Because I haven’t for a while…random updates!

Wow, July has been a busy month! I still haven’t written up a full Readercon report, but I’ll be doing that.

I’ve started making a “to-do list” in my journal every day, with two sections. The first section is in red, and is the things that I want to get done today. The second section is long-term projects that couldn’t be easily finished in one day, but which I should be working on. If I finish a task, I highlight it in yellow. If I work on a longer task, I partially highlight it. Then, the next day, I copy-and-paste the whole list to the current day’s entry, delete the highlighted items, add new ones, if necessary, and un-highlight the projects I worked on the day before. This way I keep a record of exactly what I’m supposed to be doing, and what I’ve done, each day.

This is having two effects. I’m getting things done, and, the list is depressing me. 🙁

The weekend of July 12th, I absolutely had to get out and work in the yard, or it would be a lost cause. The weather was gorgeous, and this is not proving to be a clement summer–mostly because it’s been so wet and there have been so many thunderstorms. So, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday that weekend, I went out each day and mowed the lawns and weeded. I got four garden carts full of weeds pulled and cut down, and I feel so much better!

But I also planted things. This spring, I bought bulbs and a rose bush. At the end of June, I’d gotten my dad a fountain liner for his outdoor fountain at Lowe’s, and impulsively bought two tomato plants and two pepper plants. But I never got anything into the ground, even the plants, which were languishing in their pots and almost dying. I’d like to roto-till up large areas of both the front and back yards, dig out my compost piles, till in the compost, and make real vegetable gardens. But this is just a bigger project than I’ve found time for (maybe I’ll do it in the fall).

Despite how late it was, I decided to go ahead and try to get things in, so it wouldn’t be a total waste of money. I dug up a sunny patch, and put in the two tomato plants, one pepper plant (I broke one, to my annoyance), and I planted a bunch of garlic cloves, which I’d also planned on doing. I cleaned out two big planters I used for tomato and pepper plants a couple of summers ago. In one, I planted the package of gladiola bulbs I had, and in the other, the package of tiny little bulbs for something called “shooting stars.” I’d never heard of them before but the hardware store was selling them, and the picture on the package looked pretty. Then I dug a deep hole and put in the rose bush, although I suspected I had neglected it too long and let it dry out and die.

It’s now been two weeks since I put everything in. The rose bush looks like a lost cause–I’ll have to buy a new one next spring, I guess. That’s my own fault for not getting it planted faster. Nine of the ten glads are up and about a foot tall, while one is just sprouting. I thought I’d waited too long for the “shooting stars” and they’d dried out, but they’re starting to come up. I probably planted them all upside-down, they were so small! I’ll be curious to see what they end up doing. The tomato plants are getting taller and have one baby tomato. The pepper plant is kind of sitting there and is a bit yellowish, and I think it has one embryonic pepper on it. About a dozen of the garlic have come up so I might get a decent string of garlic out of those. (Tomatoes, peppers and garlic: I have a nice little spaghetti sauce patch. 🙂 )

The blackberry canes I’m cultivating by the northeast corner of the house are loaded with green berries. I found several other places where the blackberries are bearing once I weeded. I’ve been going out most days that it isn’t raining and picking fresh blackberries and adding them to my fruit mix for supper. They’re ripening at all different rates because of the varying amounts of sun they get. It’s a trip to be eating right out of my yard, without doing any work! 🙂 The day lilies put on a very nice show, but they really got pounded by all the rain we’ve had this week, and they’re about at the end of their run now.

The only problem with having the yard in better shape is that it now distracts me in a different way. Instead of feeling guilty and fidgety because the yard needs attention, I tend to wander outside and weed and water, or just sit by the open back window looking out at the plants and enjoying the peace and quiet. I’ve thought about taking the computer outside, since I have wireless, but there are mosquitoes. I still can’t believe that I’ve completely reclaimed the east side yard and have mown grass growing there instead of tangles of tall weeds or an impassable jungle of roof-high overgrown forsythia (which is what it was about five years ago). I’m spending a lot of time walking around barefoot in my yards.

The appliance repairman came today and replaced the gas connector on the stove–$131, ouch. But that’s a lot less than a new stove would cost–man, they’re expensive. The camp stove was handy to make a pot of tea last night (I make a pot every day), but I’ve put it away now. I miss camping!

I’m making serious progress on The Longer the Fall. It’s coming slowly but it’s getting written! My fellow author Morven Westfield has actually been a big help. She started a weekly “Progress Report” section in the New England Horror Writers forum. Each week, she challenges us to report on our writing accomplishments for the week. I’m finding that I have to write something, just so I can report it in the forum, if for no other reason! I seem to be doing a lot of non-fiction writing, and I’m waiting for an author contract to be returned, and then I’ll be editing. Whew.

And–last piece of news–I was very naughty. I bought myself a digital camcorder. My sister and brother-in-law gave me a Target gift card for my birthday, and I decided to use it toward a camcorder. Mind you, this is not exactly an impulse purchase. I’ve been pining for a videocamera for about two decades! And I’ve seriously wanted a digital camcorder for over a year, as it became more and more obvious how important video is becoming for marketing and promotion. Now I’ve got one. I haven’t sat down and really gone through the learning curve with it yet. This is my birthday and Yule present to myself this year–I never indulge on myself, I’m so fiscally conservative it hurts.