The Fourth Decade

I had intended to help with sandbagging today in Iowa City. But I had the repair guy out for the air conditioner this afternoon, and he thought he'd gotten it fixed. When I came home, it was not working again. So he came back, and spent an hour or so finally figuring out that it was a breaker switch. Now, this was the first thing I'd checked, and also the first thing he checked when he got here. But it turns out the switch that is connected to the air conditioner is out in the box beside the meter, rather than with the switches for everything else in the house. So we couldn't find one that needed fixing, and he and his boss took part the thermostat and did all kinds of testing on the furnace until one of them finally figured it out. By this time, it was nearly dark. By the time I had something to eat and figured out where my sandbagging efforts would be needed, it was during sunset. Since I'd been told that the place I needed to go would require wading to from the closest parking area, and I didn't think wading back to my car alone at whatever time I might be finished sounded like a real safe idea, I chickened out. However, I am still dedicated to doing some work Saturday afternoon. I have to work until noon, but I have no plans after that. So I'm not feeling completely useless, just temporarily so.

In the meantime, I think I'll go work on a novel. I've been working in a notebook for a few days, because I seem to like hanging out on the porch and in the living room and I don't have a laptop (by notebook I mean the paper kind). I think it's going well, though I can't really get a word count without wasting a lot of time so I don't know what my real progress has been.


daephene at 9:53:54 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

But they are announcing these are the worst floods in memory. Worse than '93, which were the worst in 100 years at the time. So... lots of water. Whole towns under water. Bridges collapsing and washing away. And it's supposed to rain again tomorrow. The river that goes through here is expected to be eight feet over flood stage by Monday.

So, I'm glad my trailer is on the opposite side of town from the river. Now if the thunderstorms would just stop, so I don't have to worry about tornadoes.

Really, the weather in Iowa has been horrid since November. Enough already. It's time for the bad weather to go bother someone else. Although most everyone else is getting either the same thing or record heat and drought.


daephene at 12:20:23 AM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Last night I indulged and let myself turn the air down lower than necessary so it would be nice and cool for sleeping under a light blanket, which is so much more comfortable than sleeping with just a sheet. Turns out, that was a good thing, because the air stopped working at 1:30. By keeping the house closed up, I was able to do ok until well into the evening. Now it's actually a little cooler outside, so I have the fans running in the windows. Trouble is, allergy season isn't a good time to have the windows open. And tomorrow it will be hot and humid during the day. But, I've lived without air conditioning before and can do it again. I'll have to have someone check it to see if it can be repaired. If it has to be replaced, I might be looking at next summer.

At least it's supposed to get back down under 75 degrees on Monday. That will help.


daephene at 10:20:02 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

I've been doing a lot of cooking since I moved in, sort of. Since I didn't have a microwave for the first month, I tried out recipes for a lot of salad type things that don't require reheating. I made potato salad, cole slaw, broccoli salad, a bean mix that's similar to three bean salad but isn't, and a pasta salad. All of these make big batches intended for groups, so I got to eat them a lot. The bean salad was good, but got old quickly. The broccoli salad was yummy. The cole slaw was ok. The pasta salad was bland but adding salt made it tolerable. The potato salad... I've made twice now and have no trouble finishing it off. This is in line with the theory that potatoes are my favorite food, prepared just about any way possible. Except some french fries, which are just inferior to Wendys.

Today I learned that not all Hy-Vee stores (an Iowa grocery chain) carry the same things. I'd been looking for an eggplant mixture called caponata. I had looked at the HyVee nearest the apartment, and at all the co-ops and places with unusual food around town. Today I was in the HyVee closest to my trailer, and guess what I found? It hadn't occurred to me to try the other stores in the same chain. But there it was. So, lesson learned. And now I have to go find the recipe I wanted it for.

We're having a potluck at work tomorrow. I was going to make potato salad, but I forgot to buy eggs, and it is now after 10 and I don't feel like running to the store. I'll stop by a store tomorrow and buy some premade stuff. Won't be as good as mine, if I do say so myself, but it'll do.


daephene at 11:13:44 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 2 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

It's supposed to rain tonight. We have a flash flood warning until 10 am tomorrow. Many people, including the local newscasters, are referencing the floods of 1993. So far we're not that bad yet. If it does get that bad, expect your food prices to go up. Corn doesn't grow under water.

I'm beginning to suspect the water is damaging my leeks also. Though I have no idea what leeks usually look like when they're growing, mine are really tiny. I planted them in a little depression, since you're supposed to pile more dirt around them as they grow. I suspect they may be drowning.

