Dandelyon's Worlds

December has, so far, been very down for me. It's hard to find the focus to do things, even things I enjoy.

Some of it is winter. Winter is always my worst season; the asthma doesn't do well in the cold, and as I get older my fingers and toes are cold and the skin gets too dry. The allergies have always been worse in winter too. And this particular winter there is all the stuff that goes with Covid-19.

I miss going to stores to look at stuff and shop for people, hearing the ubiquitous (and sometimes annoying) holiday music and seeing people--strangers even--and planning the trip to hang out with family (even though they are sometimes annoying). I still don't have some of the small-business gift buys--a group of things ordered in late November and dropped off at the USPS just one state over on December 2 _still_ isn't here. I had thought to drive into Chicago to drop boxes of gifts off on my sisters' porches (and either not see them at all, or see them only briefly outside from a distance and with masks) but there's no point with the gifts not yet even in my hands.

Some of it is that the house is still all disarrayed, as My Angel and I work on our walls and windows and stuff. It's not so simple as just putting things away, we're replastering and painting spots that desperately need it, and even if I had lots of money to throw at all that (and I don't, which is another depressing issue), with Covid-19 out there I am not willing to bring in people to do the work, so it is all on us. So instead of merely taking the stuff that was moved so the kitchen and dining room could be redone and putting it away, we are rotating stuff around pretty constantly, and in addition to the work on the walls, cleaning and sorting stuff, which is an additional challenge on the allergies, especially now that the windows have to be closed.

So I guess there's plenty of sufficient reasons for me to be feeling tired and overwhelmed and anxious and all the rest of it. But that doesn't really help. I thought finding some musical holiday specials might help, but the best I could find was sappy Christmas movies, all about the same level of mediocre. No, the best I could find was the holiday baking shows, which all come (inherently) with visions of allergens (stupid food allergies) but still, it's good cheer and pretty art and cool seasonal food that won't make me sick if only because I won't get to actually eat it. I don't even have to actually smell it, so I can imagine it was made with Deirdre-safe ingredients.

And I guess a little happy imagining is a good thing.

I had a whole week off for Christmas, and many plans for what to do with the time in between various obligatory family gatherings.

Now I admit sleeping until I woke up was one of the plans, but I didn't expect that to take so long, or to be taking naps in between.

Oh, well, sleep is good.

I even got one of my promised sneak peeks of the world I'm building done. I owe more people glimpses, still, but you can take a peek here: http://wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com/229369.html More suggestions or questions are welcome too, but not required.

P.S. My dreams were filled with cats and magic...

My sister, Dragon, lured me into shopping last Friday since she was going to Michaels, had a great coupon, and going shopping for arty stuff with her is always fun.

I looked at the pre-made wreaths, especially one in all purple, but they were too expensive. So, I thought, I bet I can get a few things to make a wreath I'd really like. I spent more than I would have for a pre-made wreath, but I'm also finding more joy in this one, so I had to share:



I also took a couple of close-ups, since this is clearly more reflective of my role as fantasy-writer than my role as paralegal, even though it's hanging on my office door at work.





As to Monday, that's when Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy tales of challenging the norm will be out, which includes a story written by R J Astruc and me called Scrapheap Angel.  If you're interested in buying the book, please consider ordering it on Monday.  If enough people order it that day, it will create additional visibility for the book.

In the meantime, if you go to crossedgenres, you can see some subversive trailers for the anthology.  Have fun!

My change of diet is inevitably a topic of conversation at dinner. My...what do you call your sister's mother-in-law? Anyway, she asked what happens if I eat wheat or corn, which is really TMI at the dinner table if answered in any detail, so I just said "unpleasant stomach things", when my sister Dragon added that my hair is growing back in since I started this diet.

I guess a stomach that isn't unhappy with the food in it absorbs nutrients better!

Cookies, candies, stuffing...

This is my first Christmas season on this new diet. Ad there are so many, many holiday treats that are--I won't say tempting, because I'm not tempted. But I am sad. No chocolate covered cherries, no candy canes, no sampling everybody's favorite cookie recipes. No soda bread, even if I could find it.

This weekend I went in to Chicago to go to the Walnut Room with my family. Unlike the restaurant in Windycon's hotel, this one failed big time. Instead of talking to the cooks, as I'd asked, the waitress apparently guessed what was in the food. One of the possibilities I'd picked from the menu as possibly safe was glazed salmon served with garlic mashed potatoes and veggies. She asked them to grill it plain and serve it with only the vegetables because she didn't know what was in the potatoes (!). When someone else brought it out, with the potatoes, she eventually noticed and apologized to me that they were there, telling me not to eat them (too late) because she didn't know what was in then. My meal was...edible. The vegetables, green beans and carrots, were boring but not dreadful, and the salmon was about as boring as salmon can get. Sigh.  I didn't want plain salmon, I wanted it glazed, if the glaze was made with sugar or fruit juice, both of which are perfectly safe for me; barring that, some substitute--at least a slice of lemon--would have been nice.

The whole point of asking her to speak with the cook was to eliminate the guesswork.

Ironically, the best part of the meal was the potatoes, without which I'd have been left quite hungry--it's not as if I can fill up on the rolls after all--and none of the deserts were safe. It's a good thing I was there for the company, not the food.

