Why?

Okay, just to find out how it worked I wrote and deleted a post and it vanished as it should from my Dashboard. All fine so far but why is it that every time I try to view my blog on said Dashboard the deleted blog appears? I have gone through all the FAQs, typed the question into Blogger Help with no answers. What am I doing wrong? I'm wasting valuable time here just trying to look at my blog. Aaaaaargh!

For now I'm going to ignore this question/problem. I need to get on with my Clarion preparations. Time is flying and I have too much to do. Do you want to know what exactly? Here's a little list.

I have to set up my laptop.

I need an organised story file. Somehow ideas on scraps of paper seem less than satisfactory.

I need clothes. Boy do I need clothes. They may recommend casual but there are limits even to that.

I have to make sure the family know what they need to so the household keeps functioning. I'm thinking about things like paying regular bill for example. Note to self: learn to delegate.

I have the family coming here for Christmas lunch and since in anticipation of the floors being done half the house has been packed up we are living in less than ideal conditions so somehow we have to hide the worst failings. Isn't tinsel a wonderful invention she thinks as she drapes it over anything that doesn't move 'cos no-one will notice it then, will they.

I have presents to buy. I'm off.

Laptop blues

The KSPSFers had a meeting today. With Clarion South rapidly approaching those of us going have to get our anthology submissions finished for critting and reworking before we go so we (those who couldn't attend the regular Sunday meeting at least) spent several fruitful hours in the Bookcafe in Swanbourne. My story is up to four and a half thousand words already with, I estimate, about another one thousand to one and a half thousand to finish it. So you know how my weekend is going to be spent, don't you.

Meantime I'm going to have to decide what to do about the laptop. When I was originally shown the one I like I was told it had Microsoft Office and Norton installed. It turns out this is technically true but they are use for sixty day sample versions. I don't really care given I can legally install my copy of Office on my laptop and I have a spare copy of my anti-virus that came as a special deal with the one I bought a couple of months ago but it irritates me that I have been conned. I just can't decide if it's worth kicking up a fuss.

Funeral Reflections

Who would have guessed how difficult it is to arrange a time for a funeral.

As a result I've talked to the family about how I feel about my own to make things easier for Virgo when the time comes. She wants a list of everything so she knows and can make decisions without having to consult with everyone and I'll try to get Pisces to make one too. Funerals, in my opinion, should be organised less for the departed and more as a way for the living to say goodbye so we don't want to be too prescriptive. The idea is to make things simpler for our children, not tie them down with no room to move. All I really ask is to be put to rest with dignity and respect and in accordance with my beliefs and if I go before Pisces I know he, Virgo and Saggitarius will do that.

We have all been suddenly reminded of our mortality. There's nothing like sitting in a room for hours with a dead body waiting for an undertaker to bring that home to you.

Keeping on

I've written very little this week. There's been a death in the family and with it all the complexities involved in dealing with funeral arrangements and emotions. Still in this case it was a blessing. No-one should have to suffer so much for so long. Vale Mabs.
I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment. I have just realised how close Christmas is and how little I have done towards it and if Christmas is close so is Clarion. Some things have had to be postponed - the new floors for one. The shortage of tradesmen because of the building boom was the last straw. When I get home will do.
Still when I look around I have achieved quite a lot since the journey began - not as much as I would have liked or planned to but enough. All I have to do is keep on.

Three weeks in...

So much has happened in the last three weeks that I really don't know where to start. The beginning I suppose with the phone call from one of the Clarion South convenors on 18 October. Wild excitement followed by total panic. Woohoo! I'm going to Clarion South! Less than twelve weeks to get everything in my life reorganised! And that includes decisions about the new flooring that was to be installed by Christmas as well as the story for Beyond the Sun the first draft of which is supposed to be ready by mid November and the novel that needs to be re-drafted and and and... Then there's all the Clarion South preparation. Not just the story file but money to find - lots of money by my standards considering I'll have to have a laptop as well as pay for the workshop and fares.
Ah well it will all sort itself out eventually. Meanwhile I'm making lists - what the family have to know to survive my nearly seven week absence, what I have to do before I leave, Christmas, what to take with me to name a few. And when it gets too much why I'll just go off quietly somewhere and write, losing myself in some fantasy world of my creation where it's others who are facing the problems.
I might actually get a story idea for my file with a bit of luck.