Signs of Spring
Apr. 3rd, 2023 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spacealien_vampI'm a little more than halfway through my stint as an Acting Supervisor. It's not quite as bad as I imagined it would be, though the petty interpersonal conflicts that we have to deal with are mind-boggling. I do get called on to resolve issues with passenger complaints, but fortunately listening and then responding in a calm yet firm voice that we have to follow the rules tends to settle things. Mostly my responsibility revolves around sitting by the phone in case someone calls in sick or has some other emergency. I also have to lock/unlock doors a lot.
Babysitting the phone for hours every day has given me a good amount of time to work on writing my third novel, which is coming along well. This one is my Ode to Forever Knight (plus a bunch of other subplot stuff). The rough draft is nearly done, maybe about 5K words left to go, presuming I don't get carried away and drag out the ending. Then will come the editing, continuity checking, and creating a cover picture. I was hoping to have it all ready by the beginning of May, but it might take a bit longer.
I just recently returned from spending a few days at Disneyland with my parents, my brother, and his family. I have to say that the Avengers stuff at the California Adventure Park was fantastic, and the Star Wars area at Disneyland is stunning. I kind of just wanted to walk around absorbing the scenery. And the shopping was fun too. I had a difficult time not buying ALL THE THINGS. I settled for a few T-shirts and a subdued/reasonably tasteful princess-themed sweatsuit. (I may be pushing 50, but Mulan is kickass at any age.)
I've also been spending a lot of my time knitting. I went down a serious rabbit hole, favoriting yarn shops on Etsy. Sometimes I pass time just scrolling through pictures of hand-dyed yarn and drooling. I'm nearly done making two pairs of alpaca wool socks for my dad, and I'm also working on a pair of knee socks for myself. I have a bunch of plans for knit blouses in mind, too.
Not too much to say about the garden yet. It has been so cold and rainy this year that I haven't even planted anything yet, though I should get some seeds started this weekend if I want the summer things to be ready. The storms we've been having are crazy. We drove past some of the flooded areas on our way to Anaheim, and we had to take some circuitous detours around all the damage. (We would have been screwed without GPS.) The one thing that has been growing like whoa is the rainbow chard. It doesn't mind the cool, wet weather much, so I've been getting multiple harvests from it.
I played the open beta of Diablo IV last weekend, and that brought back all the old memories. Diablo II was what got me into computer gaming decades ago. I had picked up Diablo III when I bought my Nintendo Switch, but I hadn't actually played it in that format because I got sucked into Animal Crossing. So this week I've been making up for that by playing through the quest campaign. It's much easier to maneuver the character around with the Switch controls (compared with using a mouse for the PC version), but the inventory UI drives me NUTS. I'm accustomed to opening my inventory and seeing all my items and empty slots displayed, but on the Switch you can only see 4 items at a time. It's maddening.
Still debating whether I want to buy Diablo IV. The beta was a lot of fun, but there was a substantial amount of lag. It's not great to start a big boss fight only to have the game freeze and wind up dead. I'm sure most of that is because of the server drain of so many thousands of people all trying to play at the same time, but wifi connectivity issues on my end can't be discounted either. Also, my mouse hand started cramping up after playing for two evenings. Plus the dogs hate it when I ignore them and will come up and nudge my elbows seeking petting while my character is in the middle of combat. (The border collie even tried to climb in my lap at one point because he DESPERATELY needed attention.)
Also, I can't play computer games and knit at the same time. Life is hard.
Babysitting the phone for hours every day has given me a good amount of time to work on writing my third novel, which is coming along well. This one is my Ode to Forever Knight (plus a bunch of other subplot stuff). The rough draft is nearly done, maybe about 5K words left to go, presuming I don't get carried away and drag out the ending. Then will come the editing, continuity checking, and creating a cover picture. I was hoping to have it all ready by the beginning of May, but it might take a bit longer.
I just recently returned from spending a few days at Disneyland with my parents, my brother, and his family. I have to say that the Avengers stuff at the California Adventure Park was fantastic, and the Star Wars area at Disneyland is stunning. I kind of just wanted to walk around absorbing the scenery. And the shopping was fun too. I had a difficult time not buying ALL THE THINGS. I settled for a few T-shirts and a subdued/reasonably tasteful princess-themed sweatsuit. (I may be pushing 50, but Mulan is kickass at any age.)
I've also been spending a lot of my time knitting. I went down a serious rabbit hole, favoriting yarn shops on Etsy. Sometimes I pass time just scrolling through pictures of hand-dyed yarn and drooling. I'm nearly done making two pairs of alpaca wool socks for my dad, and I'm also working on a pair of knee socks for myself. I have a bunch of plans for knit blouses in mind, too.
Not too much to say about the garden yet. It has been so cold and rainy this year that I haven't even planted anything yet, though I should get some seeds started this weekend if I want the summer things to be ready. The storms we've been having are crazy. We drove past some of the flooded areas on our way to Anaheim, and we had to take some circuitous detours around all the damage. (We would have been screwed without GPS.) The one thing that has been growing like whoa is the rainbow chard. It doesn't mind the cool, wet weather much, so I've been getting multiple harvests from it.
I played the open beta of Diablo IV last weekend, and that brought back all the old memories. Diablo II was what got me into computer gaming decades ago. I had picked up Diablo III when I bought my Nintendo Switch, but I hadn't actually played it in that format because I got sucked into Animal Crossing. So this week I've been making up for that by playing through the quest campaign. It's much easier to maneuver the character around with the Switch controls (compared with using a mouse for the PC version), but the inventory UI drives me NUTS. I'm accustomed to opening my inventory and seeing all my items and empty slots displayed, but on the Switch you can only see 4 items at a time. It's maddening.
Still debating whether I want to buy Diablo IV. The beta was a lot of fun, but there was a substantial amount of lag. It's not great to start a big boss fight only to have the game freeze and wind up dead. I'm sure most of that is because of the server drain of so many thousands of people all trying to play at the same time, but wifi connectivity issues on my end can't be discounted either. Also, my mouse hand started cramping up after playing for two evenings. Plus the dogs hate it when I ignore them and will come up and nudge my elbows seeking petting while my character is in the middle of combat. (The border collie even tried to climb in my lap at one point because he DESPERATELY needed attention.)
Also, I can't play computer games and knit at the same time. Life is hard.
