Friends

I have, apparently, been having too much fun, and my back decided to take revenge.

Deets below, but first -- have some day lilies:

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Wednesday:
And today's snippet to live by, from Diviner's Bow: A contract negotiation between a master trader and a trader. The master trader has just asked if the trader has reviewed the proposed contract and found it sufficient. She replies that she wishes to change one thing.

“You astound me," [the master trader murmured]. "Expose, I pray, the contract’s deficiency.”

“I found no deficiency. Merely, I wish to amend the initial period to three Standards, rather than six.”

“Six Standards is our usual term,” Shan said, sternly.

Padi opened her eyes wide.

“Is it, indeed?” she asked wonderingly.

Shan laughed. “I taught you that,” he said.
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Thursday. Sunny and going to be hot.

Yesterday afternoon fell apart in a big way because my back started hurting, and it all went downhill from there.

On top of the pain, or because of the pain, I have had a very dicey stomach and today seems to be more of the same. Sitting in the window right now with Kelly on my lap and a cup of well honeyed ginger tea. Pretty soon I'm going to have to figure out something to eat.

Hope everybody is feeling better than I am. I'll check in as can.
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Friday:
Business first: "Kelly" cited in yesterday's posting to the internets, is actually Tali. Speech to text is not always very smart.

Well. Friday. Sunny, though the weather beans insist that it's cloudy.

Woke up this morning pain-free! I immediately started making plans more fool I, though I did manage to eat food for breakfast before my back started in again. So win, I guess, and I really do need to eat, before I get to the point where I just don't bother, a known danger which needs to be avoided at all costs.

To be fair, my back still doesn't hurt as much right now as it did yesterday, even yesterday evening when I convinced myself to eat an apple tart with ice cream, on the theory that even dessert is better than no food at all.

I had hoped that I would be able to write today and I'm still trying to figure out how to make that happen. On the one hand, it doesn't do anyone any good to just sit at the desk and stare, so the first assessment should be: Is my brain clear enough to allow me to write? And I guess the first test for that is sitting in the office chair and seeing if it hurts so much that I can't think.

What fun.

I should report that Tali is very much in favor of the sitting/ lying around doing nothing schedule. She's been my more or less constant companion in this. The other two have given up in fustration, and I really can't blame them for that.

I did yesterday finish listening to Neogenesis, and I must report a notable lack of "AI technobabble." Also? Boy, does a lot happen in that book! It's a trilogy all by itself.

I'll be taking a break from Liaden books for the next while to read Hornguard by Elizabeth Moon, which I'm looking forward to.

And now that my teacup is empty and Tali has gotten up to have a wee snack, I guess I'll go back and see how the desk chair likes me.

I hope everyone is having a lovely Friday.

PS. Apologies in advance for typos (voice-os?) that may appear in the above.
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Later that same day:  Sat with the manuscript and added about 500 words.

I've been alternating ice and heat every hour and a half, I guess, to try to help get my back to normal.

I have eaten lunch!

There are many chores that I should be doing-- clearing the dishwasher, reloading it, putting things away and etc. That'll happen later, by I which I mean--oh, tomorrow, or maybe even Sunday.

For now, I have dared a Tylenol against increasing pain, and hoping it won't make me sick.

My plans for the afternoon are taking my book to a comfy chair, turning on the heating pad, and reading.

This is even more boring than writing all day. My apologies.
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This is one of Rook's whiskers. It is four-and-three-quarters inches long.

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Sigh. So, I was warned a couple days ago to expect delivery of a package via USnail, which was not delivered and in addition vanished from Informed Delivery.  It showed up in the timeline again today as an expected delivery, so I went to look at it on the Informed Delivery page.

The package under question left Maryland on July 7, and made it all the way to the Southern Maine sorting center, from whence it was sent on to the Essex MA sorting center--which is to say in the Completely Wrong Direction. Essex decided to send the package to Rochester, NY, where it languished for a day or so before this morning hopping on a mail truck going north.

The package is still listed as Going to be Delivered by 9 pm today, which probably means to the local post office, and not my house, but even so.

Even so--it still needs to get through at least one, and probably two, sorting centers in Mass, then the Southern Maine sorting center, which is the center that sent it back to Mass in the first place.

I wonder if I should start a betting pool...
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And that's what's been going on at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. Fingers crossed that this will all be History tomorrow.