Oh my goodness. I missed on a couple of counts yesterday.
First of all, I had such a stupid day on Tuesday proving I’m not a money launderer, I just ran out of time to write a blog post ahead of Wednesday. It literally took almost the entire day. There was one job I managed to squeeze in, and that was the 2nd pass on the proofreading job.
Wednesday was then tied up with the roofer being here for much of the day, along with his brother who had come to help him get the job wrapped up. The roofer still forgot to bring one downpipe with him, so he had to reconnect the old one and he says he’s coming back this afternoon with the new one.
They kept leaving the side gate open, and the drive gates were open too. So I had to keep a close eye on the dogs, and if they wanted out, I had to go and close the side gate first. The puppy was a bit too scared to do anything around the back of the house while they were here, so I had to put his lead on and take him around the front of the house. As we passed the gates at the top of the drive, he tried to drag me on a longer walk, but I had to drag him back.
While the roofers were here, I did manage to run out on a quick errand. It’s the poet’s birthday today and there were a few things I needed to buy. Plus, the puppy had run out of wet food, so I had to get that too. When I got back there were presents to wrap. When I got back, they’d finished a lot of the noisy work (blow-torch, gas bottle, etc), and the puppy at least went out to play with the spaniel for a few minutes.
I collected the wages for the first proofreading job, just to make sure PayPal and Upwork are working together properly. It’s been such a long time since I used either, and I don’t think I got paid for the last short story I sold because my PayPal threw a hissy fit, for some reason, and it wasn’t worth them to keep trying from their end.
It means they got a story for free (think of the exposure… 🙄), but if I sell them another one, at least I now know it’s them and not my PayPal and I can argue the toss and then never send them another story if they fail to pay me again. Just one of those things you mark up to experience that isn’t worth pursuing, as it was only about $25 or $30.
I had to pay a $2 transaction fee to Upwork, on top of their commission, which reduced the total a little bit. But knowing it worked was more important to me and probably worth that $2.
The poet’s daughter and her family came to see her dad on the eve of his birthday, and they stayed a while. It was nice to see them.
We were supposed to be having salmon for tea, but by the time they’d gone, all we felt like were bacon sandwiches, so we had those with mushrooms and melted cheese. Nom! He said he didn’t want a proper birthday cake, he wanted me to make the iced carrot cake I’d been making for 2 weeks instead. But I didn’t even have time to do that, and it’s not a recipe I’ve used before. So I bought him a packet of carrot cake slices for a joke, and a fresh cream sponge cake with raspberry jam for pudding.
It was in the early hours of the morning, when the puppy woke me up to let him out, that I remembered another miss of mine. It was deadline day for 12 stories in 12 months yesterday, and I missed it. The story was written. I’d done a quick read-through. It was sat there waiting to go. And I forgot. It totally slipped my mind, and by this morning it was too late.
Ah well. My bad. But these things happen for a reason.
I’ve been umming and ahhing about bowing out of the 12 stories in 12 months challenge anyway, because of potential AI scraping, but I’m also looking at dropping a few things for the next few months as it’s possible we’ll be moving house and we have a lot to do at the new place, if it all goes through. And I mean, a LOT.
It needs a new kitchen, it needs a hall door relocating, it needs a new bathroom, it needs a hard-surface garden excavating and re-landscaping, it needs a coal fire ripping out, it needs the central heating system overhauling, it needs decorating and carpeting throughout…and that’s *before* we move in.
Even if we stay where we are and buy the house we’re in, it needs a LOT of work doing to it as well, like a new roof, new windows and doors, air bricks reinstating, second toilet putting back, space robbed from spare bedroom to add an unnecessary bath putting back, complete new boundary, complete garden overhaul, large terrace rebuilding or shoring up, red asbestos carting away, etc, etc, etc…
In other words, wherever we go or whatever we do regarding the home front, we have work to do.
Also, once the spaniel has gone, I’ll be working on puppy training too. For example, the spaniel won’t go for a walk unless we all get in the car first and drive somewhere, and there’s no way I’m driving to a walk every day when there are walks from our doorstep. The puppy needs to learn how to walk on a lead. I need to work on his recall. We’re getting there, but it’s a slow process and he’s easily distracted by the ‘other dog’. And he needs to learn how to behave when we have visitors, instead of jumping all over them like a mad thing.
So I was already sorting through in my head what to temporarily drop and what to keep, and I think it’s the short stories that will go for the foreseeable, which means the bookazine, and I might put the newsletter into a hiatus as well. For now.
I have a lot to do today as well. The spaniel goes back tomorrow and I have to make sure all of his things are together. I already washed all of his blankets and towels, so those are drying this morning. The blankets were hung up overnight and should be ready by now. The towels will go in the tumble dryer this morning.
The roofer is apparently returning…We shall see. And we’re going out for the poet’s birthday, courtesy of Son #2.
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