Back in Black

Well, I'm very often in black, anyway - even here in the south. I spent most of my teenagerdom in Florida; I have summer goth nailed down to an art.

Not that this has anything to do with the content of this post, really. It's just a lyrical announcement that I'm back online, having taken a break in order to play catch-up on some non-writer-life stuff. Don't get me wrong, plenty of writer-life stuff has been managed, because it never really goes away; but the focus has been elsewhere. Spring cleaning. More work on the yard. (With tomorrow being the last major push of such activity.) Catching up with friends. Basic maintenance on the house.

Speaking of, the basic maintenance has taken a nasty turn.

Long story short, we need a new roof. It's going to happen sometime in another month or so, if I get my way - and because I'd rather look on the bright side than scream at the thought of the expense, well, here goes the bright side breakdown: (1). it'll add value to the house, and (2). it'll look a hell of a lot better than the shit-show we've got now.

Beyond that, I don't feel like going into it. So I won't.
Anyway.

The work won't happen for another few weeks, regardless of how quickly the permissions and paperwork goes through. Why? Because I am a giant ridiculous sucker for animals (like none of you knew that, or something), and we have an adorable purple finch nest under the eaves of the porch. Inside it are four tiny blue eggs with speckles, and according to my observation and research, those eggs should turn into grown-up birds who don't need a nest anymore within another 3 weeks or so.

The roof has waited this long; it can wait that much longer. Besides, I'll soon have company in town, and there's the work on the garage coming up next week.

Well. It all needs to get done, and it will. Everything will be okay, and we'll be very, very glad when it's sorted out.

So. Yes. I do have word metrics to report - decent ones, if not great ones - but I won't do so right this moment. I'll start that up again on Monday, in accordance with my previous vow to quit bothering with such things on weekends. It's been a long, messed-up day. Therefore, I declare that this totally counts as the weekend, or it will - just as soon as I can make myself some supper and a drink.

But let's end on this on a fuzzy note.
And I'll get everything rolling as usual in a couple of days.