Dudley and Trixie
And then Trixie and Dudley!
Now here’s Trixie after her first visit to our new groomer.
Eliotte’s Pet Spa. They do good work.
Category Archives: The Dog Ate My Homework
The camel’s hump is an ugly lump
(Title taken from Rudyard Kipling. I’ve used it before).
Wednesday is, as we all know, hump day — once we pass it, we’re on the downhill slide toward the weekend. Lately, however, I seem to be having trouble getting over the hump. My Wednesday is a slog.
Part of that this Wednesday was Plush Dudley (seen in an older photo while he was still on cage rest). Usually he sleeps most of the afternoon. For whatever reason, he was lively. Bark. Whine. Try to get my attention. Licking my feet. A lot. I finally had to give up getting work done for the last couple of hours, though I wasn’t able to read or relax much either.
He’s still my boy.
Even before that, I was struggling to write. I had a relatively simple article to write on Carrboro’s budget discussions but it turned into a plodding exercise, though I think the results were good. Reflecting on it, I realized one problem is Monday and Tuesday evenings. Monday I work into the evening to make up for us taking the dogs to PT during the day; Tuesday I often have my Zoom writer’s group. After I finish, it’s typically another hour to take care of the dogs. I end up going to sleep later than usual and I don’t usually make it up in the morning. This Wednesday that left me tired; I also woke up late (compensating for Tuesday’s late night) which always throws me off my game. Mentally that left me behind the eight-ball.
Monday and Tuesday were productive though. I worked on Savage Adventures, went through all the books where my manuscript was unclear (why did Doc Savage do X? What exactly was the villain’s plan?) and made the corrections. This draft is done!!!!!
Next up: rereading some of my Doc Savage reference books for anything worth adding, working on the bibliography, then printing the manuscript out and proofing it. Then the writing is done and I can look at indexing (sigh), finding a cover and I’ll be ready to rock.
Thursday I put in more time writing for The Local Reporter. I got in one good story about Chapel Hill’s budget decisions — they have $3 million left over from fiscal year 2025 to spend — but nothing else. Nobody returned my calls. Annoying. However I already have the materials for one, possibly two stories for next week, and there’s a Carrboro Council meeting. So I’ll be in good shape.
Over at Atomic Junk Shop I blogged about mondegreens, the death of the Green Goblin and comic book writers as psychics.
And this blog is still getting lots more hits than average. Hi there, whoever you are. I hope you stick around. If nothing else, the pet photos are adorable.
Doc Savage cover by James Bama, all rights to images remain with current holders.
Filed under Doc Savage, Nonfiction, Personal, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing
Why yes, we did get snowed in again
As I mentioned a week ago, they predicted heavy snow last weekend. Given how mild the previous weekend was compared to what was predicted, we wondered if it would be true … it was.
The footprints were visible.
It was much nicer than the week before. Prettier than the ice/snow mix, and fluffy snow is easier to walk on. A couple of days of subzero temperature would have made it a lot nastier but the temperatures rose fast enough to counter that. Despite warnings of possible ice/snow mix hitting Wednesday, we’re 90 percent out of the woods.
Plushie, by the way, absolutely loved it. Take a look.
Filed under Miscellanea, Personal, The Dog Ate My Homework
On the plus side, we didn’t lose power.
Which was something we worried about during last weekend’s freeze. The predictions were for heavy ice — literally enough weight to snap power lines — along with snow so we charged up our generator and our small chargers, kept the heat up high so it would take longer to freeze inside if the power died.
It didn’t die, like I said. There was some ice but mostly snow.
That big square near the steps is a tarp TYG laid down so the dogs would have an ice-free spot to walk on. It worked, though Plushie insisted on walking on slippery places as much as possible. With four legs he and Trixie did fine; we had to be a little more cautious.
While the storm itself wasn’t a catastrophe, a week of sub-zero temperatures means the ice still hasn’t thawed. It was off the roads by Wednesday so I was able to get to a dental appointment yesterday and physical rehab today, but we still have to exercise caution when going outside, going to the mailbox, etc. And this weekend we’re anticipating another storm — all snow, probably, so we hopefully won’t lose power. But that means no going anywhere this weekend (I got my shopping done today), nor for the first couple of days after. Frustrating.
