Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Blow Ye Winds, High Ho!

Riddle: I can be small, I can be big
And with friends I dance and jingle,
Hide and seek is my favorite game
But life is easier when I am single.
What force can take hours to do
I can do it at once.
What am I?

Well, it was a heckova weekend.  We had two (two!) power outages in our building – both of them halfway events in our apartment.  That is, Friday morning, the power was out in our bedroom, Ellen’s office, bathroom and living room, but on in the second bathroom and my office – and halfway on in the kitchen.  The microwave worked but not the lights, the refrigerator or dishwasher.  And the stove worked halfway: it would turn on but not all the way.  I put the kettle on and left it (the little light indicating the stove was heating up came on) – and half an hour later heard the kettle murmuring to itself.  Out glass-top electric stove heated the water to simmer, not boiling.  No Internet, either, which was a terrific bore.  I got up early Friday (even with no alarm), put my swimsuit on under my clothes and made my way in darkness down the stairs (the emergency lights were mostly off) to our underground garage, and drove over to the exit – and, of course, the door wouldn’t go up when I pressed my in-car button.  There is a rope hanging down to open it by hand but 1) it was too high up for me to reach, and 2) we are not supposed to go off and leave the door open for thieves to enter by.  So I drove back to my spot and came upstairs.  Couldn’t go golfing, because the course was closed due to flooding and fallen trees.  I used those as excuses not to exercise at all.  Friday night the storms hit again, even worse.  And the same peculiar halfway outage struck again.  But this time the hot water heater for the building had gone, so we bathed in cold water.  But everything is back on again here.  There are big trees down in the neighborhood, which is sad to see.  And there were houses struck by lightning and burned down in the area – not our neighborhood – which is scary.  Life can be an adventure.

The weight I lost not long ago is sneaking back on me.  I’ve been slacking off watching what I eat – and that has to stop, as of yesterday.  So here comes the low-carb eating routine again.  For me, it’s the easiest way to lose weight.  And as long as I have a hard-boiled egg in the refrigerator, I’ll not go hungry.

I dropped by my local Barnes & Noble store yesterday to pick up a book to give as a birthday present to a very good friend.  And so long as I was there, I talked to the checkout clerk about maybe doing a signing for my next book, The Drowning Spool, in December, and she promptly sent me to the manager, who is not only in favor of that, he pulled my copies of current titles off the shelf and had me sign them and will make a little display of them right now on the Customer Service Counter.  Hint to authors: don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to clerks in bookstores.  I try to always carry a little stack of bookmarks to give to people.  I try not to be a bore, but I’m always willing to tell people who ask what I do for a living, and illustrate it with a bookmark.

Thought for the day (too wickedly funny!) “It’s true, we have a two-party system in America: The Evil Party, and the Stupid Party. And every once in awhile the Evil Party and the Stupid Party get together to pass something both evil and stupid. That’s called ‘bipartisanship.’” – Steve Hayward (no, I don’t know who he is.)

Answer:  A key.

3 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

I don't envy you your power loss, Monica. And I do really appreciate our local Barnes & Noble stores. I do signings there and sign all the books of mine they have in stock and leave them bookmarks each time I visit. And, yes, I'm always handing out bookmarks to identify myself and my books!

Monica Ferris said...

I just found out that The Unforgiving Minutes is being offered as a free download today and tomorrow, June 25 and 26. This was my first novel - though it was the second one published. I learned how to write a novel by writing this one over and over. I didn't know there'd be more, so I put everything I could think of into it: mystery, thriller, corrupt cops, honest cop, beautiful young woman, horses, a fine old house, gangsters who peddle girls and drugs - everything. Go here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00507U1ES

Betty Hechtman said...

I am glad your power is back on. How strange that it was on in some places and off in others.

The two Barnes & Nobles near me both closed. I haven't had good luck with setting up signings, so I just go around and sign stock. And leave bookmarks.