Spring is SPRING-Y

I know we are not the only ones who are sick of winter. It's been colder than cold. Even when it warms up for a while, it dips back down. This hasn't been easy on me, since I drive a bus for a living, and the building where we have always been able to park has been closed down for the whole effing year, doing major upgrading. Not that it will make any difference to anyone. 
So, where I and eighteen other people who drive buses park, it's a looooong frigging walk just to pee.
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I've been waiting to see snow melt. And I don't mean a few inches. I mean FEET! Snow drifts, and snow piles all around our yard has taken up until this week to actually diminish. We stayed in 50's last night and finally, any snow that snuggled up to the house is gone, save for a few bravely clinging ice patches on the sidewalks.



Our resident deer have come to the backyard to rest and chew their cud. They stay out there because it's away from the park, and we're not in the yard. But, one visitor came along. A hungry 'possum. I watched as it roamed the yard, heading straight for a large female. The deer, who didn't git up, but bent it's head as if to say, "Hey! Jerk, stay out of my personal space!"
The 'possum suddenly saw what was in front of her, and she made a quick detour, only to nearly head into two more deer laying on the ground under the white pines. I had to laugh. Animal drama is funny, some times.


Well, this has been "spring break" for NIU, that's why I'm home. Thank you!!!
I'm working on writing, which is normal for me, and why I'm avoiding a lot of other stuff. Although, I'll stop and watch "House" on Tuesdays, and "Monk" on Thursdays, which is today, so, we'll see what Monk is up to. While "House" is intriguing, one who doesn't know when to look away from the screen at the right moments, would do well not to watch that show while eating. EVER!

There was no Spring...

This was the view out our door on Thursday morning. 

We're talking APRIL 19th, 

Not March or February.

We should be getting warm temps in the 60's & 70's.

We had temps as low as 26 on the above date.

And then, that day it warmed up...

to 53

Here are my miniature daffodils boldly showing they don't care what happens, damn it!

It was only last Wednesday and Thursday we saw a 60+ and 71 degree day. I remember raking and getting some sun, thinking about getting a hammock (if only I had one), and lying out in the calm, warm air.

Well, yesterday we did see 62 degrees, and I got into my flower beds and pulled out dead stuff, preparing it for the eventual Spring.

But it probably will go from this to  80's in a matter of days, once Mr. Deadbeat (Winter) wakes up and moves along.

Signs of Spring & WIP's

Hello, my pretties.
Well, the first real signs of spring have shown up this week! In fact today was the first spotting of the red-winged blackbird--a sure sign of spring for us. A robin showed up earlier, but these birds don't really go south for the winter--although if I were a robin, this year, I would have headed for Mexico!

My husband has been putting birdseed out for the birds, and squirrels in our snow-packed drive. Currently, and since the rain last week, we've got an ice pond. He put out some salt where we park and walk around the truck, but the rest of the drive is icy. But I saw that the mountains of snow along side the road by us has been visibly reduced to at least half of what it had been. The sun is traveling back north, meaning the length of days are getting longer, and the sun's warmth--even when it's only 20 out--helps with the melt.

That's the news on our weather here.

On my WIP's. Well I have a couple. One is my large granny-square afghan, which is about 75% - 80% done (that is the squares that are done--sewing it all up is another project that will take time, of course) I think I began working on this larger project at the end of December, or around Christmas time.

My writing projects still consist of working on over-all edits of the 4th novel in the Sabrina Strong series, which goes slowly. I'm now not seeing this finished until March or April. I don't like rushing a book these days to get it published. I simply can't do that.

Work on my stand-alone book Dhampir Legacy is still being written. I'm working on the last portion of this book--the climax. I'm guestamating this as being finished (written) at some point in March. And then I let it sit and I'll be working on editing after I get Vampire Caprice done and published to Amazon. I hope to also put it up at Smashwords for those of you who do not have an e-reader. You can go and buy the PDF version of it there.

I've had a number of setbacks because of the weather, and related problems, things like having to fill the washing machine manually (because of the pipes being frozen) was not a joy, and it took about 3 hours to do a load of laundry! Thankfully, the pipes haven't burst, and we're back in business, as they are all thawed out.

