Working at home December 18, 2008
Posted by Trina in All posts, Life.Tags: anniversary, blood pressure, Dogs, handy man, home repairs, labradors, medication, wedding, working at home
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Alex with Squeaky
Four years ago Harry and I got married on Smathers Beach in Key West. Harry and I are going to dinner tonight, but neither of us is much in the mood to celebrate after the crazy day we had yesterday.
I had decided to work at home because in addition to doubling the dosage of my blood pressure medicine, my doctor had prescribed a diuretic. I didn’t want to drive until I found out how I reacted to the new medication. The prescription bottle said it may cause dizziness and to be careful driving or operating machinery, so I didn’t want to chance the 20 mile commute to Durham. Turns out, it doesn’t make me dizzy, just sleepy. I feel like I’m walking in a fog, must be what it feels like to have normal blood pressure.
It should have been a relaxing day working at home. Since Harry works at home, I was looking forward to spending the day with him. Except that we had scheduled John, from Triangle Handyman, whom I highly recommend, to come and replace our hot water heater. It took all day to change out, which meant the water and furnace where shut off. So, here I was at home, first day on a diuretic, and I couldn’t flush the toilet. At least it was warm outside so the lack of heat wasn’t an issue.
That would have been bad enough, but about 9:00 AM, as I was reviewing a batch of science test questions from a writer, my cell phone rang. I was upstairs in my office; my cell was in my purse downstairs. I decided to let it ring. Then the landline rang. Seeing a 607 area code and thinking my daughter must be in trouble, I answered. The call was from Binghamton, New York, but was not Lynn, instead her landlord. He started the conversation with, “We’ve got a problem here.”
I felt my blood pressure rise, new meds withstanding–I had cosigned Lynn’s lease. It turned out to be a misunderstanding. I called Lynn, she called the landlord, and now everything’s hunky dunky, except the rise in my blood pressure.
When the handyman left to go to lunch I let our black lab Alex out. By the time I noticed the open gate, Alex was to hell and gone. I called him, but the blockhead had other ideas, like frolicking in the mud. Harry walked trying to find him and John drove his truck (thanks John) and I drove my car, calling him. I found Alex in his favorite escape route–the yards of an adjacent street where he’s been known to get mucho affection from our neighbors. What fun for him.
The excitable boy put muddy paw prints over most of the exterior of the driver’s side of my “new” car–it’s about six months old–before I could get the door unlocked. Alex then got mud all over the back seat before I got him home. Meanwhile our water is still shut off. I can’t make a soap water to clean my car, so I used Windex and paper towels. I was outgunned by Carolina mud and soon gave up. It is now no secret to anyone who sees my car that I have a dog. I love the blockhead anyway.
Alex was restricted to the house while John was working on the heater outside. Otherwise Alex would have supervised and generally gotten in the way. But he wasn’t happy inside while John was outside. Alex paced, barked and made it clear he wasn’t going to tolerate John out in his yard without him. His continual barking kept me awake–I was tired all afternoon from the medication–but made it almost impossible to work.
Then, when John turned the water back on, water started leaking from the hot water faucet in our kitchen sink. The handle was stripped. It had been loose for a while and Harry and I had procrastinated fixing it, maybe just a coincidence that it chose yesterday for its final gasp. So, I turned off the hot water to the kitchen sink and John gave Harry instructions in how to install a new faucet. We’ll see how that goes Saturday. Meanwhile we have no hot water in the kitchen and won’t be able to run the dishwasher unless we run it on cold.
When John was ready to leave, he realized he had left his tape measure in the shed, so he went outside to get it. When he tried to come back into the house, Alex wouldn’t let him onto the back deck, let alone the back door. We certainly don’t have to worry about anyone breaking into our house.
This morning I took my blood pressure and amazingly it’s normal.
Happy anniversary Harry. If we survived yesterday, we can survive anything!
