October 15, 2009

8:11 a.m.

In Cahoots with Mr. Coffee - Wednesday

I sit with coffee�s covert surprise this morning. I�ve been mostly having tea, to ensure that I don�t get too much caffeine at work, so occasional coffee is a treat. It�s about 75% decaf at this point. I make it way strong and then put a lot of Smart Milk in it, like a weird latte. (Smart Milk is one of the brands that slightly evaporates 1% milk so it tastes more condensed.) Then a little raw honey.

A loud sound of gnawing awoke me at ten to five. My mysterious hidden creature, which I shall call the Giant Wall Capybara, was gnawing lathe or something, somewhere near where the chimney goes up. I shined a flashlight in that direction and it stopped, but it sounded like it was inside the wall and I didn�t see anything. One day I shall catch the noisy bugger.

And I don�t know how an hour and a half has passed since then. I have to get ready to go, pronto. This week I�m making a book on AP testing procedures. I get to draw all our products and write about the various ways we make sure they work. I�m doing it tediously and in great detail, which is probably taking longer than the big boss would like, but he has little idea what I do, and as long as I look busy when he comes pacing around I�m okay. And he�ll be so impressed when the book is done. The advantage for me is that I�ll finally be more familiar with the names of the products. VM-4, MC-6-3, VG-100. I asked Marc what the letters stood for, thinking if I could categorize the units by function it would be easier for me to identify them. He had no idea. Some techie names them based on something or other and you just have to memorize the names whether they make sense or not.

More later.

********

Thursday

It turned out to be a busy day. I�m liking this project, though it requires lots of concentration and thinking and figuring out and going back and forth to Marc�s office to ask questions and setting up of test units to draw all the connections on a diagram. It�s kind of like scrapbooking, only less colorful.

I had rehearsal shortly after I got home, and barely had time to eat a little soup before they arrived. In that time Chimney Guy called, and they�ve completed the house washing, so I�m leaving his money in the microwave in the mudroom. Then Roof Guy showed up to inspect the delivery of shingles that came yesterday.

Rehearsal was good, though short as these weeknights are, and I was feeling a bit rundown from the mini-cold that seems to be going around. I don�t think it�ll get too bad. It�s interesting to feel this way; I haven�t had a cold in a very long time. I was so cold during rehearsal � my hands, mostly, I think because I hadn�t eaten much � that I finally turned on the heat, and when they left I took a little bath. That helped, and I slept fine.

Oh, so dark in the mornings now. Next month we�ll gain an hour. Wheee.

Chris is so funny. We were practicing this one song of mine, that is very soar-y and major and fun, and he came up with a chord he wanted to insert someplace that completely did not go. I called it the James Bond chord, because it was mysterious and dissonant and minor. I said, �I really like that chord, and I�d love to hear it� in some other song!� So he kept looking for a place to put it and we were laughing because it was inappropriate but he was so advocating it. Finally he did it at the very end of the song, which was also wrong, but then he went into the James Bond theme on the guitar and I thought it would be great if we had another song we could segue into that had a sort of spy theme. Now I want to come up with something. IN ALL MY SPARE TIME, OF COURSE. Let�s see: I have rehearsal tomorrow, a gig Saturday. It�s going to rain all weekend so I can�t work outside. Apart from laundry, groceries and cleaning the floors in here, I actually DO have some time. Goody. And I can grout the stove platform.

Marc is taking the day off from work today, so I get to go in by myself. He�s going to work on replacing trim boards here. I think I�ll ask him if he can replace the old lockset he took out of the big front door, for which I got keys made. Then I can come in that way if I want.

Every now and then I get a little thrill of happiness about being here. Mostly I feel a low-grade worry about getting things done before it�s too cold to do them � like priming the house; we need a few not-cold days for the paint to dry properly � but sometimes I look back at March and April and how powerfully I was affirming being in this house. It completely consumed me. And by some miracle, here I am. Granted, I expected to have a few rooms finished by now, but I just have to adapt to the way things unfold here. Marc said a very nice thing yesterday; he said he was impressed with all the work I�ve done and how I have never gotten overwhelmed or wanted to quit. That meant a lot to me. His praise and encouragement are valuable; he doesn�t give them lightly, and if he felt otherwise he�d probably tell me that, too. I said my only shortcoming in all this was knowing when I had to take a physical or mental break and NOT work on something. If I were more resilient I could probably have been getting more done, but I�m me. Some nights I have to sit and watch reruns of Heroes instead of priming the ceiling.

And now it seems to be time to get ready for work. I have a new strategy: wash up and get completely dressed first thing, so I�m not scrambling with all that after breakfast (and Diary entries). Next strategy will be to actually make lunch the night before. Can she eventually get out the door on time? Stay tuned.