Of Milk and Budgets by Konnie Enos

As I have mentioned, my daughter, Melinda, has taken over the grocery shopping. About a month after my oldest son moved out she and I discussed the fact that our grocery bill had gone up, not down.

I assumed it was due to prices but it concerned me because my husband’s income could not cover the increase and I already knew my temporary job was coming to an end. (Note my last day of work was October 30^th.)

I suppose because I haven’t been doing the shopping for nearly a year I didn’t realize exactly why our grocery bill was so high. Melinda did.

She’s insisted we start doing meal planning and plan shopping trips accordingly. She has also put her foot down on multiple grocery runs a week. She said we’d need one or two items but people would add things to the list so she was spending over $60 each time.

Yeah, that adds up fast. I agree some planning and fewer trips will help.

Now the issue.

We go through a lot of milk. So much in fact that our fridge cannot hold enough to get us through the week. Now with five growing children, I never thought much about going through 10 plus gallons a week. However, now my children are all adults.

Not only that but two of them have moved out and another two of them cannot have dairy products. I also don’t drink milk very much. If I have any, it is to pour some on my cereal, a meal I don’t have very often.

So one day, a few weeks after Melinda and I had discussed the grocery bill, my husband, Jerry, pointed out that we were again low on milk and someone would have to go to the store.

An argument ensued. Melinda refused to go to the store for more milk.

Why?

Because she’d bought 5 gallons only three days before which meant we were going through about a gallon and a half a day.

Now a gallon, or two, a day isn’t unreasonable when you have a houseful of growing children. However, as I said, four of my five children no longer live here or no longer consume dairy and I don’t drink much milk. If you add that up, it means there are now exactly two people in our household who have milk daily.

Two people consuming more than a gallon a day and both those are adult men.

Well, Jerry is insisting we need milk. My son, Royce, is understanding about cutting back but still insists we need milk. My daughter is still refusing to go back to the store.

I’m calculating just how much we’re spending on milk a month and wondering how to curtail it. Then Melinda emphasis the point that she spends at least $60 every single time she goes to the store. Five gallons of milk is less than $20.

I’m starting to see her point. Royce is conceding, he could drink less milk. Jerry is not.

At one point in the argument I finally said, “If this keeps up, I’ll have to limit how much milk people get to a glass a day.”

Now I’ve never limited the milk because I was raised in a household that did limit it, for growing children. This is probably why I don’t consume much to this day. However, I wasn’t about to do this to my children because you need milk for growing bones. The only reason I even considered it was because my one child still drinking milk is no longer growing and doesn’t need to consume half a gallon of milk a day. Neither does my husband.

Now Royce took this limit as already being enforced. Yeah, milk consumption has gone down.

However, when I said this Jerry had a tantrum. “Well, then we have to limit yogurt to no more than one a day.”

Now we always have yogurt in our fridge. Both Chobani and Yoplait, and occasionally some non-dairy yogurt. Yes, we go through quite a bit of it, but what my husband didn’t realize is that none of us eats more than one a day. I am the only one in this family who consistently has one every single day. Me, one person, I eat a Chobani every day.

When he made his statement I turned to him and said, “That’s all I eat.” Then I asked Melinda how often she bought me yogurt.

“About once every three to four weeks.”

Why? Because I plan. No multiple trips to the store.

I’m not sure if my husband is drinking any less milk but we haven’t gotten any since Saturday and it’s Wednesday already. Hopefully, our grocery bill will now go down.

Oh, and thank a veteran for their service. It’s Veteran’s Day.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day. 

NaNo 2020 by Bonnie Le Hamilton

And we’re off! Or should I say, I’m off since Konnie doesn’t NaNo.

If Konnie’s family weren’t so dependent on her, then she could at least attempt it, as it is if she were to write 50,000 words in a month again, they may . . ., you know, I have no idea what they’d do, since they certainly wouldn’t kill her.

I do know the one and only time Konnie managed the feat, her family was rather upset with her.

