Friday, April 20, 2012

It's Dark Again!

"Does the Dollar General have poster board?" I asked my coworker with a kid still in grade school, thus needing things like poster board for school projects.

"I don't know; I've always gone straight to Wal-Mart."

Don't think this is a bash against Wal-Mart. I do shop there, but I try to limit the trips. I've already gone once this month. However I was willing to go if it was the last resort for anything to block that damn street light out of my bedroom.

Why poster board? I searched on blackout shades. Target has blackout curtain liners, but I don't have curtains or curtain rods. Lowe's has something that looked like the old solid sheet roll down blinds for $144. Wal-Mart listed one that you trim to fit your window and press 'n stick in place but it rolls up manually. I couldn't wrap my brain around that description and decided taping poster board over the glass was a) cheapest, b) easiest, and c) least permanent.

Dollar General does have poster board: white, black, and orange. I chose white since the house is white and my blinds are white. But I had second thoughts after I put it in the windows. Sure, it dimmed the sun, but didn't block it completely. I figured tomorrow I would go buy some black poster board and stick that on the windows too.

But I'm happy to report as of bedtime that I don't have to buy any more poster board. Because there's not orange glow in my bedroom now! WOOT! Light does come through the white, but now it matches about what I got from a full moon B.S.L. (Before Street Light). I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep.

This morning I woke up feeling like I had more sleep than I have the past two nights. I'm so glad I don't have to spend any more money.

Read Free!
KLCtheBookWorm

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Another Week Down

I think the rush is now over. At least, the mail levels today have been normal Tuesday levels and I have time to catch up on posting before I start timing the writing. I finished the beat sheet for Forget the Sun, took a week off, and then have been plugging away at Stellar Gift of Death. The plan (so far that I have one) is to continue concentrating on finishing Stellar’s out-of-sequence scenes, then switch back to Forget the Sun.

Part of the reason my focus has been so not there, TV to watch. But there’s so little I watch I find it hard to feel guilty. The real problem is WHEN they air the shows (no DVR and I tried the taping thing, I still need to watch the third season of Castle). Three days in a row with late bedtimes, and I am a cranky girl who doesn’t want to think. However most of what’s on the TV now are wrapping up their seasons so soon I will sleep again.

Justified: I only watched because of Neal McDonough, but this show soon snagged me as a fan. I don’t know if I’m a fan enough to continue to next season, well, I probably will if Limehouse comes back.

Full Metal Jousting: the History Channel’s show about real jousting and real training for it. And it was a competition for $100,000. I was rooting for the Red team and none of them won. Better luck next year! Seriously, I wonder if they are going to let previous competitors come back.

Shows you already know I love: Castle and Bones. ABC should have ordered more episodes because this spacing the new episode’s out in two-week intervals so the finale falls on May 4 is whacked. Especially how every time they have air a rerun limited to this season (good), and it has never been the few episodes I missed! (WTF?) Bones moved to a new night but it works for my schedule.

Shows I’m trying out and am now probably a rabid fan of: Finder, Once Upon a Time, and Grimm. I adore Walter, the Finder, brain injured war vetern who can see all the patterns no one else can and generally doesn’t give a damn about societal niceties, but I will accept the fact that this is Fox and Fox is stupid so I probably will only have this precious, precious season. Once Upon a Time has me sitting on a list of names these people have on both sides and timeline notes because I should write first before I try to unsnarl the clues. Grimm: this show has dragged poor Nick’s development so damn slow I think it can become the Monroe Show and more people will watch it. The world is fascinating, so I haven’t wrote it off yet.

Dancing With the Stars: I’m watching and voting, and now the other channels have filled up Monday nights so that makes it hard. I’m rooting for Jaleel White.

The light pole saga, or as I like to call it, the new pain in my neck. A couple of weeks ago, Entergy put a stake and a notice that a new pole was going in on our neighbor’s property. The speculation has run the gamut: one of my cousins finally take the piece he inherited, new line getting strung to the cousin at the end of the driveway, new wires getting strung to the cousin at the road. Friday, I found out what it was for when I went out to get Mustard and found my front yard lit up by the new outdoor light.

This light streams in through both my bedroom windows because it is aimed at the driveway and not anyone’s house but mine, so many yards away. Who has issues sleeping with light? That’s would be me. So far I haven’t suffocated myself as the covers go over my head to make the orange glow go away.

Dad got a hold of the cousin who ordered it and he promised to ask Entergy to put the light on his side of the pole. I sent Entergy a complaint to put a lamp shade on it or something. But I think I’ll still buy something to blackout my windows just in case those efforts don’t decrease the light pollution.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Monday, April 09, 2012

What I’ve Learned

The past four days have been busy with me learning things I had no intention of learning. I hope it’s not an indication of the rest of the week.

On Friday: My Good Friday was 90% non-religious unless you count “Oh God why aren’t you open!” as a prayer, then the number changes to 60%. For starters I had to go shopping, get the oil changed in Rizzo, see about getting a haircut, and go to a great-aunt’s funeral.

Crap, learning things actually started on Thursday when I found out Paris Parker no longer give complimentary haircuts for Locks of Love donations. This is the only way I’ve cut my hair for the past ten years, so changing things now. *raspberry*

Back to Friday, Dad said the oil change place opened at 7am. I left home at 7:30am. New hair salon was closed (expected since it was the crack of dawn) but didn’t have hours posted on the door (unexpected). Headed to oil change station and they’re setting up for the day. They open at 8. Go to Tuesday Morning. They open at 10. Ross opens at 9:30. I reminded myself I needed a new extension cord that I can get at Lowe’s. Lowe’s is open because they cater to contractors.

Not only is Lowe’s open, the parking lot was full. Which makes sense, everyone in Hammond was there because nothing else was open! Extension cord procured, followed by the oil change, which took about 30 minutes. So I headed to TJMaxx, since none of the other stores on my list were open. TJMaxx opens at 9:30.

At this point, the breakfast I had at home was long gone so I retreated to McDonald’s, refueled, and waited for 9:30. Everything I needed was at TJMaxx and I made it to the funeral on time.

Lesson: I have successfully reprogrammed my bio-rhythms out of sync with my home town and if I have been up for hours, you should be too. *growls*

Saturday: I learned that Dad’s Santa Fe has a kill switch, but I don’t know how I activated it. Luckily, the car started again before someone exiting the Westbank Expressway killed me and Mom.

Sunday: I finally had time to really flea treat the house. I had already dosed Mustard with the spot treatment, so first he got shampooed and kicked out of the house while I vacuumed and sprayed the floors. I learned that one large can of the flea killing spray is only enough to cover half the house.

Monday: There will be no time for writing when over half the office is M.I.A. and there’s a payment deadline on the 15th along with the mail running on Good Friday. I ended up working an hour and forty-five minutes overtime. Which derailed my plans for after work, luckily there were adjustable.

Read Free!
The BookWorm