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October randomocity
Oct. 16th, 2012 07:51 am1. It's pouring rain and there's a wind advisory on today. It doesn't rain much in the summer here, so this is definitely fall now. I wish I was asleep! Alas. Also, I have a feeling that the school kids are going to ask to wait in our living room for the bus, which means I should get dressed soon...
2. Music. Our house is becoming a conservatory or something. Last night we had piano, violin, and cello all going at once. It's kind of fun, although the one kid not interested in music has been doing a lot of hiding in his room this year. I've been playing my daughter's cello every day while she's in school. It's easy, and it's not. It IS the first string instrument I've made any progress on, though. What I notice is that even if it doesn't feel like you're doing much, a little practice every day really makes a difference. Something will be unbearably hard, but I struggle through it, and then the next day, something has clicked and it's working. I suspect a lot of things are like that.
3. Last night when I was drifting off to sleep, I suddenly thought up a bunch of solutions to plot issues I was having with a certain book I'm writing. I love it when that happens! The only thing I do not love is how tired I am the next day. Makes it hard to put it all into practice. Also, erm, I hope it is just as good a solution by daylight as it seemed at 1 am...
4. Idaho. Some places I've lived, you go visit someone and you come home with bags of kiwi or tomatoes or zucchini that they're overloaded with. Sunday, my husband and son went to see a neighbor and came home with probably 20 lbs of potatoes. I realize most all-organic, eat-local people out there are not thinking of potatoes when they are thinking of menus, but that's how it plays out here. They're good potatoes! And I'm thinking we need a potato cellar to keep them good all winter, because they will last a LONG time.
5. Google street view. So awesome! If I ever set a book in a town I haven't been to, I'm definitely using it for research. I spent Sunday afternoon checking out the areas my family came from in the Czech Republic. Wow, some are very small now! I've also traced one line as far back as they show up in the records (1695). They were innkeepers in Resanice and most of their children survived to adulthood, which probably means things went well economically for them. But then they just disappear, even though there are records further back than that. This is the town where everyone has two last names, though (a real last name and a "house" name--so if you're Smith and you move into the house the Johnsons used to live in, you're now Smith, alias Johnson). Possibly they're there under a different name. Add to that the people who occasionally have no last name, and it gets very confusing!
I hope you are all having a nice fall day! I'm off to play rainy day taxi for those who don't take the bus.
2. Music. Our house is becoming a conservatory or something. Last night we had piano, violin, and cello all going at once. It's kind of fun, although the one kid not interested in music has been doing a lot of hiding in his room this year. I've been playing my daughter's cello every day while she's in school. It's easy, and it's not. It IS the first string instrument I've made any progress on, though. What I notice is that even if it doesn't feel like you're doing much, a little practice every day really makes a difference. Something will be unbearably hard, but I struggle through it, and then the next day, something has clicked and it's working. I suspect a lot of things are like that.
3. Last night when I was drifting off to sleep, I suddenly thought up a bunch of solutions to plot issues I was having with a certain book I'm writing. I love it when that happens! The only thing I do not love is how tired I am the next day. Makes it hard to put it all into practice. Also, erm, I hope it is just as good a solution by daylight as it seemed at 1 am...
4. Idaho. Some places I've lived, you go visit someone and you come home with bags of kiwi or tomatoes or zucchini that they're overloaded with. Sunday, my husband and son went to see a neighbor and came home with probably 20 lbs of potatoes. I realize most all-organic, eat-local people out there are not thinking of potatoes when they are thinking of menus, but that's how it plays out here. They're good potatoes! And I'm thinking we need a potato cellar to keep them good all winter, because they will last a LONG time.
5. Google street view. So awesome! If I ever set a book in a town I haven't been to, I'm definitely using it for research. I spent Sunday afternoon checking out the areas my family came from in the Czech Republic. Wow, some are very small now! I've also traced one line as far back as they show up in the records (1695). They were innkeepers in Resanice and most of their children survived to adulthood, which probably means things went well economically for them. But then they just disappear, even though there are records further back than that. This is the town where everyone has two last names, though (a real last name and a "house" name--so if you're Smith and you move into the house the Johnsons used to live in, you're now Smith, alias Johnson). Possibly they're there under a different name. Add to that the people who occasionally have no last name, and it gets very confusing!
I hope you are all having a nice fall day! I'm off to play rainy day taxi for those who don't take the bus.
