Slacker

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

Sorry guys, I feel like I’ve been really bad this week, and like I’m a complete slacker.

It’s just been hard to concentrate, partly because the autoimmune is really bad, partly because there’s a lot of family/home stuff going on. All good, but distracting, you know?

So the writing is coming back, but always comes back “fun stuff first.”

I did send Barbarella out, but I haven’t finished the short story. Probably tomorrow, but by the time I gave up because

It was too late to write a blog post. As in, I don’t remember what I was going to write, though I remember the title was home truths. (Only heaven knows why.)

My brain will eventually grow back after I coughed it out these last two months, and next week should be better.

In the meantime remember that we live in clown world.

If it gets in your face, steal the nose.

Keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

79 thoughts on “Slacker”

  2. You should never be a “slacker” about Taking Care Of Yourself. 😉

  4. I’ve been feeling like a slacker for over a year (chemo side effects) and it’s weird. Hubby keeps reminding me I’m not dead, and hence am not completely slacking.

    And today I started a new sprang project. After getting the 2 year old project off the loom.

    TLDR; not slacker. Just focused on not dying.

    3. Our cats have Squirrel Appreciation Day, every day. I call it Squirrel Theater. Do not have to even look out side or, sometimes, be where any of the cats are anymore. Symptoms:

      () Intense stare. One or more sitting there crouched intensely.
      (      ) Possibly quivering.
      (*) Tails whipping back and forth. Depending on where they are situated, this is what is heard (to know it is Squirrel Theater).

      Where is Squirrel? Somewhere in the backyard on the ground, VS on fence or in tree. Might be on roof. Upstairs windows, worse when said Squirrel is taunting cats doing acrobatics from upper roof to lower roof in front of the windows … Tail whipping and quivering occurs when Squirrel is on the deck. The closer to the window, the harder the tail whips. Squirrel have been known to come up to the window. Fun is had when one of us decides “Okay. Kitties. Adventure. None of the cats, or our small dog, have managed to even come close to scrambling Squirrel.

      Occasionally Squirrel decides to put on Kitty/Squirrel race track. Or Squirrel Tree Theater. The former is Squirrel running along the top of fence 3/4 around the house and back again. Cue the 3 cats (out on adventure), and one little dog, on the ground, chasing Squirrel on the circuit. Pandemonium breaks out if Squirrel oops and falls on our side of the fence, or cat calculates and tries to cut off Squirrel, but either of those ends the Squirrel Theater (as Squirrel decides to leave). The latter is Squirrel up in one of the Big Leaf Maples, or two Squirrels tag teaming the cats, on Squirrel in each maple. Cats sitting intensively looking up (all we people can see are quivering leaves with an occasional peek at fluffy tail).

      1. We had a cat who tried her best to catch squirrels. Once we got the dog, we found a squirrel corpse in the yard. I believe Booger (the cat), trained Boscoe (the dog) as her beater, to drive the grounded squirrel toward her and away from the tree.

        1. Our two Giant Sequoias, at one time had a branch grow out 10 feet, then turn up. (Very common with Giant Sequoia … Also a ice laden danger to the roof and living room. Also extremely heavy without ice. It was removed in 2014.) Squirrels used to run up the tree with the cats behind them, leap on the house roof with the cats behind them, loop the roof with the cats behind them, then leap back up on the branch, at which point the cats would halt. High enough off the roof that the cats had no problem leaping off of it onto a larger surface. But too high for them to leap the other way. Now the trees themselves are gone. Ice storm of 2017 proved that huge branch wasn’t the only problem. While the remaining ones were considerably smaller than it, 18″ instead of 40″, we were still extremely lucky none came down on the roof into the living room.

          We had one cat who managed to catch a small Squirrel. Pretty sure said squirrel hadn’t been out of the nest very long. Cat caught squirrel. Wasn’t able to keep and kill squirrel.

      3. Do they chirr? I miss hearing cats chirr at the tasty, furry and feathery, self-propelled cat toys that were always out of reach on the other side of the glass.

  8. And today is National Squirrel Appreciation Day! At least, according to our local power company

  9. Nah. You are not a slacker. Feel better. Get what you need to get done.

    Just let us comment free fall …

    OTOH remember what happened last time. Do not remember the details. But you did have to verbally slap some hands. OTOH it did give you a post so …

  10. ((glares over my glasses))

    Take. Care. Of. Yourself.

    Don’t worry, we will be here when you are up and running.

          3. Havey would remind you he’s not a day job. Full time job is the phrase he would use, Followed by “So?”

            😎

    2. I aspire to proper slackerhood. Boredom is a choice bogdangit, and I want to choose!

      Alas, distractions abound. Spent hours today training the n00bs. Ducks were properly placed in their queues. Nuts tightened, eyes dotted, teas crossed, and ceteras etted.

      Just know, if given the smidgen of a chance, I would (will) slack! Lots! Lots of slacking will happen.

      Someday.

      Probably tomorrow. Or the next day. Maybe.

