Monday was cold (a very brief high of 60) and drizzly (about a quarter of an inch), so I didn’t get anything done outside. I fell behind on mowing again because of rain this last weekend, and I’m going to be in Wisconsin the latter half of next week, so I really need to get caught up.
Tuesday morning, I got the call that my big MSI laptop was finally done. I picked it up in the afternoon and I’ve got to admit, I really missed it. The HP that’s become my writing machine works just about perfectly for that use, but I’ve got files on the big machine that aren’t backed up to the cloud (because I’m a cheapskate and I haven’t yet started paying for extra storage at Dropbox). Plus, the writing machine doesn’t have the horsepower or the storage to handle the games I occasionally play. I don’t want to add more distractions to the writing machine, anyway. I’ll leave those on the big computer.
I don’t know that I have words to express my feelings about the attack in Uvalde. It’s horrific for a parent to bury their children. One of the responding officers was married to one of the teachers who died. I can’t fathom that kind of pain. The reporting about the police response disgusts me.
And that’s already more than I intended to say.
The MSI is running just fine, thanks very much. I was up until 0230 Wednesday morning running through the tutorial for Civ 6 just to refresh my memory about controls and such. Note to self: I shouldn’t do that when I know Grandson is coming over at 8:30. I’d have been in bed sooner if I’d realized the clock hadn’t updated for DST.
It stayed rainy much of the week. The weather finally broke Friday, and I caught up on most of the mowing this weekend.
I spent Friday afternoon getting the brakes replaced and the tires rotated on the Subie. I’m planning on driving up to Wisconsin because it just wasn’t practical to try to fly up. I’ve got some funds sitting at Southwest from what was going to be Murdercon 2020. Covid shut that down, so I just banked the tickets, thinking I’d use them for 2021. That went virtual, so I rolled the tickets over again. But Southwest doesn’t fly to Green Bay, and there’s no pretty way to get there from Tulsa. Plus, I’d have to cover a ride from Green Bay to the hotel in Appleton, so it just wasn’t worth the effort to fly. It’s about a twelve-and-a-half-hour drive to Appleton from Wayfarer’s Refuge; that shouldn’t be too ugly. I’ve done longer.
Reading
I was hoping to start First Family this week but haven’t had the time yet. Probably has something to do with getting my computer back and being able to play Civ 6 again. I might get to it early next week.
Writing
This makes the 4th post this month and the fifth week in a row that I’ve posted something. That’s a huge improvement for me. I’m willing to call this a habit now, I think. The only problem I foresee is that next week, I’ll be in Appleton and Green Bay, WI for the Writer’s Police Academy from June 2 – 5. The last one I attended in person was 2019 in Raleigh. I’m really looking forward to the classes at this year’s con. I’ll be meeting some old friends and making some new ones too, I hope. I’ll probably throw together a short post the last night of the con and schedule it to post while I’m on the way home. That’ll count, right?
I’ve been able to put some words down here and there. 800 or so in the blog. 1,500 or so in a couple of different stories. I’ve started yet another story that’s been banging around in my head for a while. This one is so different from my other writing that if it gets released anywhere, it’ll definitely be under a pseudonym. I’m not at all sure my regular readers would appreciate it.
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