Doing A Little

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

This is not a butt-kicking post.

Okay, I lie. This is totally a butt kicking post.

Today I dragged my behind out of bed early, after going to bed late last night. You see, I meant to upload Darkship Renegades today, to get it out this month, after the usual arguments with Amazon (what?) It might be less of an argument this time, but I can’t just assume it will be.

But while I was going over it a day ago, I realized two things: First, the mind-talk made no sense whatsoever, because it wasn’t italicized. I don’t know if it was like that in the Baen version — it might have been — but in what I have, from the last go-over, sometimes the mind-talk is italicized, sometimes the tag “he said/she said” is italicized and mind talk is normal text. Somehow my editor missed that, and it made some passages very hard to understand.

And as with everything of this sort, once you start poking and paying attention….

Let’s say I don’t know if it’s simply the fact it’s been 11 years, or if it’s … me. But looking it over, if I were doing that book today, it would be two books, and start 35 pages in.

Those of you who just whined “But it’s my favorite book!” chill. I just changed the wording, because beginning and ending were rushed, and what I call “panopticon” — too distant, glossing over things, etc. — and hopefully made it more focused. I know that this late in the game — forget deadline — it cannot be substantially changed, without getting a whole lot of people mad at me.

However, for those who don’t know this, that kind of revision is very hard. I can’t change it enough to make it perfect, but improving it on that framework is very hard.

I did it till eleven last night, and got up at seven to do it today (I had an interruption midday for 3 hours, but finished two hours ago.) So, when I woke up this morning my reaction was “Don’t wanna.” Because it’s bad enough doing a rehab job when you can make it perfect, but when you know you can’t….

However I kicked my own butt up, and finished the work, and I think I have improved the book. I also do realize it probably wasn’t as bad as it feels to me. It’s always a problem when you’re looking at the back panel of the computer trying to optimize it. You see problems no one else does. I hope you guys will enjoy it.

BUT what I’m trying to say is this: if there’s something that needs to be done, you should kick your own butt and do it.

The world is made up of many, many things you can’t improve or change. Concentrate on what you can. Even if it’s just a little bit, it’s something less broken with the world.

Sometimes — like right now — it’s all we can do: hold a small candle up, against encroaching darkness.

Sometimes all you can do is make a cat happy, listen to a friend, smile at a total stranger. Sometimes all you can do i slightly improve a book. Make a meal. Clean your room.

And sometimes that is enough.

Go do it.

109 thoughts on “Doing A Little”

  2. Thank you. I have to retake my medical boards in six days (I have to recertify every ten years) and in a fit of psychic overflow I spent this afternoon drinking wine (yes!) and surfing the net. Will kick my butt tomorrow and get back at it.

  3. It’s difficult for creators to stop revising their own work. That’s why they ‘re constantly filled with angst.

    It’s pretty easy for editors to ruthlessly chop and change until the story works — and then stop. That’s why we’re seen as heartless weirdos.

    2. I wouldn’t have a problem, except when this was edited one editor identified part of the problem, but not the crux of it.
      The other one wanted me to excise the working sequences of the book, because he personally didn’t like them.
      So, you see…..

      1. And here I always have felt guilty for kidding you about typos and missed deadlines.
        I do have every confidence that I shall see a working manuscript of Bowl of Red no later than the 2024 Presidential elections.

  5. I’m supposed to be painting a ceiling in the basement. And I was. I didn’t even take my usual medically required nap after work because I got home and hubby was here. He came home sick so I ministered to him for a bit then started painting.

    It’s going badly. I’m going to have to do at least two coats and I’m tired and whiny.

    But. Fine. I’ll quit whining and get busy.

  7. I’m reminded of the old cliché ‘There comes a time in the course of every project when it becomes necessary to shoot the engineers and put the damned thing into production.’

    That’s where I’m at with the second ‘Republic of Texas Navy’ book. Just waiting for one last piece of artwork, then it gets fired off to Amazon to do their thing.

    1. Quote from the early days of rocket testing just post WW2. Get the scientists off that bird and shoot it!”

    2. A large part of the Reader’s career was spent cleaning up after program managers who made that statement prematurely. He is not a fan.

  8. Twenty. Six. Hundred. Words. today.
    Now I have to stop and clean up the next segment of the plot, because the damn characters aren’t doing what I intended them to do.

