usedtobeljs

Hurricane Helene has come and gone.

Here in my part of the subtropics it was a complete nothing, for which I'm thankful. A day off work, a four-hour period of gusty winds and resulting tree trash in the yard, and nothing else. (Well, there was anxiety, because I hate hurricanes, but that's a me thing.)

However, the storm has been unbelievably devastating elsewhere. The west coast of Florida had storm surge well away from the actual landfall, so there's big damage on the Tampa Bay-area barrier islands. But I am more worried about the historic rainfall and winds in Helene's path through Georgia, and the apocalyptic floods in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. I know so many people in Asheville and surrounding towns, and their lives are going to be absolutely upended for the next months, or years.

A candle is lit for them. :(

Televisual watching: I've started and am keeping up with Agatha All Along -- I enjoy the performances and the direction, although it's not exactly my genre. I've also started watching A Very Royal Scandal,
wherein Michael Sheen is doing a great but repulsive job as Prince Andrew and, in a small role, my fave Alex Jennings is killing it as Sir Edward Young, the senior courtier on the Queen's team.

Alex Jennings also gave a lovely commentary on the occasion of the great Dame Maggie Smith's death. Her passing is sad, and the harbinger of the end of a generation -- only Dame Judi and Dame Julie Andrews are left. I've been thinking about the only time I saw Dame Maggie onstage in Alan Bennett's The Lady in the Van; the absolute control of character, voice, and story she had! She was remarkable for sixty years, a one-off, wit and acid and beauty all her life. What a great woman.

Lastly, I had one more Twisters fic in me: "Indiscreet", Tyler/Kate. This started out as a scene, which led to me thinking of that fandom staple structure Five Times X Happened and One Time It Didn't; as I wrote, however, it just turned into Five Times Tyler and Kate Did Not Know the Meaning of the Word 'Discretion.' There is no One Time They Did. ;)

Hugs to all, and may the next week be a good one.

Fifteen things for 15 June and my fifteenth post of the year:

1) My fave Alex Jennings has been given a CBE in this year's Birthday Honours List. Hurray for Alex! Well past time!
2) Other cool folk have been honored too, like Dame Imelda Staunton, but let's be real, we know where my heart lies.
3) It's amusing me that this is the "birthday" honours list, because KCIII's actual birthday is in November, but I guess this is his birthday observed.
4) After sustained hideous heat, the subtropics where I am have transitioned to ordinary hideous heat. However, we're not getting the rain we need, and I miss it.
5) No real news about stuff I've watched. I'm behind on Doctor Who (although I caught the episode with Rogue, which was cute), and I haven't started Bridgerton Series Three yet.
6) This is because instead I've been slowly getting through more of The Tunnel, also known as Let's Torture (Emotionally and Otherwise) Karl and Elise, the Show. I've now watched four episodes of the final Series Three and, because I read Wikipedia and know the ending, am not entirely sure I have the fortitude to finish the last two episodes...
7)... Even though Stephen Dillane suffers so prettily!
8) We will see.
9) The Night Manager Series Two has just started filming, but that's a year away, and heaven alone knows when Dalgliesh Series Three comes out (although it has FINISHED filming).
10) Am contemplating another Medium blogpost about style, but while I'm thinking, I've also been sorting through clothes to send to Goodwill and clothes to send to ThredUp.
11) In the ThredUp pile for consignment will also be a v.v.expensive handbag that I still think is cool but does not work for my life, alas. Better to let it go to someone else than to stay in my wardrobe.
12) This summer has been profoundly expensive, I must say. First, a new roof; this past week, several thousand dollars of tree-trimming.
13) Besides the fact that I don't want to retire in the subtropics, this house will be too expensive to maintain once I've retired. Time to save for the move (in just under two years).
14) So my summer projects are writing, cutting back on Diet Coke, and taking a bunch of Pilates classes, none of which are interesting to record here at Dreamwidth.
15) Let us close, then, by saying that Miss Adventure and I wish you a happy third week of June!

Oh my god I'm so tired and it's only Tuesday.

Let's move on, for we persevere.

