We're Entering the 21st Century!

You're never going to believe this ....

We're going to get set up with high speed internet at the house.

They better buy winter jackets down below, is all I'm saying.

No, the wonderful optical cable they laid right past our front door is not live. And although we are digital call capable (whatever that means) they can't (won't?) pipe internet through there. In the end, we went with an affordable thingy through our phone company. At least, it's as or more affordable than satellite we've looked into in the past. And yes, satellite is not nearly as awesome or fast as optical cable, but it's going to be a lot faster than anything we have at home at the moment.

I'm sure I'll still hop on down to the library to use the Wifi there. I love the library, and the connection will be faster than it is at home. The big difference will be that I'll be able to post blog entries from home (yay! -- we still haven't figured out what the problem is with the sign-in from home, boo) which means I'll be posting more often. And when I finish a project at home, I won't have to wait until the library is open, or cave and go to my favorite Wifi-enabled pub and eat eat eat for four hours while I get my stuff done.

Once we're live I'll get a wifi router and ... I can hardly contain my excitement ... I won't have to relocate when I'm ready to publish a book or send out an email with a big attachment (or make the attachment so tiny it's useless.) This will modestly increase my productivity, and lower gas and eating-out expenditures. Hard to say whether we'll come out ahead yet, but we'll see.

Crowing

Paperback: 180 pages

Publisher: YMAA Publication Center (June 25, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1594391181

ISBN-13: 978-1594391187

Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:   (37 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,755 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Farewell to Honest Work

Today is my last day at work.  I'm eager to get to work on the house and garden and to have more time to budget on writing and art, but for the past couple of days my coworkers have expressed how much they'll miss me and I do feel a bit sad that I'll be abandoning them to demanding lady, the paint lady, She Who Returns and the many other difficult characters that visit our store.  On the other, other hand they also get the fun of visiting with our regular wonderful customers, and I'll miss that too.  Not enough to stay, mind you ...

Yesterday was fun and today I imagine more hijinks and tomfoolery will occur.  Since I'm being halfway responsible about getting work done, returning from breaks on time and so forth, the assistant supervisor felt compelled to indulge in a little goofiness as a form of secondhand short-timer's disease.  Remember folks, short-timer's disease doesn't just affect you, but all those around you.  Be responsible.  I know I won't.  Er, will, I meant will.  Really.

I've got the early shift and I believe I'm in the lobby, so I'll make the most of my last day by doing the best job I can, reassuring people that I'll be in the store constantly (especially now that I know how to find out which items are the best of the best deals) and generally leaving with an un-bang.  I've threatened to make my last closing announcement memorable, but since I'm not closing today, everyone will be spared, and I get to go home early and enjoy a wee bit more sunshine before the clouds roll in tomorrow (argh, the irony.)  

Farewell to honest work.  I will now return to illusions (art,) lies (storytelling,) and mucking about outdoors in all manners of undress.

Great News

I got a real booster of an email this morning:

Sorry for the impersonal email, but it's much quicker to bcc everyone than to send a bunch of individual emails.

I just wanted you to know that your story is still under serious consideration for an upcoming issue of Flash Fiction Online. I don't want to make anyone too optimistic -- we'll only be able to accept about 25% of the people who are receiving this email -- but I wanted to make sure you knew that we hadn't forgotten about you or lost your story in the mail.

Regards,
Jake Freivald
Editor
Flash Fiction Online

I know I don't have a one in four chance of getting published.  This isn't gambling, after all.  It'll measure up to the other stories, or it won't.  

There's an additional artistic factor.  Many editors end up with conscious or unconscious themes to the stories they choose for a particular issue, even if it's 'I want all these stories to be completely different from each other.'  Every year that I coordinated the writer's workshop for OryCon, I had only one year where I had trouble grouping a story with another (I put the writers into pairs.)  For whatever reason I had one Mech Warrior story and no other robot story or military SF or franchise story, but I did have a pro author with experience in writing for Mech Warrior (what are the odds? heh) and so I made a quirky group with that pro and another pro that had deep experience in short stories.  The other submitting author had a short fantasy that was about the same writing level as the other submitting author in the group.    

