Writing Feb 13- 15

Wrote 5 articles for Textbroker and spent about 30 minutes on Moose in Boots. Not a very good record. But I forgot to mention the really GOOD news in the previous writing report, in contrast to all that depressing stuff. I payed the property taxes on time, without borrowing a single cent!

Valentine at the Beach

Valentine at the Beach

I wandered, lonely in the mist,
The sun shone cold, my soda warmed.
A dying carp adorned my shoe,
I felt so grand! The flies they swarmed.

A wave splashed seaweed round my knees,
I slipped upon the slimy rock.
I fell headlong; my sandwich smashed;
The soda dribbled down my sock.

A glorious day, like none I’ve known,
Gulls dropped like angels from above,
I never saw the great white shark,
O don’t you know, I was in love!

(just for fun- by sharkbytes, Feb 14, 2010)
P.S. 9:30 Mon- I obviously did not succeed in my purpose based on comments so far. This is supposed to be funny. Guess I'm not as cute as I thought.

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Snow Fun at Big M

 



Today was the annual ski and chili outing for our trail club at the Big M ski area. It was a perfect morning with a "salty" snow falling on the trees as I drove Campbell Road to Big M.

All together, 10 people showed up. Before lunch Ed (also went on the big hike this past spring) and I snowshoed the Corkpine Trail (about 1.2 miles). Most everyone else skied first, but a couple of people came just to enjoy the company. The wood stove warmed the building nicely after a really chilly start. Club VP Loren (of Four Dogs and a Friend) brought chili, crackers, brownies and hot chocolate! After eating and some chatting time, I took off on the Lumberjack Trail (1.6 miles) on skis. It was a great day! I didn't pull that muscle again at all; it was just a little tired, that's all.

Here we all are- We look like a bunch of old fogies. We would be happy to welcome younger participants, but it's interesting that the winter activities seem to be owned by the oldsters.

See Four Dogs and a Friend See Playtime at Big M

A Dose of Vitamin D

 



What is that spot in the sky? No, not the red and green UFOs, silly, the bright white one! As Chuck showed you this morning, Michigan skies in winter look quite different... 90% of the time.

So when the sun came out today, I had to go get a Vitamin D fix. I never did believe that stuff about staying out of the sun, and that 30 minutes of sun a week would provide enough vitamin D. And now, the "experts" have decided that more sunlight is good. Ha! I knew it!



Sun makes the world un-flat! Look how the shadow of a very ordinary bush curves down that snowdrift.



It even makes an old fence into a geometric work of art.



Finally, I like this one a lot. I think I went to Antarctica today. It looks so much like some pictures taken by Shackleton's photographer. Well, I can pretend. I don't have to admit that it's just where the snowplow threw the snow.

See Ludington Beach in January See Rhythm and Metadata See Shadows are Not Always Sinister

Writing Feb 10-12

I managed to write 3 articles for Textbroker, 2 of them quite long. Incidentally, I have decided on a new way of determining how I am doing as far as making enough money to cover my bills and my obsessions. Back when I had one very good client and some smaller accounts I had a contract that basically worked out to $20 a day. This, plus the small accounts, provided me with enough money that I wasn't just scrambling from payment to payment.

So, I've started keeping track of whatever I bring in by writing, blogging, and my remaining web accounts. I am aiming for that goal of $20 a day. It's a little goofy, because some of them I count when I do the work, and some when the cash actually comes in, but at least I know that it will eventually work out to nearly my previous income. Certain venues that pay by the article are easy to count when the money is earned. Others are silly to count until they actually come in since they build by pennies a day.

I've been tracking it for almost a month. It's too early for the long-term benefit to kick in because some of those venues have a 60-day time lag for payment (nice for them...). And I haven't really been able to achieve that level of work product. It's amazing. I used to earn my $20 in an hour in the morning, and the rest of the day was free to do other things- lots of volunteering, more goofing off, planning and accomplishing hikes, etc. Now, I'm on the computer for hours and hours every day, and not even making that much.

Meanwhile, just for this month, I have to make another $160 on TB before the 20th so I can cash it out in time to pay my credit card bill. That means I have to write $20 worth of stuff every day whether it takes me 2 hours or 5. Fortunately they just posted a bunch of new assignments.

I'm sure this all comes under the heading of Too Much Information, but I really can't keep living this tight. It's killing me that I can't volunteer with the trail hardly at all any more. I don't have time to do creative projects. I can't drive to maintain my section of trail, or hike hardly anywhere except out my back door. My one splurge has been to continue to hike the North Country Trail, and I won't give that up. I am owed $100 by someone and they don't think they can pay me till next month. I can understand that, but it doesn't help me. I found out that Josh, on his Bridge Card (food stamps) gets $200 a month for food. Sheesh. I wish I could spend $200 a month just on food! OK, I'm done. Now I'll get out the pictures, and share the fun stuff.

None of this was really shared in a complaining mode, I just need to make some things happen.