Running water, no hospital required

We did a few events around here yesterday. I dreaded changing out the kitchen faucet, and have done it one other time. Our old one started leaking inside the fixture and simply gave out on us.

Saturday found me outside squeezing peaches. They were about perfect, and I earmarked part of Sunday to pick a bunch of them. Oddly enough, Frankie woke up in the middle of the night and had to make a security patrol. I chocked it up to doggie strangeness and we went back to bed.

In the morning, I discovered the problem. The tree broke. I’ve seen this happen to other peaches, but never had this problem. I guess the wheel just went around for me. We decided to leave it as is while we tackled the sink first. (12 hours. I only needed 12 more hours.)

The nightmare part of the sink project was getting the old faucet off. It has a nut that needed to come off and it was waaaay up there between the basins of the sink. I tried about ten different tools, and none of them fit. The best I could manage was a pair of pliers, but that required me to twist like it was a bottle cap. I couldn’t use any leverage, which is the advantage of a wrench.

It failed. I sent Old What’s Her Face to search the toolbox. I have a roll of old open end/box end wrenches. This isn’t what they are for, but one fit, and the handle left room between the basins to move it about an eighth of an inch.

It took me about ten resets to move the nut one revolution. Keep in mind, this is inside the cabinet, on my back (Which I feared for) and at the limits of what my short arms could reach. It took a long time, but I prevailed. Once it was loose, it easily spun off then hit me in the head.

The new one was a piece of cake. My wife put the fitting together while I grabbed coffee. She crawled inside and put the mounting nuts on, which were designed to be finger twist tight. Whoever designed this one deserves an award of some kind.

After coffee, I connected all the water lines and installed the gun. This unit has one of those pull out hoses for squirting off dishes or filling pots. What do you think? No hospital required.

We took a break, then tackled the peach tree. We managed about three baskets of fruit from the broken part before giving up. It was 90 something degrees outside. There are a lot more peaches on other parts, and I hope they don’t decide to break off too. I won’t get another chance at them until Friday.

We’ve always picked a basket here and there, but I feel like I’m pressing my luck. Probably based upon what already happened. The poor old tree is in for a major trim, the kind you give with a chainsaw, now. I really like this tree, but if this is the end of it, so be it. No matter what I do, it’s going to be ugly, but it could fill back out next year.

My back is surprisingly okay today. My neck and shoulders are kind of stiff, but that’s easily overcome.

Time for a peach, possibly in a daiquiri.

B. W. I.

Okay, not particularly intoxicated, but well lubricated. What does an author blog about when he isn’t writing? Stuff like this.

When we walked into Old Chicago at the Boise Town Square Mall, the Blood Mobile was parked out front.

Old What’s Her Face asked, “Do you want to donate, dear?”

I said, “Yes, but I want to donate from that guy over there. Grab him.”

You probably had to be there, but we had a good laugh.

They actually had a Belgian beer on tap tonight, and those are kind of hard to come by. I had two. I had two different ones as well.

Supper was mediocre at best, but I got to actually watch a Diamondbacks game on their televisions, and they actually won. (A rare thing these days.)

My pizza was one of those with so much sauce the toppings all slid into my lap. Otherwise it was wonderful, but it wasn’t what I’ve become accustomed to at OC.

Old What’s Her Face went for a pedicure while I watched the game and swilled good beer. She has her thing, and I have mine.

I’m not going to get to write this weekend, but I did work on a blog post for Story Empire. It’s all scheduled now. If you enjoy the Expansion Pack series, there is another one up on Wednesday.

My daughter made a surprise visit this weekend, and we had a nice chat. She even offered to cut Dad’s hair, and I couldn’t pass that up. She really does a good job.

While this isn’t a writing weekend, I have some vacation time scheduled. I’m milking the flex schedule, and by taking two ten-hour days off, I actually get six days off in a row. It all starts next Friday. My hope is to give Lanternfish a good launch.

Aside from that, I need to work on some blog tour posts for Viral Blues. The release will be upon me before I know it. I want to do a tour of favorite sites, but I may get a mutual promo tour with some friends going, too. I’m kind of excited about that. We all draw some people and the crowd is bigger because of that. Maybe one of their regulars will be interested in my release, and maybe one of mine will be interested in theirs. More on that later.

We have some home improvement stuff to deal with tomorrow and I’m dreading it. I’m not a tool guy, and not particularly handy in that department. I’ve replaced the kitchen faucet before, but I really don’t think my back is up to it these days. I’ll update on this later. It will either be a successful replacement, or a trip to the hospital. Either way I get a blog post.

On another note, my side project is moving along well. I’m in the mucky middle, but about to move out of it. I’m finding that a side project might not move as fast as the targeted book, but it doubles my productivity.

That’s it, B. W. I. How did I do?