  14. If you wish, I will start a go fund me to buy you a big enough stick with which to beat yourself up, since you seem determined to do so!! Good gracious, take a vote on how many people are disappointed if you take time off for recovering from illness. I think you will have a zero vote there. Just relax and recover. And as my old father used to say, Always remember what begins with a W and ends with a T.

    1. Well, I might. But that’s because the changelings are begging for Dad to play a game, and hang up a stuffie net, and make shelves so the bloody cat stop eating the Harry Potter LEGOs, etc….

  18. Well. I got all of my essential errands done today. Mostly getting stuff that I need to do some rather critical work (in my opinion) outside this week.

    It’s supposed to snow on me Monday.

    Sigh…

    Sometimes the one(s) in charge tell me that it’s time to slack off.

  19. You might want to look at the symptoms for porphyria (especially the types that cause skin problems) just in case that might be going on . . . . seems like women of European descent are more prone to it.

  20. Today’s pictures are not a writing prompt, but I have a real-life cat & squirrel story (but not a moose & squirrel one).
    The squirrel was sitting on a branch of a tree that was just above the top of our yard fence, which was the typical 6′ tall wooden pickets.
    The cat, sitting on top of the fence near the tree, was clearly casting the squirrel as next up for lunch.
    Cat prepared himself (herself?) for launch, and nimbly sprang onto the branch — ta dah! — just as the squirrel dropped down on top of the fence, almost exactly where the cat had been.
    Squirrel did whatever is the rodent equivalent of thumbing his nose at Cat and sauntered away along the fence.
    Cat’s expression was one I dearly wish I had a photo of.

          1. You may talk about your guards boys
            Your lancers and hussars boys
            Your fusiliers and royal artillery (without the guns)
            The girls we drive’em crazy, the foe we beat them easy
            The rangers from old Connaught, yaarrr, the land across the sea!

            1. In our army we’re the best
              From the north, south, east or west
              The best of boys are following the drum.
              We are mighty hard to bate,
              I may say without concate,
              Faith the enemy are welcome when they come.

              Be they Russian, French or Dutch
              Sure it doesn’t matter much,
              We’re the boys to give ’em sugar in their tay
              For we’re the Connaught Rangers,
              The lads to face all dangers,
              Faugh a Ballagh, Faugh a Ballagh, Clear the way!

          2. Al least not in a fashion detrimental to ourselves or our paymasters, anyway. As for others, though:

            “Mechanical and electrical engineers design weapons. Civil engineers build targets.”

            🙂

    2. ❤

      100% downloaded the PDF.

      Cats are adorable. Comments amusing. I have been to all the locations (PNW native).

  23. I’m looking forward to the next Barbarella.

    Is there a way to give your immune system some love so it won’t bother you a terrible tooze toddler?

  24. I suspect our hostess is about to discover the utility of the “open post”.

    Or the joys of pulling the pin on a topic grenade, and skedaddling.

  25. I feel like I’ve been hanging on by my fingernails this week.
    So.Much.Drama!
    I know things could always get worse. looks at Kamalho as Resident sideways But at this point, ACW2 would actually be an improvement in my stress level. I just keep telling myself that things will eventually get better and to keep moving forward, even if I have to drag myself across the Grand Canyon with nothing but my nostrils.

    1. Neat fact: At the time this episode of Firefly was in post production, they knew they were cancelled. The composer told Joss Whedon that he wasn’t writing funeral music for the character, he was saying goodbye, in music, to the show.

  26. I’ll have whatever the kitten in the photo is having. A large. No, make it a double, please, and one for yourself, bartender.

  30. Eh. Sometimes you need a new band of rubber. When all the springiness goes out of the old one and it gets crumbly and stiff, it’s time to retire it. Then you can stretch and slack all you want.

    Some slackening is good for the soul, though. But ya gotta do it right.

    Proper slackening involves true relaxation. No stressing. No worrying. Just the contentment that comes with watching sunrises and sunsets, petting the pets, and listening to the kind of music that both the younger AND the older generation tend to hate.

    Go slack a bit. Do it up right. Maybe even put your feet up a time or two. It’s good for ya!

  31. Since we started Kipling —
    Rudyard Kipling: Poet, Writer and Nobel Prize Winner | Full Documentary | Biography

  32. @ BGE > your regimental march sounded like Kipling should have written it, but didn’t.
    As it happens, I have 2 copies of the source book, with music.
    The transcriber at this post has mangled the Gaelic line in the chorus; BGE has it correctly.
    Click the link inside this article to get a history of the tune & lyrics.
    https://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Connaught_Rangers.htm

    From Wikipedia:
    The Connaught Rangers (“The Devil’s Own”) was an Irish line infantry regiment of the British Army formed by the amalgamation of the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) (which formed the 1st Battalion) and the 94th Regiment of Foot (which formed the 2nd Battalion) in July 1881. Between the time of its formation and Irish independence, it was one of eight Irish regiments raised largely in Ireland. Its home depot was in Galway.[1] It was disbanded following the establishment of the independent Irish Free State in 1922, along with the other five regiments that had their traditional recruiting grounds in the counties of the new state.[2]

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