Daily Musings: Bock

I took my mandolin to class for the 3rd time & still didn't get to play it.

Daily Musings – it has a Mood, a Food, a Fitness Report, a Musing, a Read, and a Fun Fact about me. What more could you need from the Internet? Don't forget to subscribe as each day this page will be changing.

Oct. 19, 2014  Sunday 10:14 A.M.

Mood:  Productive. I can't wait to get started on things.

Eats:  I just made one of my favorite breakfasts: Bacon with fried eggs over hashbrowns. Yummy.

Fitness: Yesterday turned out to be more sitting than walking. Today I have yard work so that should burn some calories.

Musing: Music was very entertaining. I love the stories the director shares. He's 72 so he's had a lot of time to collect stories. He also has a Bachelors and a Masters in music.

Reading: Now reading The Accidental Genie by Dakota Cassidy. I think it would make a great Sit-com.
 See my book blog at 51 Books a Year

Fun Fact about me: All my life I've wanted chickens but for some reason my mother hated them. Now I  have six chickens. I think one just laid an egg. Go chickens!

My recently updated blog/s: Craft a Day
Rhythm of the Heart (music blog).
Calamity Fayme 
and Everything I Ever Made

Your comments are needed and appreciated. You can leave them below.


Special thanks to Julie DeNeen.
I stole this idea from blogger Julie DeNeen. She is a big encourager of all kinds of  blogging tips and social media advice.

Daily Musings Will Be Over Here Now

Mood Afghan Day 1

Daily Musings – it has a Mood, a Food, a Fitness Report, a Musing, a Read, and a Fun Fact about me. What more could you need from the Internet? Don't forget to subscribe as each day this page will be changing.

Oct. 18, 2014  Saturday 7:34 A.M.

Mood:  Excited

Eats:  Delicious pork loin and asparagus last night.

Fitness: I wish I had a Fit-Bit so I could track how much walking I'll be doing today.

Musing: It has been a week since my car got crushed. So today I need to get out of the house so I'm carpooling to town with my boyfriend. After I drop him off, I'll do my normal Sat. schedule, which is library, music class, and shopping. Then I'll work on projects until he gets off of work. I think I'll take my mandolin to class today.

Reading: Now reading The Accidental Genie by Dakota Cassidy. I think it would make a great Sit-com.
 See my book blog at 51 Books a Year

Fun Fact about me: I am 2 of 5. Yep, that makes me the middle child.

My recently updated blog/s: Craft a Day
Rhythm of the Heart (music blog).
Calamity Fayme 
and Everything I Ever Made

Your comments are needed and appreciated. You can leave them on my Home Page.
Special thanks to Julie DeNeen.
I stole this idea from blogger Julie DeNeen. She is a big encourager of all kinds of  blogging tips and social media advice.

Almost Winter in Lucerne Valley California

Winter has arrived early in Lucerne Valley, CA. For the past 3 nights, the water has frozen in the hoses and the bird water buckets. I've had to wear layers to bed, as well as five blankets. Last night my boyfriend figured out how to make a hot water bottle.

I still miss the city life. But I also appreciate the giant yard we have and the lack of traffic. We live on a dirt road. We never have to sit in traffic, unless we drive to a bigger town. Compared to spending hours on the 405 or 5 or 22 FWY, it's a blessing. Everywhere you live has pros and cons. I guess I want the best of both worlds.

It looks like soon I'll have a ride to Rancho Cucamunga fairly regularly, at least until Feb. Then I'll have a ride into town more often if I need to visit a craft store. I've really missed having a local craft store. The Lucerne Market carries a few items if I get in a pinch, but it's no Michael's. Of course if I get a ride to town, I won't get a ride home for 4 or 5 hours. But I can take my knitting or a sketchbook or a journal or a book. I'm good at entertaining myself. In fact sometimes I get more done if I'm not at home.

Beautiful view from my backyard.

Every day I'm frustrated because I feel like I should be doing more with my life. It's almost 2 AM and I'm blogging, mainly because I haven't written anything all day.

Checking out the weather.

Frozen birdbath.

Saving wood for a chicken coop.

Getting a New Monitor Finally

My three hours at the library computer just flew by. I finally cracked and bought another computer monitor. My boyfriend was letting me share his, but what an enormous waste of time to have to wait every time I wanted to type something or edit photos or write an article.  Then he'd have to wait for me to use the Internet. So I found a sale online at Best Buy and spent my money. I've been trying to hold on to every dime, but realized I was being penny wise and pound foolish. If I can't work, I'm only making it harder and harder to earn money. My boyfriend had gotten used to the arrangement and didn't see why I'd need to get a monitor at all. So I know he will be mad even though it's my life, my career and my money. I can't just sit here and watch my life go by when I could be working each day on new articles and videos and blog posts that could lead to more work and income. I'll have to accept that he'll never understand that. I've worn myself out trying to convince him.


