Skittish Creatures

Today, it’s the little things: chimney repair, laundry, copyedits, serial chapter revisions. I am only responsible for the last three; the first is (thankfully) contracted out. We’ll see how successful I am working with the dogs going crazy from PEOPLE ON THE ROOF! DOING THINGS! NOISY THINGS! When it’s over, we’ll have a practically new chimney. Considering that I haven’t lit a fire since I bought this place, this might not be as awesome as it sounds. The awesomeness will all come from the damn thing not leaking.

Of course, the long to-do list going to be made a smidgen more difficult by the fact that my head is full of snot and cottonwool, and I ache all over. I was coughing all yesterday, but that seems to have faded. All of that means no running this morning, which fills me with the sort of antsy dread Miss B shares when she’s not exercised enough. Skittish creatures are we, my Miss B and me. I also missed attending the opera yesterday. It was a comic opera, which really isn’t my thing, so I don’t feel too bad about it.

I will tell you who is NOT skittish: Odd Trundles. He is snoring in his accustomed place half-under the table holding the cavy cage, blissfully unaware of any impending change to his serene surroundings. All the schnorgling he did over breakfast and at my ankles while I absorbed morning coffee must have worn him out.

It is gray and cold, and I just had to put the shields over the outside faucets. Winter has truly arrived. Whatever trees aren’t bare are getting there, which makes it, oddly, a little brighter on a daily basis, since the leaves aren’t soaking up what manages to get through the cloud cover. I find myself in a state of low-grade irritation with everything, which probably is not the best state to approach CEs in, but oh well.

*buckles helmet on* Pip pip cheerio, into the breach, devil take the hindmost, and all that. Monday, here I come.

photo by:


Jonathan Kos-Read