Dandelyon's Worlds

So, life has been busy. I’ll try to post about October later, but for the moment, I thought I’d natter about this week. Or at least one part of this week, that being house stuff.

I’ve been waiting for the weather to be dry enough and calm enough (in terms of wind) to get my roof repaired. The first snow of the season made it Very Clear that I needed to get part of the wall repaired too. This is not good for my budget, but the repairs will indeed be good for my house, even if it will have something of a patchwork look—I don’t have enough of the old siding to cover the repairs, so they’re putting new siding on the walls they are repairing. I’m not sure when we can do the rest of the house; I’ll have to consult the budget and it seems likely that the weather wouldn’t cooperate for redoing the whole thing anyway.

While I was waiting, and writing at the kitchen table (sometimes a change of scenery is good for the writing), I got tired of looking at a kitchen window where the top has persistently refused to be closeable—you know, the old double-hung windows, designed so you can open the top for air flow in the summer? I’d hoped a little stubborn insistence and careful application of brute force on my part would let me close it up for the winter but no. Someone in this house’s past had painted it in place, down more than an inch on one side and less than an inch on the other. Yes, they painted it not-shut crooked.

So I’ve been taking the window apart and repairing plaster and trying to get that corner of the kitchen ready for paint, and also doing stuff like painting bits of wood in my kitchen so repairs outside will have paint that doesn’t slough off because it froze instead of sealing to the wood. And today I have the old mailbox inside, for sanding and painting, so it can be re-hung over the new siding without looking rusty and disgusting.

I guess it’s like editing a story—the bones are good, but there are bits that have to go, and bits that just need fixing up. And it always seems to take more time and futzing than you expected. It’s also good to have friends who can help. A friend came by today to show me how to wiggle the wood to get that top window, which I’d finally gotten to move, out of the casing altogether so we can re-do the glazing compound and be assured the glass won’t fall out some cold, windy day.

Also, thank goodness for storm windows. I get to do all this and stay warm in the kitchen.

So, have you had home-repair, decorating, or organizing challenges lately?

But first, I have to show you the wonderful matching holiday card one of my friends sent me!



I'm considering what to put on my door in its place.  When I took it down last year, I put a butterfly-theme wind chime up, and that is still available, but I think I'd like something different for a while...

But what?

I got to do some drawing at work today--the employer in a worker's comp case didn't provide the requested photos of the workstation, and the client's pictures were blurry and from odd angles, so I got to create an exhibit for the upcoming hearing. Here's hoping it helps!

In other news, the Torn World coloring book is available for pre-order: http://www.tornworld.net/coloringbooks.php  I even have some art in it, which is a feat I'd never thought to put on any list of goals (for the new year or otherwise).   I have no hesitation in saying the other artists in the book are more skilled than I, and so I find I'm quite pleased that I got good enough to be in a book with them!

Do you have any surprise accomplishments, big or small, that you'd like to share?

   And now I'd better head to bed so I will be rested to do the work that lets me have this view.

This week, for the most part, my creative life has been focused on Torn World, rewriting stuff that's in canon review, and working on stuff for the latest contest.

The end of next week is the end of this current temp job. I have something lined up for afterward, but except for a week of training, not immediately. You see, there's another pregnant lady at the location I've been working at. So I'm going to go from temping as a legal assistant to temping as a paralegal. The gap in employment is far from ideal of course, especially in the short run. In the long run, however, it should be a good move, opening up more jobs, and also better-paying jobs.

Tomorrow, they're having a baby shower for the lady I'll be replacing starting in late September or early October. Now, my traditional baby gift is a tie-dyed onesie; either I sold all of them or buried them too-well in amongst the other tie-dyes. But I found a blank one. Now, I could have mixed dyes and dyed it, but that's a lot of mess on a weeknight to make one little onesie. So instead I pulled out the fabric paints.

I hope they like dragons!

I still have to iron it to set the paints and find a suitable or paper amongst the Christmas wrapping stuff.  But I figured you folks might enjoy seeing the little critter.