The Raven's Roost

I've been wavering back and forth with wanting to go to the used book shop lately. They're open and have a mask requirement, but I can't really get myself to go shopping around for anything I don't strictly need. Grocery store and Home Depot trips are both unavoidable and necessary, and the only really optional thing I do any more is go into Wawa for coffee. Yes, I could just fill up my truck and leave but let me have this one thing.

That being said, I should call and ask when they'll be taking books again, as I have a decent load. Nothing like the massive dozen or more boxes I was dragging in there in 2018 but I do have probably a couple of those white file boxes I can get rid of. I've been setting aside books I finish for sale or donation after I ask myself, "Really, are you ever going to read this again?" Usually the answer is no. Last week I also went through the entire house and listed every unread book, excepting roleplaying guides and books. I have 124, not all of which I am actually interested in reading any more. I have a lot of Middle Eastern history that I have no interest in now, and I wouldn't be sad to part with a lot of it. Some of the fiction looks good, some looks "eh" at best. I just need to stop making it such a point of pride to finish everything. If it's not that good, just quit. Toss it onto the "sell shelf" and find something else.

So with all those unread books sitting around I'm trying to shop my own shelves for now. For example, I found a copy of Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, which I have somehow not read yet despite driving out there shortly after moving and looking at her home. They were closed that day but I looked through the fence, then walked around in the forest and groves some. Bought some oranges at a farm stand.

Next week we ought to be able to open the windows, finally! I'm so ready for fall weather. The house could really use a good airing out, get all the cat farts out of here.

I have some food prep chores for today, a short run, and some household catching up to do. I bought Untitled Goose Game yesterday and spent a couple of hours playing that, so I missed a workout, the kitchen's still a mess, and I'm surprised I remembered to set up my coffee pot and bring the bird feeders inside! ROFL yes, I'm having that much fun. I'm on the "back gardens" section now.

I am enjoying going back to gaming, though it did take a while to clear soe mental baggage out. I don't like doing things I like doing because I feel bad about doing something just because I like to. It's a childhood quirk - you have to earn your time doing fun things (which does make some sense yes) but then the goalposts would be moved, and you never managed to actually earn your play time. Whatever you were meant to do was subject to change with little notice, and if you didn't get it all done, you should have worked harder, not been so stupid, paid attention to what you're doing, stop being so lazy, etc. You know how it is. So I tend to avoid doing things strictly for my own enjoyment as an adult, which I'm sure would make my mother extremely happy.

This weekend looks like it will be too rainy and gross for bike riding, but next weekend should be great. The 10k is Saturday, so perhaps Sunday would be a good day. I'm going to look at going to Gold Head Branch, or if Fox doesn't want to go, I might drive to Keystone and ride the bike trail there just to get some practice.

Wow, how about that hurricane, huh? Isaias is still about even with Cape Canaveral, so it didn't move too far overnight but it's still just a tropical storm and it did bring us some needed rain. I mean, it can and likely will strengthen as it heads up the coast, but it hasn't been a big deal here. The way people in the news media are hollerin' about it, you'd think it was a far stronger and nastier storm. But as someone local said, "Having a hurricane is the most normal thing we've done all year."

I'm probably going to get drizzled on but I'm doing errands today anyway. I'm almost out of peanut butter so that state of affairs must be rectified. I need to make a dump run soon and get rid of the old fencing, the mattress, and some other dubious items that I don't want to put out for roadside pickup. I also haven't forgotten about sending off art supplies to people, but I do need to get weights and shipping estimates.

So now it's August, so it's Leo Time! I don't make as big a deal out of my birthday any more, and since our Disney trip is canceled (the deposit showed back up in the bank account, so we're officially done) I will just make my own ridiculous sugary treats here at home. Fox stumbled across Milk Bar's website and emailed me their recipe for birthday cake, which looks like something I NEED BADLY. But the stacking and smoothing, and "perfect glossy white frosting" looks like it might be a few steps above my current baking skills. That's not going to stop me from trying, of course, but I'm going to need a cake ring or ring mold to do it. In the meantime I'm going to give their Famous Pie a shot - the one that was formerly called Crack Pie.

It looks a LOT like buttermilk pie. When I lived in Kentucky, a couple of my neighbors often came over and we cooked for each other. Peter was from New York City and had this old recipe for buttermilk pie, and it was amazingly good - tender, rich, slightly sour, mildly sweet. And he would never give me the recipe. And actually I did find the recipe eventually but it wasn't online. At that time I barely had AOL where I lived, and even if I could get online there just weren't tons of websites out there. I found the recipe when my vintage cookbook collecting landed me in a used book store in Nashville, where I found "The VIKO Cookware Cook Book." By Viko Cookware, obviously, which you can still find on Etsy and eBay & etc. The book was from the 1920s and had seen serious kitchen use in its time. The binding was still good and the covers were in decent condition and ... it had that buttermilk pie recipe. I tried making it and it was the same flavor I remembered.

