Tuesday. 'nother hot one, so say the weatherbeans. The AQI isn't perilous, but it's not pleasant, either.

Second good night of sleep in a row. I could get used to this, though I'm still a bit groggy, which I suppose indicates that the sleep debt has not yet been paid off.

Breakfast was a bialy with the last of the cream cheese and grapes. Second cup of tea to hand. Lunch -- who knows. I have frozen dinners, or I could DoorDash -- can't skip, though. The late adventures have dropped me to slightly below my preferred lower weight limit of 160, so -- no cheating.

My Big Plans for the day are!

1 Get the trash and recycling to the curb
2 Dispatch one's duty to the cats
3 Call for a haircut
4 Work on the WIP

There's needlework, which I missed last week. I'd really like to go this evening. I suppose I'll see what the day has made of itself, after lunch before I make a decision.

All that said! What are your plans for the day?

Today's blog post title brought to you by ee cummings, [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

Firefly and Rookie planning last night's entertainment:

What went before: And that's the Author's Afterword for I Dare written. I'll go through it again tomorrow morning, make whatever changes seem good, and send it in before I get back with the WIP.

The plan for the rest of the evening is to go to bed early, and re-establish my fractured schedule tomorrow. Oh. And do the laundry.

Everybody stay safe; I'll see you tomorrow.

Monday. Ruthlessly bright and already warm. We are under a Heat Advisory, today and tomorrow.

Station air is ON, and all curtains closed.

Breakfast was half a blueberry muffin and plain yogurt. Lunch may be Door Dashed. We'll see.

First load of laundry is drying; second is in the washer.

I actually slept well last night, which isn't something we've seen for a couple of weeks. I could really use a good run of Actual Sleep, as I walk the Tightrope of Exhaustion.

It comes about that I'm going to have produce the habit of having honey in my tea. There are reasons and they are good ones, however, absent an occasional spoon of honey in peppermint tea (which is AWEsome), I drink my tea as my coffee before it -- black. Honey itself is not the problem; Steve left me several three pound bottles of very fine honey from a local apiary (this is aside my baking honey). My problem is that -- it's hard to manipulate a three pound bottle of honey to get a spoonful into a mug, and, also, that honey is -- sticky. And it drips.

I have for the moment decanted a small portion of honey into a well-sealed glass jar, which makes it easier to dispense by the spoonful, but I feel I ought to look about me for a method that might be less drippy. Shopping!

Aside the laundry, and one's duty to the cats, the to-do list includes reading the Author's Afterword, making such corrections as may be needful and sending it along to Baen. I will devote the day after lunch to my poor, long-suffering WIP, and to staying out of the heat.

What are your plans, today?

Today's blog post title comes from Pablo Neruda, one of Steve's favored poets:  "Cat's Dream"

What went before: So, today has been a mismash of working and laying around. I did get some WIP-reading done, and a lot more of lying in bed by turns listening to The Goblin Emperor (which I know so well I'm not stressed about missing things) and dozing. Back is still tender, but not so much as even this morning, so, yanno -- progress progresses.

I'm hoping to be done with the worst of this particular brand of nonsense by tomorrow. fingers crossed

The cats are liking the lying in bed part of the day's structure. I fear they're going to be disappointed when the schedule returns to what I like to call normal.

I may try to get one more shift of WIP-reading in this evening. Or I may just watch the last three episodes of WandaVision.

Everybody stay safe; I'll check in tomorrow.

Saturday. Cool-for-now and sunny. Windows in my office are open.

Woke up early and ill, but hey! At least my back doesn't hurt. Currently sipping ginger ale. Trooper has had his morning gravy-with-meds.

I did watch the last three episodes of WandaVision last night. Pulling the witch out the hat was . . . facile, and honestly, I'm not inclined to follow Agnes any further down her road.

I'm actually amazed that Marvel tried to undertake a story about life-changing grief, and that they managed as well as they did. Even unto that very difficult -- and correct -- ending. And Wanda's love for Vision did not allow her to remember/recreate him wrongly.

One of the things that we as writers do over and over is to use death as a plot device -- the motivating force that triggers the Real Story. And while it's true that the Lost Girl, the Dead Spouse, the Slaughtered Village releases a lot of energy, surely there are other means available?

Going back to Wanda -- I'm interested in the smart girl with the bright red lipstick -- Darcy? -- who seems to be a continuing character. Does anyone know where I might find more of her?

And on that note -- woman does not take her meds on ginger ale alone, so I'd better see what I can cobble together and call breakfast.

I expect it will be another Off-Kilter Day here.

What's the day looking like there?

Rosebush proof of life:

Offline today. Just back from clinic where I was the happy recipient of a steroid shot for my back and a shot of Industrial Strength Tylenol. Hoping to be able to sleep, which I didn't last night.

Everybody take care.

