Done This Week

*tea kettle noises* Okay, lots of progress this week. Things are actually moving forward as they should. Which does mean I feel a bit like I’m on a roller coaster that just hit the top of the first big peak and the speed is about to take hold of me. Up to this point, I’ve been waiting for everyone else to catch up to me. Now I’m going, oh shit, oh shit, gotta start packing?!

Saw that killdeer I had been hearing.

Lewisia: 3 new pieces written

Day job: 34.25 hours, and having despaired last Sunday about having to work a full week, I forgot I was taking Wednesday off

Gardening: my old foe returns--WEEDING!, garden club post

Reading: The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery (had been meaning to read this for a long time, more narrative than the other nature books I’ve been reading, still very interesting but sometimes exceedingly sad), The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher (hi, hello, I have the shrieking horrors now, thank you for that, the ending twist was better than I had hoped)

Listening: did a combo pack of shorter things--BYTE BALLADS by Louie Zong (vocal synth stuff, sold me with the phrase “you’ve got to save yourself”), “Blinkmoth (July Mix)” by james K (a KEXP pick), and Moomination by Paszczak (experimental electronic stuff, yes, I did search Bandcamp for anything that mentioned Moomin and grabbed whatever seemed cool)

Aftermarket Parts: fielded more calls, submitted many documents, got provisional approval of my leave time (true approval doesn’t happen until it actually starts), paid my hospital fees *moth flies from wallet*

Clock Mouse: 1244 words, and at some point, I’m going to HAVE to name these people…

Other: unloaded hay twice

The Friday Five

1. If you could go back and relive one moment or day from your life, without changing anything, what would you re-experience?
I think I would go back to the day I picked out my first dog when I was five. She was a very young puppy and wouldn't come home with us for a while yet. But we went to the breeder's place and met the current litter of golden retrievers. We were outside under the eucalyptus trees. I ended up lying on my mom's Christmas sweater, on my back with one puppy resting on my chest. That was Sara. She was very sweet and calm even as a little butterball puppy. I would go back and rest with her one more time.

2. If you could witness a moment in history, again without changing anything, what would you want to see?
Huh. The first thing that came to mind was the moon landing, which seems a little plebeian against the full scale of history. For a slightly less specific moment, I'd like to watch a dinosaur hatching and see what the parental care looked like.

3. If you could talk to a younger version of yourself, what age would you visit and what message would you give?
Oof. A fraught topic. If it's just a one-time conversation, probably the best good I could do would be to find myself at 13. I'm not sure I would even need to say anything. Seeing me as I am now, alive and transitioning, might have been message enough.

4. If you could choose one moment that would be guaranteed to happen in your future, what would it be and when would it happen?
Hm, and now we see my chronic inability to imagine the future... Anything I try to imagine feels positively arrogant in its optimism. I'd like to succeed in growing wildflowers well enough that I can stand in my field completely surrounded by flowers waving in the breeze.

5. Pretend you left a time capsule for yourself 5, 10, 15, 20 or more years ago. You just opened it. What three things from your past are you now holding and what age were you when you buried them?
*cackle* All I can imagine is what, say, eight-year-old me would have put in a time capsule. In which case, I am holding an assortment of shiny rocks, dried flowers, and small animal bones little me had found. And probably some now exceedingly stale candies.