February Sweeps - Day 284

So, I didn't go to the cabin today, and it just feels weird.  So little writing and editing is going to get done today and tomorrow.

I went to my cousin's house last night and we watched "Mandalorian," "Daredevil," and "Seinfeld."  All were excellent.  I mention that because . . . well, we weren't supposed to do that.  Because of out of control COVID spread, ICUs being rapidly filled, and people who refuse to wear masks*, our governor put us on the highest restriction we have had since this pandemic began--and everyone is required to wear masks in stores, restaurants, and in public settings, for fear of enormous fines.  Also, ALL meetings and gatherings have been prohibited for the next two weeks, and in those two weeks, we have been told not to get together with people who are not in our immediate family (and the phrasing may even have been "who reside in your household").

So, you're not supposed to take your kids out to see Grandma, and you're not supposed to go snog on a couch with your girlfriend (or her hot stepsister), and you're not supposed to get together to watch television in your cousin's basement.  I called my cousin the day after this announcement/restriction was made, and asked him if that meant we were off again (there was a nearly two month stretch earlier in the year where we didn't get together and I would--crazily--write on Tuesday nights and eat alone).  But he said, "No, we were masks in public, and we don't interact with anybody but each other.  It'll be fine."

So, we did it.  But both of our mothers got wind of it (surely one told the other, no?) and suddenly, we were naughty, naughty boys, jumping on the trampoline in a rainstorm, or watching television when we were supposed to do homework.  We both got a talking to, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ryan's mom twisted his ear when she did it.

Except that that would be breaking the rules too, since they don't live together.  Not to mention he's a man in his forties.

Anyhow, I just wanted to mention that, as a sort of bad news, good news thing.  It seems unlikely we'll be getting together next week.  But we can stand a week apart (though I will miss the hijinks of George Constanza and Company).

In the good news column: I finally got a green light from Audible about my audiobook "You're In Good Hands," the sequel to "Like a Good Neighbor."  It's the series Abbie called "Lara and the Witch" and now I do too, which I wrote a third story for just this fall.  It's out there at this link, (or, if you'd like to support me even more, there's the two-pack with the first story HERE) and it means I can finally put out the episode I made for it . . . back in April.**

I wonder if I should post it next, or release the next one I had schedul--

Nope, I think it will be next.  Momentum and all.  I'll even take a minute to record a little addendum to that episode right now.

There.  That beats writing any day.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In November: 1249

I went on my nightly run around nine pm, and it was in the upper thirties outside.  It was cold enough I had to tuck my hands into the sleeves of my running shirt, and do this thing with my legs where I moved each one rapidly up and down to keep myself warm.

To my surprise, I passed three other joggers, all of them running at night (in the opposite direction).  They all wore jackets, and one wore gloves.

While this is not at all an interesting anecdote, I've already typed it, so what's done is done.  Sorry.

So, I had a podcast to record with Marshal Latham tonight, and in the hour leading up to it, I recorded two chapters of "My Friend of Misery."  Are you sick of hearing about that yet?  Well, just imagine how I feel.

JUST IMAGINE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I hate ZOOLANDER, but I like this character)

I discovered, sadly, that one of the chapters I read should have appeared way earlier in the story, so I copied and pasted it into Chapter 10, instead of 22, as it had been slotted as.  That means I need to bump everything from that point on, and I honestly don't know how much trouble that is going to be down the road--for both chapters already edited and ones left to edit.  It was also a pathetically small number of words for the day, and believe me, I'm intimately familiar with the phrase "pathetically small."

Once it was time to record with Marshal, I pasted the revised two chapters into the master document, and I had finally pushed it over 40,000 words: thus making it an official novel according to the Hugo Awards' definition.***

Words Today: 303
Words In November: 9918

*Honestly, it's begun to shock me when I'm in a store and I see someone blatantly not wearing a mask.  A lot of times, they're attractive women not wearing them, and when I see these women's faces, I can't help feel like I'm seeing something I'm not supposed to, like if they weren't wearing a bra, or I could see their thongs hitched up.  And while I like bralessness and (to a certain extent) thong underwear, this isn't really the same thing.  Even if you've had the disease, you're supposed to wear a mask anyway, because hey, maybe you can still spread or be spread to . . . but more importantly, it's the symbol of wearing the mask--a symbol of concern for others, a symbol of respect for science, and a symbol that you're willing to follow the rules for the good of the many, Spock.  You dig?

**Audible also sent out an email this morning apologizing for the "truly unacceptable wait times" (their words) that we've had to put up with this year.  They claim to have hired a bunch of new employees and implemented new features that should make the process much speedier from here on out.  Plus, as a bonus, they'll be giving us an extra 5% of the proceeds of any sales in December.  That's nice, even if it won't impact me much more than a dollar or two.

***Super weirdly, though, when I checked in the morning to get a word count, the master document was back to 39,xxx words . . . which I still don't get at all.  My worry is that I pasted over something I shouldn't have, or deleted part of a chapter, and won't know until somebody mentions it (if anybody ever does).