What went before: So, everything except the writing corner is more or less good to go. I have one more bill to pay, and the afterword to write. Afterword may not happen today, but that's OK. I know what I want to say, and by definition, it's not a long piece.

It's in my mind to take tomorrow off, really, and go down to Rockland to the Farnsworth Museum (which for some reason, I thought was open year-round, but it closes for the season at the end of September?). This will get me (1) a ride (2) salt air (3) art (4) if I play my cards right, breakfast or lunch (or both?) out. All of those things are wins and are known Soothers of Frazzled Writers Surnamed Lee Who Reside at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

This will mean I can sit down and start reacquainting myself with the WIP (again) on Wednesday. I do have some minor commitments, but nothing Epic, like, say, driving to Baltimore or proofing a novel, on the calendar until, oh, Albacon, where I have volunteered to be a Zoom panelist, and to do a reading.

I can feel my blood pressure dropping already.

So, that's the plan, insofar &c. Happy Hour is coming up in an hour or so, and that will be tools down for me as well.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. I'll check in tomorrow as can.

Tuesday: So, a nice day was had by ... me, actually. As it happens, I didn't eat out at all -- breakfasted at home so Trooper was sure to get his morning meds, and second breakfast. Then, I had half a quiche in the fridge, so I just took a piece with me for lunch, which turned out to be a GOOD idea because I found a place at a park adjacent to the public dock, which is where Steve and I usually stopped in Rockland, and ate my lunch to a new-to-me view of the harbor, in the sunshine, and I need to get better about remembering to wear a hat. But!

The Farnsworth Museum is a very nice museum spread over three buildings and some storefronts on Main Street. I wandered the museum, then Main Street, bought cookies at the Atlantic Bakery, since I am tragically out of cookies at home (I also need to make my own cookies; it's not like it's hard), and ate my lunch as reported.

Then, I went to Camden and got my passport stamped at Reny's.

It was a day of meeting old friends, the first of which -- I've been listening to the 60s station on Sirius XM, and I hate to tell you how many of those songs I know the words to. Add these to the songs at play from Classics Vinyl and Rewind, and I could probably do Great Things with my brain, if it wasn't stuffed full of song lyrics.

But, anyway -- on the way over to Rockland, I heard a song I haven't thought of for ... ever -- Neil Diamond's "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show," which, yes, I knew all the words, OK? -- and I can't tell you how fond I used to be of the Brother's little sermon, which was produced before people stopped believing that kind of thing.

Inside the museum, met a painting of Marshall Point Light -- and yes, I did embarrass myself by saying aloud, "Marshall Point Light!" -- and then embarrassed myself again by laughing out loud -- there's a full-sized Langlais camel in the museum garden. I had just recently seen a much smaller one at the Langlais Exhibit in Waterville -- and I didn't know they came in sizes!

I also listened, and watched an illustration being painted, to the story about how Glooskap (Klooskap) invented the arrow, and Mount Kineo of the most perfect stone for arrowheads, which all the Abenaki people knew (this last part is true. It's well to question Glooskap closely on these matters.), and watched a demonstration of arrowhead napping. This was a video in the Abenaki Room, and well worth the watching.

So, anyhoots, home again, where I fed Trooper some gooshy food and myself some ice cream from home stores (Gifford's Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip). I debated going to needlework tonight, but I think I'll rest at home, by which I mean check what I've printed out of the WIP and if it is, indeed, the Most Current or if I need to print a new edition to read.

So! How was your day?

Today's blog post title from, what else? Neil Diamond, "Brother Love's Travelin' Salvation Show"

Photos on the day:  The view at lunch; camel, large and small; Marshall Point Light.  Oh, and the morning rose bush.

SNIPPET from I DARE:
"Tell me, if you would," he said, "who is this puissant enemy with which Captain Robertson has beguiled my poor Yxtrang?"

Val Con lifted a brow. "I thought they were yos'Phelium's Yxtrang?"

"One feels a lingering tenderness," Daav told him earnestly. "They are such good children."

What went before: I really need to get over the feeling of personal failure because I can't do what two strong young people could do, or even two elder people who had been Doing Together so long, it all got done, and looked effortless, too.

I'm not going to finish this today. I'm probably not going to finish it this weekend. Which means I won't be able to write on Monday, and I'm really cranky about that. I am so damned tired of the stop-and-start on this book. It seems like I just get going, when I have to stop to do something "more important."

Not to mention that all the other things -- the bed made, the cat fountains swapped out, the dishes washed -- aren't done, too, and it's not because I'm a slacker, despite what I learned at my mother's knee.

Argh, damn, and blast.

OK, I need a Plan.