As we wrap up the first month of 2026, I feel pleased. I didn’t accomplish all the writing goals I wanted — I didn’t have time this week to finish Oh the Places You’ll Go —but I got most of them. I caught up on saving my Local Reporter stories to my computer and saving my blog posts (I see no reason my blog should suddenly vanish but just in case…). I made slightly over my word count for Impossible Takes a Little Longer and Let No Man Put Asunder. I’m 2/3 through with this draft of Savage Adventures. Because of my one colleague at the Local Reporter leaving, I earned slightly more money this month than usual.
On the downside I let the side down (as the phrase goes) on the dog’s daily exercises. Not completely but with Plushie on longer confined by his cage it’s a lot harder to keep him in one place for particular workouts. Yesterday I was using treats to tempt him into an obstacle course; he decided he’d get up on the couch and sleep instead. As the time for caring for them continually increases, I’ve no idea how I’ll work it out once the snow’s gone and Trixie’s back to full morning walks.
I also blew my GOTV effort for the second month in a row, getting half of the 40 cards I’d agreed to write out. I have to get better next month. I did do a good job with the various household/contractor/vet appointment tasks I dealt with.
As for the week itself, in addition to fiction I got in three Local Reporter stories, one on Chapel Hill changing its land-use ordinance, one on a local volunteer rescue service (not up yet) and a companion story about the technical rescue team (they handle water and missing person rescues). At Atomic Junk Shop I pondered whether too many comics are out of continuity, and Earth-Two comics in the post-WW II years.
And yes, the exercises the PT pro recommended did indeed help with my bursitis. Hope for continued improvement next month. And my dentist said my teeth look great, actually improved over last visit. A pleasant surprise, given that I had to delay this appointment two months (no time during the Watching Jekyll and Hyde finishing marathon) — usually that long without getting my teeth and gums cleaned causes (small and fixable) problems. Yay teeth1
Now, another cold weekend. Still, snow is pretty.
No matter the odds, I struggle on to victory!
Which is to say, another hectic but productive week. We’ll talk the hectic first.
We spent the first half of the week dealing with Trixie still caged for her leg surgery. Yesterday we took down the cage. We still want to discourage her from jumping and she still wears the cone of shame for another week, but she can get up and snuggle with me on the couch now, so she’s much happier.
Plush Dudley got the thumbs up from his physical rehab doctor (that’s him in their waiting room above) that he can gradually assume normal activity. We were supposed to get a confirmation from his leg surgeon but they had a schedule conflict so TYG will have to take Dudley in next week (and to the surgeon’s Raleigh office — had it happened on schedule it would have been around the corner at our regular vet’s). Still, we’re comfortable letting him go up and down the outside steps without being carried, which is a load off TYG’s back. (I’m still carrying Trixie but I’ve learned to minimize the strain on my bursitis elbow).
Tuesday we had in an electrician to check out two problem lights in the kitchen. Easy fix (pricey, but preferable to doing it ourselves) but it did take time out of my morning to interact with him.
Thursday I finally had the physical rehab session that got canceled Jan. 2, when I’d scheduled it so I’d be off work. Fortunately it’s quite close, and the session was productive. My therapist mapped out some exercises to do daily, gave me some other advice (don’t rest my shoulder on my pillow, support my elbow better when I’m writing) and sent me home. The exercises feel like they’re working, though obviously one morning isn’t a significant sample.
Less fortunately I’ll have two more sessions this month and two in early February, adding to my already busy schedule. But if it makes the bursitis go away, I’m all for it.
Once again, the writing flourished despite the obstacles. Having gotten around 12,000 words rewritten on Impossible Takes a Little Longer I did the same with Let No Man Put Asunder this week. These are the earlier, more polished chapters so it’s not that astonishing an accomplishment — except unlike last year around this time, I feel there’s significant improvement going on, not just minor tinkering. Let’s hope that continues.
I completed my rewrite of Savage Adventures up through 1940, which is to say I’m 2/3 done. Woot! And I got the latest cover design from Sam, though I haven’t had a chance to think about it yet.
