Aeärwen's Corner

Today was a scheduled no-progress day, which was just as well. I had plenty to keep me occupied through the day - and I'm currently writing this as a way of procrastinating on doing a couple more read-thru's on the next chapter of my Pretender fic before posting it. I skipped last weekend (bad Aeärwen!! bad!!!) and really do owe them an update. Still, the chapters on that thing tend to run in at about 8k words each, so the read-thru's to remove my former obsession with using hypens everywhere and to tighten up POV aren't just a quick scan.

( More not necessarily writing relating nattering under the cut )

I'm genuinely looking forward to sitting down first thing tomorrow and continuing with my story. My mind has been actively toying with what scene I'm going to have following the one I ended with yesterday, and whether I'm going to span a good deal of time between where I left off and where I pick up the story again, or whether it will continue on from basically the next day or so.

I'm tired, though. May hit the sack early. Until next time...

( Writing Muses are fickle - BIG time! )

Just when you think you have things all worked out, something like this happens to remind you that it's the Muse that runs the show. You're only along for the ride.

And all my nice plans for today are blown to Hell when I stepped on a piece of wood and drove a nice splinter deep into my heel. My DH tried to get it out - and failed. All he got were splinters off of the bit buried practically all the way under the callous on my heel. Soooooo… no shopping trip to SLO for needed supplies, no chiro appointment (because DH was digging at the spot with his knife and a pair of tweezers to no avail) and no new neon tetras for the big fish tank in the living room to keep the one sole survivor out there company.

Damn!

Happy Monday, f-list, she growls…

( No, really. This week, at least, Monday is a GOOD thing! )

I'm sure my chiropractor will be glad when I'm through with the week too. Evidently between the stress and the physical postures and positions I get in while playing, I throw my back out rather nicely. Funzies.

And that's it from the Grey Havens of the Central California Coast for this week. I'll let you all know how well I survive sometime next week.

Yesterday was supposed to be a nice day, low-key morning leading to a chiropractor's appointment at noon topped by a regularly scheduled shopping trip with daughter Súl. I'm usually tired at the end of it, but it's a good tired.

Not yesterday. Oh no!

If you want to make the Universe laugh, make plans. The Universe was rolling on the floor for me yesterday.

( My Monday of Fail under the cut )

Yippee. (Please note lack of enthusiasm.) Have I mentioned I hate hospitals lately? Saw too many of them about 6-7 years ago, haven't changed my opinion.

It was predicted that our warm/hot weather was going to end as of yesterday.

WRONG!!!

( More whining under the cut )

Happy Wednesday, folks!

Gods! I have exactly 45 minutes to write this, get ready, and head off to Halcyon to play a 15 min musical "meditation" before the service.

And yet, I feel like I've really accomplished things already this morning.

Not Quite As Planned, my Doctor Who fic, is now finished. My Muse had been nudging me with the setting for the final scene for a couple of days; and this morning, I just sat down and wrote it out. It's done!! YAY!!! Time to ship it off to sensiblecat for a quick beta, and then consider another WIP off my plate.

I also added another 1k words to IDD yesterday. I'm enjoying dipping my toes back into the LOTR fandom; I feel like I'm coming home in many respects.

Probably won't be doing any more writing until later this afternoon or evening. Got a 2 hr musical rehearsal this afternoon, with some minor musical errands to perform ahead of time that will keep me nicely occupied for the nonce.

Still, I just had to brag. Getting a WIP off my plate, for me, is a Big Thing.

This is going to be a good day - despite it being hotter than Hades! :-D

Truth be told, this is copied from my comments to sensiblecat's posting on Broadchurch. After I posted it, I looked at it and thought that I'd managed to say, in the comments to somebody else, just about everything I'd want to say in a post of my own on the show. So, without further ado and with only a few, minor tweaks...

( Spoiler-free review of Broadchurch's final episode under the cut )

Yes, I'm still breathing air.

Today is the day I'm taking off (so to speak) to travel to AZ to visit my brother and attend the Arizona Renaissance Faire. I'm taking Amtrak, as I really am not fond of the idea of having to go through the TSA security crud at all - much less the fact that the airplane seats are comfortable only for folks with anorexia (which I definitely don't have!!).