    1. Author: Now Character-Name, I want you to go alone up to the attic.

      Character-Name: No Way! I’ve seen enough Horror Movies to know what will happen to me if I do!

      [Very Very Big Crazy Grin]

          1. I know. Owen Pitt does go into the dark scary attic and rescues a German Shepard, so now evermore he has a ferociously loyal German Shepard. See fixed it for Paul. Hey, now, stop the eye rolling, you’ll lose your eyes somewhere. 😉 😉 😉

            1. Owen Pitt would have to be given a very good reason to go alone into that Dark Attic and would be armed to Deal With The Bad Things that might be there.

              Of course, if he went into that Dark Attic with a certain young woman, they would check out the Attic carefully before “having a bit of nookie”. [Very Very Big Grin]

      2. Meanie.

        Actually what I heard from the character-name, was also: “Besides. The reader will be yelling ‘Don’t Go! Idiot!'”

          1. Alright so this may be a spoiler on a 50+ year old cartoon: Is that the one where Daffy has been fighting the artist and in the end we see the hand of the artist and it belongs to a certain Wascally Wabbit? Not all the Looney Tunes are gems but the percentages are pretty good. And they CONSTANTLY break the 4th wall

      3. I have a very hard time making g my chara ters do stupid things. The story usually ends up where ot needs to be in spite of them.

        Maybe the stereotypical heroine wad invented so the authors always had someone on the cast to be stupid?

        2. If you write epic/high fantasy, there can be possibilities… a god/goddess got depowered and sent to accompany the hero in order to learn something (or because they thought it’d be fun), and hasn’t quite worked out that things are dangerous yet. Hijinks ensue.

          Or there’s a Wise Fool who trips into every hornet’s nest along the way but somehow brings the hero exactly where they need to be… Secret identity optional.

          I like plot twists and secret identities, if it’s not already obvious.

          1. Anime series, “Dark Summoner.” The goddess of reincarnation decided to let herself be one of the creatures the MC could summon when he fell in love with her during the reincarnation process.

          2. It took me five months to figure out how to tip two of my characters (who very much have a crush on each other, as well as respecting and loving each other in another sense) into bed.
            Because they both know it’s a BAD idea that might likely kill them.

        3. Gerry Anderson (creator of Thunderbirds, UFO, Space 1999, etc.) apparently thought that switching from “puppets” to live-actors would make things easier.

          That idea ended when the actors started asking questions. 😆

            1. Supermarionation would be a great improvement over the Turnip in Chief. At least maybe we’d have Thunderbirds 1-5 …

              1. I might vote for President Loki, honestly, if he’s an option. He’d be entertaining, at least.

                  1. Fair point.

                    I didn’t actually read the comic series, so I don’t know how much damage President Loki actually did/would have done when/if elected. I’m not voting for Zombie Hitler under any circumstances (unless he was running against a literal demon) because I know the damage that will result and it is unacceptable. Either (A) zombie starts munching brains and the plague sweeps the nation and then the world or (B) Hitler starts trying to round up and murder people. Unacceptable.

                    1. The thing that still gets me is that Hitler, and his cadre, never seemed to think there was anything wrong with what they were doing. That level of brokeness is so hard for me to imagine. It’s one thing to create a fictional character with that level of badness, but for someone to be that way in real life… On the other hand, I have run into people, usually while I was still in uniform, who were definitely sociopaths that I suppose in a similar environment as ’30s/’40s Germany, might have gone the same way.

                    2. I’m not surprised. all the bien pensant for 20 years had talked about ‘racial hygiene’ as an obvious thing. All they were doing is put it in practice.
                      Yes, it was evil and wrong, but humans get blinded to that with indoctrination. What? you think it’s moral to have the state rob you to give to the undeserving poor and, right now, a bunch of illegals?

                    3. A necessary evil, because of the iniquity of their foes.

                      Now Stalin, he just enjoyed it. Once, while watching a show trial secretly, he smoked his distinctive cigar, so the Communist would know that Comrade Stalin did know.

                    4. It’s much worse than that, never mind wrong, Hitler and his gang thought they were doing the right thing, an absolutely good thing.

                    6. SEe AGW today.

                      The engineering reality, is that populations would have to be coerced into going along with the ‘mitigation’. Some populations this generation a propagandized enough to eat poverty for the sake of the world, and some are very much not. But, that is current generations, not future generations over the next hundred years, which we are assured is the minimum to play. Poverty is very likely to make the future generations care less about this insane world ‘saving’ stuff. (energy in the engineering sense, food supply, and economics are somewhat related, and certainly cannot be completely divorced. And, thermodynamics means that there is a limit to hand waving energy, and so likewise food and economy.)