To puzzle or not to puzzle May 26, 2008
Posted by Trina in All posts, Creative writing, Fiction, Life, My work, Novels, On writing.Tags: Authors, beach, crossword puzzles, David Baldacci, Dogs, John Sandford, labradors, reading, writers, writing
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Harry and I came back Monday from a four-day weekend in Topsail Island. We took our black lab Alex and frolicked in the waves with him. It was an awesome break that we both needed. And watching our dog have so much fun swimming and chasing his ball over and through waves was worth the extra expense to bring him. Like the commercial, priceless. Aside from Harry dunking in the surf unexpectedly and losing his favorite pair of glasses, the trip was fantastic.
We didn’t take any pictures on the beach because neither of us ever remember to take them, but here is Alex on the back deck with his favorite squeak toy.
Alex carried Squeaky around everywhere at Topsail Island, just like he does at home. It is so comical to see a 90 pound labrador with a squeak toy. At one point Squeaky fell of the second floor deck and we had to restrain Alex from jumping over the railing to get him.
And that finally brings me to the topic of this post. When Harry and I have downtime on vacation or even relaxing at home on a Saturday afternoon, Harry likes to work crossword puzzles and I like to read novels. At Topsail, I finished David Baldacci’s latest THE WHOLE TRUTH, which was very powerful, and started one of the PREY series by John Sandford. But I digress, I love to read. If I was to sit and work a crossword, I’d be frustrated and bored and probably end up burning the paper and breaking up my pencil into pieces. Harry says working crosswords keeps his mind sharp and makes him a better writer. I have to agree with him. Harry has the most extensive vocabulary of anyone I’ve ever known. I have yet to find a word that he doesn’t know. So am I missing out by not forcing myself to work crossword puzzles? I find reading novels in the genre I’m writing makes me a better writer. I’d much rather read a book.
Is it better to puzzle or to read? What do other writers do in your downtime and what do you do to sharpen your writing skills?
This question won’t be much of an issue for me for awhile. I simply don’t have a lot of downtime. It has been a busy time for me developing questions for state tests. By the time I sit at the computer for ten hours or so editing test questions, I just don’t feel like writing anything, not even this blog. But that’s what they pay me the “big” bucks for, and I like developing tests–it just means I won’t be posting as frequently for awhile.
Also, I’m looking forward to a trip to central New York to visit my daughter and grandson. I’m leaving on Wednesday and I can’t wait.
Skunk or dog? November 3, 2007
Posted by Trina in All posts, Creative writing, Life, My work, Novels, On writing.Tags: Dogs, labradors
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I recently received this e-mail from a reader:
Good luck finishing your WIP. I don’t know about you, but even when I have a day off from teaching (or whatever work), there are so many other things to do…
It is so true. A day off work can mean catching up on household chores and errands, or just recovering from the stress of the work week. I will really have to work to protect my writing time on my Fridays off. If these days do become “catch up” days, then I will have to use my weekends to write.
As an example, and the reason for this post title:
Yesterday, which was my first day off work on my part time schedule, I spent two hours at the vet with our black lab, Alex. Harry and I noticed that King Alex was bleeding from his rectal area when we were walking him Tuesday evening. I immediately thought that he ate something bad, like glass. He had just gobbled our Halloween decorations, I think consuming some wire. Too late to go to his regular vet, we went to the after hours emergency vet to find that Alex had an abscessed anal sac, a very painful condition. Anal sacs are the same type of organs that a skunk uses to scare away its enemies – didn’t know that a dog had them. Because most dogs live in an environment that has no enemies, the sacs are rarely emptied, so these organs are an ideal environment in which bacteria can grow. It turns out that black labs are a breed susceptible to anal sac disease.
Our boy was sedated and had emergency surgery Tuesday night. Needless to say, his care and check up at the vet Friday has interrupted my writing schedule. But, Harry and I are happy that Alex has healed and is pain free.
I still managed to get four hours of writing done after the vet appointment yesterday. I have to admit that I wasn’t motivated and it shows in the revisions that I did yesterday. So I am spending this morning revising my work from yesterday and then moving on to new revisions. But, I am working.
Harry and I slept ten hours last night. It feels good to be able to write on a Saturday morning, having already recovered from the work week, revived and awake. I am optimistic about my new schedule.
