Thurs. May 11, 2023: Keeping On Keeping On

image courtesy of Engin Akyurt via pixabay.com

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Waning Moon

Mercury and Pluto Retrograde

You can read the latest garden shenanigans here, on Gratitude and Growth.

As of today, this country declares the COVID pandemic over, which is ridiculous, untrue, and will cost more lives. The only reason is to force workers back into unsafe situations and allow insurance companies to charge more. The CDC and Rochelle Walensky failed us. And now, she’s tiptoeing away and not taking responsibility for selling out the general population to corporations. I was so excited when she was named, and she was a huge (and dangerous) disappointment. May she reap what she has sown.

Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain:

Episode 84: Jae’s Theory

Jae’s belief that Brone is a pawn could have repercussions beyond Legerdemain.

Legerdemain Serial Link

Legerdemain Website

I belong to a virtual book club hosted by my university. More men than women participate in the club (which surprised me). It means that, whenever a book choice is voted on, books by men tend to get priority. I was deeply discouraged in the current choice list for autumn’s read: two books by women, one by a man, and he’s leading the votes. He is the most well-known author, but still. . .I’m going to read the two books by the women on my own. It’s not that I won’t read his book because of his gender; I will, because I’m interested in it. I just notice how the votes skew, month after month.

I did the social media rounds for The Process Muse, and then, later in the day, for ANGEL HUNT.

I’m still having problems with the Pages On Stages website. It doesn’t come up when I put it in the search bar. I can sign in and work on it: I just can’t see it. My webhost sees it just fine. It’s something in my Chrome settings. When I followed directions to clear the caches, WordPress wouldn’t let me sign into anything, claiming I blocked all cookies. I had to go back and change that. I can get in and work on my other sites now, but still not see Pages on Stages. I’m frustrated.

I got a bit of work done on the Legerdemain site. Not enough, but at least something. I have a LOT of work to do on that site, and I’m hoping that I can do some of it next week. I thought I had the history of Legerdemain written and ready to go, but then a throwaway comment in the episode I drafted yesterday needs to be integrated into it, and I need to write up the Enrique Macallen pirate story.

As I mentioned, I drafted an episode of Legerdemain.

Client work in the afternoon; finished earlier than expected (although I got a request for some additional information from one that I will do today).

Finished reading Cherie Priest’s FLIGHT RISK, which was a lot of fun. Need to start the Elizabeth Siddal biography, which has to go back to the library soon. I was percolating an idea for something built around her, but there’s a slew of projects in various pipelines about her right now, so I will sit back and enjoy them instead. (In case you’ve never heard of Elizabeth Siddal, she was a primary muse for the Pre-Raphaelites).

Put up the new string lights on the front porch. They’re very pretty, and it’s nice to sit there as twilight moves into darkness.

Slept through the night, until the cats rousted me out of bed this morning. Most of the poem for July’s event has formed in my brain, and I woke up knowing how it would flow. I scribbled it down in my “Poetry Adventures” notebook. When I get my starting word, I can write a couple of transition lines, and I’ll still be within the time limit, I think. Before I send it off, I’ll read it a few times with a stopwatch, and make any necessary trims. I mean, I’ll work it and rhythm it and hone it more between now and then, but at least I’m not starting from scratch when I get my opening word, and I can weave it in. Writing the poem in 24 hours is a challenge I met last year; this year, I want to prepare better, now that I understand the overall event.

Figures July’s poem would come at me, when I need to work on the poem I’ll read in a week and a half!

I want to draft another episode of Legerdemain today, and I have to get next week’s episodes uploaded and scheduled. I might go back and add something into yesterday’s episode (the one I wrote, not one already scheduled/dropped). I was going to put that exchange into today’s, but maybe it will work better in yesterday’s? Once I work on today’s episode, I’ll know.

Client work this afternoon, but I hope to be done early, and then that’s it for me for the week. I’ll regret it on Monday, but I don’t care for today and tomorrow!

Have to do a grocery run, a liquor store run, mail something to my insurance company by  Certified mail (because they never admit to receiving ANY paperwork unless it’s certified and when they claim they never got it, I send them a copy of the proof of delivery). Meditation this morning. All I want to do is sleep. I’m trying to pace myself a little better to deal with the fatigue. It’s waning moon, so I’ll also take iron supplements again for a few days. If I take them every day, I get sick; if I take them 3^rd/4^th quarter moon, about every other day, I’m usually okay. As the spring vegetables come out, I’ll round out my diet with more spinach and kale, and will start feeling better again. I haven’t watched what I eat as carefully as usual in the transition to spring, and my diet has been less healthy.

