Of Leaves and Elves

It's December 2nd, and winter is upon us here in New England. Temps in the teens, flurries, and a wintry mix predicted overnight.

My brother and I got up early in order to rake the leaves for the second time (leaf man came and vacuumed the leaves but the two front trees were still green at that time) so that they wouldn't be frozen to the yard until April.

The fruits of our labors produced a wall of leaves.

Then, we elfed the dogs. Not with the popular Elf-yourself (though we did that last week).

Writing

I've been writing and writing and writing. No, not NaNoWriMo, just doing my own thing. 20,000 words into the new WIP. Characters introduced: check. Conflict introduced: check. Tension on the page: check. Experimenting with voice: check. Kinda sorta know where I'm headed: check.

But.

You knew there was gonna be a BUT, right?

I'm stuck. I need to get from point C thru D & E, toward the climax F and resolution.

How?

No idea. Great. I hate when that happens. I have 60K words of another WIP that remains unfinished for the same reason. ACK!!

Life Goes On

As you can see, the Queen Bee is thriving. She's gained a ton of weight, primarily because she feels good, but also her medications give her the munchies. Try arguing with a hungry dog at 3am. You're not going to win.

Life has once again settled back into a routine. And the kids are happy their dog is here to enjoy it.

All the Fun, Without the Pegs!

Lite Brite, anyone?

RV Put to Bed for the Winter

Winterizing was the easy part. Amassing the supplies prior to it was the bear. Apparently in some parts of the country RV antifreeze is everywhere. Alas, in the stores I shop in, it is not. I did find some in an auto parts store. But how many single moms do you know that frequent those places? A few, I'm sure. I am not one of them. Then, on to the winterizing pump kit. Scarcer still. Never did find one except on line, so I'm going to have to order it for next year! (And for all I know, next year I'll be staying south!)

Next order of business: the final dump. No biggie. There are online websites to tell you where all the dumps are. Too bad most of them are in campgrounds. Which are closed. And have been since Columbus Day. Oh, but there's a free public one at a rest area, open til 11/15, according to the website. But no. It's closed. The new Cabela's? Ads for their RV dump everywhere. I call. Nope. Not open yet. Another one at the Travel Center. Could it really be? I call. Yep. C'mon up. I do. It's padlocked. But you said... Five dollars, please. Phew!

On to the boards. I've been meaning to get a 2x10x8 and have it cut into 2' lengths for a while now. Even with levelers, sometimes you need to drive up on blocks, too. But my circular saw isn't cooperating. Finally I grab Lotus and go. Really we were still on the quest for the antifreeze, seeing how a fellow RV'er scored a whole pallet of it at a Home Depot elsewhere. None to be found. But they had boards. I drag the huge heavy things to the saw station. Out of order. You've got to be kidding me! But alas, only the plywood saw was out of order. The plank saw around the corner was working fine.

Next time should be a lot easier. I can only hope. :)

Distracted

Life sometimes hits you in the gut when you're not paying attention.

Queen Bee the Wonder Dog had been doing terrific since her surgery to remove a huge tumor. It had spread to the lymph nodes and to the liver. Just before she had an appointment with the doggie oncologist for chemotherapy (lymphoma) she started having seizures. 8 in a 24-hour period. Yikes!

So between a gazillion road trips to Rhode Island (where the specialty vets are), Halloween, work (selling a business as we speak), paperwork, I sit and stare at the computer screen in a daze.

I did attend a wonderful writing conference last weekend and did get a huge amount of ideas. But I stare at my blank screen...All the ideas floating in my head have yet to hit the page.

Kids and I have been having fun, carving pumpkins, watching movies, and following Kid Nation. We're all kind of tired after the dog's ordeal. We're just glad she's home and at the moment doing very well.

Except for the doggie gas...phew!! Nobody had better light a match!!

On Writing and Poop

This past weekend I had the priviledge of attending a writing conference nearby. Great energy, great ideas, and I feel motivated to work on my novel (#4, in case you're counting). I've heard that it takes at least that many to get your feet wet in the how-to-write-well department, so I'm hoping this latest round of energy infusion will help propel me to a novel that will sell.

OTOH, I spoke with one person (a reader for the conference) who suggested non-fiction articles to sell to magazines. Not my passion, not my interest, but possible since I have the expertise and could very well do a good job at it. Something to think about, anyway.

Of course, since the conference was nearby, but a bit too far to drive on a daily basis, I chose to take the RV (kids with their dad). And, of course, the dogs. I chose a nearby campground and we spent a relaxing Friday before the conference, taking a leisurely walk around the almost-empty campground. Would I attend the social mixer? Me? Uh, no. Maybe if I'd gone with someone, but I'm not really a meet-and-greet-and small-talk kind of girl.

So, the conference brochure said comfortable casual, but I doubted that jeans and a sweatshirt bearing the Disney character Grumpy would be a good idea, so I chose corduroys and a blouse. To me, that's dressed up. To the rest of the modern world, it's ultra casual. Anyway, I leave the campground early, in the RV (I have no way to tow my car; all of my tow money went for the dog!). No sooner do I get on the main road and I hear the door rattling. Rats. I forgot to lock it. Oh, well, the conference is only 5 miles away. Two seconds later, the propane detector goes off. Fortunately I'd been warned that, not unlike a smoke detector that goes off every time I try to cook (don't laugh!), the propane detector also detects smells.

Well, I can't quite get up and turn it off while I'm driving, so this screeching is getting annoying. And that's when the smell wafts up to the driver's seat. A bad dog fart. Or so I hoped. I was wrong.

What I found when I stopped was poop. On my pillow. Down the wall. On my comforter. Did I mention I was dressed up for a conference?? So I clean it up as best I can. While my RV has more amenities than I originally thought I could afford, alas, it lacks a washer and dryer, which is what I really needed. Somehow I managed to clean up without getting crap on my nice clothes. Off to the conference I go.

Later, I drive back to the campground, park, hook up the electricity, and decided to change out of my monkey clothes into something more comfortable. A balmy breeze blew in off the water, so I stepped around the bed to get a pair of shorts from my drawer. Big mistake. I ended up stepping in a pile of poop that had been there since the morning incident, but I had missed. Did I mention I had sock feet??

Does anyone want a dog? Cheap?!