The perils of losing weight

 Yes, I know that a lot of people have gained weight during the pandemic, but I've lost weight.

Intending to do some shopping, I rummaged through my closet looking for a skirt to wear.  This one was too large.  That one was too large. (they dragged on the ground)  So was another one.  YIKES!

So, I looked online to buy a smaller size long skirt. (that's what I wear -- long skirts.)  Sold out on the Talbot's website and none to be found on LL Bean. (that's where I shop because I know what fits me there)

I thought that maybe, the skirt I had wanted to buy might still be available in stores, so I headed to La Jolla to the nearest Talbot's store.  You would not believe the traffic just wanting to get into La Jolla.  I finally gave up and headed back home. On my way home, I discover the other roads leading to beaches were also clogged.  Which was a surprise because schools are in session in my area of Southern California. (then I remembered that the surrounding schools don't begin until next week, so I guess that parents and kids are starting their last weekend before school headed for the beach.

Meaning that 

1) I'll have to find a Talbots that's not located near a beach and 

2) I'll have to keep on avoiding the beaches for another couple of weeks if I want less traffic and less people on the beaches when I do my daily walk.  

For those of you who knew me during the mid-2010s, I've lost 30 pounds since I graduated from VCFA. 

Book Recommendation

 If you like Georgette Heyer's sweet romance/ mystery Regencies, or are a fan of Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes mystery series which takes place in the 19th century, you'll love the new series by Tirzah Price.

Her first one was = Pride and Premeditation.

And now she has come out with Sense and Second-Degree Murder. NY: Harper Teen, 2022. 

Yes, both are based on Jane Austen's books that have very similar names. 

Book review: Healer & Witch

 I just finished reading Nancy Werlin's excellent new middle grade fantasy = 

Healer & Witch.  

Highly recommend.

Ask a Librarian -- you know they can help

An older gentleman came into the library where I worked and asked for directions. He was trying to find his niece's place. From his vague description, I finally found it on a map, but when I tried to show him how to get there, his conversation kept wandering so much that I asked him if he had his son's phone number so that his son could help him get to his niece's place. The old man searched his pockets and came up with a piece of paper with his son's phone number, so I called it. The son was shocked that his dad, who has Alzheimers, actually was able to drive so far away by himself and had actually had the sense that librarians could help and had stopped at a library. 

The first year of school is important

 My child's kindergarten teacher told her kids that she was 100 years old. And therefore since she's older than their parents, she knows more than their parents. (she was younger than me by far) Oh, and she also told them she was a witch and if they misbehaved she'd turn them into a flowerpot - pointing at the flowerpots with flowers in them at her windows. 

Of course the children believed every word. 

(they also behaved, loved her, and learned a lot from her.)

Writer's brain takes a Left Turn

Today I gave up on the book I had been trying to piece together. Put it aside and went back to revising my will - which I should have been doing months ago.  

Completed my will revisions and turned back to my writing... and decided I actually didn't want to work on it anymore. My brain took a complete left turn and began shoving ideas for a similar but quite different book.

Ho-Kay. Off I go on a new bit of writing, one that needs a lot MORE research than the one I've abandoned. But it tickles my interest more, which means my readers will enjoy it more - when it's finally done.

The futile Act of saving things digitally

 The problem with digital is that things change.

 I wrote my first book and many magazine and newspaper articles on a typewriter. Had paper copies done with carbon paper. (If I had kept them, they'd be all smeary today.) Then I wrote on a Commodore 64. There was no digital record saved. Wrote more on various Apple computers, but nothing can read those 5-inch floppy disks anymore, so I tossed them. The next books were recorded on 3-inch disks. Also now in the trash.

 In the late 1990s and early 2000s, my husband told me to stop printing out copies of what I wrote because they were all saved on the computer. Yeah - Right. (not) They were saved , but no way can my 2022 computer read those old versions of AppleWorks and ClarisWorks. 

Now, my latest Apple iMac grabs everything to save on the 'cloud.' Which means I can't access them if I have no internet service. (which is why I now save writing stuff on Dropbox, because I can work on those files even without internet as long as I save them to Dropbox once I reach Internet service again.)

 I imagine that saving digital files of photographs may have gone through the same history -- and that everything saved today will be unreadable in the future.  🙁