Miss me?

We had a lot of guests on Entertaining Stories this week. All of them were fascinating in their own way, and I appreciate all of them. Some of you shared on your own blogs and tweeted out the posts. It takes guts to create something and share it with the world, promotion is a bugger, and your sharing is appreciated.

I had another weekend of not getting a bunch done on the writing front. Summer is not a great time for me to write a novel. There are too many other distractions. Otto likes people and demands attention. Trying to write while he is active is guaranteed to fail. He likes to chew on feet, hands, keyboards, anything to get attention.

I tricked him away from the keyboard by sacrificing my finger. Things usually work out, because he takes some big naps. He gets super active, then super tired. This weekend, my daughter and Otto worked in shifts. She wanted to talk while he napped, then when he woke up she left.

I worked on some micro-fiction, and that seems better suited for me during the summer. I managed one more for Macabre Macaroni in October, but I'm not satisfied with either one yet. I still need two more. Hopefully, I'll have four good ones before October.

I also started a short story, but only got about a third of it finished. No deadlines or rushes here.

In other news, another beta reader came through. She had some unique ideas, and I made several adjustments based upon her recommendations. I appreciate my beta readers so much, you have no idea. I couldn't do this without that kind of help.

I finally managed to assemble the stopper mechanism in my bathroom sink. After days of effort, in stages, I felt like I'd pulled the sword from the stone. This morning I proudly used my own sink to brush my teeth. The damned thing still leaks. I've never been a tool guy, and I proved it to myself yet again. I'm surprised that I can use the coffee maker successfully. It looks like I have to tear the whole thing apart and start over.

My wife decided to shampoo the carpets today. Moving furniture is more my style; no wrenches or assembly required.

I have about a ton of peaches ripening right before we go on vacation. This means I have to grab as many as possible, set a few aside to take with me, and leave the rest for the birds. I'd be willing to donate them somewhere, but it requires two days worth of picking and bagging. I have to work tomorrow. I made a wonderful peach sangria the other night though. I think I'll take a basketful to work tomorrow. My colleagues will enjoy them.

Not joking about the tonnage. One whole branch is bent down to the lawn with the weight.

I hope you folks are enjoying your summer. I'm not putting too much pressure on myself, and you shouldn't either. Enjoy it while you can. My only real focus is the release of my next Experimental Notebook. Everything else is a bonus.

The saga of my weekend

Yesterday was the day of chores. Disassembling the sink was the easy part. Even reassembling it wasn't too bad. I have creaky parts today in my body, presumably from crawling around in the sink cabinet.

What is the deal with that stopper linkage? It isn't bad enough to have to crawl around and get covered with old sink gunk. At the end, you have to solve some kind of money puzzle that is kind of like taking the bent nail off of a horseshoe while blindfolded, contorted into a pretzel, and with your hands behind your back.

I confess that my sink still doesn't have a functional stopper, but I can use it otherwise. I'll probably get it if I keep trying for another few months.

I also managed to fertilize the lawn. Old What's Her Face* bought into a system from Zamzow's this year. We have to put certain bags of stuff on the lawn at certain times to make everything beautiful. I have no idea what their Humagreen product has in it, but it is the dirtiest stuff I've ever seen.

My feet turned black while looking at the bag, and it got worse from there. I bathed immediately afterward, and the black stuff sunk to the bottom and formed a sandbar. I Googled the ingredients, and it contains 10% iron. Iron's heavy enough to act like that.

Blog break: Otto invaded Old What's Her Face's shower. It was my job to dry him off, now he's running around like a crazy dog. Back to the weekend report.

We had date night at The Yardhouse. I had an upscale hamburger, and it was so filling I couldn't finish. I had a couple of wonderful beers, a stout and a Belgian Quad.

I woke up this morning to the sound of sirens. Someone must have decided to run from the cops at 6:00 AM. They must have driven circles around my subdivision.

Good news, we've had rain and thunderstorms all day. Idaho needs the water, but that has to be great for the fertilizer I just spread. I'm taking it as a stroke of luck.

After calling my parents this morning, I decided to tackle writerly things. I worked through my critiques and shaped up The Yak Guy Project. I decided I need to rewrite a character the guys haven't even seen yet. Yak Guy has several mentors, and I find them all talking the same way. This one can be more of an older brother type character to make him distinct. It's going to take some time, but will be well worth it.

I also worked through a wonderful markup of The Experimental Notebook II. This also took some time, but it improved my short stories greatly. Everything is looking good on my publishing schedule for this one.

This afternoon, I assembled another Lisa Burton Radio show, and scheduled a couple of guest posts to this blog. We have several interesting guests this week, so stay tuned.

I never wrote a single new word of fiction, but consider it a very productive weekend. I hope all of you had a great one too.

* Not my wife's actual name.