Here I am wearing a scarf I designed for a Youtube tutorial. I got paid to do it too. But I can't do this kind of work without access to a computer.

Pros and Cons of New Home Life

Getting used to my new home has been both a blessing and a curse. I love the tranquility (usually).  I love having quail in my yard and other birds I've never seen before. I love watching the hummingbirds wage war on each other. I love the neighbor's fat gunia fowl that leap over our fence to eat the bird seed I put out for the sparrows.

And I love the store Winco, which seems to have a bit of everything I need for prices I haven't seen since the '80's.

On the downside, I have no social life. I have no car. My boyfriend and I get on each others nerves from too much time together. If I need to go somewhere and it's on his route for the day I might get to go. That is so constricting it makes me want to scream.

My income has plummeted without DSL and good Internet access. The only way I can even type this blog is by going to the library and using their DSL. Last time I was here the computer I was on had Yahoo Messenger so I got to leave a message for friends I haven't been able to talk to since leaving Anaheim. Only today none of the library computers seem to have it. I have no control over what programs they do or do not have. And for some reason at 1 PM the library suddenly fills up with people so if I don't get there before that, there are no computers available. There is a 3 hour limit per day on computer time, so I'm trying to squeeze what I used to do online in 8 hours a day into 2 library sessions of 3 hours each per week.  And since Thursday is Thanksgiving, this week I only get one day to do everything. So I'm typing like a maniac trying to get everything done.

I'm so far behind on Nanowrimo because of my limited computer access.  I'm about 15,000 words behind. I can write longhand but then I have to type it all in later so it's a big time suck. Ack! I'm staying home on Thanksgiving so I hope I can use my boyfriend's computer. We are sharing one monitor and one keyboard, so if he's on it, I can't be. My monitor died in Anaheim, and the move used up all our money, so who knows when I'll get another one. I really don't know how I'm going to make a living if I don't get a satellite connection or something. Or Verizon gets off their butts and  puts more DSL ports in Lucerne Valley. I feel like a little old lady living out here in the middle of nowhere with technology from the 50's.

Hummingbirds

Today I took the hummingbird feeder the previous tenants left hanging in a tree in the backyard, and cleaned it, filled it with sugar water and hung it from the joshua tree in our new front yard. Within hours we had visitors. I spotted four different hummingbirds sipping nectar from the feeder. And they looked different than the ones in Anaheim. Hopefully I'll have time to take photos of them another day as it's dark out here. I also brought the glass hummingbird feeder from the apt. in Anaheim, but I haven't been able to find it yet.  We had four moving vans, so I'm sure it was in one of them somewhere.

Hummingbirds bring me joy. What can I say. My friend said in South America they call them Sugar Birds.

We've been putting out seeds for the wild birds as well. They didn't eat the sunflower seeds but they were gone by evening so something ate them. Probably the guinea fowl from the neighbor's house. They leap over the fence sometimes.

My Body is On Vacation But My Mind Isn't

I don't know what's wrong with me.  I'm really antsy and frustrated.  I'm on vacation and I should be having fun, right?  I woke up on the wrong side of the bed I guess. I'm sore from my trip, sore from working yesterday.  I had a nightmare that I'd been kidnapped by four men.  They had me holed up in some little old lady's house that was full of antiques and cats. I couldn't even figure out why they kidnapped me because I wasn't worthy of ransom and didn't know any secrets worth telling.  When they would question me I started to get a nervous twitch. Then I woke up.

After that I got a bad back ache and a headache. I couldn't borrow a computer and that frustrated me. Then when I did get on to check my email I'd gotten my State Board of Equalization notice that yearly sales tax was due, and I know that's going to eat at me until I get home, even though I don't owe much (if anything) as sales have been terrible since the economy crashed.  I don't sell much merchandise anyway as most of my income comes from writing or performing or service related work. When I sell stuff on Etsy, it's never to someone in CA, so there is no CA sales tax due. But anything with the word 'tax' tied to it or 'government' tied to it raises my anxiety level.

I can't just seem to tune it all out and enjoy the beautiful oak trees and the blue jays in the trees.
I feel like the clock is ticking as I run out of money with no relief in site.