Although I may not have had to do much work outside, like my husband, I still had to drive in horrible weather, and driving a 12 ton bus in the winter is stressful. My route is an hour long, and the time points are extremely tight, especially when a lot of people ride and I have to stop at a number of stops along my route. I rarely have enough time to eat or hit the bathroom--but I make time. I've dubbed this route my "diet" route. I usually come home exhausted, and an exhausted mind is not easy to recover from. So, the signs of spring coming in is a wonderful thing to see.

And this year I'm calling my 60th  Jubilee (sounds better than birthday to me). When I come up with a few ideas of how to celebrate it, I'll let you know. I'll try and have some giveaways. More on that later on.

Hope you're having some signs of spring where ever you are today! I know I'm looking forward to not seeing snow out my window for a long, long while. But this will not happen any time soon.

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!!!

Yeah. In case you haven't heard we've been hit by the winter from hell here in the mid-west. But we are dealing.

The water pipes in our laundry room have been frozen for about a week--which meant we had to fill buckets and gallon water jugs up in order to fill the washer. Interesting note: the thing takes at least 16 gallons each fill and will not do a partial load.

My husband has plowed at least every other day these past weeks. Did I mention that there is no where for the snow to go anymore? We've thought about doing snow sculptures just for the hell of it, except it keeps getting too cold to do much of anything outside.

This morning we had to drive our transit buses in this crap. Well, I simply decided I would not be able to keep my bus on time. At least our company is understanding about that. There were no good roads until much later on. And I was happy to see that for the most part everyone knew to go slow. The ones who didn't, the ones who thought they could drive like they always do... well God save anyone in their way. I saw plenty of those today. One guy couldn't stop for the red light and slid right through the light I was waiting at. I know not to jump the gun at the light. These guys are nuts.

We have begun putting out seed for the birds and critters. Today one of the squirrels was sitting by the truck on it's haunches looking into the picture window, his head moving to eye the porch. That they are looking for us to feed them is both cute and almost sad. The snow is too deep for them to dig in to find anything to eat. Besides, it's fun to watch the different birds and squirrels come in to eat.

I've been busy on the manuscript. It's a slow go. I get home, have lunch, and try and get a few hours in, if that's possible, of writing. Then, I'm brain dead, or just dead from my day. But I'm having fun getting this book put together. Realized I was still on the "crisis" part and I'm building toward the climax. I've decided that I'm going to be like warm weather, and come late. Maybe in May we'll see this snow all melt and be gone. So, there isn't much time for much else. Including blogging.

My treat of the afternoons has become a mix of hot cocoa with a half teaspoon of instant caffeine free coffee and vanilla flavored creamer. It almost makes my day. That and my hot bath were I can warm up and see my toes turn pink again.

But we are at the crux of winter, now. The days are getting longer, and the sun's angle is better. So, there's hope.

And my granny afghan is coming along. I need more yarn but I'm working on the colorful squares. I've got 148 so far and I need 324 for this large afghan. I do this in the late afternoons to relax. It doesn't require much brain power and I'm not straining my eyes reading something. I've actually become crochet happy. I've actually discovered a whole community of crocheters and a bunch of FREE sites where I can grab some patterns. I downloaded a free ebook for these things. I don't know if I'll make them all, but there's a few in there I'd like to try.

This one is pretty. I'd like to make it some time. But mine is
more on the traditional colors.

I haven't had much time to come around to get to everyone's blog, and afraid that facebook has also been a similar experience as well. I simply don't have time to do it all.

So, until things warm up, and I'm back in my office, or something else happens. I'm just going to ride out this winter wrapped up in my afghan, sipping my cup of warm cocoa/coffee, working on the vampire books.

A Bit of This 'n' That

Merry Christmas to all my pretties!

 I wanted to give you some up-dates what's been happening with me, and my husband and my writing.
This has been a heck of a year! I went Indie, as you may know. That was a busy summer! I got all three of my Sabrina Strong books out as an Indie with the help of my friend/formatter, John Gill (Carole's husband). He was also instrumental in helping me get "The Cat Whisperer" formatted for both Amazon and Smashwords, as well as helping me with the cover.

I finished my husband's afghan. I never realized it, but I've never made him his own before. I've made others just to go over couches, but this one is his.

