Wed. May 10, 2023: Good Trellises Make Good Neighbors

image courtesy of Kerstin Riemer via pixabay.com

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Waning Moon

Mercury and Pluto Retrograde

Sunny and pleasant

It was cold enough, again, for frost on the car overnight, and 33 degrees F when I woke up. It’s supposed to go up to 72 later today.

Over on The Process Muse today, we’re talking about showing up and doing the work. You can read it here.

Today’s serial episode is Angel Hunt.

Episode 31: Battle With the Witch Hunter

Lianna fights the witch hunter with some unexpected weapons.

Angel Hunt serial link.

I was worn out yesterday, from the big client project’s finish and the FALL FOREVER reading done. This girl was tired.

I created the episode graphics for this week’s episodes of Legerdemain and uploaded/scheduled yesterday’s promo. I’m trying something different this month; instead of dropping the episode graphics of the week’s episodes every day, I’m only dropping them on the day they go live. On off days, I will post more general promos for the whole series. We’ll see how that works for the rest of the month.

Twitter’s not driving any traffic to anything anymore (partially because I had to lock my account). But the bulk of WGA info is on there, so I haven’t left completely.

The big morning project yesterday was the proposal for the play commission. So, fingers crossed. It would be a great opportunity.

I did a drop off/pick up at the library. Then I went to the pharmacy and got a last batch of home COVID tests from both my mom’s insurance and my insurance. As of tomorrow, we’re on our own and have to pay for them. Which means people won’t test and will go untreated, and more people will die.

I am highly skeptical that my mom’s illness was “flu” even though she tested positive for it. I think she had a variant. She’s still coughing a little. And exhausted all the time. I may have fought off a variant (hence the fever), and I still have the fatigue (which I figure is the fight combined with exhaustion from pushing on the projects these last weeks). And, of course, now we’re in the season of “is it pollen or is it the plague?” I’m worried that the home tests aren’t picking up the variants, which is why I isolated for several days when I came down with the fever.

Other than being tired, I felt okay yesterday, which is why I ran my errands (although I’m still masking indoors). I got the COVID tests. I swung by a couple of stores looking for some stuff I needed, and they didn’t have it. I mailed some bills. I ordered cat litter.  You know, the basics of keeping a household running.

Ran into the maintenance guy. They’re coming around next week to check on a few things in the apartments and test the smoke detectors, etc. ahead of upcoming insurance inspections. And he’s going to take another look at the dishwasher, and maybe replace the outlet.

We unwrapped the tarp from the bench and bistro chairs on the back balcony and got those set up, along with the bistro table. I teak oiled everything. Hopefully, it’s soaked in overnight and I can add the cushions today. I put out the hanging birdbath. It’s still too cold at night to put out any plants, which means I can’t yet put down the rugs. But slowly, slowly, we’re getting there.

The neighbor whose house back is at right angles to our back balcony (the front is on a cross street) called me over to whine about the bucket truck the landlord keeps parked at the back of the driveway here. I was Very Cordial. Now, anyone who knows me well knows that when I go into Very Cordial mode, it’s best to back away slowly, and, once at a safe distance, turn and run like hell. In my mind, I called her “Aunt Bea” because she reminded me of all the negatives of that character from the ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. I’m the tenant; I’m not going to tell the landlord what to do, when he’s behaving perfectly legally ON HIS OWN PROPERTY. And, frankly, it has no impact on her property. She said she doesn’t want to look at it, and she can see it out of her window. She said she called the city to complain and they told her my landlord followed all protocols and she should mind her own business. I suggested that, instead of cutting down all the foliage at the fence line, she grow clematis and hops and make a natural screen. She was not amused.

Hey, not my problem. Also, more importantly, not my business.

I, however, am likely to get some clematis and/or hops and put it on that side of the balcony to create a foliage screen. Getting large trellises around here is not a problem. It’s the pot-sized ones who are rare.

I planted a few things where the seeds had cooled in the fridge and want some cold still before they come up. Supposedly, last night was the last frosty bit, so I can start planting more stuff.

I need to get some black-eyed Susan vine going, or it won’t come up in time. And it did so well last year.

Tomorrow’s garden post will have more exploration of all of this.

I did client work in the afternoon. Managed to finish it before yoga. I’d home tested two hours before class, as a precaution. Negative, thank goodness. I was pretty sure it would come back negative, since I felt fine, just tired. But I wanted to be sure.

I kind of dragged myself to yoga, not wanting to leave the house, and then I was happy I did it, because I felt so much better. My teacher also recommended a local vet, which is good, because I need to get the cats in to update shots, etc.

Home, dinner, then reading Cherie Priest’s FLIGHT RISK, which is a lot of fun.

Up early this morning. Did not go to the laundromat. I’ll regret that next week, but I’ll deal with it. . .next week.

I have writing to do this morning, client work to do in the afternoon, probably more planting. I am going to take Friday off from client work to focus on the serials, the Poets in Conversation piece, the flash fiction piece, and maybe go to the Clark to work on that project a bit. So I need to dig in a bit earlier in the week.

