Thursday 16 January 2025: Keeping busy

image courtesy of Pixabay

Before I did anything else yesterday morning, I threw several buckets of warm, soapy water at the patio to clean up some of the trash the birds had left during the snow. Literally, it was the first thing I did. I was still in my nightie and the kettle was on for my first cup of tea of the day. The stiff-bristle broom was still in the garage, so I’ll sweep it up another day. 

Once I had somewhere clean to walk, I topped up the bird feeders. They’re not getting as much now as there’s plenty of grass and earth for them to grub around in now. I also moved a feeder and a drinking bowl from the patio table back onto a low wall. I’d originally moved them to beneath the table as it was clear of snow and the birds could still get to it. Once the table was clear, I moved them onto the table. Now everything is back on the wall or on the bird table.

Two Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked on the door. While I do resent them encroaching on my personal space, I also know that they have door-knocking hours to clock up, dictated to them by higher beings in the organisation, and I try not to be rude. I was still in my dressing gown (I’d put it on over my nightie after I’d finished in the garden…). I apologised, but said I wasn’t interested. They were just about to argue with me when I added that it wasn’t convenient (I was still in my dressing gown!), and they politely accepted that, thanked me for my time, and went.

I read a couple of articles about Medium and potential alternatives. Then I made my breakfast and moved to the office so I could eat while I watched a couple of tutorials on Patreon. I had *another* look at Substack, but I discounted it a final time. I already had an account there once and I already closed it down. I don’t really believe in going backwards. But I’m tempted to try Patreon.

Wednesday’s blog post hadn’t been written at the end of Tuesday, so that was the next job I did. And then I started today’s. 

Next up I had a look at the Alphabet Adventurers pages and sites. We’ve been umming an ahhing about giving this a reboot since the dog died, but we haven’t made it yet. The GoPro did come out a few days ago. It went back again, but at least it came out. Hopefully the technology doesn’t have an expiry date as it’s been 5 years since our last adventure. Five years. On the Facebook page I had to jump through a few hoops for it to let me back in, so while I was in there I made the most of it and created a vague-post. 

I made another cuppa, and caught up on the day’s space opera workshop videos.

I had a later dinner, then started to catch up on jobs I should have done on Tuesday when I was too busy gazing at my navel. The first one of these was to proofread, format and insert Pancake Race into Words Worth Reading. While I was in there, I also finalised the credits page. 

As I was already working on the bookazine, the next job was one of yesterday’s: proofread The Old Annexe. This novelette is my featured story in the January issue, which means it’s on the cover too. 

I got a bit carried away with the proofreading – I was enjoying the story far too much! I had a 2-hour webinar to watch, and the poet brought my tea to my desk. We had a fish dinner followed by the last of the black and blue pie. He even sat in the office to eat his with me as well.

The webinar was interesting. I learnt a couple of things, but I’ll also be ignoring quite a lot of it.

2 thoughts on “Thursday 16 January 2025: Keeping busy

  1. Lots of different directions for you.

    I’ve considered Patreon, on and off, but I don’t have the energy for it right now. I”m also tired of so much being subscription-based. As a freelancer with a fluctuating income, it doesn’t work for me to support subscription based work regularly. Once in awhile I can do a year subscription, but not with auto-renew, and monthly subscriptions just don’t work.

    I need to figure out what to do with Ko-fi. I know I’m not making use of it, but again, it’s a time and energy commitment that I’m not sure I’m up for right now.

    Plus, you know, my country is disintegrating.

    1. The only thing I use Ko-fi for is a donation link in my Medium stories. As the Medium stories are on their way out, I may not need it any longer. I have a few ebooks on there in the shop, but it’s not a great selling place.

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