The point is that fiction writers and their stories tend to come together in a serendipitous fashion, and serendipity may not be on my side this time.  Still, I'm happy and honored to have made it this far.  Publication with Flash Fiction Online would be a real feather in my cap.  By the way, if you don't read them, do.  I never have enough time to read, which makes Flash Fiction Online particularly wonderful.  

Mr. Freivald didn't have to send out the update, and I hope he didn't get a bunch of emails back (except quick thank yous, although even those might be considered clutter) pestering or abusing him.  You'd be surprised, or maybe you wouldn't, at what people send to editors given the slightest excuse, which they take as some form of provocation.   Anyway, it was very nice of him to take the time.  The email certainly made my day.  Now, on to writing, and tiling, and cleaning, and all that.  I'm sure my work will be particularly flashy today.  

Just in Time

Looks like we found Kat just in time.  She's going into heat.

Part of me is glad that she's not pregnant.  The more I'm around her the more I realize she's pretty young, younger than I first estimated.  Six months, maybe?  It would be really hard on her, although she's getting shinier and healing up fast.  But part of me would have loved to see what she'd have for kittens.  If they had anything near her temperament, they would be truly wonderful pets.

So, the beginning of next month, she'll be spayed and get all her shots and that'll be that.  In the meantime, we have a purring, trilling thing that really wishes Wizard wasn't fixed.  She liked him before.  Now she adores him.  I can understand her enchantment.  He's really a handsome guy.  Such a nice face!

Kiss Me Kate

As you can see in this pic, Katherine is pretty beat up.  The vet thinks there were several events that led up to her condition--abrasions, possibly from being thrown out of or hit by a car, some scratches and possibly a bite from one or more fights.  Despite this she's in good shape.  She's negative for feline leukemia and feline HIV, so she's roaming the house now.

I have yet to meet a cat that's as non-plussed by everything as Katherine.  When Huntress hisses and growls, Katherine ignores her.  She'll walk up to anyone for attention.  She purrs readily.  She's wary of but not afraid of Dakota.  She explores with complete fearlessness.  She's faithful about using a litterbox and loves people.  She's quiet and polite.  I can't imagine that this cat has ever been neglected or abused because of her temperament and the fact that she's reasonably well-fed, but then there are the recent injuries all over her face and the fact that she's not home, wherever home was.  A large scab is peeling off her lip.  She's raw and she was so hungry when we took her in that she went straight for the food, halting in her assault only briefly to lap up water before eating more.  I don't know who didn't want this cat.  I can't imagine her running away from anyone.  She has no interest in going outside, and her curiosity is entirely for her immediate surroundings.  If you close a door on her, she doesn't paw at it or even wait beside it.  She moves on.  In the cat carrier on the way to and from the vet she curled up and took a nap.  

The only thing that's really thrown her off were clippers.  She decided she was not getting her belly shaved under any circumstances, and so she still has all her hair.  Unfortunately that means that we don't know if she's been spayed or not, but the vet is thinking not.  That means there's a chance she's pregnant, of course.  If she's not, she'll be spayed on May 1.  That will give us enough time to find out if the little miss has been running around with the bad boys.  If she is, well, looks like we'll be having kittens around here.  One is already spoken for and we don't even know if she's having any yet.  She's that lovely of a cat.  I've seen more beautiful cats, friendlier cats, cats with more grace and dignity.  Katherine has an amazing something about her.  No, several somethings.  Patience.  Kindness.  Trust--amazing trust.  Peacefulness.  Acceptance.  She has an iron strength at her core and a self-assurance that blows me away.  If she has kittens with even half of her qualities, they'll be truly wonderful pets.