Writing for The Local Reporter was very busy. I had multiple different interviews through the week which isn’t the way I like to roll — it’s much better to have them all squeezed into a small block of time. Still, I got three stories in: a profile of Carrboro’s firefighter of the year; a look at the Carrboro Southern film festival; and an interview with one of the documentarians showing a film there. At Atomic Junk Shop, I posted about one particularly groovy comics ad from 1971.
I also started looking for markets for some of my short fiction only to realize with Bleeding Blue now out I have almost nothing new and unpublished to submit. Perhaps that will change this year.
End result, the week was hectic, exhausting, but productive. And without the dread January sense of trying to super-achieve I get so often — my goals for this month are realistic and manageable, whether or not I achieve them.
Sometimes the only way to make a choice is not to choose
I love cooking. The past year (I’ve probably mentioned this before) I’ve found myself going back to the same recipes over and over; when I try to pick something else, my mind goes blank.
It finally occurred to me that the sheer amount of options available — recipe books, online recipes bookmarked, old copies of Vegetarian Times — is what’s freezing me up. I used to work around this by keeping a list of my cookbooks on my computer and working through it, one cookbook this week, a different one the next. I didn’t have to sit and think about which book to use and not choosing freed me up.
I’ve no idea why I stopped but I started this week by making up the list again. I found it much easier to pick recipes — a potato and lentil dish, chocolate brownies, a chia/raspberry pudding (I have a packet of frozen raspberries I need to use up). I think that’s a good sign.
Now as to writing … last week, as I mentioned, was a mess. I got Jekyll and Hyde out late due to coping with medical stuff, doggy care, little errands, etc., etc. It would have been nice if this week had been smooth sailing … but no. I had to take the car in today for a broken rear light. I opted to Lyft back (the dealer’s shuttle service proved unreliable) which took more time than waiting on-site but hanging out over there is kind of wearying (I’ve had experience). On top of that, we had the dogs get shots Tuesday and Wednesday Trixie went in for a small growth on one of her legs. The vet says it’s not a life-threatening thing but they wanted to biopsy it and get it off her.
Somehow we’d convinced ourselves recovery was no big. Oops. She’s not to jump on anything, run, climb stairs, jump off anything for about 10 days. So now she’s in a cage like Plushie. And if I’m not in it and she’s awake, she looks at me in despair.
Yes, it’s a cone of shame situation too.
Needless to say, I melt and sit in there as much as possible, hence the presence of my husband pillow on the floor. However it’s not comfortable and I have to sit on the couch at least part of the work day to focus, sad stare or not.
Oh, and we had the housekeepers in. Let’s just say that moving those two cages so they could clean was a challenge. It used to be the cleaning didn’t get in the way of work but now I spend it sitting upstairs with Wisp and Snowdrop in the spare bedroom. It’s hard to focus.
Despite which I somehow managed a good work week. I got about 12,000 words on the next draft of The Impossible Takes a Little Longer. This time I’ve set it in 1984 (slightly alternate history) and I think that’s really improving things. The opening is way more intense and my other ideas seem to be adapting to fit smoother than I thought.
I resumed work on Savage Adventures, rewriting the 1940-42 entries and noting where I needed to go back and reread the relevant books. I got in a couple of stories for The Local Reporter, one on Carrboro’s efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, the other an interview with Carrboro’s cop of the year. Neither up yet. A bad night of sleep left me flatfooted — I took way longer to write them than I should have — but they’re both good work (though probably of less interest to anyone outside Carrboro. Such is the nature of hyperlocal journalism). And at Atomic Junkshop I blogged about which superheroes you trust and reposted an old post about what Golden Age comics were like on Earth-Two.
Good omen for the year that I got the work done? Bad omen that I faced so much interference? Time will tell.
Doc Savage cover by Emery Clarke. All rights to images remain with current holders.
Pets on my feet
Plushie loves lying where he gets a snootfull of foot.
Wisp finds it comfortable but doesn’t need the scent.
Filed under Personal, The Dog Ate My Homework
Pets hanging out
Trixie and Wisp aren’t enemies but they aren’t chums either. So this shot was a surprise.