I’m just kind of irked at how long the rough draft of that particular tome ended up being. The problem is her editing is adding more than its deleting. She’s adding details. Okay, that thing’s a series, not a stand-alone. Four stories, all interconnected and overlapping.

They overlap so much it’s hard to figure out where to divide them into four. Adding to the problem is the fact one of the stories is longer than the others, and at least one isn’t long enough to fill a novel. Konnie is having trouble dividing it.

On the other hand, I also have a series . . . well, I started something I hope to be a series. But right now, nothing is overlapping, and it is mainly about two brothers (twins) and what they do, accomplish, during a war their people are in with a neighboring planet.

Yes, it’s a sci-fi, but then so is Konnie’s massive tome. But unlike Konnie, I do have one finished – sort of sci-fi. The main characters are descendants of aliens from another planet, but it’s set on contemporary Earth.

I have a feeling that a certain nephew of mine would much prefer my unfinished sci-fi to the completed one, because he read the finished one, and complained to me, “Too much mushy stuff, not enough action.”

He, being a young boy wanted more action-adventure than romance. I told him he wasn’t in my target audience and asked why he even bothered reading my novel. He couldn’t even answer that.

Of course, that happened years ago, not long after I finished the rough draft and he got ahold of his mother’s computer, found the story in her files, and read it!

Yeah, that shocked everyone.

His opinion of the story didn’t surprise anyone.

But like I said, “He isn’t in the target audience.”

Actually, I’m not sure he would enjoy my newest sci-fi, because it has romance too. It’s a war story, so it does have action, but I write romance.

And that brings me back to the purpose of this post; National Novel Writer’s Month.

I am participating, as I do every year. The information on my account says I’ve done it for sixteen years. I can’t believe it's been that long. I mean I know it's been a while, and certainly longer than six years, since I know I started doing it long before my husband died, six years ago. I’m just surprised it was that much longer.

I’m also dumbfounded at how long ago I wrote the rough draft of the novel I’m currently trying to sell.

I mean really, Claire was in like middle school! She’s a mother of a toddler now!

Boy does time fly.

And it flies even faster when you are trying to do word sprints. Too bad the ideas can’t come as fast.

Anyway, I am doing NaNo, and I think I’m going along okay. Here it is only the fourth day in and I already have just over almost 7k words as of last night. The exact count, at the time of this writing, is 6,957 words.

All I can say is I’m glad I'm over the daily goal minimum because I haven’t worked on this story yet. Hopefully after work. At least I only work five hours a day. I'm glad I don't have to work eight or nine hours a day.

Actually, I tend to fall asleep soon after I get home. Not going straight home from work just makes it harder. Too late for a nap, too early for bed.

I feel for those who have to work full time. I certainly can't.

Working is hard.

Working and trying to find time to write is even harder. I either take a nap at 4 PM each night or start yawning, or dozing off, before Voyager comes on.

I like to watch the older Star Trek shows.

Of course, right now I’m trying to do word sprints, and write my post, because it is NaNo after all.

So, how is everyone doing so far? I know it's still early. I know those who are ahead right now (like me) may end up fizzling out later. Some do. I just hope I don't get behind.

But happy writing, everyone!

Of Carpal Tunnel and Typing by Konnie Enos

 

Have you ever tried to type when your hands are numb?

Last night, to make sure I had this post written on time, I got on my computer but my carpal tunnel was so bad I couldn’t feel the keys. I had to take steps to wake them up.

First, I tried resting them in a comfortable position until the sensation returned to my hands. I was able to find a couple of positions that helped but the minute I used my hands again they were numb.

Second I attempted to hold my wrists up in the proper manner. This didn’t help either. Even when I managed to keep them up, I still had numb fingers.

After trying those several times each, I put my braces on.

Now the braces usually work within minutes. For whatever reason, this time it got worse, to the point of hurting. I was forced to rest my hands, however, it took at least half an hour to find a position that offered some relief.

