Wednesday 3 December 2025: Bit of a catch up

This post also appears on Patreon.

I forgot another job I did last week, planning the micro story for this month’s 12 stories in 12 months. This is a brand-new story that I brainstormed on Tuesday of last week. I did the outline on Thursday so that it was, hopefully, ready to write yesterday. 

I think I know how to download the free images we get sent from DepositPhotos without it impacting on the package I’ve already bought and paid for. Can’t remember if I need to log in or not, but if I don’t log in, I may be able to just download any I fancy. I would have given it a go for today’s post, but I’m using festive images now, for December, and the one they sent me last week that I liked isn’t very festive at all. I shall try, though, as soon as I can.

Friday was mostly about admin. There was the next client edit I wanted to get deep into too, as I’d already done some bits here and there, but I hadn’t yet had a good long slog at it. But I had a lot of admin work to do on Friday as well.

Friday

The day started with the usual. Let the dogs out, feed the dogs, feed the birds, play with the dogs in the garden, clean up after the dogs in the garden, etc, etc. Then there was the quiet hour with the dogs, when I try to read, and the housework hour, where I do things like empty the dishwasher, put washing through, empty bins, hang washing up or out, and put washing away. 

I had my weekly finances to do, which is a nice, quick and easy job to do most of the time, but last week I had transactions to record. I also had my month end and new month finances to do as well as my weekly backup. I’d already scheduled Monday and Tuesday’s blog posts, so that saved me some time at least. 

I almost forgot the micro fiction short story I’d prepared for the 1 December submission deadline. I opened up the Scrivener file, which had all the information in, read through the story, copied and pasted it into an email, and sent it off. Yay!

I spent a lot of time on the new project planning spreadsheet. My 2025 36-project spreadsheet hit Project No. 36 last week and I still have a whole month left to go. I might make it all fit this time. But next year I think a 40-project version might be more suitable. I did say that, though, when I set it up. Back in the day, it was a mere 10-project spreadsheet, so we’ve already come a long way since then.

This new one has new elements added to it as well, a different format I’ll try out alongside the format I’ve been using for the past couple of years. I’ve dropped on a consistent colour scheme as well, so it doesn’t look so haphazard. I do like the colours, they give the worksheets a nice, touchy-feely, well, feel. But at least now they’re all from the same palette. 

The rest of the day was really dedicated to the vet’s.

Spaniel had to have his annual boosters and puppy had to be weighed. The spaniel was as good as gold with his injections, and even had to tolerate a syringe up his nose. His ear is ‘a bit smelly’, though and, as usual, he wouldn’t let the vet have a proper look. He has to go back again this week, and we have to take his muzzle with us, so the vet can take a swab and get it tested. This is a recurring problem with his ear and the vet doesn’t want to risk missing something serious, although we do think it’s probably antibiotics he wants as he’s a floppy-eared dog.

Puppy thought it was the best game in the world ever and that everyone had come to see him, which of course they all had. Typical sausage/wiener attitude. 

It’s still a major operation when we take the dogs in the car and it takes far longer to get the car sorted at the moment than it really ought. Puppy doesn’t like it much, yet. It didn’t help that it got dark early too so he couldn’t see out of the windows. And then he had to have a lead attached to his now-too-tight harness and he was made to actually walk alongside shouty traffic in shouty rain. (He doesn’t yet like loud noises either.)

When we came out we went to the pet superstore across the road to get the puppy a new harness. He was a lot happier in one that actually fit properly and the old one, which used to belong to the cat, Holly, went in my pocket. We got back from the vet at about 6:15pm, and the poet went straight into making a cottage pie for tea. 

The weekend

On Saturday, he did the shopping while I worked on the client edit, and his mum came over for her tea. We had a good natter and watched some snooker on the television. 

The micro fiction editor acknowledged my submission, by email, which was nice. I’m sure it was a form response, but it felt like a personal message.

On Sunday, I carried on with the client edit, while the poet finished the fencing in the garden. I had some pet play time, and made an Adam’s pudding (pears and sponge), and he made us a turkey dinner for tea.

Monday

Monday morning was the first of my light therapy sessions at the hospital. It was okay, a bit of a rush and another major operation with the dogs, who stayed in the car with the poet this time. But I came away feeling a bit sunburned. My face, in particular, looked like I’d been in the sun. Also, I sat there waiting for someone to come afterwards and tell me I could go, but no one did. Apparently, that’s how it will be for the next 8 weeks. I go, get sunburned, and then just leave. But if my face is anything to go by after the first session, they may reconsider some aspect(s) of the treatment.

Got back with all good intentions to do my tax return and a newsletter, but actually spent the rest of the day working on client edit revisions for a different book. I couldn’t go outside and play with the dogs, even though it was cloudy and raining, because I’d had my fix of ultra violet for one day. 

I’m toying with merging the newsletter with the Patreon for the new year, or running them alongside each other, or duplicating the blog on Patreon, or something that will work in a streamlined manner. Newsletter and Patreon subscribers will still get their bonus short story, at least once a month for the newsletter subscribers, but probably once a week for grass-roots paying Patreon subscribers. Blog-only subscribers will still get the week-daily blog posts plus the bonus short story for 7 days. 

Tuesday

The day started as usual, with the dogs getting us up at the crack of dawn and trying to go back to sleep for an hour or so. The next time the dogs woke up, the poet was at least getting up to go to work. He was heading down to the midlands again, so another early start for him. He fed the dogs before he went, and they graciously let me sleep for another hour.

Over my dirty cuppa I did a lot of month end finance work, moving balances around following recent interest changes. Interest is one of my streams of income, so I have to get the best rate I possibly can. We also had our quiet hour while the dogs slept and I read.

Once dressed I did all of my household stuff – garden, dogs, housework, etc. While I was playing with the spaniel, I also did some training work with the puppy. He already knows things like ‘Alfie’, ‘din-dins’, ‘sweeties’ (not really sweeties, but doggy treats), ‘out’, sit’ and ‘wait’. Yesterday I worked on recall and ‘stay’. He’s doing really well considering he’s not quite 4 months old.

Then at my desk, I had great plans, the first of which was to write the micro-fiction submission for this month’s 12 stories in 12 months. But I got busy doing other stuff on Patreon – planning and scheduling, that kind of thing. I moved the newsletter to today while I cracked on with that.

From the month of December, blog posts are going to be duplicated on Patreon and free to access. Also from the beginning of December, ‘Something for the Weekend’, aka a short story, will appear first on Patreon to paid subscribers, and 4 weeks later it will be on the website for no more than 7 days. There will also be one book review appearing at the same time on both, also free to access. 

If it’s available on here first, free of charge, then it should be on Patreon free of charge. But I’ll be scheduling and posting more premium content on Patreon.

The poet came home from his trip, had a quick rest, then started tea (prawn linguine). So I finalised today’s blog post, selected the artwork, scheduled it to post on here and on Patreon, and closed everything down.