Thursday, June 19, 2025

Tiny one of Edgar's friends sighted!

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.

Daily Diary, Day 1751:

Edgar’s friend sighting: After several days of no Daddy Long Legs (do they all go off for a big party in the attic?) last night right before I went to bed I saw a very tiny one up in the corner above the toilet where I last saw Big Daddy. This morning she was gone, but I found her on the baseboard very near the shower stall, and I could tell when I put the bath mat down, this disturbed her. When I got our of shower, she had moved to the narrow bit of wall alongside the left of the shower door. This gave me a good look at her. Her body was no bigger than a dot, and the space she took up sitting high on her legs was no bigger than a dime!

Before I went down for breakfast I went to check on her and couldn’t find her. Hope she found a safe place away from what must have seemed a very unpredictable giant who was throwing towels and such around in the air.

Yesterday’s optometrist visit went smoothly. I do have cataracts, but there but very little change since last visit, no need to do anything. Astigmatism moved a little (whatever that means) and my vision actually requires a weaker prescription—which has been happening over the past five or so years. This is evidently normal in aging. So, I will need to get a new prescription, and I hope to get new frames because the current ones have never been entirely comfortable on the bridge of my nose.

I am so nearsighted that I can only see about 2 inches in front of my face, with everything else blurry from that point on. It is quite amusing to see me fumble around for my glasses if I have taken them off and not put them in their accustomed place. The problem with that is since my vision is corrected for both near and farsightedness, I need progressives, which need some space in the lense, but at the same time, the larger the lens, the thicker the edges and the more distorted the prescription and the heavier the frames! I frankly haven’t found frames that work well in decades, last year I had to go back 4 times, some new pads glued to the nose piece.

Consequently, I didn’t even try to get the frames yesterday, but will go in Tuesday early in the morning, rested, and ready to go. Who knows, maybe this time the perfect frames will be found!

When I got back from clinic yesterday, the co-writing zoom meeting that I have been attending off and on was still going, so I hopped on and did the journal writing I was scheduled to do yesterday. Also did some marketing stuff, laundry, 20 minutes of chair pilates and 10 minutes of gentle yoga, and then fixed and thoroughly enjoyed my daily salad—the new crowns working perfectly. I had yogurt the day before for lunch, and while tasty, I do love my salads!

Then after lunch and a phone call, I read, and after dinner I got in 30 minute walk. So, between yoga, cleaning, Pilates, and two walks, I had over two hours of some sort of exercise! Definitely ready for our two hours of watching tv in the evening. We have started the new PBS show, Patience, which is an adaptation of the French show Astrid about a young autistic woman who starts to help the police with their investigations. We are enjoying it, although I don’t think it is as good as the French version (central character is great, but not so sure about all the supporting characters.) We are continuing to alternate this with Mystery Road (Australian police drama we are rewatching), and The Closer. Oh, our dinner 30 minute fare is rewatching one of our favorite comedies, Spaced. Zany British show about people living in a rooming house. With a young Simon Pegg.

Today, as usual for Thursdays, my mid-day is very full with noon zoom meeting and a scheduled phone call afterwards. I will try to get in the full sixty minutes of walking today, plus Pilates, what I don’t know is if I will get to carve out any time for writing.

Here is an incredible cactus in one yard, but I have never been able to catch it when it has actually blossomed. Probably needs to be sunny mid-day, which is not when I have been walking. But given the number of buds, it must be incredible when it does bloom.

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