But for her sake I'm hoping she's not pregnant.  We won't force the matter if she is pregnant.  I think it would be traumatic to have an abortion/spay event, plus I have this thing about giving unborn things a chance at life if the circumstances allow for a little joy and comfort, or at least the hope of a good life.  I think she'd be better off without kittens, though.  She's young, we can't tell how young, and she's been through a lot.  She could stand to have some time to heal without the added pressure of a pregnancy.

Katherine has found cat paperwork at the SW Washington Humane Society in case anyone is looking for her.  Unfortunately she has no microchip, so if there's a family missing her desperately out there, that will make it harder to track her down.  We'll call in an ad in the paper tomorrow.  

The Burden

Today we hit a financial milestone.  We've done some major financial shuffling before, but nothing on this scale.  We refinanced and folded some big debts into our mortgage.  It increased our mortgage payment  but removed over three times that a month in credit card and loan payments, not including what extra money I've been dumping in to try to whittle our credit cards down.  We've been down to zero credit card debt before, and it came back with a vengeance.  The challenge now is to make sure that it doesn't return.  

The cards will not be in my wallet anymore, for one thing.  I've used them successfully in the past.  For years I successfully paid credit card bills in full every month.  I used them predominantly for purchases at businesses where checks weren't accepted.  Now that I have a debit card, though, credit cards aren't as important.  I'll still use them for business and travel, but other than that, they can nicely collect dust in the safety deposit box with our passports and other seldom-used, important documents.  There's a possibility we won't use them at all, even when traveling, at which point we'll probably just cut them up.  It all depends on how things will look in the checking account without the constant drain on the disposable part of our income.  It may be possible for us to do the big stuff without having to reach for credit.

I was definitely giddy woman today.  After working with a thin and sometimes deficit budget for household expenses, I'm looking at the possibility of depositing spare $$ from my checking account into a savings account where those $$ can accumulate interest.

I know, blah blah blah money blah blah blah.  But when you've carried the burden for years, the relief is unbelievable.  The whole household was affected, but as the financial drudge I got to face it twice a month, every month.  I'd watch it slowly shrink and then something would inevitably happen and it would hop back up with gymnastic effortlessness.  I couldn't even have the comfort of buyer's remorse.  I knew I couldn't promise myself that I wouldn't overspend again.  The cars and truck had to keep running.  Animals needed their veterinary care.  Kids needed clothes and school supplies.  When we were able to save and plan then we did fun things like buy cameras and computers with cash.  When our savings was hammered and September came around, buying jeans and sweaters with cash was a pipe dream.  We paid for Mojo's adoption with cash.  I paid for his extensive medical care on credit cards.  I paid for my Nova with cash.  I paid for all it's repairs with credit cards.  And so on.

And so it goes.  But now we have a cushion in addition to the lack of credit card debt (I love you refinance genie!)  As that cushion builds, the less likely it is that we'll need to resort to credit cards to pay for large, unexpected or expected but unmanageable expenses.  

This is the way things ought to be.  I know this.  The Richest Man in Babylon and Suze Orman have taught me how things ought to be.  At times I lived very responsibly, but when kids came into the picture I lost my way.  I could make excuses, but really, I stopped looking at finances as closely as I did as an independent woman.  I got out of the habit.  I lost control.  I've had chances to get that control back and I failed.  Hopefully I've learned a lot through my failures and this time I hope for success.  To be fair to myself, before I had a family I had only my own crud to juggle and that was pretty darned easy.  It's a different game with a family.  Although the same rules apply, it's much more complicated.

So here's a toast to those who have gone before me on the road to a credit card debt-free life, and those who shall follow.  Live and learn, learn and live with one less burden.  

Many Happy Returns

Nope, this one isn't about the Barbie lady.  Surprise!

