Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Writing, musing, and holiday decorations.

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.

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Daily Diary, Day 1190:

Yesterday was another productive day, where I got in all my exercise, and completed the chapter I wanted to complete. However, I turned out cutting about 400 words that were redundant, but then added an additional 700, so I ended up ahead!

Today, I do have a phone call in the afternoon scheduled, but that’s all besides the usual cleaning and exercise, but I’ve spent most of my writing time this morning doing a brief sentence outline of the next two chapters, so the total I write today may be skimpy.

I’ve had a good response to my first Ta Da! post on Sunday, slightly more opens than usual. I did worry that people would find it rather boring, me going on and on about upgrades to a house, but then I thought about how similar the processes of maintaining, and even improving my aging house is to my efforts to maintain, even improve my aging body. And in that context maybe the house subject was a nice change!

The level of exercise I have been able to maintain the past few years really is a level of consistent, daily exercise that I have never, ever achieved, and I really feel stronger, despite the problems of aging, than I have felt previously. So in my mind, this activity isn’t just for maintenance (although it is definitely that), but is also to improve my health and well-being. For instance, because of the steady exercise on top of my very disciplined eating, I have just hit a weight I haven’t hit for 40 years, all of which is particularly helpful with aging bones. So a definite improvement.

For the house, the addition of solar panels and the heat pump, is doing more than maintaining the house, these actions have improved it by making it more energy-efficient. And the things like putting in grab bars, fold down seat in the new shower, etc. will have made the house safer.

And I confess, I see both maintaining the house and my body is a kind of gift to my daughter. She is are only child, which means she will most likely inherit the house (her childhood home) but may also face being the one responsibility for our care at some time in the future.

So, the more work my husband and I put into maintaining our physical well-being, the less she has to worry about us, and the longer we can go without needing her help.

In addition, the improvements we have made to the house, while expensive, have also been designed to last outlast my husband and I, so it wouldn’t be a burden for our daughter to take care of the house if we can’t do so, or be a problem if she inherits.

In short, I can and do feel proud of the effort I have been putting into my physical and emotional well-being and my home, not just for myself, but for the peace of mind of those who care about me.

Ok, enough about the house, tomorrow will be another Favorite Thing.

It is getting darker and darker during walks in the evening, but this means I am getting to see the effects of holiday lights. Here is the same wreath, first in morning sunlight, then in evening twilight!

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