At this point, I think I might be able to type but every time I attempted to my hands go back to the painful numbness. To get them to stop, I decided to read my social feeds since scrolling didn’t require the same amount of finger dexterity that typing does. A couple of hours later I could feel my hands and they weren’t going numb every time I tried to use them. I was even able to take the braces off without the painful tingling.

Now with working fingers, it’s time to start typing. I failed miserably.

Why?

Because by this time it’s the middle of the night and my husband is fast asleep. Yes, he is snoring. Now my being up and on my computer is not going to disturb him. I know because he regularly takes long naps while I am on my laptop.

I do, however, have an issue with being able to type. Considering I was taught touch typing one would think it a non-issue but the fact remains it is difficult to type, without mistakes, when you have no visual reference on the keys.

Yes, I know where all the keys are but I have issues trying to hit the one I want rather than the one next to it. I also often have to look for where the punctuation keys are. Then there is the issue of actually hitting the backspace or delete instead of another key. I can also miss enter and hit shift instead. (Yes, very unhelpful.)

Then using numbers is another problem because I have never actually remembered which finger to use for those keys. That and I’m poor at aiming at the top row to begin with. Now, I do know the ten-key, but removing my hand from the letter keys to use it means I have to reposition my hands when I’m done.

Yes, there are bumps to help you position your hands, very slight bumps. Try feeling them when your carpal tunnel is acting up.

Overall it’s easier to type if I can visually readjust my fingers now and again. You cannot do this in a dark room.

My husband turned out the lights when he went to bed.

I did try, but it wasn’t pretty and by this time late at night so I gave up and went to bed AFTER I made sure I had an alarm set to get my up in time to try again. I assumed the sun would be coming up by then and I’d be able to see.

Morning arrives and I discover I still have my carpal tunnel issues AND I still cannot see.

As near as I can tell the sun is up, but I’d need our “curtains” opened to get any sunlight in our bedroom. I say curtains loosely because what we have covering our window is a tacked up old sheet, one that is dark enough it isn’t letting in the light. I cannot reach the tacks to let it down. Since I still do not have the light on, I’m forced to try to locate keys by touch and using the glow from the monitor when I need to visually relocate.

Yes, my hands are still numb so I’m wearing my braces too.

This has been a fun experiment in difficult things to do.

Well, I suppose I managed. Now on to other tasks I must do today, like get ready for work.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Getting Comedy by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Sometimes I wish I had a sense of humor. Sometimes I wish I could get jokes easily and laugh all the time.

Other times I realize that I do have a sense of humor but I also have this problem with being literal.

You know, like people on the spectrum.

As I recall, my father was the worst at joking around. He was constantly teasing me because I was always and forever trying to explain why his joke didn’t make sense.

Then again, he more than once stared at me like something was wrong when I sat at the dinner table. And every time I stood and looked around wondering what was wrong. Once I was standing again, he’d say, “Since you’re up,” then he’d ask me to get something from the kitchen.

As often as he did it, you’d think I’d learn. I never did.

And I’m pretty sure I’m not his only child he did it to, but boy did he get me the most because I was that gullible.

But the big one was his jokes.

I still don’t get the elephant in the pajama’s idiocy. An elephant could never fit into a human’s pajamas. Elephants are too big to fit into even the largest man’s clothes. I mean really, just consider the numbers. The record for the largest human, in weight, is what 500, 600, or maybe 800 pounds? I have no idea, but I do know it's considerably under a ton. A full-grown elephant weights in above the ton mark and as someone with weight issues, I know twenty pounds makes a difference in how something fits, a hundred pounds would have the clothes either falling off a person or splitting seams, depending on which way the poundage went.

You try putting an elephant in an 800-pound man’s PJ’s and said PJ’s will be rags. I guarantee it. Meaning the joke makes no sense.

And if my memory was better, I’d remember more of my father’s inane jokes, but it doesn’t matter, I never got them.

Konnie, and frankly several of my friends, once insisted I needed to write a humorous story. Want to know how that’s going?

It’s not.