I'm on page five of Feed Your Demons, and I started doodling ideas for the covers - I'll need front and back, as well as insides, but the insides can be something simple. The outer cover art I may do in Painter and get a little fancy with it, unless that seems like cheating when the inside artwork is simpler.

I've got a lot more stops to make today than usual so I'd probably better get going.

 I'm going to go back and catch up on reading this evening. I haven't exactly been online a ton this week - not social media anyway. A few obligatory checks on family (who all seem to be fine at the moment, yay!) Obviously there are plenty of other things on Teh Interwebs to get distracted by, but that's no really the point. 

1). Went out and did grocery shopping today. I was surprised at how relatively busy it was for a Friday morning, although it was actually closer to lunchtime by the time I got out. Everyone's obviously pretty stressed and anxious, so I do my best not to get annoyed with people - they're feeling just as keyed up as I am. I managed to get almost everything on my list again, but was also - again - a little surprised by what's in and out of stock. Today's was frozen french fries. For whatever reason, there seems to have been a run on them. Also mushrooms.

2). I made a batch of veggie burgers that are chilling in the fridge now. I usually make a batch of between eight and ten depending on how much of the ingredients I have, and last week I ate the last one. Fox still eats ground beef burgers, and so I had two meat patties and no veggie ones, and I thought, how bad could it be? I really didn't feel too hot after that. But I also get to refine this recipe, which I like the taste of, it just had some logistical issues. The burgers were too loose - they fell apart when you bit into them. It wasn't a huge problem, but I wanted to correct it, so this time I made a point of chopping everything into a much finer dice. I also stirred the mixture more, since it uses some vital wheat gluten to bind everything together and gluten needs stirring or kneading to develop. I also let it rest for a bit, then formed the patties. We'll see how this batch goes.

3). The windows are open again today and will be for a couple of days, anyway, since a front is coming through. It's supposed to be 48 here tonight. Tomorrow I'll get some mowing and weed whacking done while it's still cooler. I also need to replant my seed trays. I overwatered them and everything damped off except the malobar spinach. Normally I'd take that as a sign to just buy starter plants at the nursery, but seed starting is seriously the weakest part of my gardening game and I need to master this. So once the cool weather passes again, I'm going to replant and this time not equate more water with more love.

4). Once we get past this pandemic thing, I am seriously considering getting the Japanese permanent hair straightening done. It's a pretty involved procedure, especially the first treatment. But once it has set, you're good to go. You just need to go back every so often to get your roots as they come in.  I've wanted smooth, straight hair for a long time, as opposed to whatever it is my hair does now. It's not curly, it's not wavy, it's just ... frizzy. So using serums and a straightening iron will work for a little while, but a few hours later we're back to frizz. And chemical relaxers are okay but they also don't last that long. Fox is on board with the idea, too. But obviously this won't be happening any time soon.

5). Weighted blanket update - over the winter, when we have the windows open, there were some nights where it was a bit too warm to be comfortable with the weighted blanket. But when the house is shut up and at a constant 76-72 it's actually pretty cozy. I also usually have the ceiling fan on in my bedroom at night. 

I have a whole three pages of "The Cat's Inheritance" up so far on Muna. Got three more that have their panels and speech done, so tomorrow I'll start doing the linework on page four!

We've got miserable hot weather coming up tomorrow, but tomorrow night another front should go through. It's supposed to be pretty stormy overnight, as in NOAA sending out emails saying, "You're all gonna die, RIP." LOL actually it was just warning us about high winds and possible tornadic activity. It seems like all of our major storms happen at night recently. Anyway, next week is supposed to be warmer, as well, so probably as good a time as any for seed trays and starting some cat grass for the little House Sphinxes. Feisal finally found the air plant I've had growing in a kitchen window since Christmas of 2018 and tried to eat it. He broke the planter, but I was able to epoxy it back together. Of course now the air plant has to be secured at night.

 Today we're having one of "those" Florida winter days. It's currently drizzling rain and nicely gloomy. It was around 60 when I got up. The high should be around 70 and tonight the low should be around 32. Note to self to put sensitive plant friends in the garage this evening. 

We finally, finally finished most of the deck work yesterday. The only thing really left to do is the very top step on the back deck, which will require two decking boards screwed into place, and the gap between the ramp and lower deck in the front, which is getting a temporary cover. Later this summer or fall we'll be pouring a concrete pad for the lower deck, more than likely, and we'll put a more finished ramp extension down to the surface. But now all the stupid fucking handrails are up, and to code. I guess the next step is pressure washing everything, then staining and putting down traction paint, or whatever that rough-textured stuff is called. The north face of the house needs pressure washing as well.

