Drunken Owls and Other Delights

We keep on planning to take a walk down at Crissy Field on the weekend, but lately whenever the day rolls around, we end up changing our plans! This time I'd just been doing All The Walking all week long so the last thing I wanted to do was More Walking. So instead we did a Trader Joe's run (I was woefully out of the hummus-and-cracker snacks I love so much) and then walked the few blocks down to Geary to pick up sushi for lunch. 

As it stands, I ended up doing a bunch of errands today anyway! They were much needed, including vacuuming and mopping the floors and starting the laundry. May as well get them done, yeah? That way I can slack off a bit tomorrow. The only thing I have planned then is to weed the front sidewalk gardens we have. Those are little Urban Garden squares where they plant small trees for beautification. We've chosen to own those little plots to grow things like lavender and whatnot. One of those trees is super dead and we eventually plan to pull it out and replace it with the Ginormous Marigold Bush that's taking over a corner of our community garden plot up the street, but that's another project for the near future.

Meanwhile, Theadia continues apace. I've pretty much streamlined a few things that were bothering me, eliminating a character that didn't work out and having an existing character (one I like better) take over their scenes instead. I'll still need to finish off the damn novel once and for all, but the closer I get to it this time, the easier I think it'll be for me to do it. What will I do after that? Who knows? But I'm not going to dwell or worry about it.


Hope everyone has a good week ahead!

While the east coast is getting ready for the snowstorm of the century, it was a surprisingly warm and lovely day here in SF, so A and I took a walk all the way down Cabrillo almost to the ocean. We stopped short by a single block as we were going to catch the bus part of the way back, but we could definitely see that the waves were VERY choppy at Ocean Beach. We stopped for lunch in Balboa Village (a little strip of in the upper Avenues of the Richmond District that includes a theater and many local eateries and shops), though due to an order mix-up and zero seats available we switched to take-out and walked over to GGP to eat.

And that's pretty much it for Sunday! We've been chilling for the most part, doing a tiny bit of cleaning and giving the cats attention. No complaints here, because this is exactly the kind of weekend I love having! Even the windows are open for a bit of fresh air, which also keeps said cats happy when interesting scents flow into the rooms.

Meanwhile, I'm still thinking of my past post about focusing on alternate creative outlets. I still need to finish off Theadia of course, but I think making this decision has also helped alleviate the stress of deadlines as well. I think once it's done and out in the wild I'll take a bit of time off to decide what my next moves are.

Day job drama notwithstanding, this was a surprisingly unstressful weekend for me. I can never tell with my Friday-Saturday schedule, because it can either be slow and uneventful, or it can be ridiculously busy and chaotic, and rarely in between. In this case, both days were the 'in between' which is sometimes just how I like it. It keeps me busy but not exhausted, and the eight hours go by quickly. And of course Sundays are my 'do all the errands' day so after our trip to the farmer's market I've started the laundry, emptied the trash and will most likely do the PC cleaning a little bit later. Oh, and I really should dust this desk, as I keep forgetting to do so!

I've got a thin work schedule this coming week as well, so that gives me a bit of time to continue catching up with the writing, which is a good thing. I am now at the point in Theadia where I need to write the 'WRITE THIS LATER' scenes, and I'm thinking that instead of doing yet another reread and picking up each one as I go, I'll just jump in and write a rough draft for each scene and/or chapter. I can get away with doing this mainly because when I made each 'write this later' note, I added a vaguely detailed paragraph or two of what story beats need to be hit there. I've done that plenty of times in the past and it's worked well, so I'm not too worried. [The step after that of course will be finishing the novel itself, which is going to need some planning and outlining.]

On the personal end of things, I'm glad to say that my limb aches and pains haven't resurfaced as of late, which is always a good thing. For a while I had this weird thing where I'd constantly twist my leg slightly which would pinch some nerves in the process, but that seems to have gone away for the moment -- it's happened maybe once in the last several weeks. I'm thinking starting tomorrow I should restart a stretching regimen, though. It's been a while and I really should get back into the habit. Yay for getting old and frail! Thankfully, though, I'm still quite agile and my occasional walks around the neighborhood to the corner store or wherever keep me moving. 

Hope everyone has a good week ahead!

I'm trying to get into a positive habit of getting off my duff when I'm not working. Most of the time it's me heading out to do some grocery shopping or some such, but I'm thinking I should also add Errand Walking as well. We're only three long blocks from Geary (and we live at the corner of a street that's got an easy incline between here and there), and we're close enough to many places we frequent down that way. So I'm thinking either Monday or Tuesday I'll head down there to buy some ice cream and get an updated passport photo taken. And in the process I'll get my exercise!