And if I can't taste everything, I can still enjoy the visuals!  I work at a personal injury law firm (until Jan. 7th, anyway).  Yesterday, one of the other women brought in cookies.  Another co-worker referred to them as "injure-bread men".  I couldn't resist taking pictures.

My family is way cool too--I'm told they've been experimenting with making Yorkshire Pudding that I will be able to eat, so I can have some with Christmas dinner.  "They looked like pale hockey pucks," said Dragon, "but they tasted good!"

Returning to the topic of cookies, I now have all the ingredients to make magic cookie bars that I can eat (the recipe is on Eagle brand condensed milk); I plan to try both smashed Quaker puffed rice and smashed rice chex, to see which one works best as a substitute for the graham-cracker crumbs.  The ingredients (cereal, chopped nuts, flaked coconut, chocolate bits, and condensed milk) are in a bag in the kitchen waiting for Muse Fusions, last-minute shopping, present-wrapping, snow shoveling, and other necessities to leave time for the experiment.

Oh--and speaking of cereals, the new Chocolate Chex and Cinnamon Chex are based on Rice Chex and are safe!  No corn or wheat!  (Unlike Honey Bunches of Oats, whose first ingredient is corn).  I probably don't need the extra sugar, but it's wonderful to have a choice of flavors when I want cereal and milk.

So the culinary aspects of the season aren't all sad, which is a good thing!

Next Tuesday is the Torn World Muse Fusion! I hope you'll all stop by and give me some prompts. And if some of my regulars here do stop by, I'll publish an extra freebie. Do you folks have any preference?[Poll #1658210][Poll #1658211]In the meantime, this space is open for scintillating conversation, questions, and weird words!  Have some eggnog and chocolate, and stay warm!

Hob dodged three sets of feet, two shopping carts, and one stroller, and collared the gremlin in one large, brown hand. Black Friday should be called Black and Blue Friday, if you asked him. Not that anyone did, of course.

The gremlin started screaming, and he stuffed the critter’s mouth with a discarded advertising flyer. Then he borrowed the cashier’s ‘Puter Power tape (designed to mark boxes that had been paid for if they were too large to stick in a bag) and quickly secured the creature’s hands, feet, tail and mouth, then handed it to one of the temp brownies to dispose of.

The temp brownie was still wearing shreds of Circuit City tape. “You better make sure that the manager here leaves enough milk and cookies tonight!” it grumbled. “Or else.”

“What?” Hob spotted another gremlin, working to squeeze it’s way into the cash register, grabbed it and taped it too, then had to jump out of the way as the cashier, a chubby teenager with pimples and just enough facial hair to make him look untidy, reached for the roll of tape.

“We don’t get our pay, these gremlins will be back.” The temp stated the obvious. And it wouldn’t be only the temporary hires releasing them into the store. There was a reason Circuit City went out of business.

Hob shoved the second gremlin at him. “Get these two out of here and get yourself back in here pronto, or your association with ‘Puter Power will be ended before you can get paid—or take rightful retribution, either one.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” The words were disrespectful, but the temp brownie winked out of sight, and then back in time to grab the next gremlin before Hob could get to it. Pickings had been thin since the Circuit City managers had slacked off on the midnight milk and cookies custom.

But the temp had a point. The gremlins were just as hungry as the brownies, and as a result this Black Friday had been one of the worst in memory.

He looked around for the manager. The poor man was trying to help a woman with a crabby baby—ah, he could help with that. A moment’s magic made the store smell a bit fresher, and changed the baby’s cries to smiles. The brownie tossed the used diaper to make a face at him, but shoved it in to the plastic bag it was carrying, then took several more trussed gremlins from other workers and shoved them in with the smelly thing, tying it shut and vanishing to dispose of all of it.

Hob leapt to the manager’s shoulder and whispered, “milk and cookies, milk and cookies” but the man paid him no attention. He turned to the next customer in line. And the next, and the next, while Hob scrambled to keep the temps working, trap gremlins before they could do too much mischief, and do whatever general trouble-shooting he could do in between.

The manager was still at the customer service desk a half-hour after closing, looking harried and exhausted despite all Hob and the other brownies could do. he rushed the other human employees out as quickly as he could, then went to grab his own coat.

The brownies gathered around, watching his every move, and Hob whispered in his ear again. He headed toward the small refrigerator, and his cell phone rang.

Two of the temporary hires started to pale at the edges, and Hob leapt to them, putting them hand-in-hand with two of his steadiest regulars. Another temporary worker had snuck up to the small refrigerator, and had a jug of milk out, was getting ready to pour it into the bowl.

This one he cuffed roundly. “It doesn’t count if a human doesn’t set it out, fool!”

The manager snapped his phone closed and headed for the back door. Hob had only a moment to act, and the man just wasn’t listening to him. He ran and grabbed—not the milk, it wouldn’t do for the man to spill it—but the empty bowl, and set it in front of the man’s foot.

Bang—clatter! The bowl went skittering across the floor.

“Oh, knew I was forgetting something.” The man bent to pick up the bowl, set out the milk and cookies, adding a half-box of doughnuts and a handful of hard candies. “Everyone worked hard today.”

The brownies hopped up and down, rubbing their tummies. He was barely out the door when they fell upon their rightful pay.
____________________________________

For new friends, you can find more of my very short stories here and my ongoing, serialized novel, Fireborn, here.

And to all my friends, I hope your Friday-After-Thanksgiving (whatever you choose to call it) was less hectic than Hob's!