1) My TBR pile totters unsafely near my desk (or rather, my main TBR pile, with a secondary TBR pile in a spare room), and it's really out of control.
2) So what do I want to read now? I want to order some random Margery Allingham non-Campion mystery from the 30s. Why am I like this. Why.
3) My five months of not buying clothes is underway -- one month successfully down! But because I have excepted scarves and shoes from my no-buy policy, have I been scoping out potential purchases to replace or fill in gaps? OF COURSE I HAVE.
4) Miss Adventure has been going to a doggie daycare once (or sometimes twice) a week for three+ years, and it is the bright spot in her week. Alas, however, it is closing, and the only alternative will be less boutique and more of a hassle to get to and from. Still, she needs her socializing.
5) And the good thing about the alternative daycare is that there is an actual proper pool, and from April to October she can swim in the afternoons. She LOVES swimming.
6) The azaleas and camellias are out, here in the subtropics, and they are brave in pinks from pale to fuchsia. I do love a bright, bright pink.

Wishing you a happy week!

Right, let's see, what's happened since I last posted? My birthday (work, but then a great dinner out with my friend A), work madness, and a few days of catching up on small jobs around the house and rereading Jayne Ann Krentz romances+.

(The JAK books are in fact from the sprawling, many-years-in-the-making Arcane Society series: Victorian era romantic mystery under the Amanda Quick name, contemporary romantic suspense under her own name, and alternate-world vaguely-SF romances as Jayne Castle. The central conceit is that there are folk who through family or genetics or accident have para-talents, and the Arcane Society is a shadowy organization that sort of monitors those within it and investigates those who use their talents for evil. The mythology of the series now extends into books not initially marked as Arcane series, like her most recent trilogy of contemporary romantic suspense, where in the last book Arcane is explicitly mentioned. But honestly, in any JAK book written after, oh, 2005, if a character has the last name of Jones, they're Arcane. ;) Anyway, they're light and enjoyable, with some interesting worldbuilding.)

But now, as the solstice passes and Christmas nears, it's going to be DAMN COLD even in the subtropics.

I'd complain -- my HVAC is not up to temperatures below 36 or so, and it's going to be 8 degrees below that -- but I think the chill will be much worse elsewhere in the US, and I send warming thoughts and virtual hot tea to all, here and abroad.

Cheers and light!

How is my work already so stressful. How.

Anyway, it's Saturday, and thanks to MLK Day, I can take two days to try to recover. (I have to catch up on things on MLK Day proper.) This doesn't count the stress of having to purchase and set up a new laptop, but let's not dwell.

So, three things for this mid-January:

*All Creatures Great and Small Series 2 has begun here in the US on PBS. Siegfried Farnon is my eternal joy, thanks to Sam West. Apparently the fandom ships Siegfried and Mrs. Hall, which I HEARTILY endorse, but I don't think I'll write fic. (And the looming shadow of WWII is ever present, so....)

*The subtropics have been strangely warm through December and early January, but a blast of COLD is bearing down on us. My very chilly house never shines in times like that. However, Miss Adventure has taken to snuggling on my lap in the evenings, which is a pleasant counter to the cold.

*I did not buy anything in the beginning-of-the-year sales. Fear my self-control.

Cheers and hugs to all!

This morning when I got up at 6 (which is when the alarm goes off every day), the pre-dawn world was a soft, drizzly grey. Upon checking the weather.com app, I was told that it was dry outside.

Just finished my walk with Miss Adventure. It is still softly drizzling, grey skies over the green and flowering landscape. All of this tells me that the weather.com app lies. If I weren't so sleepy I'd be irritated.

It's not just the misty morning that's making me sleepy, I think -- it's probably a little bit the aftermath of the first Covid-19 vaccine shot, which I had on Friday afternoon. The shot itself was utterly uneventful, as I got the jab at a pleasantly efficient large-scale Health Department site, and my second shot is scheduled for four weeks from now.

Or, as I think of it, six weeks til I'm back at Pilates! \O/

Workout is very necessary, after a month or so of stress-eating. Time to buckle down so my summer clothes fit, alas.

But before I go off, here's an I&A drabble, set now, on the theme of the vaccine:

( Anya has never been a good patient )

Happy week to everyone.

After two days so hot that I had to turn on the air-conditioner, a cool front has brought us closer to normal. My windows are open to the cooler air (and pollen, oh well), and the scent of my neighbor's orangeblossoms is wafting inside.