Now is a good time to own a home with no basement. So far, the rain is just a nuisance for me personally. But I'd really like it to go away. Does anyone know a good anti- rain dance?


daephene at 11:21:33 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 2 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Really, that's the problem with me keeping a blog. Nothing much happens on a day to day basis that's worth writing about. On the other hand, since I haven't been blogging since I moved in much, there are lots of things about my house I can tell you.

I realized today that sometimes, if I use the microwave while the refrigerator is running, it overloads the fuses and I have to go flip the switch in the breaker box thingy. I am amused by this at the moment. Fortunately no fuses had to be replaced.

I have pumpkin plants! Did I mention the 16x16 garden plot in back? I planted tomatoes and peppers and onions and spinach and eggplant and pumpkin. The pumpkin especially appears to be thriving at the moment. The spinach isn't far from being big enough to pick some for baby spinach for salads. The green onions should be harvestable before too much longer too. So far vegetable gardening is fun.

It rains too much. Unless you're in the southeast, I guess. Everyone in the Midwest wants the rain to head down to Georgia and North Carolina, where people actually want it. We think it would be neat to have 5 days in a row without rain. A week would be a miracle. It's going to be flooding in Iowa City if it gets much worse.

And there you have my random observations for the day. Thanks for noticing.


daephene at 11:18:05 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

It's official, in the past few weeks I have watched too much television. Part of it is the fun of having the living room to myself. I don't have to choose between my bedroom or Project Runway. Now I can choose between lounging in the bedroom, watching tv in the living room, working or playing in the computer room, or reading or working on projects in the spare bedroom, which has all my craft type supplies. During the day I can also read on the deck, or work in the garden. I have so many options. So I've been thoroughly exploring the tv one. To be fair I've done a fair bit of gardening too, and playing computer games, and cooking. I made potato salad for the first time. It was good.

Nonetheless, my novel would get written faster if I would stay out of the living room and work on it. But there's no guarantee that sitting in front of the computer will get it done. I have managed to finally get Chapter 11 revised to where it needs to be in order to get the story headed towards the planned ending. If I don't finish Chapter 12 by the end of this week, I'm going to blame the tv.


daephene at 11:26:27 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

There is a part of me that is very attached to the concept of doing nothing. I need to learn to keep it in check. Today I accomplished several things, with long breaks in between. I wish I could say I was thinking about the novels, or pondering the mysteries of the universe, or something remotely useful. I'm not sure I could say what I was thinking of at all. I just wasn't doing anything. Some people are going all the time. I am not. But there's a point where it ceases to be just a difference in energy level, and becomes a problem I need to solve.

And so, I have decided to try and write a journal entry every day. Since I recently bought a mobile home and am experiencing the joys of home ownership for the first time I should have plenty of material (the ten hour shift working on the plumbing in the laundry room was certainly a highlight). Hopefully, this will help with the novel writing and not distract from it. We shall see. Anyway, I hope someone's reading.


daephene at 10:19:41 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 2 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Hello, loyal readers.  Or whoever you are, if you're not Sarah or Karen.  I have been gone from this journal quite a while, and it's about time it had an update.  I am now in the second year of my fourth decade, approaching the halfway point of that year in fact, and I can't say that I'm feeling quite as accomplished as I was at the beginning.  That seems backwards, but it is true.  When I turned 30, I had just finished a completed draft of a novel, something I had failed to do in my twenties for various reasons mostly having to do with laziness.  Now I'm beginning to wonder if this will be the decade where I fail to finish revising a novel. I guess I don't seriously doubt I can do it in the next eight and a half years, but I'd kinda like it done sooner. 

There are multiple problems at this point, the first being that I've overhauled the story so much that I don't even know where it's going anymore, and I'm not the type of person who makes it up while I'm sitting in front of the keyboard.  Details, yes, but I need to know what's the basic plan for a scene is before I start or I end up getting distracted and discouraged and not writing anything worth anything.  I started chapter 11 once and deleted it all because it wasn't going anywhere.  So I took a break.  The problem with me and breaks is that it's very hard to come back from one.  Especially when my day job is more stressful than usual and I just want to come home and relax at the end of the day.  Is that what other people do, who don't have other worlds in their head that want to be written about? I gather most people manage some type of hobby, some people even manage second jobs and families, or volunteer work or several weeks of theater rehearsals.  They do have one advantage over me, in that it's not all up to them.  Someone tells them when to be at work, or at the theater, and the family is always around needing things.  This is all me.  It's my discipline or lack thereof, with no other factors other than the five people who read the first half and would appreciate it if I finished.  And even that is just an external motivation, not an external structure.  I know I need to do it, but when and how are entirely up to me, and I don't have a lot of motivation, concentration, discipline, or mental energy level right now.

