Tues. Sept. 30, 2025: Papers Piling Up

image courtesy of Anja Heidsiek via pixabay.com

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Waxing Moon

Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus Retrograde

Misty and mild start, supposed to get sunny later

And September is a wrap today! Wow! Can’t believe it. It’s been awfully warm and humid for autumn here. More like late August than early September. It nearly hit 80 a couple of times over the weekend.

I was out the door fairly early on Friday (once I returned with the laundry) because of all the errands. It’s a good thing I gave myself extra time, because every cashier in every store was very chatty. Which is fine. I can take five minutes to listen.

The grocery store was the first big event, and I was sorting out what I needed for meal planning, a few things for the reading, what I needed to cook ahead for my mom while I was gone. I’m picking up the last few things, that I need for my early morning breakfasts, tomorrow morning. Along with anything else I forgot!

I was finished at the grocery store before the library was open, so I went in a different direction to run a couple of errands. One was successful. One was not, but that’s okay, because it was one of those “If I can find it, great, if not, it can wait” so it will wait. By the time I was done with that, I could go and do my pickup at the library, and then run a couple of other errands, most of which are tied to the residency or the reading. And swung by the bank to get the small bills for the cashbox for the reading, etc. Something else I was worried about turned out very positively, which was a huge relief, and hopefully opens a less stressful road for me in the coming months. I was also delighted to see all the promotion the library’s doing for our reading, and that they followed through on putting the reading in the Chamber newsletter (which goes out to 10K people every week).

It was a lot of bags to unload and get up the stairs, and stuff to put away or pack in other bags that have to go to the residency either on Thursday or to the reading on Saturday morning. Most of the morning was gone by then.

After lunch, I folded and put away laundry. It had brightened up, from the sprinkles earlier in the day, and we enjoyed the last day of the light through the white lace curtains until next spring!

I got the book price sheets and the cashier sheets set up for the reading, and got the last bit of information I needed to finish the program and send it out for proofing. Hopefully, it won’t font wonk on their end. I had a terrible time with it, even when I re-keyed. I really am going to have to rebuild my font library from scratch, but I don’t dare until after this ghostwriting assignment is done. The warranty, I think, only covers hardware, not software. I have to check.

I rebooted the system, and, for the third time that day, reset the default font to TNR. I wonder if there’s a way to remove Aptos permanently.

I didn’t get enough writing done, but that’s the way it goes. My brain was tired.

I did, however, make a recipe from the Bruno cookbook: roasted acorn squash and parsnip in a honey sauce with sage and walnuts. As much as I disliked peeling the acorn squash, the recipe turned out well.

Read in the evening. Went to bed at the regular time and slept well.

Up early on Saturday, which started misty and mild. Morning routine, decent 15-minute writing session. After breakfast, it was curtain switch-out day, switching the curtains to the spiderweb curtains, except for the kitchen ones, which are black lace for the season, but with a leaf pattern. The porch door, front door, and kitchen aren’t a problem, although I had to wipe down the globes on summer lights when I switched them out for the pumpkin lights with Green Clean, rather than just wiping them down, because of all the construction dust.  The living room windows and my office windows are larger and higher and require more complex climbing, but I got them done. And I switched out the white lace curtain in my bedroom for a sheer teal that makes the room look like an undersea grotto. That, and the rest of the weekly housework took up the morning.

I lounged on the sofa with Charlotte and Bea, finishing Ellen Byron’s SOLID GOLD MURDER, which is a lot of fun. I actually liked it better than the first book in the series.

It was blissfully quiet in the neighborhood and the sun came out. Even with the spiderweb curtains up, the light was good, and it was nice just to be.

But I got my act together to get some work done.

I had a solid session on the ghostwriting, even though I didn’t get done as much as I hoped. I had hopes of doing more at night, but I was too tired.

I slept well, though, in my undersea grotto, until 6:30, much to the cats’ dismay. Morning routine, another round of proofing on the reading program, some final emails to make sure I’ve gotten everyone’s books/prices, and did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can find here.

The laundromat overcharged me, so I had to try to get that sorted out. They already “round up” when I do a single load of laundry, instead of charging me the actual price. This time, they didn’t remove the “hold” charge they put on first until they adjust it for actual usage. They charged me both. I wouldn’t even use the card if the coin machine actually worked anymore. So they force us to use the card, and then charge whatever they want. Skeezy.

I dug in and finished the anthology story, and finally came up with the title “Gorgeous Mess” for it. I let it sit for a few hours, then did a revision on it. Hopefully it strikes the right balance between comic, noir, and mystery.

It was hard to get up the energy to dive back into the ghostwriting. I wanted to take a nap in my sea grotto, especially after two rounds on the short story. I got out a script submission, and found some submission calls which open October 1. There’s one that seems like a perfect fit for a story I wrote a few months ago that I figured would be difficult to place. Fingers crossed. Found another unusual market for a story I think might work there, so got that out, too. Tried to submit my notes for the literary committee, but only one of the forms was accessible. I had to request permission for the other five. They came through, and I got in all the notes.

Four mass shootings in 24 hours in the US, and instead of doing something about it, there are fake “federal agents” with machine guns sashaying down streets terrorizing residents. And more shootings yesterday. Congress can stop this any time it wants. Yet they won’t, because they think they can fundraise off it. Too many Democrats are not meeting the moment.

Finally got started on the ghostwriting. Didn’t get anywhere near enough done. Was wiped out.

Slept very well in my teal grotto. In fact, I slept straight through the night, until the cats prodded me awake, which I hardly ever do. Hmm, maybe a darker room really is more conducive to sleep. Who knew? (Yes, I’m being sarcastic).

