Snakes and spiders and wasps…. Oh my!! October 11, 2012

Wow, I keep feeling like I am overwhelmed with STUFF that I have to get done, but I was quite productive this week and am feeling really good about myself *looks away from the pile of stuff that goes on next week’s list*.

Monday being a federal holiday, I had to take care of my paperwork yesterday instead. On my way back into town, I stopped and talked to a guy about getting the appliances out of my shed, and then got that package shipped off. That was a load off of my mind, as I keep forgetting it. Since the guy is coming for the appliances on Monday, I had an extra push to get the shed cleaned out.

Today was an absolutely lovely day, warm enough to work outside in a t-shirt, but cool enough to be in the shed. I got the swamp cooler drained and made sure the pump was high and dry. Surprisingly, I did not see my friendly little garden snake. I usually see him when I am on that side of the house. I think I scared him last time.

I did get to see the wasps though… Every summer, I get three or four wasp nests attached to the front of my house. Usually I hose them down with wasp spray, but this year I just never got around to it. While I was cleaning out the shed, I noticed a couple of small nests in there, so I grabbed the shovel and went about knocking the nests loose. We had snow this time last week. The wasps are long gone right? Uh… no. I got three of the nests around the place knocked down before it happened. Yup. Knocked one down that still had wasps in it. Lucky me, the buggers were disoriented and didn’t realize I was the homewrecker…. I backed off and let them fly away before going for the next one. That one had posted a guard, and I thought it the better part of wisdom to let him win the day. I am planning a sneak attack after the first hard freeze….

Of course, what western shed is without it’s share of spiders? Webs everywhere, but I managed to sort a pile of loose wood for some friends who have a wood stove, a pile of leftover parts from when I re-plumbed my house has been set aside for Habitat For Humanity’s Re-store, and I found yet another stash of rocks from my rock collection.  The remarkable thing is that I only tried to wrap my hands around a spider once. It waved frantically at me and then scurried away.

Okay, Last weeks goals are still up, but only because I don’t want to come up with new goals midweek. The “work on alter-ego’s job” goal will remain on the list until I am entirely caught up there, although I have made headway on that. Also, the note/timeline transfer will remain until my notes are safely transferred. I really need to change my pictures, but these ones are a good visual to stay on task, so they stay until I find another. I know, they are getting boring. I promise to hunt for new ones in the next few days. I am also going to try and get a few things done that will go on next weeks list if I don’t accomplish them.

 

Now…. What have I accomplished???

First the overall goals for the round:

Complete Preparations for the BIG ADVENTURE.

Continue to make progress on Alter Ego’s Job. (one day, I will introduce you :))

WRITE! Something!! Anything!! 

Last round I was frequently thrown off track by a varying work schedule and the rest of the drama of real life. This round, I intend to take those both into account. Each Sunday (possibly Monday) I will post my goals for the week, planning them around my work schedule and other anticipated life drama, and listing the goals by priority.

For this week: Saturday starts a four-day weekend, so to plan accordingly…

Tuesday – Friday:

• Work on Alter Ego’s job if brain is functioning sufficiently,  did 3 pages Tuesday   
  

  Story board with notes for 4-5 books. Chaos

• if not, then finish getting the bedroom sorted and thinned. Am steadily working my way around the room. 
• Get Package sent off for repairs Complete!!
• get paperwork filed  Complete!!
• Gather/haul garbage Wednesday night. (that thinning process accumulates trash too fast!) Complete!!
• Get guest post written!! Complete!!

Saturday – Tuesday:

• Work on Alter Ego’s job That is what I am headed for after I post this.
• When a break is needed in daylight hours, begin shed clean-out.  Complete!!
• When break is needed after dark, continue to transfer story notes to timelines Nothing on this yet

The mad writer looking far too much like her father…. in the midst of transferring story notes tooooo…..

The timeline! back when there was only one piece of butcher block running down my hall….. there are two now… soon to be three…

So, I am off on this week’s adventures. I hope to maintain sanity by tackling them one at a time. I will attempt to make a midweek blog each week that is not an update, but that is yet another adventure and my plate is already overflowing….