Trixie and Plushie hanging out, much less of a surprise.
Happy New Year, y’all.
Filed under Personal, The Dog Ate My Homework
Little nagging things
As the year winds down, inevitably I think of two things: how this year went and how I want next year to go. That will be Wednesday’s and Thursday’s posts but today I wanted to touch on a couple of little frustrations with 2025.
Bicycling is one of them. We began bicycling weekly not long after I moved up here. By 2014, we were able to spend Sunday bicycling a total 28 miles to the American Tobacco Trail’s end in Raleigh and back.
Then we got dogs. Obviously we couldn’t leave new pets ready to pee anywhere alone for that long. I always figured we’d get back to it but we never did — bike problems, scheduling, dog needs, all got in the way. Not just of the big, long rides but even short regular rides.
I love bicycling and want to get back to doing it regularly. Every year I manage to do so for a while, then it falls apart. This year I bicycled regularly at least once a week through the fall, then something always got in the way. Part of the problem is that it’s Saturday or Sunday or nothing — during the week I’m usually busy with the dogs, or with writing or something else and it doesn’t happen.
I really want to overcome that in 2026.
The other thing? Money. I always went to end up the year with more money than I had at the start. I never do. This year, my income between Local Reporter and Social Security was better than it’s been many years of my life (the Destin Log, for instance). However the cost of dog drugs (my share of the household expenses includes those) constantly ramps up as they need more treatment and it canceled most of that out. Traveling to cons always costs more than it brings in, even though it’s deductible. Not that I’m hemorrhaging money or anything, or that I don’t have reserves (and I am part of a two-income family, though I take satisfaction in paying my share of the bills), but I’d like to see them grow more.
The options are the standard ones, cut spending or bring in more money. There’s not much unnecessary spending to cut and obviously I’d love that second option. Doing it as an indie author is easier said than done.
I will be putting both these things into my 2026 goals, even if I’m not sure yet how to pull them off.
Spectre cover by Jerry Grandenetti, all rights to image remain with current holders.
“Half-a-million boots slogging through hell” — wait, pushing to finish a book isn’t that bad
A good, productive week, even if I feel quite wiped out.
Last weekend was our annual writer’s group Christmas Party. Smaller than usual, still fun, and we’re still pigging out on leftovers. However it’s an exhausting day setting up for it, from cleaning to cooking (chili, cornbread, beer bread, fruit compote). Next year we’re going to plan better and do some of the cleaning earlier in the month (stuff can be moved out of the way).
Of course, I had to move my computer up to my office and out of the way. Turns out someone knew the password.
One of my goals for next year is cleaning up my room. Quite aside from my guest (a doll from my mother’s play therapy practice) it’s disorganized enough even I can’t stand it.
Anyway, that left TYG and me wiped out Sunday, though we managed to put the house back into shape. Fortunately I’ve been sleeping well lately — every so often I’ll go through a no-insomnia stretch and this is apparently one of them. As I mentioned last week, waking up “late” throws me off my game but this time I seem to be coping.
I got two stories in for The Local Reporter, one on local first responders winning an award and one on local GoFundMe projects. And I’m feeling more confident I can finish the book. I rewrote about 40 percent of the text, wrote more on the Hulk chapter and put some more thought into the title. The rewriting showed me it’s in better shape than I realized. Yay me.
Very little else got done. I have several tasks I want to complete but I’m confining myself to the absolute necessities right now. I may be writing this weekend — I’ll probably put in at least one day — but it won’t be as exhausting as the party. Not that I mind — we don’t entertain much so it’s nice to have one big event every year.
Plushie had his recheck Monday. The review is mixed: he’s improving, though not as fast as they’d like. Surgery might still be necessary but maybe not. So we continue what we’re doing (exercise, walks, PT) and have another checkup in January. Fingers crossed. He also got his eye exam and despite his glaucoma, his peepers are still holding up. The vet was quite astonished he’s almost sixteen. That pleases us.
And I sold one copy of Sex for Dinner, Death for Breakfast last month. Thank you, unknown buyer, for giving my book a shot.
Bonus photo, here’s Snowdrop under the Christmas tree. So far neither cat has attempted to climb it.