                      Nothing in history should make us think that an agreement between a bunch of powers to inflict poverty on their own people can at all be stable for twenty years, much less a hundred.

                      With those fairy tales off the table, pretty much the only way to ‘address’ AWG is mass murder. Saner people conclude that Climate Science was spawned from the wrong field, and additionally has not met the appropriate threshold of evidence for mass murder.

                      But, we do have crazy people who are trying for mass murder, hiding in a sea of idiots who have not put together the mass murder/degree of evidence elements yet.

  9. I’m finishing up edits for that fan fix project I was working on, and somehow in one of the conversions, all of the italics got wiped out. That was fun to fix…

    On the upside, I think I finally caught the viewpoint character for my project. Now I just need to as much of it written down before they gets away again.

  10. Mind if I rant a little?

    So, I’m in a Screenwriting class. Not surprising for someone working on a Filmmaking Major. I’m not working on it yet as such, but the final project for the semester is an 8-12 page short film script.

    Into this 8-12 pages, I need to cram the following: set up, inciting incident, act 1 climax, midpoint crisis, act 2 climax, dark night of the soul, and act 3 climax.

    I tend towards plot-driven fantasy epics.

    Ugh. Needless to say, this will be a challenge.

    2. First thing that comes to mind to me is a terrorist incident.
      Pan down a city street to come to rest looking at a building.
      Zoom in to MC talking with friend.
      Car bomb goes off.
      MC struggles to save the life of wounded friend, and ultimately succeeds using materials on hand.
      Suddenly the terrorists show up with guns, shooting everyone in sight.
      MC confronts the terrorists, tries to reason with them, and is shot.
      MC realizes he’s been mortally wounded. Sees terrorist about to kill his friend. He can stop the terrorist, but he’ll bleed out and probably die, or he can save himself at the cost of his friend’s life.
      Final scene, friend standing at the fresh graveside of MC>

        1. Thanks.
          I really should try writing that as the full 8 to 12 pages short. But I think I’ll reread a couple of PK Dicks shorts and see if the structure works close enough to slap together and smooth out.
          /em scratches head.
          You know, it seems like writing is a lot like brick laying (or a lot of other construction projects for that matter.) Sure, you have a pile of bricks, and a bucket of mortar; but to do a decent job, you still need a plan, plumb lines, level lines, and tools.

      2. One would have to live with oneself, letting friend die AND letting terrorist live to kill again. Dying is suboptimal, but letting the terrorist get another chance is EVIL.

        1. I’m not sure how much that ethic is cultural, and how much is instinctual. The will to live is one of the strongest motivators of human behavior, but the survival of the family/clan/tribe is another. I’d like to say most of us would risk our lives to save the life of a child; but there’s a significant number of people who would just stand there, watch it happen, and say, “That’s too bad.” Or worse, film the damn thing with their cell phones.

        2. @ Mike & Orvan > I agree with Mike’s final scene as well.

          A version of this quasi-trolley-problem scenario shows up in Volume 3 of my all-time favorite book (it’s a 6-volume novel, essentially, though published as stand-alones): Dorothy Dunnett’s “Disorderly Knights.”

          This is a mild spoiler if you haven’t read the book (bibliophiles please note: it’s the best historical drama ever – “Game of Thrones” level conniving in the Elizabeth I era, but without the porn and dragons).

          Anyway, the Hero has to make a decision that allows a (supposed) innocent to be killed, saving himself because he has to continue fighting the Villain in order to stop his evil — which he can’t do if he’s dead.
          Of course, the on-lookers, not knowing the secrets the reader is privy to, haul the Hero off to the local whipping post for prompt vigilante justice — they don’t like him much anyway, so it’s a two-fer for the crowd.

          Speaking of GoT:
          https://notthebee.com/article/hbo-which-is-known-for-soft-core-porn-like-game-of-thrones-is-spending-time-photoshopping-cigarettes-out-of-posters-for-old-movies

          1. You know, I wonder if it’s such an effective “gut punch” because so many of us have faced similar, minor, situations in our lives? Take for example, disciplining a child. We hate to have to do it, but we sacrifice a bit of our beneficent self-image for the greater good of raising a good, responsible person.