Not that I'm not getting a workout at the Day Job, far from it. I must have done at least five miles' worth of steps today (per my Fit app, at least) because I processed FAR too many Home Shopping orders before 11am which had me walking all over the dang store. This is partly why I drive to work now, even though it's only just shy of two miles away now -- while it's an easy gridded-street walk, it's the hills in between that would be too exhausting to handle. And given my schedule of 6am opens, the bus doesn't always run on a frequent schedule that early in the morning. And this has often been why I end up not doing much of anything physical on my days off.

I'd like to change that, however. I don't need to do all the walking all over creation, mind you. Maybe head over to water the garden (now only two blocks away!), or head to the corner store or the coffee shop. Just so I keep from getting too lazy!

It's been a bit of an odd week workwise, as I'm working Wednesday through Saturday and all 5:30 starts at that. I'm not exactly tired though because surprisingly I've been sleeping pretty well lately. Head bookkeeper will return next week, which means I'm back to a somewhat normal schedule again. It was put up this morning, and it looks like I'm doing multiple dairy department shifts. Can't complain there, as it keeps me busy and reasonably unstressed. I'll be working on Thanksgiving, but if I recall from last year it shouldn't be overly busy.

Meanwhile, I am maintaining a good bit of forward motion with the Theadia revision, and I am quite happy about that! All told I think I have maybe three or four 'fill this part in later' scenes to add once I finish everything off, but I think I'm back on track and on schedule again. I haven't decided on a drop date just yet, though I have been thinking about cover commissions for this novel! I'll probably follow through on that in the new year and base the drop date around that.

What else...? I'm doing pretty good physically, partly because I rack up at least 3-4 miles of walking at work (just in the store alone!), but I've been meaning to get more flexibility going on as well. I might want to have a doctor check out my knee joints in the new year, what with age and all, but aside from that I always feel like I'm not nearly as bendy as I should be. Too many years sitting on my duff in front of a PC, I suppose...

Wait, is that blue sky I see outside the window...? It's been a weird wave of good and bleh weather over the last several weeks -- and it's been quite nice when I'm stuck inside at work for hours on end -- so it's a pleasant surprise when the fog and the clouds have dissipated for the moment.

A and I walked to the other end of Clement for the farmer's market, and I think I can safely say that with all the walking I do at work, a simple just-over-a-mile walk up to Arguello and Clement has become a pleasant one rather than an exhausting one. We picked up various tasty fruits and veggies (A wanted some squash for pickling purposes, I wanted some Concord grapes which are finally in season again), and had a very filling lunch of chilaquiles at Taqueria Los Mayas. [We of course took the bus home because we were now carrying many things.]

It's been a very busy month both here in Spare Oom and at the Day Job, but I think I've managed to maintain that balance and get most things done that I'd been wanting to do. I feel that the writing work could use a bit more focus, but I'm not too worried about it considering most of it is revision right now. Still, I'd like to be a bit more serious and consistent about it. Maybe come October...?

Which reminds me, I am going against my better judgement and doing Inktober this year. Whether it'll be on paper or elsewhere, I'm not sure, but we shall see.

 It felt wonderful to sleep in until 8:30am, something I haven't done in ages! Granted, I was up until 11pm last night finishing off Shannon Chakraborty's The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, which I'd realized early on was in fact a 'let's get the gang back together for one last heist' caper film, complete with bonkers action and wait-what plot twists, and just enough humor to make it a super fun ride. This new series is a lot less serious than her Daevabad trilogy, that's for sure, but it you loved that, you'll love this one as well.

Meanwhile, we walked to the park today and spent a little bit of time in the botanical garden, harvested some more of the red lettuce (there's still a ton of it left), then had a late lunch at the Richmond Republic, where I had a 10% APV beer that was super tasty and left me slightly spinny for at least two and a half hours. All in all a lovely day to be outside!

I'll admit I've been allowing myself to relax over the last couple of days, partly because my setting up Queen Ophelia's War for Thursday's drop date went so smoothly and quickly. I've earned it, dang it! I'm not entirely sure how I'll go about promoting this one but I'll give it the old college try, I suppose. That's something I'll be working on in the next six months anyway: figuring out productive ways to attract attention to my novels!