That story is stalled out and I seriously doubt I’ll get back to it. As far as I’m concerned it isn’t funny. Ironic maybe, but not funny. I don’t do funny.

And I have yet again become acquainted with someone who has decided it's his personal calling to get me to laugh.

His first attempt?

Puns.

Which got our coworkers to laugh at the glare I gave him. I don’t like puns. They are so inane! Heads up everyone, puns don’t work on me.

What does?

Well, the first real laugh he got out of me, wasn’t a joke. One of our coworkers had been sneezing a lot, and she said something on the lines of, “I wonder how many more times I’ll sneeze before the end of the day?”

The jokester responded, “564,” or some such random and large three-digit number.

Okay, I admit it, I cracked up. Not at the number he pulled out of his head, but at the very idea of anyone even presuming to predict how many times a single person would sneeze in about three hours’ time.

The next time he got a laugh out of me, and only a small one at that, he pretended to be Elmo asking us if we could count to three.

He’s pretty good at voices actually, but that wasn’t funny as much it was cute. At least he now knows not to try puns on me.

And honestly, it may also depend on the mood I’m in.

Case in point, sometimes I can watch Gilligan’s Island and laugh my head off, other times I can’t even stand the idea of watching Gilligan’s Island and all those inane antics. Then there was the one time I watched Gilligan’s Island and cried. But that was not long after Tom died.

I wasn’t thinking about how goofy Gilligan was, I was thinking about how much I missed Tom and how I wouldn’t have had those DVDs of all three seasons if not for Tom. They were a gift from him. To be honest, I’ve done the same thing about the three seasons of the original Star Trek, for the same reason even.

Though I have to admit it was Gilligan who got me through those first few months without Tom.

I realized I had adjusted to his loss when I stopped crying, stopped laughing, and finally found the show inane.

The thing is, I’ve watched it since then, several times, when I needed cheering up. Currently, I’m at the place where I find such comedy inane.

Me write comedy? Never!

Anyway, happy writing, everyone.

Of Disabilities and Injuries by Konnie Enos

 

I know I’ve mentioned how my daughter has been taking over the stay-at-home-mom chores around here. Recently we managed to convince my youngest that she could not do this alone and he has become her right-hand man.

Yeah, things are getting done regularly.

Then life happens.

First, my daughter got costochondritis (inflammation, in this case in her ribcage). The doctor’s orders are rest and no heavy lifting. Nothing that causes her more pain.

Little brother picks up as much slack as he can, and I’m trying to do more as my schedule allows. She still needs more rest and isn’t better yet.

My son, as usual, complains, but he does make efforts to increase what he is doing to pick up the slack.

Then what happens?

While doing his usual running at night, he trips over a dog and bangs his knee into the wall.

Now in our house dislocations are rather common and those that have them just put the joint back into place then wait until the pain subsides before going about their business again, usually a matter of minutes. However, now and again, it’s serious.

By yesterday afternoon my son is visibly limping and his knee is swollen and painful to the touch. I take him to be seen. What does the doctor tell him? Rest, elevate, and ice. Also, no weight bearing for as much as a week and only as tolerated. He gave him crutches. He will also need further examination to know the extent of the damage.

So now he and his sister are out of commission.

There are still three other people living here.

My oldest daughter still at home can’t deal with excess stress. She will spiral into the abyss when stressed. Between her college classwork and the chores she can and does do, she can’t handle anymore.  So she will continue to feed the dogs, take out the garbage, and wipe high contact surfaces with disinfectant wipes regularly.

Hey, every little bit helps.

Due to physical limitations, I can’t reach anything below my waist or above my head. I’m also working full-time. So my chores are wiping down the table and counters, finances (i.e.: paying the bills). I also do dishes and cook dinner when it’s my turn. (My currently out of commission son and daughter usually take their turns with both those chores.) I can only manage dishes on my days off.

Now doing dishes with of those nifty machines designed to clean dishes isn’t a taxing chore. We do not have a working dishwasher. As you can imagine, doing the dishes only twice a week would not be a good thing.

