October Sweeps - Day 624

So, the day began as it usually does here at the cabin: I woke up early (in today's case, before the sun was even on the horizon).  When I get up that early, I have a few options as to what I can do.  Often, I will blog or edit audio, and sometimes (rarely) I will write a few words.  But most of the time, I will go back to sleep (either after having done something productive, or before).  Today was the latter.

You see, I've been having problems with my laptop's audio device.  A few months back, I turned it on, and there was no sound.  The computer claimed there was no audio driver installed.  I worried about that, but you know what the first rule of computer systems is, and I restarted my laptop.  Doing the restart reset my audio driver, and I didn't worry about it.  Until it happened again.

Lately, every other time I start my computer, it has no sound.  The headphone jacks don't work either, otherwise that would be a temporary solution.  But I save my work, restart the system, and sometimes the sound comes back, and sometimes it doesn't.  This week, more times than not, it hasn't come back.  Three, four times I have to restart the system, and then the sound magically appears.  But not today.  I'd say we're on our tenth restart (yesterday, it probably took six or seven), and no sound at all.

It's not the end of the world, except for more than half of what I do up here at the cabin involves sound.  Even transferring files off my recorder and deciding what can be deleted requires listening to them, since the files are always named ZOOM0057 or such.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In October: 1795

I figured I would go in the other room and record a story--my last story of the season, I suppose--and I can certainly read, blog, and write fiction without an audio driver, but it is a problem.  When I get back to civilization (assuming I can get the truck out of the hole I've dug for myself), I'll ask Jeff if he can fix the laptop, or make suggestions.  One thing's for sure, though, when I take it over for him to look at, the sound will work just fine.

Push-ups Today: 200
Push-ups In Octobre: 2111

Last night, the moon was really bright, and its light reflected off the snow on the ground, making it much lighter outside of the cabin than inside (once I turned the lights off).  I didn't think to take a picture, but it was cool to look out of and be able to see every tree and hill and boogeyman.  It was kind of like when they'll shoot day-for-night in movies, but when they don't do it well and you think, "That can't be right."

Marshal Latham has been doing little personal podcasts for his Patreon supporters this month, as part of his goal to exercise and write every single day (keeping himself accountable by reporting on his progress), and it really makes me want to do the same thing.  Yes, it would be more work, but boy, I really do enjoy podcasting, and I think I might--

Okay, I sat down (okay, the first two I did standing) and recorded three short podcasts that I think I'll share in the new year.  My idea is to make the first episode available here, and have all the others be on my Patreon feed (but open for everybody), and see how many I could do in a row, if I started today.  Marshal calls his episodes "Walk of Life," because he records them on his exercise walks, and plays the Dire Straits song at the beginning and end of each.  Maybe I could call mine "Spock of Life" and have Leonard Nimoy quotes at the beginning and en--

Nah.  I'll keep thinking.

Soon, it was time to go outside, and see what could be done about the truck.  I had worried about it quite a bit, to the point where I recorded a podcast episode about it.

But I needn't have.  I dug a little trench with a shovel, and backed the truck out that trench, and everything was easy-peasy nipple-squeezy.  Don't know what I'll do with that podcast episode.

I had been thinking of a story Big wrote last year, and how a possible sequel could go, so I called him up as soon as there was a cell signal, and pitched it to him (reminding him that one of my goals for 2021 was to collaborate on a story with him), but once it was out of my mouth, it seemed way less cool an idea than it had in my head.  And that seems to be the case with a lot of ideas.  A truly talented writer, I suppose, could take the concept that's in their mind and translate it perfectly on the page, maybe even making it better.

But long story short, it doesn't seem like he'll want to collaborate on that idea.  Which isn't the end of the world; I just hope he starts writing again, with or without me.

Words Today: 914
Words In Octubre: 10,659