As for the day job, I'm doing a few midshifts this week (one as a register jockey, the other as a front end babysitter) with a midweek day off, which I've come to enjoy. the 1-2-1-3 variation on the day job schedule breaks it up so I'm not going full out for five days.


Hope everyone has a lovely week!

Another nice but somewhat cool Sunday sees us taking a walk to our garden plot to make sure everything looks good after Friday/Saturday's rain, and yes! It not only looks healthy, some of our greens are actually VERY happy to be there! There's already major growth on the red lettuce and two of the tomato plants, and we only had to deadhead maybe one or two flowers that were already dying back. Quite proud of ourselves for doing pretty well first time out in ages!

After that we picked up a couple of peppermint mochas at one of our favorite coffee shops near Golden Gate Park (Rise & Grind on 8th) then walked back to Clement to do some shopping at the farmers' market. Lots of greens and citrus picked up, plus I was also able to speak to the person at the Rize Up bakery stand to let them know we're selling a ton of their bread at my shop and it's very popular. (We also got cookies from them, which I have not yet eaten, heh.) After a brunch burger n' beer at our usual haunt (the Richmond Republic) we headed back home to chill, relax and stream Time Team Specials on YouTube. 

And speaking of plants, I'm trying to be better at taking care of the plants here in Spare Oom. They're all high up on bookshelves now to be out of kitty range, but in the process I've forgotten to water them every now and again. I just had to toss one of them as it was dead and shriveled up -- I think it was at the end of its cycle anyway -- but the rest aren't looking too bad, maybe just a bit droopy. I try to remember to water them every Sunday, the same day I usually run my PC cleaners and update this here site.

Alas, I skipped working on Theadia last night for various reasons, so I'll need to catch up tonight!

So far so good with the 'refresh' outlook. I've missed a few days of 750Words entries out of laziness and distraction, I meant to post here yesterday and forgot, and a few of my main blog entries have essentially been filler, but it is what it is. Pick myself up and start again the next day. Much healthier outlook, yeah?

I'll be doing my two opening-bookkeeper shifts tomorrow and Saturday which means waking up at 4:15am (giving myself an hour to shower, have breakfast, and chill a bit before heading out), which have become my favorite shifts. I'm not the biggest fan of waking up that early, but I certainly do love getting out at 1pm and having the rest of the day to have fun! Not knowing next week's schedule until it goes up Thursday night / Friday morning can be exhausting sometimes -- especially when the schedule software pits me at six days in a row sometimes -- but for the most part I look at it the same way. Each week is something new.

To be honest I actually do like the shifting of days and hours, because it keeps me moving. Sitting in the same chair in front of the same computer for the same exact hours for fourteen years slipped me into some serious false-comfort states of mind. It made me lazy, got me procrastinating something fierce. This job's schedule works for me, makes me rethink how to deal with my non-Day-Job work schedule.

Plus, I'm slowly getting in better shape, which is also important!

Well! I managed to get through the entire week of on-call jury duty without getting called! I mean, if I'd had to go in, I'd have done it, but better that I'm not put in a large room full of strangers that may or may not be vaccinated, yeah?

Meanwhile, we spent our Saturday walking Crissy Field from the main parking lot all the way to Golden Gate Bridge and back. This time we went into Fort Point -- the old fort right underneath the bridge, and where Kim Novak jumps into the bay in Vertigo, natch -  and checked out the historical things they had on display there. Pretty neat stuff, and I'm actually kind of surprised we've never gone here before! That was about four and a half miles of walking there...which we did again today, heading to one of our favorite coffee joints near Golden Gate Park (Rise & Grind) and walked back through the park. So yeah, all the exercise done this weekend!

So the other week I started with the Theadia rewrite, and it's slow going but it's going in the right direction, and I'm sure it'll get better once I adjust to the work speed. A lot of it is spot-cleaning so far -- rewriting the scene a bit so it's truer to the characters -- but there's also a lot of finally fixing the "will fix it later" bits, such as assigning new names for characters and getting titles and places straightened out. It's been kind of fun so far, and I'm looking forward to what else I can do to make this story even better!

Queen Ophelia is coming along as well...I'm writing the climactic scene now, the final showdown between the major characters. As expected, this showdown is completely different than what I'd planned in the original outline, but I'm totally fine with that, because this particular version makes so much more sense in the context of the story as a whole. If I plan this out correctly, I should probably be able to finish it by mid-February and start in on the rewrite of this as well, so we shall see!

In the meantime...hope everyone has a good week!