Still here
Aug. 30th, 2020 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrj When I fall off the wagon of posting here regularly, I really fall. Two weeks since I even read my reading list. Almost three since I posted.
I can feel the turn of the seasons. Back in the Before Times, I'd measure the end of summer by the light levels on leaving and returning home. Now the most granular measurement is the angle of the sun at 8am when I "go to the office". Since my house aligns NW to SE with the back wall (and my office window) facing NE, the angle of the early morning sun is very evident. Which side of the curtains do I need to draw? At what time? And when can I pull them out of the way again?
But there's also the fact that it's still twilight at my normal rising time, so I've gotten out the "daylight" alarm clock again (the one that turns a light on gradually at a set time). And sitting here at 7:30 in the evening, the sun is down already. At high summer, it's light until my preferred bedtime. [Side note: I swear I'm hearing coyotes crying out in the hills. Might be some other source, but coyotes aren't implausible.] I need to start thinking about some things I want to do for winter mode of WFH. My office doesn't have any built-in lighting and the various portable lights aren't doing the trick. I'm thinking of having recessed ceiling lights installed like I did in the library.
I spent almost all weekend working on podcast stuff. Not the usual tasks of writing scripts and editing recordings, but instead re-mastering all the existing episodes (all 174 of them) in preparation for something I'll be announcing in the next podcast episode. It was very tedious but I got to a point where I decided to just power through and finish the job.
I feel like my quarantine brain has turned a corner in the last couple weeks. I read a couple of e-books this weekend. (Short story and novella, but still...) By necessity I'm back in a regular routine of reading and summarizing for the LHMP blog. On Saturday, I cleaned one side of the garage! The other side requires me to think seriously about how to arranged my "workbench" area. No actual workbench, but that's where it would go if I had it. In fact, organizing it probably requires actually acquiring a workbench with storage area for larger items underneath as well as surfaces that are usable for projects. Ha. This assumes that--now that I'm not making medieval camp furniture--I'm likely to actually do major woodworking projects. But you never know.
It's also time to start thinking about what I want to do with the garden over the winter. Before, I just let it rest because I never had enough daylight at home to do anything serious in the winter. But now? I'm thinking about trying some cold weather crops. Definitely start some winter onions, maybe try peas and beans? And speaking of the produce of my estates, I was checking out the citrus grove the other day and my Buddha's hand citron has two fruits! Plus, the kumquat tree is covered with blossoms. I have my second bushel basket of apples needing to be processed. After that, a break before I need to do anything with the pomegranates, quinces, and medlars. In the mean time, it's still high summer as far as the tomatoes and eggplant are concerned. The secret to eggplant seems to be to give them enough water. (My water bill is suggesting to me that I find a slightly happier medium.)
And now it's dark and the mosquitos are waking up, so time to go back inside and do something productive again.
.
I can feel the turn of the seasons. Back in the Before Times, I'd measure the end of summer by the light levels on leaving and returning home. Now the most granular measurement is the angle of the sun at 8am when I "go to the office". Since my house aligns NW to SE with the back wall (and my office window) facing NE, the angle of the early morning sun is very evident. Which side of the curtains do I need to draw? At what time? And when can I pull them out of the way again?
But there's also the fact that it's still twilight at my normal rising time, so I've gotten out the "daylight" alarm clock again (the one that turns a light on gradually at a set time). And sitting here at 7:30 in the evening, the sun is down already. At high summer, it's light until my preferred bedtime. [Side note: I swear I'm hearing coyotes crying out in the hills. Might be some other source, but coyotes aren't implausible.] I need to start thinking about some things I want to do for winter mode of WFH. My office doesn't have any built-in lighting and the various portable lights aren't doing the trick. I'm thinking of having recessed ceiling lights installed like I did in the library.
I spent almost all weekend working on podcast stuff. Not the usual tasks of writing scripts and editing recordings, but instead re-mastering all the existing episodes (all 174 of them) in preparation for something I'll be announcing in the next podcast episode. It was very tedious but I got to a point where I decided to just power through and finish the job.
I feel like my quarantine brain has turned a corner in the last couple weeks. I read a couple of e-books this weekend. (Short story and novella, but still...) By necessity I'm back in a regular routine of reading and summarizing for the LHMP blog. On Saturday, I cleaned one side of the garage! The other side requires me to think seriously about how to arranged my "workbench" area. No actual workbench, but that's where it would go if I had it. In fact, organizing it probably requires actually acquiring a workbench with storage area for larger items underneath as well as surfaces that are usable for projects. Ha. This assumes that--now that I'm not making medieval camp furniture--I'm likely to actually do major woodworking projects. But you never know.
It's also time to start thinking about what I want to do with the garden over the winter. Before, I just let it rest because I never had enough daylight at home to do anything serious in the winter. But now? I'm thinking about trying some cold weather crops. Definitely start some winter onions, maybe try peas and beans? And speaking of the produce of my estates, I was checking out the citrus grove the other day and my Buddha's hand citron has two fruits! Plus, the kumquat tree is covered with blossoms. I have my second bushel basket of apples needing to be processed. After that, a break before I need to do anything with the pomegranates, quinces, and medlars. In the mean time, it's still high summer as far as the tomatoes and eggplant are concerned. The secret to eggplant seems to be to give them enough water. (My water bill is suggesting to me that I find a slightly happier medium.)
And now it's dark and the mosquitos are waking up, so time to go back inside and do something productive again.
.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-31 02:13 pm (UTC)Yay for reading more than only research related stuff! Well done on getting that re-mastering project done.
How much did you enjoy the process of making that camp furniture? Is it fun enough to be worth your time to use those skills for things you would enjoy having and using at home? Things that you couldn't buy in quite the perfect configuration for what you want?
no subject
Date: 2020-09-03 04:13 am (UTC)The podcast remastering is only the first step. For each episode I also have to revise the show notes (that get attached to the episode in podcast feed), revise the associated blog/transcript to include the new episode number and point the link to the new location, revise the podcast index page with the link to the new location, and of course actually upload the revised episode to the new podcast account (which I have to set up). Some of these are things that work most efficiently if I do all of that particular task in the same session, but of course several of them require getting the episode uploaded first (so I have the new link).
I think the most fun thing about making camp furniture was the years I'd spend designing the perfect object before I started on the physical aspect. In the end, some items of furniture weren't what I'd designed at all, but what made sense in the moment. For example, the "kitchen cabinet in the form of a sideboard dresser" had been in the planning stages for years when I realized that I could convert an existing piece of IKEA furniture for a lot less effort. And I never did make my four-poster canopy camp bed.
While I enjoyed making things, a lot of it was enjoying *having* the things for the purpose of "gracious tourney living". At home, without the goal of trying to have a medieval setting, I don't need to build things myself to get what I want. Also: I pretty much have all the furniture I need and can fit.
But I enjoy making things, and when I make things, I want to have the right tools and a good workspace. Whether it's just a matter of putting together frames for a new set of raised beds or something more ambitious.