My husband received this via email:
AT 120 DEGREES IN AUSTRALIA , IT WAS SO HOT FOR A WEEK THAT KOALAS WERE ASKING PEOPLE FOR WATER. IT’S NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE.
One went to a house to try to hide from
the heat and get a bit of shade and here’s
what happened when the owner gave him
something to drink. It’s really cute.
“Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened.”
Why do I avoid editing my work? That’s the question I asked over a year ago. I still want the answer.
I can still think of lots of reasons not to sit down at the computer and finish a piece: knit, watch T.V., re-string some pearls, work in the yard, watch some more T.V., pick some blackberries. It doesn’t matter what I’m using to avoid editing and finishing a piece.
This is what I wrote in my first piece on May 22, 2008, but it still holds true for me:
Do I lack the skill–should I take an editing course? Am I afraid? OOPS, I THINK I JUST HIT THE PROBLEM! I’m afraid, no I’m TERRIFIED! If I edit my work and the story, any story gets completed, guess what? I then have to try to get it published. There in lies the problem. At least, I think that’s the problem. I lack the confidence to market my work–I’m afraid to be rejected, especially over and over again. What does that mean–I don’t think my writing is worthy of being published?
What if I am afraid, but not of being rejected–of being successful. Is it possible that I’m afraid of being noteworthy, outstanding, prosperous, arriving, famous. Maybe, out-shinning my husband and what the future would hold. Now, that would be sad.
I’ve wanted to be famous since I was in the eighth grade. There I said it and I didn’t die. I WANT TO BE WELL-KNOWN, PROMINENT, CELEBRATED. Anyway you say it, I have to edit my stories to get it!
Sometimes, writing is frustrating. I’ve been working on a series of poems for a year. Of course, they are about cats. I write and re-write them. Then I read and re-read them. Finally, they all begin to sound alike and I’ve forgotten the point of each poem.
Next, I take them to the Friday Night Writers Group to get them critiqued. After that, start all over.
When are these poems going to be done?
I went outside to see if my cats could inspire me to complete the poems; I just started another poem which I didn’t finish.
If I was planning on a book of poetry about cats, now is the time I would change it to short stories about cats.
Buff Momma has been gone for sixteen days. She isn’t coming back. In the last year, a mountain lion or coyote has killed four of my feral cats.
Feral means wild and they were that when I started taming them over three years ago. There were six adults and six kittens. There are only four left. Being a cat lover, I desperately wanted to tame and protect them. I did tame most of them, however, I was unable to protect them.
I made warm beds for them, gave them good food and fresh water. I had them altered and giving shots. I treated them for worms and fleas. I played with them and gave them a basket of toys. They responded to my love and care–they grew happy and healthy.
The one thing they needed, I couldn’t provide–a safe environment. Their very nature, nocturnal, prohibited me from fully protecting them. At night, they felt an urge to hunt like all cats. But, they were being hunted, too.
I miss my cats!
We have our bedroom back and there are blinds on the windows. I’m making new valances for the windows, but I have five to make and I just started the first one.
The bathrooms and laundry room all have a fresh coat of paint.
The carpet is dirty from the traffic during the improvements and from the dog peeing on it (see July 25th blog). I started to put Nature’s Miracle on the urine spot and accidentally put concentrated dog shampoo on it. It took me two hours to get the shampoo out and it left a clean ring. I tried Oxi-Clean next and it left a larger sticky dark ring. I finally tried a orange carpet shampoo–it worked great until my machine quite. The carpet is still dirty except for the pee spot, which is very clean and bright.
I give up!
Speaking of techno-geeks (in my last post), I’m working on my youtube site:
http://www.youtube.com/user/buffmomma1
Buff Momma is the name of one of my feral cats.
I created this site for three reasons: First, I am working on a video and I want a place to put it, second, someone emailed me and asked me to put more “Warrior Cat” videos on KritiqueKritics.com and I lost his email, third, because I wanted a place where the warrior cat videos could be view without having to search all over You Tube.
I hope you enjoy the site.
Notice some changes? All three of our sites now have the same theme, now. This site needs some adjustments to the theme colors, boxes on the side (like on the children’s site), more items in the blogroll, header and footer created and placed on each page.
The children’s site needs some adjustments to the theme colors and a few more stories. I think it will be completed in the next week. The site is currently 92 pages and it might reach 115 pages over the next few years. Check out the site and leave feedback for improvements:
http://www.kritiquekritics.com/children/
The Sunday school site needs a lot more work: adjustments to the theme colors, boxes on the side, more items in the blogroll, header and footer created and placed on each page.
However, the structure has been created and many pages have been written already. I was hoping to get the site finished in time for school, but I have my doubts about the time frame. The site is currently 83 pages and I think it will grow to 120 pages. Jim Leonard would have a better idea how large the site will grow.
There are 41 pages on this site, not counting the posts. Between the three sites we have over 200 pages to monitor and keep working correctly. No wonder I want to pull my hair out sometimes. I almost forgot, each of us has a website, too. Mine has 12 pages, Jim’s has several and I’m not sure how many sites or pages Christine has. I just realized I’m a techno-geek!
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