Not My Favorite Trick

You know, I was amused by that tricky squirrel for the last few days until I realized that it broke the birdfeeder with all its leaping. I noticed this afternoon that no seed was falling out of the feeder and no birds had come to empty it. Turns out the squirrel's trick broke one of the springs that held the outer covering of it so it was always closed. There was no way to fix it so I dumped it out and threw the feeder into the trash. I might have a less squirrel-proof feeder in the shed that I can use to dispense the rest of the 40# bag of birdseed I just bought a couple weeks ago. I don't want to have to buy a new feeder but I will if I have to.

 

The mums are blooming. The copper ones are forging into the lead. They aren't red but I do love their color and the profusion of tiny flowers on the mound of leaves.

 

This tiny gold mum is about as big as my thumbnail and I don't have long nails. It's one of only two open buds on the plant and it's barely big enough to be seen.

 

I tried to paint the outer space sky again. This time on my best paper. That didn't help. It still buckled and the paint slumped into the gullies and made a big splodge on the paper. I'm giving up.

Most of the day I spent doing a couple small loads of laundry (I had some stains I didn't want to set in) and while that was sloshing around I worked on trying to put the antagonist of my novel manuscript earlier in the story and more in the protagonist's way. I only added little things but Lucia's more aware of the really bad guy and finds letters from the sorta bad guy and they're more aware of her. It's a start. I had a manuscript analysis done on ProWritingAid last week and that's one of the "concerns" that showed up. There are more, this is just the first one I'm tackling. Guess I know what I'll be doing up at The Clearing next week. I also figured out a piece of the novel to make copies of to take for critique up there. I'll get that printed out this week too.

 

The drawing prompt today was Something Made of Glass. I wasn't in the mood to draw again today so I sketched the patio door. Meh.

 

I spent time this morning trying to figure out how to make the new Xumo streaming box remote work. Thank heavens I kept the little cheat sheet that came with it. That tells me some things but I can't figure out how to search for shows I want to record except by scrolling through the guide day by day and hour by hour. I can't find a "search" command anywhere. Also it won't let me save things forever, only for 9 months. Before I had a few shows and movies I'd saved to watch over and over and now that's not available to me. This is an improvement?

 

In the morning I took a quick jaunt to the closest grocery store and was happy to find they had lemon Jello so I bought some. I was so grateful that I put it on my gratitude journal page along with getting some crafting stuff and working on the manuscript. 

 

I took a walk after supper. I wasn't in the mood for that either but I did it. On Saturday I leave for The Clearing for a week and need to be able to comfortably walk to class and around campus. I'll manage but I'm too sedentary. Everything I like to do best requires me to sit down--writing, drawing, painting, knitting, reading/listening to audiobooks--all done sitting down. Not laundry, though. Oh, speaking of laundry, there has to be a dead mouse downstairs somewhere because it stinks down there. I texted the pest control people and got a bounce back message telling me to contact them during business hours. I want to make sure the pest guy comes in on Wednesday to find it because it really stinks and I want it gone. I'm paying him to find it and remove it. I'm not doing it. So there.

--Barbara