The pollen just wafts past the window in clouds. I’m making eyewashes with chamomile, and setting aside time every afternoon to lie down on the acupressure mat with a chamomile compress over my eyes. I’ll probably start using the air purifier again, too.

At some point this weekend, I’ll climb up onto whatever lets me reach it, and clean the tops of the ceiling fans. We’ll be using those soon, and I want to make sure they aren’t just stirring up more pollen and dust. Hopefully, by Sunday, it’ll be warm enough to take out some plants and set down the rugs out back.

The FALL FOREVER edits are percolating in my brain. The Heist Romance script wants attention, and CAST IRON MURDER reminds me that there are still revisions to do there. Plus the upcoming poem and the flash fiction. By next week, I have to get back on track with the next Twinkle Tavern short, “Labor Intensive.” I had a pithy name for the third one, built around President’s Day, but I didn’t write it in the file. I think it’s in my journal, so I’ll have to go back through that book and find it. And there are some other short pieces that I worked on back in February that are almost ready to go out into the world.

Plenty to keep me busy.

Have a good one!

Tues. May 9, 2023: Table Read (and Other Creative Work)

image courtesy of Mediamodifier via pixabay.com

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Waning Moon

Mercury and Pluto Retrograde

Partly cloudy and pleasant

Ready for our regular Tuesday catch-up?

We have another week of Mercury Retrograde: hang in there.

Today’s serial episode is from Legerdemain:

Episode 83: A Chat with Jae

Shelley needs answers about Jae’s interactions with Brother Sangus and with Brone.

Legerdemain Serial

Legerdemain Website

Friday was a little chaotic (even beyond things like a lunar eclipse with a full moon and two retrogrades). I didn’t feel great, but there was a lot to do.

I wrote an episode of Legerdemain. Poor Fletcher’s been sidelined for a good bit of this arc, and I need to get him more involved.

I headed for the grocery store. There are some new recipes I want to try (I’m getting excited about cooking again, now that we’re getting into market season). The “experts” say that a grocery list saves money. I always find I buy MORE and spend more with a list. When I go in and see what’s special and make up the meal planning on the fly, I spend less.

I got my cast list for the table read, assigned the roles, and sent off the assignments and the script to the cast. Now, the nerves set in.

I felt like I was running a fever. Tested for the plague, and it was negative, thankfully. But I felt terrible. Which meant no First Friday for me.

For the Kentucky Derby, Tapit Trice was my horse of choice, across the board. I wanted to keep an eye on Mage and Reincarnation, although I figured they’d blossom later in the season. I liked Mage a bit more (even though his odds were longer here). I haven’t really followed this year’s field, and I’m more and more uncomfortable with various aspects of racing. 7 horses dead at Churchill in a week is unacceptable. Every horse death needs more weight, but what’s been going on there lately it out of control.

Oh, by the way? Mage won. At 15-1. It was his day and his race, and he brought it. Good for him.

I felt like crap pretty much all day Saturday. Since I had blocked it off to work on contest entries, I at least wasn’t running around. Since I still had a fever off and on (not a high one, but it was there), I also was staying away from others. Just because I’m testing negative for the plague doesn’t mean I don’t have something contagious.

So I stayed in and worked on the contest entries all day. It’s difficult to winnow down the large final category to just a few slots, but that’s the job. There are some solid books that just missed it, because another book had more craft or a stronger voice or tried something fresh with a familiar trope that made it stand out from the massive number of entries this year.

There was a good batch of strong entries, some which missed by a whisker; then a solid  group in the middle that were fine, but didn’t stand out, and then a batch where the writers are finding their voices and learning their craft. Which they learn by writing the books. And when you think how many people yap about writing a book “someday” and how many start and never finish, the fact that all these people DID it should be applauded.

I made pizza from scratch, and it was yummy.

Sunday, I kept going and finished the final category. Made my decisions on winners and finalists; wrote the winning reviews. Entered in the rest of the scoring sheets, and got it all out.