I was in the lobby when a gentleman came in with a large box of sporting goods.  I give him the usual cheery greeting (I was particularly cheery that day, too) and dinged the bell.  Before I could ask him if those were returns, he flashed a badge and told me his name.  "I'm with [our town] police department and I'm here to return some stolen merchandise."

I blink, grinning like a fool.  "Really?"

He smiles back at me.  "Yup."

I page our sporting goods super, and then page him again when he doesn't answer right away.  The manager and asst. manager walk by and the Big Guy mentions that the sporting goods super might be tied up with a customer.  "I think this is something you guys may want to get involved in anyway," I tell them.  "The police department is returning some stolen goods."

Handshakes all around and gushing thanks from everyone.  

The sad part of the story--the thief was a former employee of ours.  He not only got caught with the stuff but a local pawn shop reported suspicious transactions so the guy was charged with trafficking in stolen merchandise, a much bigger owie for him (federal) than just taking the stuff and using it for his own purposes.  He pled guilty and handed over everything that he had stashed to help save himself some time.  

The sporting goods super arrived and we got to explain again.  More handshakes, more big

 smiles.  They went through the box item by item.  Deluxe predator call.  Fish finder sonar.  Gun fittings.  All kinds of stuff, all higher priced items, all smaller than a breadbox and in the original packaging.  Anti-climactically, I guess they just get put back on the shelf but what a great boon for the store.  It added up to hundreds of dollars of loss magically (well, not magically, but due to the diligence and hard work of our local police, yay!) reappearing in our inventory.

I had some household happy returns too.  Yesterday our crocuses exploded.  Deer and bunnies had taken quite a few out or trimmed them so that the flowers looked weird, but most of them are in perfect shape and look gorgeous.  The earliest of our daffodils are ready to pop any day now, if the weather holds, which it isn't supposed to but now that we have crocuses I'm happy just to look outside and see some color and sunshine.  I took the pic early in the morning so everything isn't all golden and the flowers are still closed up.  Notice that the pansies are starting to bloom now too.  The ones at the store are loaded with blooms but having the ones from last year come back and start blooming without the benefits of a greenhouse--that's especially wonderful.  It's even more remarkable when I consider that the slugs normally eat them down to little irretrievable nubbins.  I lost most of the ones in the jester garden and those that lived have no buds, but these three plants in my pagan cheese crock were spared. 

We also had a return of the robin who thinks he's a duck.  He did some proper bird bathing too, but mostly he sat with his belly immersed in the water, soaking.  Goofy bird, but so cute! 

I  tried to get a pic after letting him have some peace and quiet for ten minutes, but when I went outside he flew awkwardly away, dripping.  Welcome back, duck robin!  I imagine this is something that robins do in general, but I'd like to think it's the same one.  This robin duck pic is from March 22, 2006.  

My last return salute is to the sun.  As is often the case in February, we had a couple of weeks worth of sun and warm weather (not consecutive but pretty darned close.)  There's a good chance we'll get a hard frost and lose a lot of fruit buds, but so far so good and I'd rather risk that than not have the sun.  It feels so good to put on a tank top, slather on sunscreen (with that yummy sunscreen smell) and work hard in the garden.  I'll miss it when the rains come.  Sometimes the rain stays with us all the way through June.  Can't begrudge that, though.  Without the rain we wouldn't be green, and the mountains wouldn't be white, and in summer the river would get too low and all would be badness.  So come on in, rain, but if you can spare me a few more days of sun, I won't complain.

Good News at Last

We got a wonderful email this morning.  No cancer in my brother-in-law's bone marrow.  He'll be getting some radiation treatments after all, but not a huge number.  It sounds like they'll have him on a treatment schedule that won't make him horribly sick.  

So I guess I should hold off on getting him that tinsel wig.

Some days you wake up and you're handed a reason to keep smiling, keep laughing, keep loving, and keep appreciating that life is a gift.  Today is one of those days.  I don't always need a reason to feel joy, but it's nice once in a while to discover a new one.