I'll work on the correx for another hour, then I'll call it a day, make the bed, load the dishwasher, find something to eat and a glass of wine. Tomorrow. I'll get up early tomorrow, and hit the correx again. I'll use my breaks to swap out the cat fountains. Maybe I can get this done tomorrow. (Yes, yes, it's not due til the 12th, but if I finish it now, then I can get back to writing without having to interrupt myself, ref stop-and-start, above.)

And the house still looks like a bomb hit it, which shouldn't be a surprise, because it looked that way, too, when there were two of us working. It's what happens when you work and live in the same space.

deep breath

Another hour, then done for the day.

Everybody stay safe; I'll see you tomorrow.

And then there's the bit where Pat Rin goes in to the portmaster's office, thinking like a punk kid, "So what's she gonna do, pull my license?" Only to find out that flying without a license is A Thing.

Sunday. Taking a break.

I was up early and hitting the pages. Still miles to go.

Breakfast was oatmeal. I got salad makin's for lunch, including tuna, so that's good.

Nothing much else to report. If anybody wants me, I'll be in my office.

What's everybody else doing today?

Cat census:

What went before: So, it turns out there's a Method to First Friday. It's advertised as "from" 5 (or 5:30; advertising is a little squishy on this point) to 7:30. What that means is that, some bands will be starting to set up around 5:00 and the restaurants will be open, so you should go have something to eat, nice glass of wine, and then, eh, 6/6:30ish, you perambulate around downtown, and then, around 7, you wander down to Head of Falls, where the music will be happening. Music starts at 7:30 and goes to 9/9:30.

Obviously, I did not make it that far, which is too bad because the band was the Atlanta Rhythm Section, which wouldn't have been terrible to listen to. There's a beer garden set up at Head of Falls for the concert and a food truck from The Proper Pig. And I kinda didn't want to be one old woman in a crowd of folks some of whom had had too much beer.

I did revisit the Langlais exhibit and took in the Dark Was the Night and Bright Were the Stars exhibit. I stopped by the reception -- yes, there were cookies and also fruits and cheese and crackers.

I meandered around downtown, and I found out that there's a rock store. Yes, a rock store; it's been there about three months, I'm told. I of course bought a rock (yeah, I know, but, hey! It's flourite, which is an amusing rock, in that it flouresces). I also stopped in Old Soul Supply, Oliver and Friends Bookstore, and Holy Cannoli, where I listened to a folk group for a couple of songs before I moved on, hoping for music in the Green Block, but -- not yet. So, I came home, educated and more or less relaxed for having done something different with my afternoon and early evening.

I have about 15 more pages of I Dare to finish proofing -- which I'll do tomorrow.

For now, the cats have had Happy Hour and I'm going to go pour myself a glass out of the Nice Bottle I opened last night to share with Steve.

And that's the First Friday Report.

Intermission: Oooh, nice echo of the prologue: "I won't hurt him."

And my favorite bit in the whole book, though there are so many good bits:

"My lifemate and my oathsworn are blameless. I claim all."

"Ever more terrifying," Val Con returned, lightly, deliberately, in the Low Tongue. "Pray reveal at once the horrific crimes of which they are innocent."

Saturday. Sunny and predicted to a nice-ish day.

Breakfast was toast and cottage cheese and grapes. Lunch will be something easy. I have choices, including a Door Dash account, if it comes down to desperation.

I did not sleep well last night; doubtless the late few days of High Living are catching up with me.

Today's to-do list includes one's duty to the cats, finishing the proofing of I Dare, swapping out cat fountains, and straightening up the house, which has become slightly shell-shocked, doubtless from the High Living referenced above. It's possible that I'll throw it all over and go back to bed, but not really likely.

My Solid Goal is to get back to the WIP -- remember the WIP? -- on Monday, so those things that must occur in service of that goal, including turning in the correx for I Dare, have to happen this weekend.

Arrived in yesterday's mail is news that the Subaru is included in a class action suit referencing failures in the EyeSight Driver Assistance subroutine. The suit appears to focus on the braking protocols, of which I have no complaint. I had hoped that it would be something to address the Concerning Issue of Eyesight turning itself off in downpours where human eyes are basically useless, and the pilot could really use some help staying on the road and not running into the back of a semi. OTOH, I haven't been to the website yet. That's actually pretty far down on the list.

Also, just at a tangent -- and I've made this argument before, so nothing new here -- if you (universal you) break the law, you must pay the penalty for breaking the law. It does not matter who you are, who your dad is, what political affiliation you hold, if you have fifteen houses or live in a cardboard box in an alley. Break the law, pay the price. That's, like, one of the foundations of our society: that money and influence do not alter the functioning of Law. This is why Justice is blind.

So, my second up of tea is gone, and I guess I'd better get to work.

Who's doing something exciting today?

Proofed 80 pages. Fed Trooper. Fed myself. Did one's duty to the cats. Refilled my red pen.

Otherwise, it has been a . . . slightly fraught day, and I will be closed for business tomorrow.

Everybody stay safe.