Monday

Blog. Blog blog blog. Blog.

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adorable animal basket cuddly

Photo by Lum3n.com on Pexels.com

I’m having the Monday morning blanks today. Friday, I knew exactly what I wanted to blog about today, but I probably should have done that then because whatever it was, it’s gone.

My sleeping is off lately, I don’t know if it’s the heat or the world or just life as a whole, but I’ve been waking up in the beginning hours of the morning and having trouble going back to sleep.

Thank goodness for “Monk.”

So the gears are sticker than they should be today, the wheels grinding to a week-start more slowly.

A weak start, more like?

Ah, where there is punning, there is hope.

I’m going to try to get my brain to a more acceptable level of participation. It may or may not involve more coffee.

(I mean, we both know it’s going to involve more coffee.)

But I hope your week is off to a faster, brighter, more efficient balloon drop, and if not, you’ll join me in a cup of whatever beverage gets you going. I mean, probably not alcoholic beverages, if it’s morning where you are too, because that seems like a tipsy way to kick off a Monday, but for so many of you that could be moot because it’s already Monday evening or later. All of which is to say I’m making that other desperately needed coffee.

Have a great Monday.

Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

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Monday musings plus rain.

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woman in brown robe holding umbrella walking on concrete pathway

Photo by Satoshi Hirayama on Pexels.com

It’s a rainy Monday after a string of oppressively hot days. Saturday I tried to do an art fair, but after less than 30 minutes I felt faint.

Alas.

It’s one of the nicer ones, too, with truly talented artists as opposed to the type of fair where you wonder if everyone has been too kind to the people hopefully springing for booths. Art is hard.

Art is even harder if you intend to make a living at it. Not that I’d know anything about that.

And now it’s Monday like the weekend never happened, like the relaxation has vanished into a never-was. Yeah, fine, right, maybe the rain has made me a little melodramatic.

But only a tad.

I’m feeling unsettled for reasons I couldn’t pin down, which is odd as the rain usually calms me. I love a good rain. I love a dramatic rain, though this one isn’t. Steady, by the looks of it. No thunder, though.

You know what I call this. Writing weather.

Though I’m not sure that’s going to work today, I’ll have to see. Other things to do, but maybe they can be shifted. Such romantic notion, writing in the rain.

Well, not IN the rain. I don’t think my computer would enjoy that very much. Though note to self: waterproof computers, the wave of the future. GET IT? Wave?

I told you, all over the place today. I wonder if more coffee would help?

Doesn’t it always?

Happy Monday!

Like my political side? Read my opinion pieces here.

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

Mondayriffic

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Full disclosure. Found the native operating system tools for enhancing photos and I think I got a little carried away.

Well, it certainly is Monday. It’s all kinds of Monday. The kind of Monday where I mistyped Monday about five times (and erased mistyped accidentally).

Monday.

Now Monday looks weird. Mission accomplished.

Woke this morning to thunder, and I presume lightning, though I saw no evidence thereof through my determinedly, yet futilely, closed eyelids. It’s a soggy gray world out there today. The spring color is muted, and we’ve gone from summer temps to early season ones. It’s kind of backward but it figures.

Got outside a little yesterday for Mother’s Day (a happy belated one to all who celebrate it) and caught all kinds of little birds. Well, I didn’t catch them catch them, I glimpsed them, and even photographed a few. Apparently, according to the Chicago Botanic Garden, many of them were migratory warblers. Including this one, which could be a Cape May warbler, judging by the photos. Boy are they fast.

So I will Monday on, while wishing you all a productive, less Monday-like week. I’ve got some MAYkingItWork to MAYke work.

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

Gray and gloomy Monday

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Paul Cornoyer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

From ice to mud and probably back to ice; so goes February in Chicago. A gray mist has enveloped the world, and later there should be lightning.

Sounds familiar.

I’m having one of those low-wordage days, those molasses-brain days, but light molasses because I can just make them out beyond the sticky amber boundary. They’re in there.

But I may need some kind of solvent to get them out.

Coffee, perhaps? Already had some, and tea, but to no avail, it’s as though the mist has enveloped my brain as well. Perhaps there, too, later there will be lightning.