I may start loading more client work early in the week in order to keep taking Fridays off from client work. The instinct is to keep Mondays free (Mondays were often my dark day from theatre work), but my brain starts shutting off Thursday afternoons, as far as client work goes, so Fridays might be a better choice. I may have to do more those early days (which, with increasing my yoga classes over the summer, might be a challenge, since I don’t like to come home and go back to the desk, but we’ll see how it goes).

Anyway, that’s the latest. Back to the page.

Fri. May 13, 2022: Windows11 Sucks, but Plants are Pretty

image courtesy of planet_fox via pixabay.com

Friday, May 13, 2022

Waxing Moon

Pluto and Mercury Retrograde

Sunny and hot

This is going to be the retrograde of computer malfunctions, I guess. Windows11 is awful. No more autosave – it tries to force you to save to the cloud. I don’t want to save to the cloud, and it should be MY decision. So, when I’m reading on screen and taking notes in a document, I have to save the document any time I switch back to the reading screen, or I lose everything. On top of that, when I opened the computer to start my day, it decided it had to “restart” and then “update” and then, when it asked for my PIN and I put it in, it gave me the gray screen of death. More than once. I shut it down and turned it back on, and it’s glitching.

As usual, Microsoft sucks. Although, from what I hear, Apple has descended to Microsoft’s level of ineptness.

In any case, yesterday was a decent day, although it got hot. I had trouble getting online to the meditation, but got there, and was glad I did. I got some work done in the morning, including slogging through way too much email. I had trouble getting the computer and the printer to talk to each other again after the upgrade, which is frustrating, because I have paperwork that needs to get done. I managed to get the next book for review downloaded, although that was a chore, too.

Once Mercury goes direct, I have to go through my Download file and dump a lot of it. It’s been double downloading things, and taking up space I can better use otherwise.

Headed for the grocery story, which had a special deal on hanging baskets, and we got a couple of lovely baskets of impatiens, one in a dusky pink and one in a bright pink. Headed to another store, where I wound up getting a lovely, soft shirt in organic cotton (on sale – gotta love Mercury Retrograde bargains). Headed back to the other store and got more potting soil, more pots, another patio rug, and three small shelf units that I plan to put together and use in various parts of the house. They’re kind of a dull brown. I will see what they look like put together, and then maybe paint them. Or, at least, stencil them.

The curried chicken salad I made the night before was perfect. We have a great big batch of it to enjoy, and that recipe might be a summer go-to for me. I used the Asian greens in it, almonds, currants, and golden raisins. I’d picked up a ciabatta on our errands, and that went perfectly with it.

After lunch, we set out the new rug on the back balcony – it even matches at the seam to the other rug. Having the two rugs run the length of the space unifies it. We hung the impatiens, and hung and filled the bird bath. We put the cushions on the bench and the bistro chairs. It’s a really nice, shady retreat. When the front porch, with its southern exposure, gets too hot in the afternoons, we can retreat to the back balcony, with its northern exposure.

Charlotte and Willa sat in the kitchen window and watched. I’m sure we will have to take them out sometimes in their playpens. Tessa happily stayed on the front porch.

I turned around a script coverage and cleaned up some other work, then read on the porch. The Ipsy bag arrived with the monthly goodies, and also MOTHER NATURE’S HERBAL by Judy Griffin, which had been recommended by an Instagram pal. It’s a lovely book, and covers a lot of ground. Since most of my herbals are still in storage, this will serve me well, and I look forward to savoring it.

Knowledge Unicorns was good. We’re prepping them for finals, and the kids are ready for summer.

Leftovers for dinner, and read. I was achy and tired, so went to bed pretty early. Had a rough night, though. I kept waking up with stress memory of this time last year, when that landlord was pressuring us to get out and we had no idea where we could go yet. I kept having to calm myself down (yoga and meditation came in handy) and get back to sleep.

Woke up with a scratchy throat and sneezing, but the itchy eyes and open windows tipped me it’s more likely to be pollen than plague. I was woken by screaming cats. At first I thought they were mine, but my trio was sitting in a row at the window (together) watching cats fight outside.

A friend’s card arrived yesterday, which made me happy, and another friend signed up for The World’s Largest Poem, so I hope that means she comes up for the performance!

Today, I have more email to get through, paperwork to take care of and get out the door, and work on The Big Project and the radio plays. I also have a script coverage.

This weekend, I have to turn over the linens and the closet from winter to summer, but I also want to get a lot of work done on The Big Project and work on the anthology story.

I need to get more scripts in my queue for next week, because I was well below my nut this pay period, and it was because there weren’t many scripts. I didn’t mind the break, because it gave me time to really focus on finishing the contest entries, and that paid more than I expected. But I have to look ahead, and I have a couple of big bills coming up in June.

It doesn’t help that I can’t trust the computer to power up properly or work properly, either.

Fingers crossed. Have a great weekend, and I’ll catch you on the other side.