 

Unfrazzling October 7, 2012

I read a story a few months ago that was talking about the overstressed mother of many. How many doesn’t really matter as sometimes one can be too many at that certain frazzled place in time. The story mentioned that it really wasn’t difficult to ease that stress for just a moment with a kind word.  I had fun this last week getting to be the stress relief.

A young mother came into my work the other day, a little girl in her arms who was not quite at the walking stage. She was behind a few other customers and was waiting for her husband.  I heard her say gently and politely to the folks that came in behind her “Go ahead, we’re not ready,” and then a weary and put upon directive to the three boys standing close by “get out of the way, up against the wall here with me.”

Frazzled hubby came in with wipes and a clean diaper, quickly looked at the menu and told me what he wanted, then took the little girl off to tidy her up. The three boys very politely gave me their orders, took their cups and headed for the pop machine. For a moment, the over tired mom just stood there, the weariness of three boys under the age of ten plus a babe still in arms clear on her face. You could see that she was trying really hard not to let her weariness come out as she talked to her sons and to the husband who was trying very hard to be helpful. I commented that her boys were working well together, helping each other at the pop machine. She replied “For the moment.” I pointed out that every moment that they helped each other was a momentary break for her. She obviously hadn’t thought of it that way and smiled as she agreed with me.

Later, I took a moment to go over and compliment her on her well behaved bunch of kids. She snorted in disbelief, as the kids had shifted seats a time or two and their voices could be heard from across the room. Obviously somebody made her think that kids were supposed to be miniature adults and not energetic young people. She smiled again when I told her that I knew adults that had much worse manners than her kids and that I was impressed with how polite they were.  Well fed and gently complimented she was far less frazzled when she walked out.

Some days, I really do like my job.

I am in kind of a weird place right now, as I have the better part of this week and next off from work, so I am not changing last week’s goals. Most of them I only gave a cursory touch too anyhow. I am hoping to make great progress on all goals while I am in this odd place of not having to be at work. Although, I kinda slacked off yesterday… the only thing I got done was get some stuff out of the shed.

Now…. What have I accomplished???

First the overall goals for the round:

Complete Preparations for the BIG ADVENTURE.

Continue to make progress on Alter Ego’s Job. (one day, I will introduce you :))

WRITE! Something!! Anything!! (okay, so the actual measurable part of this is to complete the storyboard-timeline transfer, finish the short “Watersports”, and get another thousand or so words written on The Valkyrie and The Viking. But that looks like a lot so… this parenthesied section is gonna disappear for my own sanity.)

Last round I was frequently thrown off track by a varying work schedule and the rest of the drama of real life. This round, I intend to take those both into account. Each Sunday (possibly Monday) I will post my goals for the week, planning them around my work schedule and other anticipated life drama, and listing the goals by priority.

For this week: Saturday starts a four-day weekend, so to plan accordingly…

Tuesday – Friday:

• Work on Alter Ego’s job if brain is functioning sufficiently,  did 3 pages Tuesday   
  

  Story board with notes for 4-5 books. Chaos

   

• if not, then finish getting the bedroom sorted and thinned. Am steadily working my way around the room. 
• Get Package sent off for repairs  This is rescheduled for Monday when I don’t have to work.
• get paperwork filed  This is rescheduled for Monday when I don’t have to work.
• Gather/haul garbage Wednesday night. (that thinning process accumulates trash too fast!) Working on it.
• Get guest post written!! Not yet. 

Saturday – Tuesday:

• Work on Alter Ego’s job That is what I am headed for after I post this.
• When a break is needed in daylight hours, begin shed clean-out.  This is already begun
• When break is needed after dark, continue to transfer story notes to timelines Nothing on this yet

The mad writer looking far too much like her father…. in the midst of transferring story notes tooooo…..

The timeline! back when there was only one piece of butcher block running down my hall….. there are two now… soon to be three…

So, I am off on this week’s adventures. I hope to maintain sanity by tackling them one at a time. I will attempt to make a midweek blog each week that is not an update, but that is yet another adventure and my plate is already overflowing….

I got a midweek post up!! Look at me! This makes four posts in a week!! I am shocked!

Did I get the Linky right? Can you hear me now?? October 4, 2012

So I felt like a total techno dunce yesterday. I just discovered, in my third round of ROW80 that I should be updating my Linky every week *facepalm*    Learn something new every…… October?? I dunno. Now that I am aware of this, my ROW80 experience should be much more fruitful!

