Half the mowing done. When you can hear the thunder through your earplugs over the drone of the tractor, it’s time to stop for the time being and get back in the house. I did make it partially to the orchard/beeyard, and I think the swarmed hive may have actually been two swarms and completely absconded. The feeder I put on that hive this morning is empty, and I believe the other bees are robbing it out. That will take some investigation, which will have to wait a bit until this storm passes. Can’t do much good for the bees if you’re setting yourself out as a lightning target. I hope they’re not all gone. That would be a pity, although it would immediately free a box for a late season split. It isn’t like our winters are hideous around here, so they’d have plenty of time to make a queen, have her mate, and get going before the chill arrives. We shall see.
Tag Archives: life
Writing. Writing. Writing.
Just received the best critique from my instructor for the five pages I wrote in the last assignment for a class I’m in about novel writing.
“Wow! Awesome pages. Very little I would change. Great sense of POV, forwarding plot and characterization. Your dialogue simply shines here.
I can’t wait for more.”
There were two changes she made, simply to better identify who was performing a particular action outside the dialogue. Nothing else.
Sweet!
Winter. Spring. Spring. Winter.
This is our weather here. We’re northern enough in the state to get a taste of winter now and again – and by that, it’s highs in the 50s and lows sometimes dropping under freezing down to the teens – but southern enough overall that a lot of days during the winter months are more like spring. Yesterday, and now today (after a front blew through, raining and moving along), we are yet again experiencing a spring-like day: some clouds, but mostly sunny, mid-60s temp, and a fair amount of wind. It is a bit like Groundhog Day – appropriately enough, AMC has a little marathon of that movie going today – as we continue the cycle of getting through the months that the gardens are not fully in production, starting flats, pulling weeds, and in general, waiting for our real season to get underway.
Resting season
A bit of a break from the blog. Too long of one, I’d say, and high time to get back to focusing on the things that matter instead of continuing to surf around only to lose hours of time down a sinkhole that cannot be retrieved.
Even though this is a season of dormancy and rest, it is – and should be – one of regeneration, of restarts. And so it shall be.
It’s been such a long time…
Song lyrics notwithstanding, yes it has. My apologies to that handful of faithful readers checking in, only to be disappointed by the lack of content. The one good thing about facebook I can put here is that it makes posting small snippets of things, or commenting on something or other, very easy – too easy, in fact: there’s often not a lot of substance in all the shares, little opinion from the poster, and some of the things of the “this will blow your mind!” variety get tedious and annoying after awhile. Between that, the data selling, and the constant changes in privacy stuff, it’s enough to say it’s time to step back from that and get back to basics, plus get into some other things that need to be done (like working on some work-related side things and writing). No doubt this will lessen my irritation with incredibly stupid people – at least a little.
Travel time
I went to the NOC today, and I-95 was jam packed with people on the move for the holidays. It wasn’t quite as bad as rush hour, more like that period juuuuust before rush hour when things start building until they slam to a complete and utter halt. What is interesting about being stuck in traffic, though – especially traveling I-95 through downtown Jax at the I-10 interchange during the morning rush hour, at the point where the lanes pincer down just across the Fuller Warren (and btw, Jax residents, I read somewhere that they’re looking to expand the Fuller Warren with more lanes by 2017, what a joy that process will be!) – is that sometimes you see the strangest damn things. No, I’m not talking about generic accidents. I’m talking about things like this, which I saw while waiting to move the next few feet. Why is it there? Who thought that would be a good place to hold it while they did whatever they were doing? Did someone just slam it through the panel out of rage or frustration? These questions will never be answered, I’m afraid.
Market Day
We went to the market today, my mom, my sister, my nephew, and I, walking amongst the vendors set up under the Fuller Warren bridge, the shade from which, combined with the stiff breeze from the river, making it much cooler than it was in the direct sun. Wandering up and down the lanes, we – or, rather, they – sampled wares from some of the vendors, pored over photos and paintings, and marveled at (and petted!) the large numbers of dogs people had brought to mingle with the crowd. The aromas from the food stalls, closest to the river, wafted over everything, a tumbling mixture of pizza and fish and sausage and various meats on a stick. Music floated in from different corners of the market, growing louder or softer depending on which direction you moved next. As we walked about, picking up some veggies and cheese here, some milk and meat there, what was I thinking?
Nothing.
Not the work that awaited me on my return, not the horrendous events in Connecticut yesterday, not my uncle’s sudden death, not bills or health or cleaning out the fridge or any of the million other mundane tasks that consume our lives at some point.
And it was one of the better outings I’ve ever had.
Waiting
“Or arm th’ obdured breast/With stubborn patience as with triple steel.” Milton, Paradise Lost
And why do I have to remind myself of patience? Because the ENT was not available today (surgery is my guess), and my appointment was rescheduled for Tuesday. Yesterday was a crappy day anyway, as I’d spent the late night Wednesday/into the morning today at the NOC building out a couple of servers, then moving someone’s accounts around and blah blah blah. It ended for a bit at 0630 this morning with a migraine and a try at a nap (nope) then more work and another try a bit later for a nap (nope). Too tired to sleep, apparently. But hey, those rebuilds are done and I’m back to the original puzzle that led to one of the rebuilds in the first place, so it’s like traveling in time!
But, the ENT: very disappointing, and yesterday the reschedule on top of everything else really dealt me low. Today seems to be better, and hopefully by later tonight I’ll be able to get some sleep. Oil change tomorrow. Yeeha! A semblance of something approaching a real life.
Yes
Following the sky
Today I saw the sky at both ends of its cycle: between 5 and 6 AM, on my way back from the NOC, the moon was setting, huge and orange on the horizon, sinking quickly to escape the sun rising in the east. Tonight, on my way back from the NOC, the sun was setting, pink and purple and orange, with the full moon rising to chase it from the sky and claim ownership, if only temporarily.