Fri. Jan. 17, 2025: Digging In

image courtesy of Mark Miller via pixabay.com

Friday, January 17, 2025

Waning Moon

Uranus, Jupiter, Mars Retrograde

Snowy and cold

And we’re at the end of another week. I am so tempted to sleep through the weekend – and sleep through the next four years (at least), but that is not an option.

I forgot to mention that, on Wednesday afternoon, Charlotte had an anxiety attack. She hasn’t had many since we moved here; she feels much more secure here than in the previous location. But she had one on Wednesday afternoon, so I stopped what I was doing and comforted it her through it. She was fine for the rest of the day, and has been fine since, so I don’t know what set it off.

She was very happy that we had online meditation group yesterday morning!

After breakfast, I did a final polish on the support letter, printed off the needed copies, signed them, and walked them down to the A4A office. On the way home, I restocked on cough drops.

Just before I left for my errands, I put the air purifier on again. I’d bought it during the pandemic, and then have used it here, off and on, when we were affected by wildfire smoke. Just to try, I put it on.

I mostly stopped coughing.

So it’s environmental, not an illness, probably coming through the heating ducts. Good to know, and no wonder why the cough medicine made me feel so awful.

Sent out a pitch package for a script writing job that sounds like it would be kind of fun and a bit of a stretch.

Adapted a bunch of serial episodes into four more chapters for ANGEL HUNT.

Saddened to hear of the deaths of David Lynch and Dame Joan Plowright. Each had a very different impact on my work, and on my working life.

I was getting squiffy because the problematic client hadn’t paid me, but then the payment (small as it was) showed up. Every penny counts. I also got December royalties, which, although not a large payment, is helpful.

Some more coverages came in, at reasonable rates. One is a rush coverage that, for the single script, pays me almost as much as I made the entire last pay period. I started it yesterday evening and will finish it this morning, close to deadline, but still within it.. Four more coverages came in that are due by Sunday. Although I resent having to work through the weekend yet again, the pay is reasonable, and I need the money. I hope coverages keep coming in for the next two weeks, so I finally have a solid paycheck, while I’m juggling these other possibilities.

Worked on the contest entries. Pondered the Nina Bell timeline. The three pieces in the immediate future are all set in 1997. I need to sort out 1998. Something I was going to set in 1998 I may need to push forward to 1999.

Hardly coughed at all the rest of the day, with the air purifier on. Although I went to bed early, I slept well and woke up without coughing. I will put on the purifier again later this morning and run it all day again.

I can’t clean the interior ducts, but I can clean the exterior and Lysol over them regularly. I used to spray Lysol over them every few weeks, but I got lax about it. And I always scrub the exterior as part of the spring and fall cleaning, but maybe I should do it a little early this year.

I’m definitely feeling the impact of the retrogrades (especially Mars and Jupiter) because it feels like I can’t get any of the answers I need to move forward. So I’m trying to set into place alternate plans and possibilities, and I am thwarted there, too.

On today’s agenda: finish the rush coverage and do either 1 or 2 more of the medium coverages in the afternoon; grocery run; adaptation; book review (which I keep putting off, and it’s not a hard one to review). More work on the contest entries.

Over the weekend, I will turn around the remaining coverages (and hope I can grab more for next week). There’s housework to do (because there’s always housework to do). Tomorrow, I will do a library run. Too many books came in to make it viable to go to the library AND the grocery store on foot today. So I will go grocery shopping today and to the library tomorrow. I need to continue the pace on the adaptation work in order to meet my deadline. I need to work on the anthology story and on my class preparation. I would like to work on a poem on Sunday.

Monday is Martin Luther King Day, and I will be honoring him. I will not watch the Other Thing that is happening that day. I’m trying to keep Sundays as my offline day, and this week, except for writing, I plan to block off Monday as that, too.

I hope you have a good weekend, and let’s batten down the hatches and show up as we need to for what’s coming.

Have a good one.