I finished by mid-afternoon and I was exhausted. I still felt like crap, although my fever had gone down. But staying fairly quiet and reading over the weekend, even though it was critical reading, not pleasure reading, was a better choice than running around and/or doing stuff around the house.

I read a book (you’d think I’d be sick of reading by then, but no) that came highly recommended to me in the afternoon. The book was well done and unique, but I disliked all the characters. They were interesting enough to keep me reading, but it’s rare that I so thoroughly dislike ALL the characters in a book.

When I was finished with that book, I switched over to T. Kingfisher’s A WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING, which was a lot of fun.

Went to bed ridiculously early on Sunday, because I was so darn tired. The pollen’s also very high right now, so I’m not having fun with the allergies.

Up early on Monday. Nerves about the reading. Didn’t want to get distracted by anything, so didn’t dare start work on anything.

The table read of FALL FOREVER went really well, as far as the actors and the piece. The Zoom – every 40 minutes it kicked out and we had to sign in again. I let Lily over at DG know; we were first up, so hopefully the glitches we had can be smoothed out for anyone else. Digging into Zoom support (well after the reading), it looks like switching hosts for more than 40-minute sessions means the co-host has to be named BEFORE the meeting starts. In other words, a whole lot of extra admin.

Anyway, I was blessed with a terrific group of actors. It was obvious they’d worked on the script over the weekend, and truly made it a three-dimensional piece. They gave a damn, which makes all the difference. It made me realize how much I miss working regularly with actors. I learned a lot. I can cut a good bit (which is great; the red machete is my friend). A couple of relationships are out of balance, and I want to restructure a dynamic between two of the characters a little. They will still reach the same endpoint, but they can get there better. I want the memorial scene near the end to be more joyful; the lines were a little trite, and I need more of a contrast to keeping the joy of the piece with some of the action happening offstage that three of the characters know about, and are trying to keep from the other four. The radio writing tipped in far too much; too much detail about sound that I don’t need.

I had a suggestion from a good friend about combining two of the characters to raise stakes, and I don’t think I will go that route. That particular character, in the reading, turned out to be a fulcrum, and he’s necessary to be separate from any of the others.

There’s a LOT of work to do on it. I’m tempted to dive in and do another revision immediately, while it’s fresh. If I get the residency in late August, that’s the time that’s blocked off for the major revision.

Once the reading was done, I sent a thank you to the actors. I updated the PageOnStages website and my resume. Because there are pitches and proposals coming up, and this needs to be on it.

Then, I had to switch over and do client work, because, you know, keeping a roof over my head. I did one of the big projects.

I then got the invoice information for the contest entries (another big client project, different client). They’re paying me more this year than in previous years. I mean, I’m happy, I earned it, but I felt weird getting paid for elements that weren’t previously paid. Anyway, I sent off the invoice a little after 4 PM and was paid by 6. That always makes me feel valued.

Dinner was a new recipe that’s okay, but I doubt I’ll make it again. Just not that good, compared to the stuff I’ve learned from Jeremy and Moosewood.

Soup class was fun. I thought it was the last one, but Jeremy’s doing three more to finish us out, before he does the summer cooking camp for kids thing he’s developed. He’s going to be amazing, and those kids are going to have the BEST experience.

Went back and finished another client project. It was a late wrap for me on that, but necessary.

I was both tired and excited from the reading. I need to remind myself that I am aging, and I need more recovery time after things that require a lot of energy and concentration. If I can balance out my schedule properly, I can keep chugging along. If I overbook without enough recovery time, I push too hard and get sick.

Speaking of sick, I’ve been steadily testing negative for the plague. Not sure why I had a fever, but it seems to be gone. It is Allergies R Us around here right now – you can see the pollen float past the windows when sitting on the porch.

An invitation for a proposal to write a commissioned play built around eco-grief/climate change landed on my desk. It’s so intriguing. I put together the proposal and sent it off first thing this morning. I’ve rearranged my writing resume so I lead with stage plays and radio plays, rather than novels. It suits my current focus better. I’ve done missions-specific playwrighting for the National Marine Life Center; let’s hope they like my proposal well enough to make me one of the three playwrights on this project, which would start this year and continue through next year.

It’s 50/50. Either they believe I’m right for the project, or they don’t. If I don’t pitch, I have 0 chance.

There was another call for submissions for short holiday plays. I looked at my Stage Play Tracker and I have. . .nothing? Yeah. None of my plays are built around a holiday. Huh.