Of course, I have not eliminated all members of the household yet. We are a family of five.

So there is yet one household member who has no physical or time limitations on doing chores. Someone physically capable of scrubbing toilets, sweeping, mopping, washing, drying, and putting away dishes, wiping down all kitchen surfaces, even taking out the garbage and feeding all the dogs. And, even though he does none of it, he is capable of cooking a few things. In other words, the only chore he isn’t capable of doing is staying on top of the finances and paying the bills.

What chores does he do?

Well, he makes sure his largest dog is fed. He also does some of the chauffeuring and is generally the one who fills the gas tank and makes sure the car is in working order.

What he rarely does is any of the indoor chores and then it’s only a few dishes. Nothing else.

What is his reason for not doing anything else?

His chore is bringing in the money to pay all those bills.

How does he bring in all that money? He is receiving VA and SSD. Yes, he worked hard before he got his disability but just because he is very justifiably unable to hold down a job, doesn’t mean he is unable to do chores.

I only have two and a half weeks left of work (temporary job). So I can just see the mess this house is going to be in for the rest of this month while I try to work full-time and keep up with what chores I can since I’m certain my husband will not step up and pick up some of the slack.

This means, of course, for the next two and half weeks dishes and cooking dinner won’t be done daily. Most likely only a couple of times a week.

So for the next three of four weeks (while my children heal), our house is going to be a disaster.

And life goes on.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Work, Pets, and Nano by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Okay, who has time to write?

I come home from work and I have trouble keeping my eyes open long enough to eat dinner and I get home around four in the afternoon! How do people manage when they work eight-hour shifts?

I can only work twenty hours a week. You would think, what with me working half as many hours as most people, I’d be able to find the time to write more than once every other week!

And this would be October! Nano is less than a month away, and even if we were meeting in person, which we’re not, I can’t make our meetings this month (for prep) because I have to work.

Because of work, I can’t make my knitting group meetings either. In November, my writing group will have some virtual write-ins, and some would be in the evening, if I can stay awake that long, I could attend those.

Too bad they never have write-ins on Mondays. I have Mondays off.

Konnie is working too, but she doesn’t even attempt to do Nano and the one time she actually managed to write 50K in a single month her family was less than pleased with her.

Actually, when Tom was alive, I generally only managed 50K in November, because Tom expected me to quit writing for the month once I reached it. Needless to say, after he died, I managed a lot more words during Nano. This year, I have the feeling, I’m not going to do as well, since I’m only sure I’d be able to write three days a week. The three I’m off.

And still, Konnie won’t even take part in Nano. Maybe once her nest is empty.

Nah, that’s not going to happen.

Her second oldest has major health issues and needs help while her youngest is on the spectrum and doesn’t want to leave the nest. So, essentially, she only has one child left to leave the nest. And that’s only if her oldest son manages to stay out of the nest. He’s yet to prove he can manage a budget.

Not that Konnie hasn’t tried to teach him how to. She’s done everything she can to make her kids ready to live on their own. In fact, she taught all her children everything her youngest daughter has down pat. And the only reason she hasn’t left the nest yet is she’s having trouble finding a job in her field.

It’s hard to break into a field with only a degree and no work experience. I keep hoping for her sake she finds something soon.

But even with just two kids at home, Konnie wouldn’t have the time to write more, since she’d be left with the three members of her family who need the most attention.

My next issue is my carpal tunnel is acting up. Probably because I’ve both been trying to improve my typing speed and knitting a Christmas present for Konnie’s husband and those needles and thread are quite small.

I just wish I could say his present would be finished by Christmas. Yeah, not happening unless I forgo doing Nano.

As far as writing goes, I have one other impediment to it.

That impediment is called Patches.

I swear every time I open my computer, he decides he wants to cuddle. How do you type when your cat is trying to put himself between you and the computer? Konnie doesn’t have that problem, because the only cat in her menagerie wants nothing to do with her. Kind of a sore point with her, because Tiger will go to me!

