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Done This Week
Nov. 17th, 2024 01:53 pm...I mean, what better time to have a tire blow out than at 4:30 in the morning on the side of the highway? Sure. Why not?
Anyway, I changed a flat on my car for the first time since buying it seventeen years ago, so that’s a pretty good streak. And it appears to have been a freak accident--the other tires were in good condition--so I only had to buy one new tire. Small mercies.
I haven’t done much on my list of cleaning tasks, but what I did was a big one. The outlet that supplies, among other things, the heat lamps in the greenhouses was dead. I mean, really dead. It had obviously gotten cobweb or such around the plugs and been arcing for a while. When I discovered it, prepping for the coming cold snap, it was burnt, melted, and corroded such that I could barely remove the plug.
The issue is that the people who manufactured my house, whenever possible, opted to use the cheapest materials and the worst procedures possible. So the outlet was stuffed into/behind the skirting of the house, not attached to anything, just resting on some piping. To even see what I was dealing with, I had to take the skirting and trim off.
I hadn’t been planning to do all the work in one go, since I would need to do shopping for parts once I saw how it was set up. But having gone through all that, the prospect of putting the skirting back up (to keep out creatures) just to do it all again was...displeasing. So I did, in fact, run out to buy materials and then swear and struggle over the halfassed job some contractor once did. At last, the outlet is replaced and functional. And I didn’t electrocute myself or anything!
That, by the way, is one of the very few posts to my new Bluesky account. (Forgive the janky embedding--DW doesn't play nice with embedding sometimes.) Though I haven’t used Xitter in many years in any meaningful way, I did still have an account. With the recent Various, I finally went through the process of saving any accounts I didn’t want to lose track of and then deleting my own. I don’t know that Bluesky will prove to be any more compelling for me than Xitter was. But it is a nice way to keep up with a few people’s comings and goings.
Meanwhile, one of this year’s cruelties was the unexpected death of my writing teacher of twenty years, Holly Lisle. She is in the category of “reasons why I didn’t lie down and die” between the ages of eighteen and thirty-three, for a start. Losing her would have been a blow regardless; losing her hard on the heels of dad has been a burden I was not well-positioned to endure.
By way of grieving, I found myself wanting to go through one of her courses again, just to hear her voice and be in her presence in some way. And weirdly, I find myself more able to write than I have been all year. So I set some goals on Pacemaker, and printed up some worksheets, and started poking away at a Scrivener file. We’ll see what comes of any of it.
Lewisia: 3 new pieces written
Day job: 42.75 hours, in which overtime on one day offset arriving late due to tire shenanigans
Cleaning: fixed the dead outlet
Gardening: succulent club meeting
Listening: Beyond Beyond Beyond by The Crane Wives (new album, already love it)
Clock Mouse: 1131 words
Other: dealt with tire blowout
Anyway, I changed a flat on my car for the first time since buying it seventeen years ago, so that’s a pretty good streak. And it appears to have been a freak accident--the other tires were in good condition--so I only had to buy one new tire. Small mercies.
I haven’t done much on my list of cleaning tasks, but what I did was a big one. The outlet that supplies, among other things, the heat lamps in the greenhouses was dead. I mean, really dead. It had obviously gotten cobweb or such around the plugs and been arcing for a while. When I discovered it, prepping for the coming cold snap, it was burnt, melted, and corroded such that I could barely remove the plug.
The issue is that the people who manufactured my house, whenever possible, opted to use the cheapest materials and the worst procedures possible. So the outlet was stuffed into/behind the skirting of the house, not attached to anything, just resting on some piping. To even see what I was dealing with, I had to take the skirting and trim off.
I hadn’t been planning to do all the work in one go, since I would need to do shopping for parts once I saw how it was set up. But having gone through all that, the prospect of putting the skirting back up (to keep out creatures) just to do it all again was...displeasing. So I did, in fact, run out to buy materials and then swear and struggle over the halfassed job some contractor once did. At last, the outlet is replaced and functional. And I didn’t electrocute myself or anything!
I think I know why the greenhouse lamps aren't working...
— Jay Sully (scrubjayspeaks) November 16, 2024 at 11:58 AM
That, by the way, is one of the very few posts to my new Bluesky account. (Forgive the janky embedding--DW doesn't play nice with embedding sometimes.) Though I haven’t used Xitter in many years in any meaningful way, I did still have an account. With the recent Various, I finally went through the process of saving any accounts I didn’t want to lose track of and then deleting my own. I don’t know that Bluesky will prove to be any more compelling for me than Xitter was. But it is a nice way to keep up with a few people’s comings and goings.
Meanwhile, one of this year’s cruelties was the unexpected death of my writing teacher of twenty years, Holly Lisle. She is in the category of “reasons why I didn’t lie down and die” between the ages of eighteen and thirty-three, for a start. Losing her would have been a blow regardless; losing her hard on the heels of dad has been a burden I was not well-positioned to endure.
By way of grieving, I found myself wanting to go through one of her courses again, just to hear her voice and be in her presence in some way. And weirdly, I find myself more able to write than I have been all year. So I set some goals on Pacemaker, and printed up some worksheets, and started poking away at a Scrivener file. We’ll see what comes of any of it.
Lewisia: 3 new pieces written
Day job: 42.75 hours, in which overtime on one day offset arriving late due to tire shenanigans
Cleaning: fixed the dead outlet
Gardening: succulent club meeting
Listening: Beyond Beyond Beyond by The Crane Wives (new album, already love it)
Clock Mouse: 1131 words
Other: dealt with tire blowout