Put that in the percolation compost bin, and see what eventually comes out.

I was invited to a screenwriting virtual conference in June. However, I’m not going to participate (or even sign up) if the strike is still going on, and I expect that it will be.

Today’s agenda: Create the episode graphics for this week’s episodes of Legerdemain. Upload and post the promos for Legerdemain and Angel Hunt. Write another episode of Legerdemain.

I have two short-ish client projects in the afternoon. I also have to contact the residency administrator over at MASSMoCA about coordinating the poets’ reading in the autumn.

I should NOT work on the next draft of FALL FOREVER. But I probably will. Or maybe, maybe, since I’m seriously considering taking Friday off from client work again, I will block that day off for work on the project at the Clark Art Institute and on the FALL FOREVER revision.

I also need to start setting up the back balcony, doing some planting, and getting in some painting. On a creative level, I need to work on the piece for Poets in Conversation, which is coming up, and on the flash fiction inspired by an art piece. Both have been percolating in the back of my brain. I want to get some words down, so I can start rearranging them.

Peace, my friends, and have a good one.

Wed. June 8, 2022: Sometimes Saturn (Retrograde) is Positive

image courtesy of Michael Heck via pixabay.com

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Waxing Moon

Pluto & Mercury Retrograde

Rainy and cool

I dreaded yesterday for weeks, particularly since I’ve been suffering from sense memory stress from the move last year at this time. But we needed to make a run to the Cape, and yesterday was the right day to do it.

We were up at 4:30 and out of the house by 5:30. The cats Were Not Amused.

The drive went smoothly until we hit a pocket of traffic at Westboro. Once we got on 495 South, the traffic grew steadily heavier, but it was moving. It wasn’t even too much trouble to get over the Bourne Bridge.

We hit some stores where we hoped to find stuff we haven’t yet sourced up here. Weren’t very successful, although I grabbed a couple of jars of beach plum jam (which I love and one can’t get here, because, you know beach plums need the beach). I grabbed a few other things, too, because they were there and at a good price, including a small, tiled plant stand. Also found the perfect fabric in cotton canvas to recover the kitchen chairs, in a cheerful, vintage-y print. The store had VICTORIA magazine in stock, which I haven’t been able to find in print here, so that was a bonus.

We drove past the old house and it looks. . .the same? Sheer pink curtains, the lilac tree is still there, the lawn isn’t mowed and fake greened the way the other lawns on the street are. Hopefully, Che Guevara Chipmunk has been able to re-establish his home there. And I hope the people who bought it are happy there.

Tried to drive past the beach, but they were having an event and the roads were blocked off. So we headed to the storage unit, about an hour and a half later than I’d hoped. The unit was kind of overwhelming. We didn’t find everything we hoped to dig out, but I didn’t want to overstuff the car, either. We got what we could, and headed out, again, over the Bourne Bridge, into the heavy traffic.

But we made it past Worcester just before 2:30 (if you don’t get past Worcester by 2:30, in either direction, you get caught up in the Boston spillover traffic). A little beyond Worcester, we stopped at a rest area to eat the picnic lunch I’d packed, full of farmers’ market goodies, which was a much better choice than getting fast food.

Refreshed, we continued on, and were home a little after 5 PM. Unloaded. Stripped down and decontaminated. Only about 10% of people were masking on Cape, in comparison to 90% here. COVID cases in the state have gone down 20% over the past two weeks, but the tourists will bring more infections. We are still masking.

Had a light snack for dinner, and just crashed on the couch, enjoying VICTORIA magazine. Tessa wouldn’t speak to me. Charlotte complained from a distance, but wouldn’t let me pet her until we settled in to sleep; Willa slept through the whole day and was perfectly happy to join us for supper.

Things are in bloom out there; the lilacs are still out, and the PGM azaleas (those bright red/violet/purply ones) are in full bloom, too. So it was pretty. But the pollen was thick. My blue car was covered in yellow dust. When I showered, as part of the decontamination protocols, I touched my face and realized I had to scrub off a layer of pollen that stuck to the sunscreen.

Fortunately, it’s raining, and one can tell the car is blue again.

I didn’t feel torn apart going back, which is what I expected to feel – not only the sense memory stress, but the full weight of the dream of living on Cape for the rest of my life not being my reality. And I didn’t, which is a good thing. I still have affection for the good memories, and it’s not where I’m supposed to be anymore, at least right now.