My daughter decided she didn't like the idea of my driving the LA freeway system with all the painkilling meds I have to take nowadays in my system - especially since I would have to borrow her car to make the trip. I've noticed some side effects dulling my responses myself, so I was more than amenable to changing the travel plans.

BUT...

I'm REALLY not looking forward to 22½ hours on a train (two trains & a bus, actually) to get to Phoenix. I'm traveling coach this time, so hopefully being able to recline the seat a bit will mean I can sleep a little better than I did in the sleeping car to OR last May. That was an exercise in futility, I swear.

JJ will be responsible for taking care of the tropical fish that he's become obsessed with to the point of having three (count 'em, THREE) tanks now, with daughter Súl poking her head in morning & evening to make sure that he does what he's supposed to. Hubby will be doing the cooking and continuing his creative stuff in the Man Cave outside.

Then again, I'm only gonna be gone a total of 5 days, so hopefully there isn't a whole lot that can go wrong in that time. I have plenty to keep me busy on the long ride: music I need to create a piano arrangement for, creative writing (both o-fic and fan fic) and my tablet with all the unread Kindle books I've got in the last month or so. If I get bored, it'll be my own damned fault.

Anyhoo, ta until this coming Wednesday, F-list folks...

It's Monday...

And a gloomy one. No blue sky for us today, and the air is sometimes filled with heavy mist that wants to think about pretending to be rain. Not sure if it was predicted today, but I don't really mind it. The hills around here are turning a gorgeous emerald green before Christmas and New Years - which doesn't happen often enough for me.

It's already been a full day for me today, and the day's only half over. Started out bright and early with a chiropractor's appointment. I'm really getting some benefit from going to this guy three times a week at the moment. I can - not with regularity, but at least I can now - walk up and down stairs like a "normal" person, rather than like an arthritic old lady (despite the fact that's exactly what I am.) It's been two years since I've been able to, so I credit that to a combination of chiropractic and good pain meds (My knees, like my shoulders, are bone on bone, and thus tend to be very painful all the time.)

Then, came home to drop off JJ and pick up Hubby and daughter Súl to head off to SLO for the weekly shopping trip to Costco and New Frontiers. Chiropractor wants me to walk, and so those two huge stores are my huge walk for the day - and I get a lot of the stuff we use over the course of a week then. I'm gluten-free now, Hubby is most of the time and JJ is when I don't buy him anything with gluten in it. :-D

We stopped along the way to pay auto registration for the year, and then Súl wanted us to stop at a couple of places for her to pick up stuff and so she could do her banking.

We're home now for the one-hour respite in the middle of the day - I'm having carrots and dill dip for lunch w/ cranberry juice. In a little while, Hubby will drop me off at the Theosophical temple so I can practice with my organ/piano duet cohort for a while - and I'll be early for that, so I can spend some time polishing up the music I have to play for the Christmas program there this next weekend.

Then, to finish the day off, JJ is taking Súl and me to the 7PM showing of The Hobbit in 3D. I'm really jazzed about that, and it will make for a delightful way to end a busy, busy day.

I'm also jazzed by the fact that I actually was able to practice the little cross-strung harp I have for a reasonable bit of time this past weekend. So I know my arms are getting a little better. Very difficult to learn a new instrument when arthritis makes it impossible to hold the arms up long enough to practice. I hope the weather doesn't mess around so much for the next few, and I might be able to do it again.

Writing-wise, I'm back to plinking on an O-fic I started a few years back - I'm now doing some serious world-building in Maple that should make it easier for me to know the cultures and traditions of my characters so they will react properly to the events I intend to throw at them. It currently sits at about 11k words spread over a Prologue and 1½ chapters. If I use my mind for something other than holding my ears apart, I'll probably start to outline the plot too - which should make it easier to write if I know what's supposed to happen. I've also got ideas that will take me over the writer's block humps in both of my Who-fic pieces, so ultimately it is just a case of what I'm in the mood to work on at any one time.

Not today, tho. Today, I'm music and then The Hobbit. You never know; it just might kick loose the Muse to help me finish IDD at last to re-immerse myself in Middle-earth. I hope so - I'm proud of what I have of it, and I don't intend to leave it dangling unfinished.

All in all, things seem to be going along reasonably well of late.

( Mundane Midrashery under the cut )

And that's life here of late. Hoping things continue to stay fairly calm and peaceful. It's so much nicer that way...