Thursday, June 6, 2024

Progress on remodel and healing front.

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, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.

In addition, now and again I will provide some of my fiction to read, for free, on this newsletter. Everything is available to anyone who subscribes, but I am always pleased when someone shows their appreciation for the newsletter by upgrading to paid.

---

Daily Diary, Day 1374:

Again, slept well, but the overall temperature has crept up enough so that it’s not getting quite as cool in the evening. As a result, the comforter on the bed made me too hot, so I’m going to spend today washing the summer bedding. It got warm enough in the house yesterday afternoon--low 70s--so that I actually found myself thinking that maybe it was time to turn on the AC which of course is silly. All I really need to do is put on fewer layers of clothing than normal, which ˆß what I have done today. On the other hand, we are generating so much more solar energy than we are using that I suppose we could probably afford to start the AC at this time of year.

The floor tile went in today and it looks good. I also ordered two hand towels online, one in a light gray and one in a dark gray, to see which I feel go best with shower and floor tiles which are sort of a light gray, and the counter tops that are white quartz with gray veining. Once I have decided I will order a full set to replace the old towels in both bathrooms--which are green and blue--since the tiles and counter tops are identical in both. It's nice to have an excuse to get new towels every once in a while.

I finished re-reading the letters from my freshman year last evening. Didn’t garner much new in terms of my impression. The letters are filled with details about exams, papers quizzes, interspersed, with rather gushing descriptions of my up-and-down relationship with the first boyfriend, John, the movies, dances, and then the soccer, ice hockey and lacrosse games I attended, both at home and away. John was on the varsity team for all three sports as a freshman, not hard to do at a college where most of the students prided themselves for being anti-sports.

My grades started off awful, but seem to slowly get a bit better throughout the year, although who knows what my parents thought when I blithely congratulated myself for not being on academic probation, which evidently was a problem that a number of my friends were facing.

Between the rather juvenile language (lots of “sheesh” and “yucky”) and my apparent assumption that my parents wouldn’t be puzzled that their previously studious, nerdy, and very unathletic daughter had turned into a social butterfly who spent most of her free time attending sports events, the over-all impression fo these letters remains that I was simply having the time of my life!

Today I’ve already cleaned, started the laundry, and read a little, and done my first walk. I would say that every day has found my general arthritis a little bit improved, except for the difficulties with the tendons in both my hands, and that’s very encouraging. Today is my normal noon zoom meeting, with a phone meeting afterwards, and I am hoping that we will get some sun in the afternoon for my later walks the way we did yesterday, but right now it is still not just gray but actually foggy. See photos below for what it looks like to the west (first photo) and to the north of us.

If you enjoy my daily posts and would like to subscribe for free or become a patron (where you will get the pleasure of giving me the resources to spend more time writing and less time marketing) click the little button below. In addition, please do click on the heart so I know you’ve been to visit and/or share with your friends, and I always welcome comments! Thanks!