            Reminds me of a story where one of the characters is saying life is full of regrets because we always regret the choices we didn’t make. We all want our cake, and to eat it too; but you can’t have both. (And even if you make a second cake to have, it’s never the same as the one we ate.)

      1. I know, right? How in the everlovin’ world…

        I have an idea. Hopefully it’ll work. Particularly if I summarize certain portions by focusing one on visual element and letting the sound design tell the story. (Example: camera holds on the protagonist’s tapping foot while the clashing of swords and ringing of bells in the background announces other people’s matches being fought and won. Lighting gets brighter as the morning goes by, then begins to fade as afternoon turns into evening. Hours have passed, but the scene itself has taken less than a minute.)

  11. I do a little every day. I know it’s not much; but maybe I can change someone else’s attitude.

    Never forget who the leftists really are. They’re the people who grieve because this warning never came true.

  12. For various reasons (mostly fire risk and the fact it’s close to end-of-life), I’m removing our wrap-around wooden deck. (Not my idea; the house came that way. The deck is about 21 years old and the cedar shows it.)

    It’s an amazing amount of work, and stubborn RCPete insists on doing the work hisself, largely because I want to know where the damned nails are. We’ve had too many on the former mill-site to want to let it be sloppy.

    So, I go to bed tired and wake up when appropriate, then start again. I actually slept over 8 hours last night. Seems fatigue is a sovereign remedy for sore back.

    So yeah, butt-kicking time. (I keep fantasizing about meeting the construction crew. Dark alley type meeting. The short-cuts were medium bad, though they’ve been just good enough to keep the damned thing from collapsing. I hope–some of the deck supports our sun room.)

    2. I keep fantasizing about meeting the construction crew. Dark alley type meeting.

      Every time I open up a wall in my house, whether it’s the original 1930 part or an addition or a previously-remodeled section, I always run across something that makes me say “wtf were they thinking?”

      1. The 1936 house in San Jose had an originally-unfinished room (bonus room, as it were) that had been turned into living space in the ’60s and ’70s. The electrics were, er, interesting, with the wood screw holding the box in place doubling as the ground screw a nice touch. Those got redone as much as practical.

        I only found one box buried under sheetrock.

        The building inspector when we sold had some comments. Putting an attic-type furnace in the crawl space was funky (1972 or so) and attaching Romex to knob & tube wiring by solder freaked him out. AFAIK, whether or not it’s code, the last is/was common practice. I never wanted to deal with the plaster-over-sheetrock walls in the main house and passed on rewiring, so I couldn’t safely insulate the walls. OTOH, San Jose. Around here, R13 gets laughed at.

  13. Ouch. I’ve been sort of procrastinating on writing, or writing in breaks at Day Job, because, um. No good reason. OK, some of it is Day Job, and some a clingy, elderly cat who is unhappy that 2/3 of her staff have been away for a few days. Otherwise? No good reason.

    Time to put rump in chair and work.

    1. Got a few words on screen, blogged, paid bills (for someone else, with legal permission, but new-to-me system that isn’t intuitive), did yard stuff (for someone else.) So I can get more writing done tomorrow.

    2. If you’re not up to cleaning your whole room – dust a bookshelf. Polish a dresser top. Something.

      I’ve been feeling like crap since last Thursday, definitely a flu (but unlikely to be a Wu-type flu). So I’ve fallen back on my standard “unless I feel like death is preferable” routine of the previous day’s dishes and kitchen clean up – plus one other thing. Which today was just figuring out how to fish the robocleaner out of the pool without the poles for the hook that came with it, and cleaning the filter. Maybe an hour and a quarter total, but something that now doesn’t need to be done tomorrow or the next day.

    1. Sez you. For me, it gets a little bit harder. As for what I’m working on, much of it is a history of the world. Yes, it’s been done before, but I’m trying to do it better. I’ve been putting summaries up on my blog.

  16. I was gonna tease you writers about how soft you have it with a, you young whippersnappers, why back when I was a boy story, by, probably, going into a 3 page extended sentence telling about the time I was down in a lift station, more than knee deep in sewerage, tossing a chain around a lift pump so it could be hauled up (-40° temperature outside, above.) with 40 or so union members waiting to see the fail (we didn’t), or the time I walked an 8 inch I beam 8 feet out to change the 12 incandescent light bulbs behind the, three stories up above a hard cement floor, sight glass of a (three stories tall, did I remember to say three stories up?) coal fired steam boiler and had the packing blow out spewing 150 psi steam that would have parboiled and knocked me off the beam if I’d been still just a few feet closer, but I won’t.