That’s usually a good thing for a writer.

You can’t get more Monday than Monday, and this one feels supremely Monday, despite the federal holiday. Of all days, Presidents’ Day. I think that’s the correct punctuation. I’m seeing “Presidents Day” as well, but I don’t know if that’s style or laziness.

Both, perhaps?

Debating whether I need to turn on the lights just before ten in the morning, the gloom is spreading. And has settled in for the day.

This should be writing weather. Let’s see how it faces off with molasses-brain.

The race is on.

Check out my recaps of the hit new show “All My Traitors.” Recap of episode 2, “Lock Him Up” is available now!

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

Monday again, is it?

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By John Lewin [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. He totally captured my likeness. 

Sirens and gray skies this somnolent Monday morning. Or maybe it’s not the morning that’s somnolent. Maybe it’s me. I probably hope not.

Can a person be somnolent?

Yes, in fact, as it happens, and all the other filler phrases, a person can, but let’s say I am in the feeling drowsy sense of the word, not the causing drowsiness sense of the word. Because that second one is a bummer.

And worry not, hypothetical reader, those sirens were mere passersby in my world, brief intrusions of noise in otherwise an odd kind of quiet for a Monday.

But I have a cup of coffee in a lovely round mug, the kind that warms your hands in all the right places when you hold it, and the good part of a day where outside is simply outside and doesn’t beckon at all.

Time to hunker down, I have a Monday-sized list ahead of me, and I think all of my will is in the bottom of that coffee cup.

Better get sipping.

Check out my recaps of the hit new show “All My Traitors.” Recap of episode 2, “Lock Him Up” is available now!

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

Monday, Monday Always Monday

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By Zimmermanns (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

And back around again to Monday. New week, new need to cut my fingernails, as they’re now at the length of clacking against the keyboard and it’s driving me crazy and slowing me down.

No one wants slow typing fingers. Writers definitely don’t want slow typing fingers. If your ideas get too far out in front of you, they sometimes dissolve into mist and you can’t catch them. Ideas are a elusive.

I’m trying to cut down on caffeine again, and attempted to trick my brain with a half-caf. My brain is smarter than I thought. Or more caffeine dependent. Either way, upside is that another cup of coffee only brings me to one cup of coffee.

What’s that, hypothetical reader? Decaffeinated coffee still has some caffeine, which means that another cup of half-caf might mean more caffeine than a regular cup of coffee?

Spoilsport, I say to you, hypothetical reader. Spoilsport indeed.

While a week of peace and general calmness seems to be too much to ask in our alternative universe, I do wish all a week of good words, great ideas and smooth sailing, whatever your endeavors.

Unless you’re some kind of evil-plotter, in which case I wish you all those things only if your evil-plotting stays firmly in your manuscripts.

We are adrift right now in this vast sea of uncertainty. Good thing I brought a pen.

 

For more on my thoughts about Charlottesville and rising bigotry, please read An Open Letter to My Friends of Color.

Check out  my full-length novels: 

Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   

Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 

 Her Cousin Much Removed

 The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

Peruse Montraps Publishing.

Technology and Monday have it in for me

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not working tvSo with Jane Storegoer shifted to Fridays, Monday is now open when it comes to blog topics. And by “open” I mean I’ve been staring at the blank “Add a New Post” screen and listening to the wind rattle my blinds.

Once again, I’ve got my cable service on my mind. And once again, I don’t have any in the bedroom. And once again, I am surprised by how much it’s bothering me. And once again, I am wondering if there is a message from the universe I’ m missing or refusing to hear.

To add to that, I’ve just received a cancellation confirmation from TiVo. If you recall, I cancelled my TiVo service a week ago. Why is it only going through now? Your guess is as good as mine, but given that they never actually cancelled service I canceled in 2014, let’s hope we are good and finished with one another. In fact it said the cancellation request was at 12 midnight. Who knows why. Let’s hope no credit cards were charged in the making of this cancellation, and keep eyes on all statements.

I guess it’s got me thinking about how we don’t notice things that work while they’re working, but when they go awry — no matter how small the real impact on our lives and the planet — it can seem impossible to get everything ticking and humming again.

