What a month!
It has been nuts. I’ve been writing a course for a client, plus a workbook that will go along with it, since the middle of last month. So far, I have 124 pages of scripts for the course, which I believe is enough, since there will be exercises and Q&A periods incorporated into the course, too.
I want to have it 100% put to bed by mid-December so I can take the week off from Christmas to New Year’s Day and because I don’t want to have to deal with it after that because I’m supposed to get notified to fly to Cape Canaveral sometime in January for the Enterprise memorial service and launch, and the notification will require that I fly within two weeks from when I hear the launch date. (Launch dates cannot be ascertained until environmental conditions are determined to be stable enough over a period of time to support a mission.)
It has been GREAT for my bank account, working almost 100 hours in a month’s time at an average of about $150/hour, but I’m not used to this much writing work. I’m loving it, though, because it’s a short term matter and I love the subject matter. I usually only write for this client 10 to 15 hours a week, which is my happy place…
CRITTER PSEUDO CRISIS
Today I didn’t get out of the house to feed the goats and raccoon until almost 4 PM (I usually feed them at sun-up) because of my writing schedule, and when I finally did, what a ruckus they all made! They’re all chunky monkeys so waiting nine hours wasn’t a big deal (or so I thought!), but it was a helluva big deal to them. I guess they thought I musta died or something. They all came running as if they hadn’t eaten in a week. I wish I had walked out with my smartphone set on video, because it was pretty wild! I will try to do better going forward. I don’t want to traumatize my “kids” any more than absolutely necessary, you know.
GROCERY RUNS
Yesterday Lisa and I managed to finagle enough “away from work” time to shop for fruits and vegetables. (She works six days a week routinely; I have been working six days a week for a month). We’re getting away for a little while tomorrow to go to Winco and get Thanksgiving dinner fixin’s, too. We haven’t had any time to do anything other than “necessity shop” together for an hour or two (at the most). GRRR!!!
MOVIES
I did get away last Saturday to take Edward Smith to see BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER in Yelm. Then we ate at Dairy Queen and went our own separate ways. I want to get away long enough to see Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical movie The Fabelmans when it comes out. I think it gets released on Thanksgiving Day, so I won’t be going then! Lisa is cooking and Edward is driving up if it isn’t freezing (it isn’t supposed to be). Maybe I’ll meet Edward in Yelm again on the following Saturday if The Fabelmans is there, then. We’ll see about that…
BLACK FRIDAY PLANS
Lisa and I are going in half and half and getting Edward a desktop PC on Black Friday. His computer croaked, so that’s what we decided to get him for Christmas. He’s happy about that, but feeling mighty isolated until then. But it won’t be long now. As soon as we have it, I (or we, if Lisa can get away) will drive it down to him. We don’t want to make him wait ’til Christmas to get it.
TREE TRIMMING
Tomorrow the tree in our front yard will get trimmed again. Here’s what it looks like right now:
We’re having it trimmed about six feet above where the top of the rhododendron bush is that is planted at its trunk. You can see where we already cut some of the limbs at that height, on the right-hand side of the tree. It’s long overdue for a trim. I think it has been ten years since we had it done. We’re going to have it done every three years from now on… or see if we can keep it trimmed low ourselves.
I think that’s about all the news I want to share. Tangerine Numb Nuts is running again. The less said about that, the better. I don’t want to give away any of my energy to that clown, so I’m swearing off him. Life is too short!