Miss Adventure is also reclining on the sofa barking at the birds, which is less pleasant but utterly characteristic.

5 Things?

1) Looking forward to reading the new Veronica Speedwell mystery by Deanna Raybourn, which should be in my Kindle as we speak. No time to read it now, but it's here.

2) Ordered new glasses, which may arrive at some point this week. I know how much my glasses cost, and I still winced.

3) The way I socialize with In-Town Best Friend these days is a brisk nature walk, and on Sunday morning we went out to a local wildlife refuge to walk on the berms around the pools. Even at 8:30 it was far too hot, but we did our 2.5-mile hike anyway, with light wind ruffling the blue water and the tall swampgrasses, with anhingas and cranes and various ducks all around.

We didn't see any gators, but I am FINE WITH THAT.

4) Enjoyed Victoria Beckham's autumn/winter 21 show/video. The sheer dresses don't work for me, but the suits, oh my god. Alas, my eye loves the high-heeled knee boots, but yesterday I wore proper heels for the first time in a couple of months and I've lost my skill in managing them.

5) Writing on my own stuff, which means I haven't ficced at all. I keep wanting to, but I keep not having ideas, so...

Have a wonderful middle of your week!

1) The beautiful week of fall weather went away here, alas, and we're deep in a week of Steam Heat: The Reprise.
2) Also, a beautiful but invasive tree species -- the golden rain tree -- is in bloom, to which I am profoundly allergic.
3) But the light is autumn-blue, and the sun sets earlier, and I am clinging to that.
4) Also -- I VOTED early, and it shows up as counted on the local elections website. Biden/Harris all the way, plus all available Democrats down-ballot.
5) Thinking about the great designer Paul Smith, who is celebrating 50 years in fashion. (Here's a link to his January celebration.)
6) I love Paul Smith's eye for color, his take on classic and modern wear, and a lot of his androgynous clothing.
7) And my favorite trousers in my closet were a Paul Smith score at the Floral Street boutique some years ago.
8) Also thinking about Victoria Beckham's beautiful Posh lipsticks. I do wear lipstick on Zoom work days, so...
9) But what color?
10) Sending hugs to all of you.

Summer is opening the door here in the subtropics, and frankly it depresses me.

I am not a fan of heat (nor of extreme cold, for that matter), and yet I live in a place where it's been hot since March and the weather won't break now until probably late October. (Climate change: it used to break the first week of October.) Also, of course, there are hurricanes.

So much dislike. So, so much dislike.

So let me challenge myself to think of five things about my least favorite season that I do like:

*easier days at work
*afternoon thunderstorms which bring the scent of petrichor
*iced tea of all different kinds

I'm stuck here. Just two more things, two more things....

Nope. Can't do it. Can't think of anything else.

What would be your favorite thing about summer?

Monday? Work? Gaah.

But a quick rundown of things I've done and thought etc:

*Miss Adventure, recovering from her meltdown early last week, has decided that the backyard is hers, and she wants to go out and run and jump the small Corgi fence (which kept Master Danger from fence-fighting) and be the wild child she started as. She also has decided that perching on the loveseat, watching out the front window, and barking at passing cars/passersby/the flapping of the neighbors' flag is her daytime fun. It is not my daytime fun, I confess. We will work on that.

The front yard remains a zone of evil for her, however. We are working on collar time and will progress to leash time.

*Writing on an original project has been a way to escape the...everything. I write more slowly than I used to, alas.

*In other social-media venues I posted that I am still ironing my clothes even though I stay at home 5 days out of 7. There was much merriment at that, but still, it's my coping mechanism. I dress for work even at home. (And at 5 pm, as I would if I were coming home from work, I change into yoga trousers and T-shirt.)

*Watched the Agatha Christie adaptation The Pale Horse on Amazon Prime. As kathyh said in her review, it's...disappointing. But man, is it beautiful to look at, both in its art direction and actors.

*It's hideously hot (like early June rather than mid-April), but we had a v. brief break in the weather this weekend, and I baked cookies -- using the Neiman Marcus chocolate chip recipe, but omitting the coffee and chocolate chips, and substituting butterscotch bits. Mmmm.

Happy start of the week to all!