Morning routine, excellent 15-minute writing session, doing some planning work for a story due Nov. 1 and a story due Dec. 30. I did a polish pass on the anthology story. Good thing, too, because it needed some attention. There were missing words. I don’t think the computer is saving properly even when I save regularly.

Had to deal with some business that needed to be done in-person. One of the landlord’s maintenance guys was a total misogynistic asshole as I was on the way to the car. His guys are usually pretty great, so this youngish white dude is an anomaly. He started whining about “telling” like a fifth-grade tattler. “Telling” what? He was in the wrong AND was a misogynist asshole to a tenant. Jackass. I decided to kill off a character inspired by him by rolling over him with a bulldozer driven by a skeletal entity. Because we are, after all, in spooky season.

A psychiatrist I met at a mystery writers’ conference said mystery writers were often among the healthiest, mentally, of the people they dealt with. Instead of letting frustrations fester like pus-filled wounds, they created characters that faced consequences, and could move on with their actual lives.

I have noticed, since January 22 of this year, the white dudes are getting more and more openly misogynistic and bullying. Like we don’t all know why.

First errand was smooth as could be. I believe I made the right choice to start doing business with them. Then I had to pick up a prescription for my mom, and run the second errand, which shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place (unnecessary banking chaos). Got it sorted, came home, discovered it wasn’t sorted, had to go back, now it seems to be. It was all very pleasant, but it shouldn’t have happened, and only did because it is a less than stellar place with which to do business. Unfortunately, I am locked in with them for the next stretch.

CVS now makes you enter all your own information in the computer to pick up the prescription and then someone might deign to bring you the prescription before the store closes. In other words, they have the customers do the work, and the wait time is even longer. On top of that, you “sign” with your finger – right, I’m gonna touch a screen with a lot of germy fingerprints during a COVID surge. Of course, they took away the hand sanitizer that used to be on all the counters.  As usual, CVS has no interest in “healthcare.”

Why yes, I already started carrying hand sanitizer in my purse again. I started doing this a few weeks ago, when both vaccine access and hand sanitizers in stores began disappearing.

Big Y is having Vax Week, which is great, only it’s a week I can’t take myself or my mom. She got it there last year, I think? They gave her Moderna, and it wasn’t as bad as the first time she got Moderna, but still worse than Pfizer. I will try to get her in somewhere with Pfizer after I’m done with jury duty, and then schedule myself for November. Maybe the Friday before Veteran’s Day, so I have a long weekend to be miserable.

Home, never got the link for the online writing session (aka the first ZOOM of the day), so just dug in on my own. I’ll get in touch with the head of the group after the residency. I’d gotten a really nice email from her just a few days ago, so it’s just one of those things. I did a final pass on the anthology story and got it out the door. Only a day early, but I’ll take every small victory.

I’m really happy with the story, happier than I’ve been with one of my short stories in a long, long time. The world of the piece is very vivid, and I think I may set more there in the future.

It’s comic almost-noir, so well in my wheelhouse. The anthology is from a publisher I haven’t worked with before, and the call was pretty open as far as styles, although they said they were leaning toward noir and comic noir.

Every submission is 50-50. Either they want it, or they don’t.

My next deadline is for a 1-2K comic noir that has to go out the door exactly on Nov. 1.

Pollinator is still sending me “do this, do that” emails, even though I quit the program. Fine. There will just be a blank space each week where I’m supposed to be. The lack of respect for the people involved bothers me, along with the lack of organization.

Dug into the ghostwriting. Didn’t make as much progress as I hoped (which means I am now behind), but the work I did was solid. I have to rip apart a lot and rebuild it, and I’m doing so with 4 fewer working days than I usually have. So it’s a lot. My brain isn’t getting the percolation time it needs for this.

I think I’ve finally cracked the tyburn poem. I had to throw out all my words and use all new words, but the theme is the same.

Cooked my mom’s favorite sausage pasta for dinner. She has plenty of leftovers she just needs to heat up while I’m gone, and can choose what she wants to eat. I bet, most nights, she will treat herself to a hot dog instead. Hey, at nearly 101, she can have a hot dog now and then.

The next ZOOM was our FutureLabs meeting, which was great. We talked scheduling and protocols and possible collaborations, which was fun. I’m going to enjoy being a part of this, with my fellow artists. I will learn a lot, since the work I will be doing will stretch my wheelhouse. I hope I’ll get a chance to do some gelli prints, finally!

I have a lot of notes from the meeting, and will need to do follow-up over the next couple of weeks. I definitely have to manage to get to the opening on Friday night, even though it’s the night before our poetry reading. And I talked about our reading, so hopefully, some of them can come. I also told the cohorts about the reading, and I’m doing some personal emails today and tomorrow about it.

I had a short break, and then it was back on ZOOM for my friend and fellow Boiler House Poet’s reading as part of the Inflectionist Reading Series. Several of the Boiler House poets popped into the virtual reading, which was fun. It was a really interesting group of poets, each approaching their work in beautiful ways. I’m so glad I got to attend.

It was difficult to settle down after, and it took me a while to get to sleep. I couldn’t face the laundromat this morning, so I’m pushing it off, and may wait until I get back from the residency. If I get enough done so I can go tomorrow or Thursday morning, before I leave for the residency, I will, but otherwise, it can wait. Nothing in the laundry pile is vital for the coming week.

Today is all about the ghostwriting. I haven’t been using my sleeves lately, and my wrists hurt a lot, so I will put them on today. I have to remember to pack them in my computer bag, too. This evening, I have a ZOOM meeting with WAM to discuss this recent batch of plays.

I have to take a home COVID test today, and send the result to the studios. Even when I know I’m fine, I always get anxious. But I’m glad they’re still requiring the test.

That’s the latest on a personal front. There’s plenty to say on the national/world fronts, but I’m not saying it today.

Have a good one!