

I am working on putting another story in Scrivener. I've managed to get three in there and now the fourth is nearly done. I'm hoping this will make it easier when I flit from one to the other. I've been reading my old nano's as I put them in. I have a couple that are actually really good. As a few friends mentioned, now I need to write the endings. I have two where I actually know the full ending and have that in notes. So, I'm thinking Simon and his aimless wanderings will have to go on a back burner for now, even though he is the most fun.

I came home from work and did nothing important. I tried some exercises. I've got to find something I can do. I'm gaining weight and that is not good. I found a single push up is impossible. I have no strength in my upper arms and my wrist simply can't handled it weight in that position. My shoulder, the bad one, isn't good with it either. The arthritis is too painful when I try. So, I've got to get something to build strength in my arms that won't hurt my joints. I think I'm going to have to find a gym and do weight training. I'm concerned because my blood sugar is only going to get worse with more weight. I'm going to try and stay off the carbs again and I'm going to cut down on how much I eat. I found a Chrome app called Lose It! that helps track what you eat, calculate the amount of calories you need, and how much you burn in exercise and consume in food. So, its a start. I knew my strength and muscle loss was very bad. It was distressing to realize how bad. I used to do aerobics three times a week and I was able to move all kinds of things. At 40 I could stand on my head! Now, I even have balance issues. That is a just one of the physical symptoms of fibro. It may be that I have to take off pounds before I can actually do much of anything. I know I won't be 40 again but I know people almost twice my age who have far more  strength and energy. 

I'm off now. I think I'm going to bed early. I've got a couple of places I need to go tomorrow and I don't want to be tired when I get up. Stay cool. We got some rain here today for about 20 minutes. {sigh} Not nearly enough. The farmers are going to be bankrupt.

A New Puzzle