Is it just a failure of fortitude? Are there take-it-in-stride people who don’t see these life aggravations as aggravations?

Is this situation as annoying as I think it is?

I mean the RCN tech people are nice and all, but I don’t want to have them to breakfast every week.

Oh well, as I said on Twitter, at least it meant revisiting a manuscript that has been in a state of stagnation for a while. And maybe that’s universe’s point. Manuscripts good.

TV bad.

Who knows. Either way, I’m buying insurance for the robot uprising. I’m almost positive my TV service is the first wave.

Check out  my full-length novels,  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only), and the sequel, Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) which is now available!

And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

 Sign up for my spamless newsletter!

Muffin Through the Mondays

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Well, here we are, another Monday, and what a Monday it is. It’s both sunny and foggy out this morning, which is a strange combo. I would think it would be one or the other, but not both. Then again, I’m no meteorologist or weather summoner, so there’s that.

I started this morning off with a little bit of a twist. I baked some muffins, and they turned out very well, I thought. See?

20150831_093537 (1)They tasted pretty good, too. And no, hypothetical reader, I didn’t eat all of them. Not all, exactly. Fine, I had two. Are you happy, hypothetical reader? You are? You just would like me to share them with you? But I could only share them hypothetically, given your current…condition. You know, of being entirely made up. Can we move on now? Thank you.

Anyway, I think there’s something about a fresh muffin on a Monday morning to lessen the Mondayness of it all. That’s what I’d like to think, anyway.

And here we are at the very edge of August, the summer fading like the green of the leaves. Already there are hints of red and yellow; already the air feels different in the morning. More determined. Brisk. Serious.

The weeks churn along, from Monday to Monday, from season to season, and onward we go. At least we have muffins.

Check out  my full-length novels,  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only), and the sequel, Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) which is now available!

A Case of the Mondays, or You Again?!

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I’d like to say that I’m starting this week with a snap in my step, with ready-to-tackle it spirit. I’d like to say that, but I can’t because I’m not.

Nope, it’s one of those Mondays. We all have them, when the week stretches ahead of you, and no shiny bits in the whole lot. Monday is Monday, and it arrives no matter how leisurely or hectic a Sunday you had (for the record, mine was leisurely. You’d think I’d be more Monday ready).

So should it matter how it is we’re feeling about Monday? Sorry to lump you in with me here, you could be all bright-tailed and bushy-eyed, raring to go, with your to-do list halfway done by now. You could be taking a very productive break, perusing the blogs as you sip your measured dose of caffeine or water or whatever, cheerfully almost through your most odious task of the week. You could, in short, be my wishlist version of myself, and good for you. Please don’t trip on the jealousy on your way back to the other half of your list.

Oh well. Enthusiasm doesn’t factor into it, not really, when you think about it. It doesn’t much matter how you feel about getting things done, it’s just the getting them done.

At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

Check out  my full-length novels,  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only), and the sequel, Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) which is now available!

Sign up for my spamless newsletter. And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!

 

Surprise! It’s Monday

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Monday kind of surprised me this week. I mean, generally, it’s right here after Sunday, but Sunday was a blur of errands and snow that wasn’t supposed to be much of anything but changed its mind. Next thing you know, it’s gone, and the week has begun.

Hmm.

It’s a strange feeling, when the week sets out without you. It’s an unbalanced mix of “Wait for me!” and “Go ahead, I’ll catch up. Maybe.”

On the plus side, it’s a federal holiday, so plenty of people have a three-day weekend. Everything’s a little slower today, including, apparently me. But I have writing to do.

And I haven’t figured out yet how to get it to write itself. Which is too bad. Because that would be awesome, and would really increase my productivity.

Who’s with me? Yes? No? Fine. Then I guess I get to keep all the invention money after I invent the thingy that does all work. Now all I have to do is invent the thingy that does all the work.

Or, you know, write. They’re both viable options.

Check out  my full-length novels,  Her Cousin Much Removed,  The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management and Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only), and the sequel, Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) which is now available!

Sign up for my spamless newsletter. And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s free!