If it’s not one thing…

We got a lot of rain last week, and it interrupted my mowing schedule. I ended up only getting about 3/4 of our property mowed before the rain hit. Sunday, I started mowing again only to hit a small stump I’d forgotten about. I hit it hard enough to bend the deck into the path of the blades. That repair involved dropping the deck, removing the blades (and ordering new ones since these were pretty torn up), buying a sledgehammer to bang the dents out, then putting everything back together. I’d hoped to have just enough time to get everything mowed before the in-laws show up for my daughter’s graduation and son’s birthday party this past weekend.

Almost didn’t happen.

The blades I’d bought were about half an inch wider and an eighth of an inch longer than what I had on there before, so my clearances were tighter than they had been. Plus, I hadn’t gotten the original damage completely repaired, so when I hit something else in the yard, things got bent out of shape again. I was worried I’d have to drop the deck again, but I lucked out and was able to bang things back into place.  

One of my boys turned twenty on Friday. The family and his girlfriend went in together on an Ender 3 and a starting filament kit, so I’m kind of looking forward to seeing what he prints for me. Is sending him a link to my Thingiverse wish list too obvious?

The graduation event for my daughter was pretty cool. Lots of tears shed, of course. It was heart-warming to see so many of the people who helped shape her life come out to celebrate this moment with her. It was the first time we’d seen my father- and sister-in-law since 2019, too, so that made it a little more special. I hope someone recorded my little speech as I presented her diploma, because I never remember what I say at these things. I’m sure it was touching.

Reading

I didn’t get any reading done this week, but I didn’t expect to, either. Too much other stuff going on with graduation and birthday events. I’ve got my eye on Radley Balko’s The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist once things settle down, among others. I may also get John Grisham’s The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. Both books deal with wrongful convictions; Grisham’s story comes from Ada, Oklahoma.

I did read a cool story from January about a young woman in Pennsylvania who’s doing her part to fight book bans. She started her own teen banned book club in conjunction with Firefly Books, a local independent bookstore. Kids doing things like this give me hope.

Word Counts

• Walls sits at 24,030 words.
• The Nth Passenger is at 1,547 words.
• After Episode 3 is now at 2,291 words. The entire story is at 92,046. Episode 1 is complete on the website; I haven’t posted any of Ep 2 (chapters 18 – 33). I should get to work on that.
• In Plain Sight is still sitting in my “Approve Edits” folder. I also need to get a cover done.

This is close to three weeks in a row that I’ve posted something on the blog. I’m trying to get into a habit, and so far, it’s been (sort of) working. My goal is to post each Saturday or Sunday about the week prior. I’m a little late this week, but that’s because I was relaxing yesterday. We’ll see how it goes.

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