And the move is OVER, and we are HERE, which is where we should be right now, in a lovely, light home in a vibrant, artistic community.

So, while the transition last year was tough, and I hope never to move during a Mercury Retrograde again, I am deeply grateful that we’ve landed here. And now I can enjoy the Cape again as a nice place to visit. And maybe build some fresh good memories.

An example of when Saturn Retrograde works positively: a life lesson that doesn’t feel like getting beaten down.

I went to bed ridiculously early and slept until Charlotte and Tessa conspired together to get me up. I’m a little sore from hauling stuff around and spending so much time in the car, but nowhere near how bad I felt last year at this time. Which is part of the healing.

Today, I have writing to do, and three scripts to turn around. I was going to haul over to Carr’s hardware store over by Norad Mill, but I think I’ll wait until tomorrow. I have a list of weird stuff to get there, and I’m sure the clerk will find it highly amusing to help me hunt it all down. They are very nice there.

I also have unpacking and lots of washing to do. Everything comes back sandy because, you know, beaches have sand. And there’s also an oily layer over it, from all the leaf blowers and other machines that vomit oily gases.

It will be a combination of nesting, writing, and script coverage, which is just fine with me.

And feeling better about things, in general.

Tues. May 28, 2013: Getting Ready to Hit the Road

I will miss this over the next few days!

Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Waning Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Sunny and cool

Check out my opinion of Twyla Tharp’s THE CREATIVE HABIT, a book I found helpful.

Also, I’m teaching my Supporting Characters Workshop for RWA from June 10-24. Sign up here. There will be a lot of writing involved! Only $15.

Weekend was busy. I was trying to clear things off for this week’s trip. I mowed, yesterday, the front and No Man’s Land. Didn’t get the terraced back done. I finished the meadow last week — was it Friday? I can’t remember. It’s one long day after awhile. Battled the ants. They are destroying the front yard.

Did my classwork for the Climate Literacy Class for last week and worked ahead and completed this week’s work, so that it’s not hanging over me. Finalized some appointments, moved around some other appointments, printed out a schedule, set up some “if I’m in the neighborhood and can fit it in” type things.

It will be HOT in NY this week — I’m going from having to put the winter quilts back on the bed because it was so cold to running around in 90 degree weather.

Cleared off a review, some library books that needed handling, some pitches and article stuff, and some correspondence. I’d like to finish an article this morning before I leave, but don’t know if that will happen.

The pollen’s been so bad that everything’s covered in a film of yellow. Iris and Violet are miserable, and even I’m having allergy issues. From tree pollen to smog in a matter of hours — gotta love it.

The cats are in a tizzy. They hate the suitcase. They know what it means.

So much of this trip is research for upcoming/ongoing projects, as well as trying to land some new ones. I’m trying to balance what I have to do, what’s expected of me, with what I want to do.

New SD card in the camera — I plan to take A LOT of photos this week.

I’m not going to be gone for long — just a couple of days. I don’t know why it feels like it will be months. The change of location and lifestyle, I guess. I’ve worked so hard in the last few weeks, doing energy alignments with the land. It’s going to be weird to be in a space with layers of frenetic energy.

Off to get things done, and then hit the road.

Devon

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

ASSUMPTION OF RIGHT — 6 days to release from Champagne Books!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Waning Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Pluto Retrograde
Sunny and pleasant

The Bruins are going to the Stanley Cup Final. The irises are starting to bloom. I have a book to finish and articles to write. It’s feeling like home.

I took the whole weekend off from work (except for wrapping up the Millennium Trilogy workshop). I actually had a holiday weekend. It felt good! It’s the first time I’ve done that in years.

Granted, I did a lot around the house. I did about eight loads of laundry, as I continue to unpack boxes. I switched the slipcovers from winter covers to summer ones. I unpacked more kitchen boxes, yarn boxes, etc., and I’m slowly sorting through stuff and figuring out where I want it to live, so I’m not rearranging it fifty times. I’m setting up the boxes for the flannel sheets and other winter stuff, so, as it’s clean, I can pack it and stack it where it needs to go, and I can actually get at it in the fall.

