750 Words

I've started using 750 Words again, and I'm going to try to keep my streak going. It was a little bit impossible when I was writing multiple stories for the newspaper every day to get myself to write for myself. I'm not sure why. For the last few days I've dabbled in some fiction ideas that have been floating in my head, including what I hope will be an MR James types horror tale... although as my first effort, it's bound to stink. But it's really fun to write for myself again.

It's still the morning, so I'm not sure why I'm blogging, except that I need to keep moving forward, and this is the way I move forward. I write.

Every day that goes by I realize how much the job was draining me and killing me, literally. I feel so much better now it's not even funny. The only problem is that now I have to worry about health insurance and money to get through the summer, which is a pain on every level. I'm fantasizing about winning the lottery or having someone pay off the mortgage, but as pleasant as those fantasies are, they don't help me solve the heart of the problem. I'll need to work out how to solve that before I go much further.

At least I'm getting some cleaning done around the house.

If I had the gumption, I'd go do a little grocery shopping today, too. But I'm feeling extremely hermit-y right now. Gotta go through my alone time. I needed this so badly I didn't realize how much I needed it. Time for myself. Time to be introverted.

I don't think I'm making much sense. That's ok. Hopefully when I go back to read this in a year or so, I'll understand where I was today and learn from it.

We have irrigation out here in this desert: that's how the local farmers grow hops and grapes and keep the cows watered. This is literally the land of beer, wine and milk. But it would be nothing but volcanic ash blowing through scrub brush if not for the water coming from the mountains. Everyone who lives in this area helps pay for the irrigation, whether they have access to it or not. The house Eric and I bought happens to have access to it, for our tiny lot.

The irrigation water comes from a box in the back yard. Originally, I thought it was just a regular concrete box with a pipe leading into it. You connect your hose to the pipe, turn on the water, and irrigate your yard. Easy-peasy. However, I think the box is actually made of metal, and last year I think some sort of critter burrowed into it, because the irrigation box filled with dirt. This is the best explanation I can come up with for why it filled with dirt, but I don't know for sure if I'm right.

All I know for sure is that we've had to dig out the pipe and the switch several times, and it's really annoying.

I tried to dig it out again this morning before watering the sunflowers, but I didn't get as far as I wanted to get. I feel like I took out a ton of dirt, but I only made a slight dent in the amount in the box. It's turned to mud, because the line from the pipe is leaking. That's not fun at all. When I reached one of the walls and tapped against it, it felt like it was buckled. I'm going to have to excavate it completely before I know for sure. I wish I could hire someone to come out here and put in a pipe and switch that are above ground so even if the box fills we can still use it, and so I don't have to bend over to turn it on.

Inkwell was extremely interested in the glove and the spade once I came back in the house, sniffing them thoroughly. He really wants to go out into the back yard. He really wants to get at the bees.

I had a window open yesterday, I think. Inkwell was next to the screen, staring at the yard, when he started barking and hitting the screen. I came over and discovered he was tracking a bee, which was clearly as interested in Inkwell as Inkwell was in it. Inkwell was going to rip off the screen to get at it, so I seized the cat and held him to calm him down. The bee took off, Inkwell complained about being held, and I decided to keep a slightly closer eye on the cat while he's in the windows.

Well, that's enough for the moment. I should get back to posting links and being my usual obnoxious self soon enough, I hope.