Next week being the lunar new year, I'm looking at doing something a little more fun and maybe making bao tacos. You make bao dough as usual but roll it out into flat rounds for steaming instead of doing up a bun, then you fill as desired. Probably pork loin, seitan, and a good Asian cabbage slaw. I have a reliable recipe that uses rice vinegar, sesame oil, and most importantly, no mayo. I've kind of got food on the brain today. I spent some time this morning re-setting up my CRON app, and based on that adjusting my supplements. Then I started fiddling with the macros and remembered why I hate fiddling with macros. I feel like I'm doing pretty good nutrition-wise and if not, my doctor will say something to me. Which reminds me I need an appointment soon, or the insurance company will take it as an excuse to stop my anxiety meds. 

Otherwise I'm just trying to relax some today. I still feel tired, though maybe that's just yesterday's big push to finish our outside work before the rain came through. Planning to go draw for a while and then get in a longish afternoon yoga session. 

Yesterday I did my 20-mile training run, the last major long run before Dopey. I'm glad that's over - it was tough. I'm having the usual issues I have the day after a super-long run or a distance, namely I'm still tired, my resting heart rate is elevated, and I want to eat everything in sight. I should definitely go with that last one, because I'm four pounds down today, which ain't good.

We decided against going out for Chinese on Christmas. The local place that is actually good is also super-busy that day. We went Saturday. It scratched the itch and gave me an opportunity to carb load. I'm still going out to run errands today but limiting myself to groceries because I don't feel like dealing with people. I hate having to be out in the holiday crazies when I need to get things done. It's a different proposition to just sit around and watch people devolve, but entirely another when I actually just need coffee and cat food and have to put up with hoardes of last-minute gift buyers fighting for whatever's big this year. I'll be doing that relatively soon in hopes that if I get out early I can beat some of the crowds.

IT RAINED. Holy crap did it ever rain. Two and a half inches, and it just now started to clear out. It was kind of comforting to listen to last night while, for whatever reason, I couldn't sleep despite being totally exhausted. WTF.

Finally, a link - 'Advertising Breaks Your Spirit' - French Cities Trying to Ban Public Adverts Good for them. Advertising is a pernicious, ugly thing and I have a deep, intense dislike for ads. And every year they creep up onto something else that was previously just a blank expanse of free time and thought. I recently saw a photo of someone fortune cookie that had ads printed on the fortune.

I don't know how some of the lower peninsula fared, but here in North Florida we had a pretty spectacular line of storms this morning. I was waiting on this - it's the front bringing more cold weather. And around 3:30 or so the lightning and thunder started, waking me up out of a pretty solid sleep. It actually took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. We were still having gusty, strong winds at 5:30 when I got up really for reals.

The cats, of course, hate storms. Okay, Feisal and Crowley hate storms, Nana doesn't seem to care. I got up to use the bathroom and found Crowley hiding behind the toilet. Later when I fed them I could not find Feisal. He's infamous for pushing the window screens out, getting outside, and then getting scared because this adventure isn't fun anymore and crying to come back inside. I wondered if he'd panicked at some of the crashing thunder and gotten out, but didn't see any way he could have escaped. Actually he was hiding in a bathroom cabinet, so I found him when I went to see if Sheba had finished eating. He was very confused.

Brief explanation: Sheba gets fed a small portion of wet food separately so she can get a powdered probiotic I mix with it. I shut her in the master bathroom so she can eat in peace.

Anyway, I am considering postponing my weekend long run for tomorrow so we can go to the dump today. I'm also not feeling up to a long training run because I didn't sleep well after the storm started - I dozed for another hour and finally just got up. I normally get up pretty early anyway but I originally woke up when the storm started so I'm about two hours short.

Finally : Elder Orphans: A Real Problem or a New Way to Scare Singles? I've been bingo'd a few times when people find out I haven't had/don't want kids, but I never got the "who will take care of you when you're old?" one. My answer would have been, "No one. You can't assume your kids will want to care for your elderly ass." In some cases they do - my sister lives with and helps out my mom. Since my mom and I barely get along, I can't see myself doing this. She and I were "no contact" for several years because I can't deal with her shit. Having a child is no guarantee they'll grow up to live near you, have the time and money to care for you, and are even still on speaking terms with you.

 One thing I need to work on when I get back from racing is a proper set of icons for this journal. I have a piecemeal set of about thirty right now, no rhyme or reason, no seasonal icons, not enough reading or art icons, etc. 

And it's getting cold again! Some other parts of Florida got heavier rains, it dumped about .60 inches on us and there's lovely cool air now. I was seriously tired of temps in the 80s. In January. The 80s. Why. 

