Finished the last scene

I just finished the final scene in book 5 of Wheel of Fire.  Unfortunately, I still have a bunch of middle scenes left to write.

I usually write sequentially.  I outline thoroughly, and then I write the scenes in order.  I do this so that, if anything changes, I've only screwed up the remainder of my outline, not a big chunk of the draft.

For this book, though, I've had trouble staying focused.  Hey, 2020, right?  But I needed to jump-start things, so I'm trying different tricks.  One of those tricks is writing the scenes out of sequence.

Hopefully everything will work out.

It was a nice Thanksgiving

Got to see the extended family.  Ate some good stuff.  Had fun.

I hope y'all had a nice holiday, too.

Revenge of the toe

My toe has been healed up for several months now.  For most of this year, I've been wearing normal shoes and doing normal activities.  I thought this whole abscess thing was behind me.

On Monday, the toe started hurting again.  Same place where the abscess had been.  And it was a little red and swollen, too.

I should add that, as far as I can recall, this development was due in no part to anything I did.  I didn't pluck out another hangnail.  I didn't drop something heavy on my foot.  I didn't trim my toenail too close to the skin.  There's no identifiable reason for this to be an issue.

Yet hurt it did.

On Tuesday, I started treating it.  I'm cleaning the area with alcohol, applying antibiotic ointment, and bandaging it.  I won't be wearing shoes for a few days, just flip-flops.

Psychologically, I'm really bummed out.  It's like the universe decided that all the stressors from 2020 just weren't enough, so let's heap another one on poor Jeff's shoulders.  :(

The good news is that the pain, which hadn't gotten too bad yet, has already subsided a bit, so maybe the area just got pinched in my shoe or something.  Maybe it's not another infection.

If it gets worse, of course, I'll have to seek treatment.  But I'm really hoping I don't have to do that.  I'd love to beat this thing myself over the next few days.  Because right now, I need every personal victory I can get, no matter how small.

Billy Strings

I've been watching this guy's videos on YouTube.  He's simply phenomenal.  Like Doc Watson reincarnated.

I won't embed a video here.  Better to go to YouTube and search for Billy Strings, because then you'll get the sidebar full of recommended videos and you can browse the songs he's performed.

But yeah... awesome picker.

A sober Veterans Day

I like the word "sober."  We usually use it in conjunction with alcohol consumption.  It's not limited to that, though.  The word can be used in other circumstances, and it's those other circumstances I'm talking about here.

The first definition in the dictionary is the alcohol-related one.  The second definition is this:

 

marked by sedate or gravely or earnestly thoughtful character or demeanor

 

Veterans Day is when we remember and appreciate all of those, both living and dead, who have served in America's armed forces.  It can be celebratory at times, but it should also be sober at times.  We should take a moment to reflect on what those men and women have done and why it matters.  We should do it sedately, gravely, and in an earnestly thoughtful manner, just as the definition says.

Here's wishing everyone in America a sober Veteran's Day.

Jabbed my eyeball again

I hate it when this happens.  I'll be putting my contact lenses in, and one of them will turn sideways for whatever reason, and the edge of the contact pokes my eyeball.

Sometimes it happens because I was careless.  That's not the case this time, though.  I wasn't careless.  And it still went sideways.

So I'm in glasses for a few days until my eyeball heals from its scratch.

Sweetgum logs

I cut down a young sweetgum tree recently.  These trees drop little spiky balls on the ground, and those things just suck, and the tree is in the shadow of a much larger sweetgum tree anyway, so the younger tree served no good purpose.  It had to go.  It was about five or six inches in diameter, so I was able to handle it myself instead of needing the services of a tree surgeon.  Once it was down, I chopped it up into manageable pieces.  I now have several sweetgum logs.

I've decided I'm going to try to make a pair of wooden mallets from a couple of the logs.  I used my angle grinder and a flap disk to debark the logs.  (This worked pretty well, by the way.)  At first glance, the debarked logs look like good pieces of wood.  No internal rot or anything like that, though I won't know for sure until I start cutting into them.

Sweetgum isn't typically used by novices like me for woodworking projects.  It's a hardwood, but it tends to warp more than other hardwoods as it dries out.  Its commercial value is in things like plywood and veneers.  I have no idea if these logs will dry in a satisfactory manner or not.  They might crack and split all over.  We'll just have to see.

Right now, though, they're handsome pieces of wood, so I'm cautiously optimistic.