A Cold, Cold Winter

If you’re newer to the blog, this is our first winter in a house of our own. We are learning how much colder it is here than our prior apartment a mere thirty minutes away.

For one, we get more snow. Eleven inches over a couple days. The other factor is the house itself. The windows are old, and plastic covering only helps so much. We’d love to replace the windows through the entire house, but can only afford a couple right now. And we won’t bet getting those for a couple more weeks.

We replaced the filter in the furnace, which improved efficiency, but we can’t keep it running all the time. A portable heater in the family room has done wonders, but I still have a hard time keeping my hands warm.

Last week on the first cold-cold night, most of our hot water pipes froze. Saturday, my husband ventured into the scary attic. After discarding junk such as old pants, clothing gift boxes, old metal pipes, and empty shotgun shells, he found the naked pipes and covered them with the unopened(!) bag of insulation also discovered in the attic. We found a big reason it’s so cold here: the attic insulation is three inches at its thickest. It should be at least eight! No wonder we keep getting sick.

I know the cold contributed to my dwindling numbers during NaNoWriMo last month. Once the temperature dropped considerably, my fingers got cold, wrists stiff. Hard to type! Also, it’s harder to think when my body is focused on getting warm. I was planning to finish my NaNoWriMo novel Race to 100 Deaths by the end of the year, but between the cold and the Trinity Coven chapters I promised my husband (and of course Holidays!), I see the chance of that happening to be… well, very small.

Hopefully we can get this house in warm shape soon. In the meantime, my goal is to figure out the warmest time to write. Maybe just after lunch, after the heater has been on. I’ve been writing this in spurts, so my hands aren’t out of the blanket for too long.

Chores are so neglected… as I limit my visits to the colder rest of the house. Now I must venture into the cold to change laundry loads.

Wishing you all warmer weather. Or if you already have heat, you’re welcome to some of our snow!

A Cold Tuesday Tally

Last week’s goals:

• update blog look and sidebar
• update websites
• poetry submission
• finish current chapter of TC

 Goals for this week:

• final preparations for NaNoWriMo 
  • transform plot into bullet point outline
  • brainstorm ways to kill people in a fantasy setting (Race to 100 Deaths, remember?)
  • flesh out Tilara’s two companions/competitors
  • stock up on chocolate (should be easy over Halloween weekend)
• send out four more queries for EotF
• submit more poetry
• finish updating websites 

 

Woke up this morning to snow. I have a feeling it will be winter in my NaNo Novel.

In unrelated news, I now have a Facebook account.

Are you ready for NaNoWriMo?

Personality (quiz result, plus 5k Q)

You Are a Pond

You are modest, pleasant, and reliable. You are content and confident. You are harmonious and caring. You truly like other people for who they are. You are a very genuine, humble person. Because of this, you're very approachable. You are soft-spoken and a bit sensitive. Your mild personality is a refreshing change for people.

What Body of Water Are You?

 

I've always enjoyed personality quizzes, such as above. I'm going to start putting one at the beginning of each 5k Q post, as they are all about getting to know me.

 

5,000 Questions... My answers so far...

 

601. Do you have a lust for life? using as a definition: a strong determination to enjoy life as much as possible. No. I worry too much.

602. Do you want to get more out of life? absolutely

603. Would you want to learn to:
Convert to Buddhism? no

Cure a hangover? no
Lie persuasively? no. I'd be way too tempted to lie more often.

604. What character from a movie is most like you? Alright, I'll resort to another personality quiz. I am...

Dorothy Gale

You are always daydreaming of far-off places. A bit naive sometimes, you have a vivid imagination and your heart is pure. And you know that there is no place like home.

 

605. Are you comfortable with the idea of your own death? no. It would devastate my family, and I'm certainly not ready to die. But what scares me more than actually dying is the pain that would most likely precede it.

606. How do you feel about arranged marriages? They can work, but the key there is work. I think a person has a better chance finding a compatible match on their own, than being arranged by parents or some other party. Chemistry is something that cannot be predicted. The "perfect match" on paper does not always work out.

607. What do you hate that everyone else seems to like? shoes

608. What do you like that others seem to hate? dandelions

609. If you had to be named after a month, which month would you pick? June. Not as common as April, but not as strange as November.

610. Is time more like a highway or a meadow to you? Mostly a meadow. Living in the now, able to observe both ahead and behind. Occasionally, the highway will barge through and drag you along, giving you no choice but to keep eyes on the road ahead and keep moving so you don't become road kill. But the meadow moments are definitely preferred.