Okay, so I mentioned in my initial post that I would be posting once a week either Sunday afternoon or (if my weekly nap lasts for 14 hours like this past Sunday) Monday. This is primarily because I frequently lack the time to do more than 2 posts in a week and I don’t want my blog to be entirely ROW80. Hence, this will probably be one of very few midweek checkins.

Now…. What have I accomplished???

First the overall goals for the round:

Complete Preparations for the BIG ADVENTURE.

Continue to make progress on Alter Ego’s Job. (one day, I will introduce you :))

WRITE! Something!! Anything!! (okay, so the actual measurable part of this is to complete the storyboard-timeline transfer, finish the short “Watersports”, and get another thousand or so words written on The Valkyrie and The Viking. But that looks like a lot so… this parenthesied section is gonna disappear for my own sanity.)

Last round I was frequently thrown off track by a varying work schedule and the rest of the drama of real life. This round, I intend to take those both into account. Each Sunday (possibly Monday) I will post my goals for the week, planning them around my work schedule and other anticipated life drama, and listing the goals by priority.

For this week: Saturday starts a four-day weekend, so to plan accordingly…

Tuesday – Friday:

• Work on Alter Ego’s job if brain is functioning sufficiently,  did 3 pages Tuesday   
  

  Story board with notes for 4-5 books. Chaos

   

• if not, then finish getting the bedroom sorted and thinned. worked on this for 2 hours Tuesday, and nearly five hours of laundry tonight to get stuff ready for the local donation shop.
• Get Package sent off for repairs  Not yet.
• get paperwork filed Not yet.
• Gather/haul garbage Wednesday night. (that thinning process accumulates trash too fast!) Argued with the heater instead… Will have to do a little each day for next haul day.
• Get guest post written!! Not yet. 

Saturday – Tuesday:

• Work on Alter Ego’s job
• When a break is needed in daylight hours, begin shed clean-out. 
• When break is needed after dark, continue to transfer story notes to timelines

The mad writer looking far too much like her father…. in the midst of transferring story notes tooooo…..

The timeline! back when there was only one piece of butcher block running down my hall….. there are two now… soon to be three…

So, I am off on this week’s adventures. I hope to maintain sanity by tackling them one at a time. I will attempt to make a midweek blog each week that is not an update, but that is yet another adventure and my plate is already overflowing….

I got a midweek post up!! Look at me! A post for each of the last three days!! I am shocked!

Beautiful day! October 2, 2012

I really think I could do this day again and again. I started out with coffee and a visit with my sister. Okay, so I was out of creamer and the coffee was only mediocre, but visiting with my sister puts a smile on my face in nearly any mood. I got some work done on the Alter Ego’s job and for once it did not leave me pulling my hair out.

I got to work to find that the energy drainers weren’t scheduled to work and that the manager was. This was way cool. I love my manager to death, she directs the team without showing frustration and she really does show her appreciation. I swear the only reason I put up with the energy drainers is because working with the boss is so fun.

I was just getting ready for the dinner rush when one of my favorite huggers came in with her husband and parents. Already my good day was getting better. She and her family sat down and I looked out the door to see my sister and her husband heading in with my niece.

 

 

Really now, how can that little face NOT make you grin?

I barely got their order taken when we got slammed with a busload of teens. This is not usually a good thing. I have worked in food service for years and learned long ago that busloads of teens mean big messes, rude kids and lots of shouting. I was stunned. The kids were all respectful, spoke quietly to each other and didn’t leave so much as a mark from their cup to clean up. As the last one headed out the door, I asked their chaperone to convey my gratitude for their excellent manners.

I walked through to check on my customers and my niece grinned and tried to share her lettuce with me. I think she was somewhat offended that I didn’t take it…. I do love that little smile… Then I stole a quick hug from my friend as I cleared up my dining room.  I got more happy grins from my niece as they were leaving and another big hug from my friend as she was leaving.

To top it all off, my favorite eye candy walked in the door a little while later!!! Oh, happy day!!

It really is the small things in life that make it worth the living. Warm hugs and happy smiles on a face that is excited to see you, and all you have to do for either one is exist. That made my day perfect.

I hope that your day was exceptional as well.