At any rate, her dog isn’t a lap dog. The only lap dog in her house isn’t her pet, and he knows not to get between Konnie and her computer. Patches doesn’t care. All that matters to him is getting my attention. Why he decides he needs it when I’m busy, I’ll never know.

So anyway, who is doing Nano this year? And who is ready for it?

Do you have a project in mind? I do. Not sure it will work, but I have an idea to start with.

More importantly, do you have a writing schedule? Or do you wing it? I usually wing it, but with my schedule, I’m going to have to go with a schedule. It’s all new to me.

And do you outline extensively or go by the seat of your pants? I used to always go with the seat of the pants, but the last little while I’ve been going more with something somewhere in between the two. Maybe in a way, I always have, I just didn’t bother writing down the outline before.

So, what is your method?

Anyway, happy writing, everyone!

Musings and Ramblings by Konnie Enos

 

Did you ever have one of those days were you just can’t form a coherent thought? I seem to be having one of those weeks.

I already knew I didn’t want a topic too broad because it’s difficult to narrow it down. However, to narrow of one means you can’t find enough material to fill the page. That being said, my issue seems to be I can’t come up with a subject, to begin with, and if I do I can’t put it into an intelligent string of words. My brain seems more fog than anything else.

Now, this could be a lack of sleep.

For one reason or another, I’ve had too many nights, far too close together, where I ended up not getting to bed until midnight or later. Very unusual for me because I generally get up early particularly right now when I have to be to work so early in the morning. Believe me, going to bed at midnight or later when you have to be up at four doesn’t work.

 Now I do occasionally have one of those nights where I just can’t seem to get to sleep and for some reason just never feel tired. This is generally precipitated by my picking up a really good book though not always. Sometimes I just get caught up doing something or other (usually on my tech) and I neglect to pay attention to the time.

Then there is always the far too regular around here trips to the ER. My most recent one consumed nearly twelve hours. Now twelve hours isn’t all that concerning but when you consider I didn’t even head over there until about two in the afternoon then it becomes one of those late-night experiences.

This most recent experience was all the longer than it would normally need to be, not because the place was packed (as far as I could see, busy, but not packed) but because they’d had to turn off each and every bit of computer tech in the entire hospital to protect patient information from a hacker. They were doing everything old school. Paper charts, paper orders, no emails. Waiting for paper reports to be delivered from one place to the next.

I think the bulk of my stay was just waiting for things to be processed and delivered. Even discharging me took twice as long as usual because they had to wait for the paper forms to be hand filled in.

Of course, this means I didn’t get home until nearly two in the morning. Believe me, if you’re going to bed at two, you are not getting up at four. Then again, I was still sick enough to not even consider going to work.

On top of all that, my house has been in a bit of an upheaval as the oldest of my sons packed up what few belongings he had and moved out of the house, into his first apartment.

Now since he has very little in the form of worldly possessions his new apartment is not bursting at the seams with stuff. Since he owns no furniture, it’s empty. The big exception, of course, is a twenty-something, single male in this day and age can’t be without his gaming system. Now I’m personally unsure how he’s going to use it with no TV, but I’m equally sure that TV will be at the top of his list. Maybe even before a bed.

For me, a bed would be the first thing I’d consider because there is no way I’m sleeping on the floor. For my son, that’s exactly what he’s doing.

On the other hand, he’s smart enough to realize his first consideration needed to be how he was getting to and from work. Being young, and lacking a savings account, his options weren’t extensive. However, his current lack of a driver’s license limited him even further.

He now owns a bike.

At least now my husband doesn’t have to get up in the middle of the night to get our son from work then hustle home so I’m not late for work. Of course, this is possible because our son’s friend also moved into his own apartment. So we won’t have to transport him to and from work either.

Though it gives me pause to consider these young men moving into apartments by themselves with little or no furniture. Not to mention neither one of them has a car. Probably a good thing the apartments they moved to are near where they work.

All in all, I’m not sure I’m functioning at full capacity right now.

How are you all doing?

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.