The good morning, good night thread

[Geoff_N]

Sorry to hear of your love you hate you from the same publisher, Sharon. I arrived home from Spain to find Analog finally wrote their rejection note after 6 months thinking about it. But I also found an acceptance email for it from another one - a 200 USD dollar difference in fee - as in none for the acceptance - oh well.

In Spain I was pickpocketed in a bus mob - no queue in Fuengirola. I say pickpocketed but all he got was air and maybe a paper hanky. Everyone crushed to get on the bus but I felt this bloke's arm brushing mine so I became suspicious. The second time it happened I put my hand to my pocket and found his hand insided my zipped pocket! I grabbed his wrist and yelled into his face, "Get your hand out of my pocket!!!!" He was in his 60s and more terrified than me, so I let him go. He had to push back through the bus crowd as they hissed and booed him while thumbs in the air and bravo for me! hah! Nevertheless, I counted my Euros just to make sure he wasn't stupid enough to take some and put the wallet back.

My wife said that holidays with me are never normal.

Geoff

[Ed]

Yeah, I agree that nothing feels as nice under bare feet as a good quality carpet. I do like my bathrooms to have a tiled floor, though - it's easy to keep clean and maintain, lasts for as long as you want it, and for the amount of time I spend in there, I can do without the luxury. Some of the bigger bathrooms I've seen have had carpet around the bath and basin areas, but tile around the WC. I think that's a good compromise, but there aren't that many bathrooms big enough to make it look right.

I absolutely loathe laminate floors. Sure, they look OK, but they're noisy, make the rooms echoey, they're not particularly comfortable underfoot, plus they seem to breed dust bunnies. The only bit of laminate floor we've got is in the dining area, but when I get around re doing it, it's getting ripped out and replaced with either a proper hardwood floor, or some nice travatine marble.

Walker - are you really thinking about retiring to Mexico? A few people I know have retired to Spain, France and Portugal, mainly for the weather, which sounds great. Occasionally you hear stories of people who've had to come back to Blighty, because of health concerns, etc. Most seem to get along just fine, though. Personally, I'm not sure I could handle the summer heat in those places, but the winter sun sounds awfully good at this point in time

Geoff - I hope you had a good hols, despite forcibly holding hands with a complete stranger in the privacy of your own pocket

[Walker]

Walker - are you really thinking about retiring to Mexico? A few people I know have retired to Spain, France and Portugal, mainly for the weather, which sounds great. Occasionally you hear stories of people who've had to come back to Blighty, because of health concerns, etc. Most seem to get along just fine, though. Personally, I'm not sure I could handle the summer heat in those places, but the winter sun sounds awfully good at this point in time

ya, my wife and I are hoping to spend the winters there and the summers here in Canada. We love Mexico, the people are some of the nicest I've ever met. We're hoping to volunteer when we're there-- Melinda in the hospital and me likely in a school or something-- maybe bikini inspector or tan-line investigator. 
That's a long ways off yet, but the time to plan is now. The seminar today was excellent. I was worried it would be a big two day sales pitch but it turned out to be very well run and hugely informative, particularly what the financial planner had to say.

[Ed]

Sounds good to me. Although I enjoyed the three weeks of Canadian winter we experienced, I can imagine three or four months of it could get to be pretty waring. Over here we so rarely get snow and ice that when we see it it's something special.

Most of the time it's just moderately cold and rainy, here. It actually feels colder here at +5C than it does there at -15C, because of the humidity, I suppose.

[Walker]

We used to live in an area that's notorious for getting lots of snow. Along the sides of our driveway we had snow banks so high they blocked out the sun, and we had to shovel every bit of it. It sucks and it's expensive to live here in the winter because it gets so damn cold. I don't play hockey anymore, not into skiing and I won't miss ice fishing, especially when I'm catching fish in eighty degree weather.
You're right about the humidity, Ed. When it's damp there nothing more miserable. At least when it get's cold enough the humidity drops so it's easier to cope.

[Ed]

Yep - you haven't ever really felt cold unless you've suffered a British winter. It's the kind of cold that drills into your bones and sends fridgid tendrils throughout your body. Sure, your Canadian cold can freeze your nose to the point where it's in danger of snapping off, in under fifteen minutes, but it still doesn't feel as cold as ours

Well, on to today. I'll set my watch back an hour when I've finished this post, then I'll take a shower and get on with my work. I've finished the plastering, got a halogen lamp in the cupboard to help it dry, and today I'll be slapping some architrave around the door opening, hanging a new door, slapping some skirting on, and painting it all ready for tomorrow, when the carpet is coming. Furniture is coming on Tuesday. Nipper will be moving into the room on Wednesday, I'm guessing. And life will have gotten incrementally better for all of us

[Geoff_N]

Walker, your rural recreation descriptions are great and urge my feet to trample our own rather feeble hills and valleys - cute though! In fact your tales are reminiscent of Robert Blevins, who as I speak is camping somewhere in the Mount Rainier area - just east of Greenwater on Highway 410.

Me? I had to forego my usual bike ride to fetch a Sunday paper and walk in torrential British rain instead.

This Tuesday I'm hiking in Snowdonia with a friend and I'm hoping to find time for a three-day bike ride in the Long Mynd and other Shropshire hills next week or the week after before the days get too short for sensible cycling.

