Monday Musings

I thought I’d be well into my revisions by now. The first draft is printed and sitting on the table in my office, waiting. And waiting.

Unfortunately, life sometimes throws monkey wrenches into our plans and such has been the case. I’ll blog about what’s been going on in a future post, but suffice it to say certain things have required my time and energy that otherwise would have been funneled into my writing.

Here we are. The week leading up to Thanksgiving. Where the heck did the year go? The holidays always seem to sneak up on me and slap me upside the head. I think it could be because I tend to plug my fingers in my ears and sing “La-la-la-la-la” when the topic comes up.

Actually, I like Thanksgiving. A lot. And it has little to do with the food. Being a vegetarian, I don’t eat turkey. I’m not crazy about pumpkin. But I like getting together with my family. And I love the whole gratitude thing.

Then comes Friday. Call it Black Friday, if you will. I promise you I will NOT be in the stores. I’ll spare you my annual rant on shopping madness. At least for today. I know I won’t make it through the next month without hitting on it at some point. But for me, Friday is the day when revision madness starts. Hubby will be leaving for his family’s hunting camp this weekend and I’ll have the house to myself. I’m blocking off the bulk of next week for writing. Beginning on Friday afternoon, I’ll be curled up in a chair reading my manuscript. I’ll have a bunch of sticky notes at my side and a variety of different colored pens clutched in my hand. (I love those Pilot G-2 gelpens in all their different shades of blue, green, and red.) I won’t have to cook. Leftovers!

By Sunday—or Monday at the latest—I’ll be ready to dive back into that world and start whipping that WIP into shape.

I can’t wait.

You all have fun at the mall. I’ll be hunkered down in my cave.

Photo Friday: Quit hogging the feeder!

Taken from my front porch. It took a while for the birds to forget I was there, but once they did, I was able to catch this shot of an impatient chickadee waiting its turn at the seed.

Remodeling the Cave: Conclusion

I've posted before and after photos of my office remodel and reorganization over at Working Stiffs. I'm not sure it qualifies as a true remodel since all we did was lay down new floor. But it feels new and fresh to me.

A lot of the reorganization can't be seen, as it happened within the closets and drawers. I'm still not sure where everything is (it used to be in that pile of papers, but now where did it go???), but I'll get used to it.

Now, it's time to get back to work.

Apologies

I've been getting hit with spammers! As a result, I've been tinkering with the comments section. I tried using the word verification and still received anonymous comments with links to who-knows-what. So I've removed the word verification (which I hate anyhow), but I've also removed the ability to leave anonymous comments. For my legit commenters who use that feature, I'm truly sorry.

Remodeling the Cave: Part Two

In case you’re wondering, I survived the weekend. Barely.

It took all blessed day Saturday to pack up all my “stuff” from my office and to find places to put it in the rest of the house. Boxes filled the living room. Assorted items edged the periphery of the bedroom. And still does.

I left some things for Sunday simply because I didn’t want to block the side door. Somewhere in the back of my overactive brain, I kept hearing a nagging voice saying, “What if there’s a fire.”

So I saved that space. Until yesterday.

I’d disconnected the computer, but left it in the office until the last minute. Sunday morning, the computer, the cabinet drawers, and any office furniture that was light enough to move out or that was on wheels, headed out into what little space remained elsewhere in the house. The bed was covered as were most of the couch and all the chairs.

My office may be the smallest room in the house (except for the bathroom), but inch-for-inch, it contained the most stuff.

It didn’t take nearly as long to rip up the carpet and lay the new floor as it took to clear the space. It’s done. It’s beautiful. And most importantly, when I reconnected my computer, it worked! First try!

Sometimes I amaze myself.

As of this morning, my office furniture has been moved back into place. Drawers have been replaced into cabinets. But the rest of the stuff is still in boxes. My desk looks so bare. The only things in front of me, besides the computer, are my phone, a lamp, some pens, and a stapler.

I’ve taken today off from writing to put things away. Not everything that came out of this room is coming back into it.

Anyone know where I can find a dumpster?

Tomorrow, I hope to get back to writing. And by then I should have some before and after pictures to post here.

Photo Friday: Backlit Berries

Once the blaze of autumn orange passes, southwestern Pennsylvania tends to spend the next six months clothed in monochromatic shades of gray and brown. These backlit leaves from what I gather is a wild raspberry bush provided a rare splash of color on my walk around the old farm this week.

Remodeling the Cave

One can only hide in one’s cave, living in denial, for so long. It’s time. I’m being rousted from my quiet, extremely cluttered office in order to replace the last bit of carpeting in our house with the new wood flooring.

I’ve been dreading this. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I love my new floor in the rest of the house and I know I’ll love it in here, too. But it’s the process.

My office/cave is small, yet it contains some of the biggest furniture in the entire house. Namely my computer desk, a set of bookshelves, and two sets of cabinets, courtesy of IKEA. There’s also a table that’s supposed to be my writing desk, although I can never find space on it. I started de-cluttering it yesterday and still don’t have enough clear surface to so much as write a check. There’s a small metal file cabinet and a stand that hold sentimental knickknacks and photographs, too.

And there are a LOT of books. How to write books. Writing market books. Crime writers’ reference books. Grammar and style books. Books on editing, revising, querying, freelance writing, and formatting. Plus a couple of shelves of yoga books.

Packing all those books and all my writing files will be a pain. Unloading my cabinets filled with writing supplies will be aggravating. But none of that is why I’m resisting the job.

The real issue is my computer. I have to disconnect my computer, my two printers, my modem, and my router and move everything into the living room while the work is being done. THEN I have to move everything back. And remember where and how all those wires were connected before. AND pray that once it’s reconnected it still works!

I don’t know why I’m so worried. It wasn’t all that many years ago that we transferred all this stuff from a corner of the living room (my former workspace) into this office. I had to disconnect and reconnect everything then, too, and it was fine. I’m sure it’ll be fine this time, as well.

I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m sure it’ll be fine.

If I say it often enough, maybe I’ll believe it.

In the meantime, be forewarned. I may drop off the face of the earth on Saturday. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep the modem and router up and functioning so I can at least use my laptop to stay in cyberspace during the down time.

Of course, if the computer doesn’t go back together the way it’s supposed you, I won’t NEED the Internet. You’ll be able to hear me screaming without it.