It’s been beautiful outside most of this week. I took an hour bike ride Sunday, and a shorter ride Thursday, relishing the cool air, the sunlight through the trees, all of it. The kind of weather that I mentally associate with returning to school, which gives me a nice feeling of cool new things coming down the pike.
On the downside, DST ended this week, and as usual that wreaked havoc with my sleep (which as regular readers may remember is poor even at the best of times). Normally I have trouble getting back to sleep if I wake after 3:30 AM, as a part of me feels it’s too close to time to get up. After the time change, 2:30 AM is the same as 3:30 AM was the week before. My brain has not accepted I still have lots of time before I need to get up. Not good.
Work, though, went well. I began rereading Southern Discomfort aloud, from hard copy, to spot any final mistakes, bad word phrases, etc.. It’s going well, and I’m pleased with the work so far. but it’s also going to be slower than I’d hoped. Ninety thousand words is a lot to read aloud, even without the corrections.
And I’ve worked out the problems in No One Can Slay Her. If I can print it up this weekend, I’ll read it aloud next week. Putting in hard copy works for me because it feels final. Reading it aloud forces me to pay attention.
Leaf work for the year is winding down, but I still had some to do this week. That kept me from getting a lot done on Undead Sexist Cliches.
I’m doing my 1,000 words of fiction every morning, but I’m now wondering about my approach. I’ve turned out first drafts of several stories, unfinished first drafts of possibly longer works, and second drafts of some, but I don’t feel like I’m getting close to finishing anything or even seeing the finished structure. That’s frustrating. I’ve abandoned enough unsuccessful projects that I’m always afraid I’m putting a lot of time that will accomplish nothing.
Wisp is using and presumably enjoying her little house on our deck. She’s usually waiting when I bring out food. Sometimes waiting a while as she doesn’t realize 5pm feeding is now an hour later than a week ago. Sometimes she sits on the railing and watches me through the window as I get the food — or she’s staring at the bird feeder above the window.
Oh, and I’m actually selling copies of Atoms for Peace, which is cheering. Not that I’m going to knock Patrick Rothfuss off the bestseller lists, but it’s cool to know people are buying it (thanks, whoever you are).
On a personal note, I unfollowed one right-winger among my FB friends, and “took a break” from another. Every time I do, I find the satisfaction of not dealing with their bullshit easily outweighs any concerns I might miss a charming puppy GIF.
And here’s another example of a wine with a striking label. Haven’t tried it (anything above $20 is usually a no-go for me)f, but I do like the look.
#SFWApro. All rights to wine image remain with current holder.
I sympathize with you over your sleeping troubles, as I’ve been going through a bit of a bad period with sleep myself, and for much the same reason: I wake up early, and my stupid brain refuses to let me go back to sleep (and then has the hide to whine, “I’m tiiiiiiired!” when I finally do have to get up!). I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about sleep. While it can be a beautiful thing (especially when you’re really hanging out for it), at other times it just strikes me as a colossal waste of time. Nothing worse than really getting into a good book, piece of writing, or something else interesting and rewarding, only to realize I have to stop because it’s time to waste another eight hours or so of my life in a stupid state of unconsciousness. And to then encounter the aforementioned problem, and have my brain effectively tell me, “Sorry, you didn’t do your six/seven/eight hours of unconsciousness right, so you wasted all that time for nothing!” Bah!
I often lament the ending of DST here too, though I probably did so more back in the days when I was a financially-struggling university student, and for a rather odd reason: I rode a bike, and whenever daylight savings ended, it’d mean riding home in the dark at the end of the day. Which was a problem because the only bike lights I could afford back then were cheap, shitty ones that were always breaking, and investing in a new set always set me back financially (as the saying goes, “It’s expensive to be poor!”). During the DS months, I could generally get away with not having a working set of bike lights, but once DS ended, it was back to dipping into my meagre funds to buy another crappy set, and hoping they lasted long enough until such time as I could afford to replace them!
I’m a big fan of sleep myself. Insomnia isn’t as disruptive as it was when I had a day job, as I can always write if I get up at 1 am or 3 am or whenever. And when it’s the weekend and I have no pressure to get up, I usually sleep fine.
I was carless for about a year and had a similar experience with DST. Nothing ever made me as conscious of the shrinking hours of daylight as having to wonder whether I’d get home before it was dark.