I worked in the garden — a lot. Kept deadheading the rhodies — can’t keep up with them. Finished digging out the vegetable bed (I’m out of buckets again). Put in the vegetables. Now I have my fingers crossed they survive and thrive! Fought the anthills that are all over the front lawn — the owner is going to have to call in a professional. Painted the small bookcase I got for free, and almost finished painting the bookcase that will go in my bedroom (once I’m sure it’s really, REALLY dry).

Did a lot of yoga, did a lot of meditation. Played with the cats.

Picked up the metal plant stand a few towns down the Cape. It was definitely worth the trip. Looks great on the deck. The sellers turned out to be nice; eccentric, but nice. But then, pretty much everyone who lives year-round on the Cape is a bit eccentric, in the right way. Drove to a farm one town over and picked up a sage green velvet-covered ottoman for $10. Violet has claimed it.

Washed the pollen off the patio furniture. If anyone told me I’d have to dust the deck, I’d have thought they were nuts!

Did some party planning.

Sorted out the details for my trip to the Vineyard later this week. It’s been a long time since I was on a boat. I hope I don’t get sea-sick on the ferry. I have those bracelet things just in case.

The traffic is awful. I’m sure it will be like this all summer. You can tell the off-Capers are here, because they drive the expensive cars and treat everyone like crap. Since I’m not in the service industry, I can be rude right back! 😉

Mowed the meadow. The lawn mower and I negotiated a deal. For every 20 minutes or one full bag of grass clippings, whichever comes first, we have a 20 minute cool-down. It seems fair, and, frankly, after 20 minutes, I’m ready for a break. Granted, a new mower shouldn’t be getting that hot in just 20 minutes. But, if during that 20 minutes, I stop the mower for any reason, I have to wait 20 minutes before it will start again. I can live with it for the next couple of years, providing it keeps up its end of the bargain. When I buy a place, I’ll see what kind of mower I need, and then buy a new one of a different brand. Anyway, it took several hours to mow the meadow, but it looks great, and I have many bags of grass clippings to take to the dump. The slope was difficult to negotiate with the mower — it looks like it rolls gently when you stare at it, but it’s quite a different story when you’re mowing it!

Changed all the beds (well, I do every week, but there’s something very satisfying about clean sheets). Vacuumed thoroughly. With the central vac, a quick vacuum of the whole house takes about 90 minutes, and a more diligent one a little over 2 hours, including using the attachments on the windows — which, now that they’re open most of the time, the sills need attention. Pollen everywhere. I give thanks every day that I don’t suffer those types of allergies.

I’ve been using herbs freshly cut from the garden in my cooking. It makes a big difference. It smells good, it tastes good, and there’s a wonderful satisfaction from knowing it came from my own little patch of earth.

Read a lot. I finished CE Murphy’s NEGOTIATOR series. I read THE RED LEATHER DIARY, a fascinating non-fiction book written by a woman who found a diary in the dumpster of her building and tracked down the owner, who lived quite a fabulous life in the NY of the early twentieth century. It’s as much a social history as anything else. Read Jim Butcher’s first Dresden Files book — STORM FRONT. I liked it. There was one section that felt forced to me, but I see why it was necessary for plot purposes. Caught up on magazines that have been stacking up.

I have two weeks off from teaching, so now I can focus on my own writing, get out some proposals, do a few articles, get out some more PR for ASSUMPTION OF RIGHT, get the newsletter out, etc. I sent out several requests for interviews in connection with the book.

Hop on over to Goals, Dreams, and Resolutions to read my May Wrap-Up. I talk about trying to deal with career changes in a positive, rather than a negative way.

I’m excited to dive back into THE SPIRIT REPOSITORY. I’ve discovered that, in order to get the watering and weeding done properly in the garden, I’ll have to get up an hour earlier and do that before my first 1K of the day. However, I use the time as a combination of garden appreciation (be here now and appreciate it) and plotting what I’ll write next.

Carlos the Woodpecker is very busy. I don’t know why I call him Carlos — he seems like a Carlos. I hear him, and say, “Hey, Carlos, watcha doin’?”

He flies to a nearby branch and stares at me for a few minutes, and then gets back to his task. It’s become part of our morning and evening ritual. Woodpeckers are funny.

To the page. I’ve got to get grass clippings & recycling to the dump, pick up some stuff from the store, try to deadhead some more rhodies and yes, mow the front lawn. Dang, that grass grows fast! 😉

Devon