Fri. Dec. 27, 2024: When Things Don’t Add Up

image courtesy of  Dennis Clarisse via pixabay.com

Friday, December 27, 2024

Waning Moon

Chiron, Uranus, Jupiter, Mars Retrograde

Cloudy and very cold

2nd Day of Christmas means last night’s dreams are about February

2nd Day of Kwanzaa – self-determination

4th night of Hanukkah

How’s your week going? Are you getting some rest? It’s still very cold here, although it’s supposed to warm up over the weekend.

Yesterday morning, I spent time on the contest judging (the one I’m mad at). The first shipment of books for the other contest (the one I enjoy & have been doing for a decade) is set to arrive today, so that will need to be sorted.

Negative COVID test, thank goodness, but isn’t that a wrought 15 minutes each time? I’ll test again tomorrow. And yes, will mask with one of the new KN95 masks when I go out on errands later. No fever, my voice is coming back, a little bit of a runny nose, but that’s it.

Doing a lot of pondering about how I want to navigate the coming year, where I want to put my energy, where I want to withdraw it.

Finished the Harriman biography. The biographer was a little bit of breathless fangirl at times, but it was still interesting. Frustrating, but interesting. I wish Harriman’d still been alive and working the power lines to keep IT out. She loathed IT, knowing exactly what IT was/is. And loathed Reagan.

Read a book that was in my stocking, by a fairly prolific author I hadn’t read before, and won’t read again. The protagonist is prissy and overly goody and self-righteous. While she doesn’t demean other women in the book by using “witch” as a slur, her boyfriend does. Off the list. I’ll put the book in a Little Free Library somewhere and someone else can have it. Once the car is fixed.

So, the car. The light for the coolant at the top of the dash comes on red, which is supposed to indicate overheating. How can that be, when the car hasn’t been used in days and it’s subzero? The actual gauge shows the temperature at the bottom of the gage, which means it’s too cold (and should be, then yellow, not red). There’s no sign of a leak under the car, either a puddle or a frozen over puddle. The hood was frozen shut, so I’m going to have to wait until it warms up to poke under it. I’m hoping when it’s a little warmer, it just solves itself, but I doubt I’ll be that lucky.

One step at a time.

I took a nap in the afternoon because I could. But then, of course, I had trouble getting to sleep last night.

I have one tiny coverage to turn around today, and then more contest judging. I’m hoping I can finish one of the four categories today, and be close to finishing a second.

Pat M., thanks for posting about that submission call in yesterday’s comments! I pitched the song “I’m a Stranger Here Myself” from ONE TOUCH OF VENUS, and got the go-ahead to submit. It’s not a guarantee it’ll make it into the anthology – in other words, I’m writing on spec, which I try not to do too often – but it mixes Broadway and crime fiction and musicals all together, and I Have An Idea for the piece. I’m going to let it percolate over the weekend, and get started on it early next week. It has to be submitted between mid-January and mid-March, so I’m okay, time-wise. For the moment.

I’ll listen through the entire score over the weekend. Since I want to set the story over the backdrop of a revival of the musical, that will get me oriented.

Also on today’s agenda: since the weekend is supposed to be awful, weather-wise, I have to get everything done today. I’ll dig out the rolly cart. First stop is the library; I have about 10 books to return, and 8 to pick up. Then, I’ll continue a few blocks to the grocery store and get in a few things for the weekend, and head home. It’ll be a bit of a hike, but do-able. It’s easier to do one big sweep that trot back and forth. The rolly cart is from the 1960’s, so it’s nice and sturdy.

No idea what I dreamt last night, so hopefully February will be quiet, too.

It was hard to get out of those cozy fleece sheets, although the scent of coffee is a powerful motivator. It does, however, tempt me to take to my bed like a Victorian heroine for the weekend, just because I can.

Bea is so cute. I’m so glad she’s with us, and I think she’s happy to have a home. She likes to hang out near me, which is good. Her big thing is that, first thing in the morning, she wants to cuddle with Tessa BEFORE breakfast, whereas Tessa is stern about breakfast first. I’m letting them work it out. Tessa likes having her around. Charlotte changes her mind 50 times a day, but overall, is pretty good. Once the tree is down and things are cleared away, we’ll start working on having Willa get along better.