So...this leads to the self improvement mentioned in the title. I suspect some of my energy level and concentration issues have to do with my lifestyle.  I have begun increasing my water intake, and even managed the prescribed 8 glasses on Friday.  I'm cutting back on the caffeine.  I need to do some more research from there.  I know some preservatives and additives have been linked to ADD behavior and dietary restrictions have been used to alleviate the symptoms.  I figure that couldn't hurt, even if I don't actually have a disorder.  Actually if your symptoms are caused by your diet, you probably don't have the disorder at all, just a dietary problem.  Anyway, this bears looking into further.  I also need to get back to the gym.  It's too darn hot, as they might say in musical theater, but I need to do it anyway.  Last time I went to the gym on a warm day I wasn't impressed by the level of air conditioning, but it's better than going outside some days.  So these are my plans in helping myself to be as healthy as possible, both for health's sake and to improve my ability to concentrate.

I've also started a budget, which I'm obsessing over since it's a novelty item but hopefully will continue to stick with when it's not a new fun project anymore.  I started the budget to save money for a vacation I'm planning to take next year to Romania.  More about that will be written here another time.  However, I made sure to budget for charitable donations, which makes me feel better about myself.  It's good to plan for that on a regular basis.  On a related note, I actually went to church, which is a notable occasion these days.  And in July I did an awful lot of socializing, which was fun but also distracting.  The real plan for the break in writing was to get out more and to read and thus have more inspiration for the writing.  It may have had an impact in general, but it's doing nothing for this particular novel.  Still, I probably just need to figure out a schedule again, weed out unnecessary distractions, and get to work.  I've pared down my list of blogs and comics to read, so that's a start.  Now if I can get myself to stop looking up Romanian vacation packages or democratic political candidates or cat food brands...

Anyway, that's where we are right now.  Just thought I'd update.  I've rambled on beyond having a point now, so I'll go.  And, you know, maybe write something.


daephene at 6:14:45 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

Sweeping the cobwebs off this journal as I write this, I have to admit a few things.  I am lazy by nature.  Self discipline is a challenge for me, and procrastination a way of life.  This does not work in a novelist.  Novels are long. They cannot be completed without dedicated effort.  I did okay when I was not working, when I was out for surgery.  I could dedicate 5-6 hours a day to at least sitting in front of the computer trying to concentrate.  So I suppose everything would be fine if I just won the lottery and could give up my day job.  Since the odds are against me, I find it necessary to come up with a plan.  While at it, I made a plan for other aspects of my life as well.  To be honest, I made this plan a few weeks ago, and my ability to follow it has been spotty.  So today I refined the plan.  And for an extra layer of accountability, I am now sharing it with you.  Both of you.

Part One: I must write a minimum of 100 words a day.  That has been the plan for the past week or so, because it is such a minimal amount that it is very hard to try and argue that I don't have time or I'm too tired.  It's only 100 words, after all.  Once writing every day is an established habit, I'll consider raising it, but right now it's all about not being able to make an excuse not to do it.  Today I added the idea that at least one day a week I should also work on something other than the novel I am currently revising.  This may be journal entries, short stories, bits of future novels, other non-fiction pursuits, or whatever.  I was thinking this morning about whether I should work on more than one project at a time, since I have other ideas in my head that might not want to wait.  Then I read a bit of John Scalzi's book on writing, and it occurred to me that there was no reason I shouldn't be able to work on two in the same day.  I might have to give up an hour of web surfing here and there, but I think I can handle it.  So this is the plan: at least 100 words a day on the Teridel book, and at least 100 words a week of some other written output.  Not really hard, pretty sure even I can do that little.

Part 2: The rest of my life.  I will clean something every day, from taking the trash out to cleaning an entire room.  I will clean the catboxes more often.  I will read at least one book a month and go to church at least once a month.  I will cook dinner on Tues and Sat, while my roommate takes her turn on Thurs and Sun (actually we've had this going since January and it works really well).  I will go to the gym Mon, Wed and Fri.  I will pay rent on time.  I will get to the dentist this spring.  There are a few other little things I need to do, but these are the ones I can share with the public.  Most of these I have been trying to make into habit for weeks, and with the exception of the gym I haven't failed too badly.  Missed a day here and there, on pretty much all of them except the cooking.  The gym we've been missing because of weather, so I don't blame myself too much for that. 

Anyway, if this plan does not succeed, I will have to look at the real possibility that I don't have the discipline necessary to make it as a novelist, regardless of the quality of my writing.  I guess that's when I start learning to write short stories.


daephene at 11:32:57 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own