As you know we had to give up the kittens so that they would go to a good home. This is a picture of Peewee, the smallest kitten in the 5 that were born under the porch steps in the fall. She was so small, she snuggled in between her two bigger brothers, and hid. I was the first one to see her, small as a mouse, but there. I had been very worried about her. Well, here she is. A healthy little kitty, now 2 and a half pounds of spunk! I'm so happy my sister has her, she's delighted I must say, and I'm very happy that this little bundle has given her such pleasure.

This is Peewee ("Sadie") the smallest kitten
in the group of 5 kittens we had to raise and then
give to shelter, but my sister has this one!

I've been told the gray kitten went to her sister-in-law, and that was good news. I hope to hear what happened to the others. But I'm sure they'll all get great homes.

While I sit and look out the window at the melting snow, we are under a winter storm warning for tonight, and so I'm getting this post up just in case I can't do this tomorrow. Christmas has snuck up on me! I didn't have much time to get cards out and forgot to get more stamps, so I just didn't do it.

I am still working on getting the fourth Sabrina Strong book done, with the help of friend and author, Shelly Arkon.

I am currently working on another WIP. As a matter of fact I've almost got 50k words done with it. If I had pushed it, I would have gotten that much done within the 30 days usually set aside for NANOWRIMO. I'm about 4 days over it, but that's okay, as this is a new achievement. And it's nowhere finished at all. Anyway, in case you aren't familiar with what I'm working on, this is something I had written many years ago, and I've decided to dust it off and breath new life into it. I've renamed it "Dhampire Legacy". I've got plans for the cover and two co-workers have agreed to give me a hand in making the cover. I'm not going to reveal any more about that right now, but I will when things begin to move along toward making it and then I'll have a big reveal. But that's a long way away. Next year at some point.

This year I have done what I said I'd do: enjoy life. I did not push myself too much. I went for walks, I crocheted in the afternoons, and read something after dinner before going to bed. And the naps in the afternoon have been wonderful!

I wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas and we'll see you in the new year! I'll be lurking around my other blogs and usual places in the next few days as well!

Happy 1st Day of Winter!

Well, you wouldn't know it to look outside my window right now that it is the first day of winter... there should be SNOW down. There isn't. You see green grass as far as the eye can see.

Well, I'd have to say that it's good in ways and bad. I don't mind having a mild winter for a change. Even a snowless one. I recall we had a very mild one back in 1999 (the year my father died), and we sat outside on New Years in lawn chairs in shorts. It was in the 70's--and no. We were not in Arizona at the time. We were right outside in our own back yard.

We don't have to drive in snow. That's one good point.

But on the other hand, having lived in the midwest all my life you sort of have the mind set that there should be snow on the ground by now and you should be freezing your assets off!

A bit of news:

Yesterday I got confirmation that the 7 books I ordered from my publisher for promotions (one is mine to keep), was sent on Monday. I got up and told my husband this bit of news--because he wants to read this next book badly and had hoped that he would be able to while we're off these next two weeks.

It wasn't five minutes later when he came to my office door asking me "When did you say the books were shipped?"

"Monday."

He moved into the door way further and held a large box in his hands. "Well, they're here!"

Weird, huh?

Because of the Christmas crush I'll wait until next week to send any books out. A couple of people won them and I need to send them out so that they can enjoy. I will announce winners then.

There really is nothing like seeing your own book in physical form. Holding it in my hands--oh, and by the way the cover is more awesome in person than in a picture. Believe me!---I read the back cover to my husband and couldn't quite finish I was just overwhelmed. A 30+ year old dream has come true. I've now got two books--a series--out there and people are buying it and enjoying it! I plan on getting the third book out next year and I'll have the fourth one ready at some point there after. I'm already getting ideas for the fifth book. It just never stops when I have developed characters and their world to such an extent that they seem real to me.

I have other things I'd like to work on as well. Eventually I'll reveal them, but they are in planning stages, or barely a few chapters written that I can't really talk about them.

Ah... 17 days off, I will have my writing cap on and I'll be deep into the mode. Of course we'll take a few days off to enjoy together as always.

One more day to get it done with, and I'll be FREE!