Okay, Okay, Okay. I’ll Post.

Look, it’s been hectic here.

I’ve been talking to heating companies since October. I’m now on my third because people DON’T LISTEN TO ME. I don’t know if it’s because I’m an old woman or because I seem like a pushover but honest to god, if you don’t listen me and don’t get back to me, I will drop your furnace-installing ass. The poor third guy caught the worst of it. “You’ll have to put in the ceiling first.” “No.” “Just a piece of drywall.” “No.” “So about ductwork.” “No ductwork.” “Why?” Evil stare from woman who has been having the damn ductwork argument for two freaking years. He’s supposed to get back to me with an estimate this week, but I may have scared him off. The other two guys came up with $22,000 and $21,000 respectively to heat 1000 square feet. No.

Then there’s the book. Remember that first scene I put up here that everybody hated? It’s gone. I wrote a new one. So much better. It’s gone, too. This week Toni and I looked at everything we’d done in the beginning of the book and said, “No,” and started over. It’s a good thing, but jeez, the e-mails have been flying.

Then there’s firewood because I’ve been heating with my excellent fireplace insert. Bill delivered the wood today about four-thirty. It gets dark at five and tomorrow we’re getting freezing rain. So I stacked about 3/4 cord of firewood before it got dark. I threw a tarp over the rest but I’m not kidding myself. It’s going to get wet. Such is life.

And of course, the house in general. I got all the Christmas stuff hauled upstairs and stashed neatly in the Christmas closet so that’s done, but I’ve still got the back porch to sort out so I can work back here. That room I wanted to use as an office is never going to be warm/cold enough to actually be a room, so it’s now a breezeway to the garage, or it will be as soon as I get good doors put on it to keep the kitchen warm. And I’ve been putting up plastic again over the windows of course. And I’ve got to get the rest of the shelves up so I can get the last of this stuff put away and get to work, plus I have to build my closet shelves, so there’s that.

And the dogs have to go to the vet to get their rabies updated early because the township won’t license a dog whose rabies vaccine is going to run out before November. Which seems odd, but hey. So that’s two afternoons shot because even when Lani was helping me, taking four dogs to the vet is for masochists.

And then in there I did get time to catch up on some TV. Person of Interest: That show got me again. That last episode was a damn fine piece of storytelling and then it ripped my heart out and fed it to the cat. Although evidently there is some shred of hope. I understand the ratings aren’t so good, so call all the Neilson families you know and have them watch PoI because it’s just so damn good. I also tried the new Librarians series because, hey, Christian Kane, but he’s the only good thing in it, so I quit halfway through. Grrrr.

Oh and the bears. They’re hibernating down by the boathouse now, a big pile of black fur. My neighbor says his daughter-in-law is afraid to go out on his deck because the bears come up there, but I told him to tell her they’re sleeping now.

And I am socked into my bed with my essential electric mattress pad (best invention ever for winter), working on the book and crocheting and discussing with the dogs why we do not go down and bark at the bears. “They’re sleeping, they’re bigger than you, and it’s annoying. Stop it.”

So that’s why I haven’t posted. Well, that and I have nothing to say. I’ll try to dig up some of the questionables I never answered and do those. And figure out Cherry Saturdays for the rest of the year. After I stack the rest of the firewood and harass the heating guy and rescue Milton from his proximity to bears and figure out my umpteenth opening to this book, then I will post something worthwhile.

Probably.