Out & About

May 2022. This is a post from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for more than two years now. I am publishing it without revising, so please excuse its first-draft form.

I’ve been busy! Working, for one. I upped my unemployment work schedule and that means 8–9 hours per day. Which I’m happy to do. Those hours are spread between five things and I can switch them up. Plus, I’m not commuting to get to this work.

My five things:

• Look for a full time copyeditor office manager job (required as part of my unemployment claim. I’m going to see if I qualify for the small business program which will let me focus full time on my copyediting business.
• Keen Eye. I’m viewing this period as a really good opportunity to build up this business and I’m not going to waste it.
• 3SMReviews.com. Publishing reviews and lists, learning about my focus this quarter: beefing up my email list
• Revise the novel I’ve been querying.
• Keep writing the new novel

Last night after work there was happy hour (via Zoom) and then I dropped off a mask for my Aunt. By the time I was done with that it was after seven and I was hungry.

Tonight is Wednesday, which means it’s my movie watching night. I’m looking forward to that. But first! Digging two rows for the potatoes.

May 2022. This is a post from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for more than two years now. I am publishing it without revising, so please excuse its first-draft form.

I looked at my list of things to do for 3SMReviews and for Keen Eye and decided two hours per day each wasn’t going to cut it and I switched to three hours per day. This, plus the hour a day looking for work and the hour each a day working on two different books means I have a long work day.

I’m okay with it, I think? I do better with time being structured, rather than free-form. We shall see what this week brings.

Right now it’s 6:00 and I’m hungry and want to eat. Interestingly, the cats haven’t started bugging me for food.

May 2022. This is a post from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for more than two years now. I am publishing it without revising, so please excuse its first-draft form.

I got bored last night. I didn’t want to watch a movie, because I was going to watch one (and maybe two) on Sunday. I wasn’t in the mood to read. I had already gardened and cooked and watched some TV.

I haven’t been bored in a very long time. It was kind of a nice feeling. Aside from being, well, bored.

But today, I did not watch one or two movies because I sewed face masks instead. The CDC is now recommending people wear face masks when they go grocery shopping, etc. I find a cowel I use for biking when it was cold and called it good, but my mom asked if I would sew her a face mask and sent me some links.

I had material (somewhat) but I didn’t have elastic. But the tutorials my mom sent used hair ties! And I did have hair ties. 10 of them, unused, bought who knows when.

So after writers group, digging another row for potatoes, and cooking, I printed out the pattern and made two face masks. They turned out pretty cool, and I got started on a project I’ve been meaning to do for years: cutting down the dish towels I use for napkins into napkin sizes.

My Aunt Carol wants a face mask too, so I’ll make one for her. My Aunt Pat found some face masks from when Mount Saint Helens exploded, (!) so she’s good. I’ll see if dad and Barb want any. And then I will probably be out of hair ties.

May 2022. This is a post from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for more than two years now. I am publishing it without revising, so please excuse its first-draft form.

But where I also planted the Tree Collards!

I got six hours of work in today. I had to take an hour off to take Sentinel to get his stitches out, and then another hour to pick Matt up from work. So it wasn’t quite the productive day, hours-wise I was hoping. That was disappointing.

On the upside, last fall I ordered Tree Collard cuttings, which are a perennial plant that allows one to harvest collard-like greens on a perpetual basis. As I eat a lot of greens (I bought four bunches of kale during yesterday’s WinCo trip) having a steady supply is an attractive notion.

I had to start them in pots over the winter. I haven’t necessarily been good at doing that before, and I didn’t go and buy fancy potting medium, I just used the same potting soil I use to grow the cats’ wheat grass.

But little by little they seemed to be taking root. And today they have been transplanted to their own holes in the ground!

It looks like I should plan to take some cuttings every autumn just in case my tree collards don’t make it through the winter. But now I feel confident in doing that.