    To paraphrase the old wise guy, “You gotta understand this is just business, nothing personal.” , saying; I, of course, do understand, it’s always, always personal. So! Deadlines, re-writes, etc. just as important and are life or death, down and dirty when your building a career, housing feeding yourself and a family, soldier on, it is a tightrope you’re walking and I wish you great success!

    BTW: I tried writing and failed, I have the 60 or 160 or so rejection slips tacked to the wall of the old house to prove it. I know it ain’t soft and easy.

    1. Never anything as dangerous as what you detailed. When I was log scaling, we often were on log rafts in the river; they scared the heck out of me (as a trainee, never got assigned to that gig, that was for the 10+ experience years). Then there was climbing all over logs on log trucks, regardless of the weather. Slippery bark, especially when the bark slipped off the log, was no joke. Never fell from the top of a load. Did slip from the platform between the cab and the load, jumping from the ramp to the platform. No one saw me. I was dang lucky, landed on my tush (one big deep bruise) between the truck and the ramp “step” that ran along the ramp about halfway between the ground and ramp platform, slightly under the truck platform. I was dang lucky I didn’t hit anything on the way down. My back. Or worse my head. Like I said – no one saw me go down. Yet despite the physical activity, in all types of weather, some mental, also a gig where if one is doing their job, only you boss is happy with you. Log buyer thinks didn’t cut enough, graded too high. Seller thinks you cut too much, graded too low. I did not do well emotionally under that. But despite all that, programming was way more exhausting, yet sat at a desk all day (last 12 years didn’t even have the stress of impossible deadlines, so that part is a distant memory, until one of the programmers/engineers bring it up here). All programmers know what I mean. While I missed working outside (okay, not so much when 100+ out on asphalt, or pouring rain/sleet …) found programming a whole lot more satisfying.

    2. “You haven’t been accepted to this career-enhancing program, but it’s nothing personal,” is depressing. It works out to me as,”Yeah, you aren’t getting this but it’s nothing personal. You don’t matter to me enough for it to be personal.”

  17. Okay. Later today (it is after midnite already) I will open up the 30 gallon drum of olivewood chunks and see if I can find the pieces I need to turn the pair of oil candles my best friend commissioned 18 months ago.

    “It’s not much, but it’s a start.” 😉

  18. Went and spent some quality time keeping my 30 year old car running. I was going to change ball joints, but ran into some unexpected problems (star shaped nuts where hex nuts should be, down in the hub). Had to put it all back together and not finish the project.
    But next week, I know what to expect, and I can prepare for it.

    1. star shaped nuts

      Gack! A long time ago, I was helping a friend rebuild a Honda Civic engine. Somewhere (IIRC, the head) nuts were 10mm stars, and these were put on to a rather high torque. My friend broke his Craftsman 10mm 12 point socket, so I brought mine to bear. With the same result.

      The local Sears was open, and they replaced them on the lifetime warranty. I don’t recall if more sockets were broken, but said friend made a call to SnapOn and got tools from them. Their socket didn’t break.

      Last I heard, Craftsman doesn’t warrant the tools any more, but I haven’t run into the nuts from hell either.

      1. Craftsman got bought out a while ago. You still see them at Lowes, but they don’t do lifetime warranty any more. (And we don’t do Craftsman any more, so we’re even).

        2. I try to use 6 point sockets when I can. One or two of the big metric sockets for the John Deere (Yanmar, actually) tractor were intended for air impact wrenches, so I don’t have anything that should break them. Over the years, I now have a bit of redundancy, and haven’t broken a socket since that Honda. (Unlike the Craftsman torque wrench that broke the plastic lock ring. That got moved to backup and a better one bought.)

          Not sure who sells Craftsman or Kobalt around here. The more urban focused Farm and Ranch store (yes, it’s an oxymoron, but it’s twue!) had a small selection of Craftsman, but I tend to go to the Real Ranch Store ™. OTOH, for my limited needs, I can find what’s necessary at Home Desperate or the auto parts store.