A weird aspect of blogging is that while I was not adding to it all this week in Spain I had more hits than usual! OK, I don't get a great number - between 60 and 200 per day - and many of those linked to it from worried writers seeking info on the sham scam agent Christopher Hill. But it still seems odd to have more folk logging on to my words when I'm not there!

Geoff

[Walker]

Ed, it sounds like things are coming together nicely. You're a damn handy guy to have around, I can imagine.
Thanks, Geoff. I think. I'm a pretty cheap guy and could have bought a snowblower on any year but I didn't, instead I enlisted my son's help and he, deeply instilled with the 'cheap gene', seemed to take right to it. He has the right attitude, too-- when it snows we take it personally and get really upset thereby infusing the necessary amount of anger and adrenaline to get the job done. We've moved out of the snow-belt now and this is a lifetime first for me. Our new neighbours said they shoveled their drive twice last winter. Last winter we shovelled twice a day. I can't wait until my only jobs are to bike to the market for some veggies and then wade out into the surf and catch a fish for dinner.

[Ed]

Sounds good to me, Walker. I've only ever been to Tijuana, which was frankly horrible, but I hear there are some beautiful places in Mexico. Always fancied the idea of going to Acapulco, ever since watching Elis Presley films when I was a kid.

lol at the 'cheap gene' Personally, I've got the 'anything for an easy life' gene, and I'd have the fully automated V8 snowblower, and damn the outlay.

There isn't much I can't turn my hand to in construction terms, or any kind of craft for that matter. The main difference is that I care about what I'm doing and I don't take short cuts, whereas virtually all the tradesmen I work with and sometimes employ to help me, will occasionally drop the ball, and they don't do the work to the standard I want it done to unless I hassle them constantly. I'm not a perfectionist, but for example I want a full coat of gloss paint on my skirtings and architraves, not one thinned with turpentine I just want it done properly, that's all.

[starktheground]

CAUTION: RANTING!

Okay, so I have finally completed THE ARTICLE FROM HELL, and I feel like a major weight's been lifted off! I write some articles for a local magazine, and the editor is a little picky. He sent one of the articles back to me for a complete revision, because he said I didn't follow his directions. Here were his directions, verbatim: "I need you to write a piece on ___ Company. We want a short 500 words about them. They have been around a long time and sell stuff all over. Other than that, I don't what is there, but the premise is 'I bet you didn't know there was an outfit like this around here.'" DUDE! I wrote a decent article, and I always listen to criticism. It can really help. And it has in the past. But if you're going to criticize, you need to actually have an error or oversight to do it!!! Was I just supposed to read his mind and know what "direction" he wanted? ARGHHHHHH! 


Okay, all better now. At least he said my other two articles were good, and he liked the revision. Thanks for letting me rant!

[Geoff_N]

I've been there too, STG. More recently though it has been the other way around for me.

I contacted an amateur writer but who works at one of NASA's top establishments. I set out guidelines for her to write my magazine an article on what it is like to work at NASA, rubbing shoulders (and other parts) with real astronauts, etc. I gave her a deadline and she needed more days so I gave them to her several times until we really needed it cos I was going to be flying to Spain and the mag chief ed was jigsawing the mag pieces together that weekend. The writer then said she's finished the article but I couldn't have it until it was passed by her NASA boss. I worried over this cos I knew from editing her other pieces that it will need some changes. However, after more delays the piece eventually reached me an hour before I had to leave the house to catch my plane. The piece was riddled with errors such as Noble Peace prize, encumbered with pleonasms & over the agreed word limit by 150% and so I did the fastest ever copyedit and sent it to Robert Blevins at Adventure Books of Seattle as a finished piece. As it went three things happened:
1) my wife tugged my elbow - she'd already lugged the cases into the car. Her hand was on the electric plug for the 'puter.
2) the writer e-mailed to say don't forget it has to go through clearance again if I change anything.
3) I realized I'd seen another error.

Arrrgggh. Editors don't always have it easy.

Geoff

[SamLeeFreak]

Wow...that sounds like a big hairy pain in the ass!
That's why I get my hubby to edit for me. He's anal about it and catches stuff I would never even see. I find it's helpful to edit a piece until you want to hurl yourself out a window. Then edit one more time, check for style, then send 

[joneastwood]

Whenever i get my girlfriend to read something i've written, she will pick up on the smallest things, and we end up discussing that for ages. I just want to shout READ THE DAMN STORY!!!
...though its always useful (of course).

[delph_ambi]

I'm not sure if my hubby has ever read a book in under ten years. He tried one of mine. With the best will in the world, couldn't manage, bless him.

[Ed]

I hate it when people leave you to use your own initiative, because of their lack of guidance, and then criticise what you've done, on the grounds that it wasn't what they would have done/isn't what they wanted. Do it yerself then, innit?

I've had the day from hell today. My oppo didn't turn up on site, again (he didn't turn up on Friday, either), and the developer's son rang me to bleat about me not being there this morning. This despite the fact they owe me three invoices' worth of payment, which totals tens of thousands of pounds. I made out this was the main reason for me not being there, but it was really just because I couldn't be arsed. When I finally got there at about midday, I found everybody had their arse chewed that morning, not just me. All except this tosser, the head chippy, who was the one who stirred it all up to begin with, as he usually does. So basically, everybody was in a bad mood, and it felt pretty gloomy. Then to add insult to injury I got stuck behind a large van and two cars all the way home, travelling at 35mph, with the van at the front on main beam, so all the oncoming traffic blinded him in retribution, and me as collateral fallout because I was tagging along behind. Urgh...