January

[ritaxis]

I read:
I Capture the Castle
Shadow in Ombria
Perfect Circle
California Landscape (geological history)
a nameless book for review
I saw:
Walk the Line (with Elizabeth)
I wrote:
the end of the draft of the story about the man who made a deal with the devil for a bigger vineyard
I went to San Francisco: seven times
I also visited my grandniece Julianna
I paid my late property taxes and helped Emma to apply for a union scholarship (I still have to file some old income taxes, and this year's)
I cleared the floor in the library and the laundry room
I went for I think six walks in the forest, and got lost once
I took about three hundred pictures, mostly of mushrooms in the forest
I wrote only five of the impeachment letters
I made an agreement with Zac about the shed after having found out that no company will sell us insurance until the old shed is down
I took in both cars for maintenance

February
I plan to take six walks in the forest and twelve shorter walks with the dog
I'm signed up for two water treatment plant tours
I plan to file this year's taxes and FAFSAs for both Frank and Emma
I plan to find out what I need to do to get the old taxes taken care of
I plan to go to the Parks and Rec old folks' fincancial class, to get the house etc. lined up so as to make things as convenient as possible for Frank and Emma when the inevitable happens
I plan to clear out the upstairs and get Emma's old computer set up there
I plan to update my scrapbook with photos of urban-rural Santa Cruz County
I plan to get the rest of The Donor online, to finish "Raining Here" and revise the devil deal vineyard story. I also plan to get Bella and Chain updated to the current time. And to start a new short story.
I plan to submit the new stories and the stories which have come back ("Convoy" and I forget which else and I can't check because I'm not home).
I plan to query agents for The Conduit. And to consider putting Esperanza Highway online.
This month is also he month for the fiftieth anniversary of my uncle and aunt in Los Angeles and the Chinese New Year Parade.

Today is Groundhog Day and the fifteenth anniversary of my mother's death.

I am not sure I saved the little brown bird that banged its head repeatedly trying to fly out Gloria's windows. It's breathing, and I set it in the sun, but it is either still stunned or dying.

Comments

[anghara.livejournal.com]

add one more thing - you were organized enough to keep track. My January just vanished, and I don't have anything near as coherent to show for it...

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Actually, the reason I made the post is so that it will be easier to keep track of.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

We can't save all the little birds, but you deserve credit for trying.

I still can't forget that stupid bird that flew under my car. It was in the road after that, just looking at nothing, and I was looking for my chance to go try and get it and take it to a vet hospital down the road, but the next car made it moot. Didn't slow down or swerve or anything.

Damn idiots. Poor stupid birds.

I had better luck years earlier in Georgia with a bird that went down the chimney. Figured out how to get the grill off, and then the bird zoomed out and started hitting walls and lying stunned until I was almost ready to try and pick it up. Turning off inside lights and putting on the porch light got it to fly out the door. I'm not sure, but I have a tiny voice telling me that this happened twice.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Well, this birdie seems to have made it -- it was gone from the sunny spot I put it in, and we had not noticed cats or coyotes on Gloria's deck. Though there had been one in the compost heap earlier on.

When our efforts to save a struck deer failed, oh, thirty-five years ago, we butchered it and ate it.

Venison is really overrated.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not an outrageous delicacy, but I ate a lot of it in my youth, and quite enjoyed it. The first curry I ever had was venison, which Mom made while trying to find ways to come up with new and exciting stuff for us to eat.

Dad brought home a few deer over the years. He enjoyed hunting, and it was a way to help make the take-home pay of a musician (whose wife did non-paying volunteer work) feed a family of six. He got one with a bow and arrow, and at least one with the muzzle loader he made (with ammunition I helped cast).