          1. Lowes usually carries Kobalt. I’ve gotten some decent large open end wrenches from Tractor Supply Store that I use on the tractor wheel nuts; although the first time I had to remove a tire I broke a wrench and bend the breaker bar, and had to have the dealer come out and remove the damn thing. Even soaking in WD 40 for 24 hours didn’t work.

            1. Lowes had an option to do a store in Flyover Falls, but the 2009-2016 Summers of Recovery convinced them to look elsewhere. We have a Home Depot and a mini-chain (three stores), along with a couple of farm and ranch store regional chains.

              I don’t recall removing the back wheels on the Deere, but have had to fix flats on the fronts. This was a lumber mill townsite until the 1950s, and the people who did the demolition burned the buildings rather than actually remove them. So, multiple nail holes in the fronts. Les Schwab has decent inner tubes… $SPOUSE searches for nails and has found some nice spikes (most of the siding rail spikes got salvaged when the railroad went away).

  19. That’s how I ended up tearing out so much of the carpet and tack strip on my own even if getting rid of it, and picking out and getting help for the trickier parts of the flooring work, has been a headache or two. Hopefully working a little under half a day tomorrow will give me just enough time to finish all this and some other things up and get out there with you guys before it’s too late.

  20. Or, as Admiral McRaven says; “Make Your Bed”.
    If you can do at least one thing right each day, it makes it worthwhile.

    2. HUGS. Greebo went with me hugging him. He was so attached to me, I wanted him to smell me, and know mommy was there for him.
      I promised him I’d see him again and that it would be “soon” for him, even if it took a long time for me. (and told him I’d miss him, which I do.)
      I’m not a woman of natural fate. I very much hope I didn’t lie to him.

      1. He will be the first to greet you as you go to the rainbow bridge. Heaven will be pure JOY. The older we get, the larger the group waiting for us.

        1. I expect to get rapped on the knuckles by one grandmother, rapped on the head by the other, and my butt kicked by my father.
          And then asked if I learned anything with that life.

        2. Being young, I don’t have as many waiting for me on the other side. There are a lot of people I’m praying I’ll meet, though. G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Lee (hopefully)… So many cool people. So many.

      2. Yea. Been almost 3 years since Silver went being held in J’s arms. Thump went the next spring with all of us petting him, me cuddling him as much as I could without getting in the way. Silver was 22, and ready; she was 5 weeks when she came home. Thump was (barely) 5, so sick; he was 3 weeks, if that old, when I found him and brought him home. It never gets easier. A price we pay to love them.

  22. We’re between projects, so taking it easy. We walked through Williamsburg yesterday, five miles of interesting crafts. Right now crocheting a new potholder, two knitting projects, may weave a dishcloth (if we ever lead a team, it’s customary to give the team members small gifts at the completion of a project and I prefer hand-made). There’s all the spinning fiber…and of course housework.
    My beloved is working on a cookbook and if the mood strikes him thinks nothing of cooking up three batches of pudding/custard and a batch of bread in a day. He makes me feel inadequate.
    Meanwhile, we’re waiting to see whether Ian will perform according to prediction. Because if he doesn’t, the weekend could be verrrrry interesting.

  23. S.H. Writinstuff,
    Who’s your friend when things get rough?
    S.H. Writinstuff
    Can’t write a little cause she can’t write enough.

  25. Well, we finally put in a concerted effort and got the patio-extension project finished up before the weather starting heading towards cold. Had to make another trip to get more tiles, but that’s standard for this sort of thing.

  26. I was about to start demo on my kitchen project when my daughter said, “Daddy, you said I could move into your old bedroom. Could I do that, like, now?” So for the last six weeks I’ve been drywall-mudding and spackling and painting and rewiring the ceiling light and doing finish carpentry and putting up crown molding and baseboards and building IKEA furniture, and TODAY I’m done. There’s no heat vent in that room, but since I filled all the gaps around the old window frame and the replacement windows with foam it should be a lot warmer in that it’ll be a lot less leaky.

    Tomorrow, I’m hoping that the permit revision for my kitchen project will clear final reviews, because the revised plan is to tear up the whole floor and subfloor and old joists (because even though they’ve held up since 1944 they’re really kinda sketchy) and re-frame it from scratch, in order to get a perfectly flat floor for linoleum, and also to get a few precious inches of headroom in the basement room below. I’m taking off the last two weeks of October (with a possible third week warning to my manager) to get some serious work done, but I doubt I’ll actually be finished until Christmas.

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