611. What is your favorite movie? Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

612. Which would you choose to be back in the day: a warrior, an alchemist, a minstrel, a bard, an oracle, a peasant, or a merchant? a bard

613. What is your favorite song lyric? "for the good of all of us/ except for those who are dead". from Still Alive, the Portal credits song. So awesome. And I can sing it on Rock Band. Even more awesome.

614. What will you never run out of? dreams

615. If you could force someone to fall madly in love with you, (anyone you choose) would you do it? No. For a couple reasons. One, if it's forced then they don't truly love me for me. Two, the 'madly' part could have unwanted consequences. They may end up completely possessive (see the movie Prom Night), or protect me in ways I don't need or want (as in Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series (haven't read the books myself, but heard about them, and watched some of the tv series based on it, The Legend of the Seeker)).

616. Have you ever seen the Disney movie The Black Cauldron? yes

617. Have you ever read The Black Cauldron by Alexander Lloyd (or any of his other books in the Prydain Chronicles)? yes. Loved the books. Movie seemed strange; been too long since I read the books to say how accurate it was.

618. Have you ever written a paper the night before it was due? yes.
How about the day it was due? yes. as well as after the due date...

619. Is there a movie you have watched so many times that you can quote it line for line? No. I may be able to quote some lines, but my memory doesn't hold the bulk of a movie like that.

620. What is your favorite season? Spring. I love the blossoms, the rain, the warming days, with nights still cool enough to snuggle down under the blanket. The promises of new life, new beginnings. The world is so fresh.

This Fantastic World

"To see the world for a moment as something rich and strange is the private reward of many a discovery."
~ Edward M. Purcell

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open."
~Jawaharlal Nehru

"The world is full of strange phenomena that cannot be explained by the laws of logic or science."
~Dave Barry

 

 

This world is an amazing place. There are many natural phenomena that could almost come from a fantasy novel. I'm going to describe some of these for you, focusing on the 'wow' factor rather than the science behind them. Links provided show pictures and more info. Most of these can also be seen on YouTube if you search. Perhaps some of these wonders can inspire you.

The Auroras (Northern and Southern Lights): This effect is probably the most well-known of those I'm going to mention. Glorious light shows in the sky, green and red curtains of light above the horizon. Known by the Cree as the Dance of the Spirits.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/

Broken spectre: A rainbow halo surrounding a shadowy figure. Also known as a Glory Ring or Brocken Bow. An effect of light and fog. It seems as if a ghost comes through a tunnel of light.
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/globrock.htm

Ball lightning: Balls of light, traveling through the sky. Wrath of a thunder god? Or chariots of fire? No short lived streak of light, but a life determined to continue.
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/B/ball_lightning.html

Fire rainbow: The sky on fire, wisps of cloud as flame and smoke. A wide rainbow band.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060619-rainbow-fire.html

"Relámpago del Catatumbo" (Catatumbo lightning): " Arcs of light in the sky, messages between the clouds, never-ending storm. This almost permanent storm has been used as light for ship navigation, giving it another name - Maracaibo Beacon. The lightning has no thunder, as if you were watching a window into another world.
http://fogonazos.blogspot.com/2007/06/catatumbo-everlasting-storm.html

The Rain of Fishes: In Honduras, the Lluvia de Peces, or Rain of Fishes, occurs a couple times each year. A huge storm blesses the people with living fish, inspiring a yearly festival to celebrate the phenomena. A modern manna from the heavens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lluvia_de_Peces

Pink lake: This is one that inspired a location in my own story, a blushing lake filled with a goddess' tears. Shallow waters, filled with salt, shimmering shades of pink and purple.
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/senegal_pink_lake.htm

Some say that magic is merely science that has yet to be explained. But even those with solid science explanations retain their awe, there magic. Let a little of this world's magic influence your own.

Bitter Cold

Hubby and I got sick after all. Pretty mild at the moment though. Hopefully won't get worse.

 

It's been so very cold outside lately. This week I stopped taking B out to wait for the school bus. Instead, I get him ready, then go out and wait until I see it come around the corner. Much easier to keep just me warm (and having a hard time doing even that) than both of us. It wouldn't be so bad if we only had to wait outside a few minutes, but there's been too many times the bus has run late. Or if we lived in a house or apartment where we could see the street and not even have to wait outside at all. Maybe someday we can move to Arizona or somewhere warmer....