I'd like to get a little more wear out of my sweaters and hoodies before I have to pack them away again. If the forecast holds true, I will at least be able to wear my marathon jacket to Disney in the evenings, and I'll probably need to pack my running hoodie for the 5 and 10k. The half marathon looks like it might be warmer and humid and icky and gross, but that front will pass making marathon Sunday cooler and drier. 

Neighbor's cat got sort of lost last night. She wandered over here after her usual going-inside time and we heard her meowing, then the neighbor's older daughter was out calling her, so Fox went out to help, then I went out to help and of course the cat skirted around all three humans and went home on her own. And I know it was Jupiter because Crowley was napping with me and heard her meow, so he got up to go defend his territory by sitting in the window and growling. He also growls at my neighbor's younger girl and her friends when they play outside, and I've seen him hiss at the tractor.

Anyway I am very sleepy after having dinner and cleaning up for the night but I need to go do some yoga. Despite how Fitbit chides me for "working out" so close to bedtime, it will help me sleep better, too. I'm doing a yin flow of poses focusing on my legs and hips so this is not the strenuous, sweaty type of yoga.

I also started getting emails from a yoga teacher insurance company. How did someone get the idea I'm a yoga teacher? I doubt I could ever teach anyone yoga, let alone open a studio. 

questionoftheday asks: What was the dumbest, most embarrassing injury you ever obtained?

My answer: Something startled me and I jumped backwards, hit a car, and wound up with a grapefruit-sized BLACK bruise on my ass cheek. This thing was solid black and only became purple-blue at the edges. It was also not fun sitting on.

I have errands to run today, and a trip out to Jax Oriental Market is one of them. It's kind of out of the way so I ten to wait until I need a significant number of things to make it worth my while.

Yesterday's long run was a challenge. I think this is especially so because being on the treadmill means I can quit at any time, whereas running outside I only have the option to quit every four miles. I run a loop near here that begins and ends at some telephone switch boxes about 7/10 of a mile from the house. It's actually more of a trapezoid on the map, but it's 3.98 miles around. But I stuck it out and made it to twenty and I'm not particularly stiff or sore today. I have some soreness in my calf muscles but on the 1 to 10 pain scale it's maybe a 0.5 now. And I'm up to episode 16 of Attack on Titan which is just incredible. I am really into this show.


It's getting cold again here - though again I want to qualify that by saying it's cold for Florida. But it doesn't look like by the forecast it will freeze again this week. The palm needs to come inside tonight and get locked in the laundry room. I don't know why the cats are so fascinated by that stupid palm tree, but if I want to have any tree at all, I have to cat-proof it. Anyway, it's nice to have days cool enough to wear the heavier sweaters and things in my wardrobe. This opportunity comes only about three months out of the year, so sweater up while you can.


Meh. I really want to go to the book store. Maybe I'll do that today, I haven't been in a couple of months.

 I just heard a news report about how a lot of places like Panama City and Pensecola have "pre-Andrew" housing and housing codes. The predicted possibility of Michael making landfall as a cat 4 is really scary - stay safe over there, Gulf Coast. Maybe it will start breaking up some or losing power as it approaches land - you know how some storms come barreling in at a cat 5 and then suddenly drop in strength before hitting land. 

In more personal news, the neighbor lady came by yesterday with her daughter and I showed them around the Cat Situation here. I feel like a total fucking idiot because I got so nervous I was babbling, sweating, and I probably came off like a complete weirdo. But they both seem really nice and I feel confident they'll take good care of the fuzzbutts while I'm gone. Only Nana came out while they were here - Feisal popped his head out when I rattled the treat can but he ducked back into my bedroom. 

In two weeks I will actually literally be in Tokyo, feet on the ground. I think - they're 13 hours ahead of here, so it'll be ... the day before? I don't know, I'm terrible at math and sometimes time zones confuse the hell out of me. I just ask Google what time it is in wherever I need to know about. 

My sister finally got hooked up with Hangouts, and I discovered the "invites" tab, which is conversation invites from other people. I had no idea it was there, and wouldn't have looked except that I was trying to find her text to me. So of course I had several in there, some of which were either obvious spam or thirsty dudes. I have my profile set either to private or to a pretty restricted filter so I don't get tons of random texts from strangers, though I do get some. One I can't figure out was from someone named Linda Gershenson who sometime last year said, "Hello!" then "Meh ..." then sent a "see you later" sticker. Was she from Facebook? Google+? Who was that? Well I guess it doesn't matter much now, does it? Of course searching for her name brought up a FB result, and it then began to pester me to log in. Not today, Satan, not today. Obviously my deletion hasn't gone through yet so there's no way I'm clicking that button, no matter how much I want to know who that lady was.