A quiet, peceful day--and an Oops!

Today was what I hoped--quiet and peaceeful. Since it was to be so hot, I made an early trip to the vet to get cat and dog food--costs more to feed them their special diets than it does me! Then to Central Market for a few things--when you get out of there for under $30, I figure you're really doing good. Then home to stay. It was a good day to stay inside--temperature of 102 and heat index of 105--I wish that darn heat index had never been invented. Makes you feel so much hotter just to heart it. I also think the heat makes you sort of lethargic. By the time I got home from my errands, did a little laundry, and emptied the garbage, I was tired.
But I went ahead and did my yoga. About halfway through my routine, I decided that the house wasn't cool and I wasn't hearing the a/c kick on. I'm an a/c neurotic since my unit is on its last legs and will be replaced Thursday--my birthday present to myself. In retrospect, I was only hot because I was doing a pretty good yoga routine. But I got up off the floor to check the thermostat (it was fine) and stubbed my toe so hard that I lost my breath, my balance, my good sense if I have any. Stood there recovering for a few minutes and then went to check the thermostate. When I came back there was blood on my yoga mat. In fixing that, I discovered I'd left a small trail of blood throughout the house. I have a funky toenail that I cannot do anything with and take to the podiatrist every so often--and of course that was the toe I stubbed. Tonight, I am limping around. It was one of the "Judy Alter wishes to recall this minute" moments. I foresee a visit to the podiatrist.
Got a lot of work done today, mostly reading a corporate history, which amounts to looking for the nuggets of human interest tucked away amidst lists of corporate officers, mergers, advertising campaigns and so on. The book was, however, full of fascinating pictures of artifacts. In between--at lunch and dinner--I gave myself permission to read a mystery. I did it again--ordered a book from amazon without asking for the sample first, in which case I wouldn't have ordered it. One of the things I've heard over and over about writing mysteries, especially cozies, is that you have to have characters that the readers like and identify with. Well, I flat out do not like the central figure--she's schemingly ambitious, even about a murder that happens on her territory. She may be growing on me a bit, and I'll finish the book, but it makes me wonder why this one was published and mine wasn't!
Someone on the Sisters in Crime listserv posted a website where you can insert a couple of paragraphs of your work-in-progress and it will tell you who you write like. Seems I write like Margaret Atwood, which is such a far stretch as to be laughable. But one of the members who writes police procedurals says he posted three times and each time got Raymong Chandler; then he posted his blog and got Stephen King. He's a happy camper tonight. Hmmmm--Margaret Atwood. I wanted to write like Sue Grafton or J. A. Jance or Susan Wittig Albert.
I heard on TV tonight that conservatives are criticizing the Obamas for going north instead of south for their vacation--I can't even begin to fathom the reasoning there. Surely not based on race. Tell me it isn't. But although right now Bar Harbor, Maine, is apparently as hot as the rest of the nation, going north in July for a weekend getaway seems like a no-brainer. I know liberals criticized everything George Bush did, and I admit to joining the chorus, but I swear if President Obama said the sky was blue Senator John Cornyn would object on procedural groundds. As my friend Fran would say, "Give me a break!"

Being crabby and staying home

Sometimes I find myself being crabby and then I'm ashamed, but tonight a strange red SUV drove into my driveway as if it had every right to be there--and the driver trotted off to the house next door. When she came back and began to maneuver like she was going to jump the curb, I became alarmed. If she manuevered back and forth, she could easily decimate my decades-old crape myrtle trees. I went out on the porch and said, as politely as I could, "Pardon me, but this is a private driveway." If Jordan had been bringing Jacob over and found another car in the driveway, she'd have been incensed to say the least. The woman looked up in amazement and explained she was just jumping the battery of the car in the next driveway. It belongs to the owner, who is trying to sell the house and with whom I've tangled about upkeep before. (Now that she's trying to sell, she keeps it the lawn and outside in great shape, and we have begun to speak to each other again.) Still, I think the woman in the red car should have knocked on my door and asked if it was okay!
Today was a stay-at-home day--the sprinkler repair people came and fixed my stubborn sprinkler so fast they said there would be no bill; Lewis Bundock, for whom I had a list of small things, came by--the biggie is replacing the bathroom sink, and he promised to be back tomorrow, with a plumber in tow. I've about decided to put a picket fence around the front yard--a grandchild barrier, and we talked about that, my difficult commodes, the piece that does indeed belong on the round oak table (thank you, Colin, for finding that)--and he took away the computer keyboard I'd ruined, smelling it for Chardonnay as he went.
I actually wrote almost 1400 words today and may yet write more tonight. I had the heroine experience a flat tire on the highway because someone stuck a lot of small nails in her tire. Jay suggested that I have the brake line cut, and I rewrote the whole section--which led to an unexpected new scene. When I sent it to Jay for technical approval, he wrote, "Unfair teaser. I want to read the whole book!" Neighbors are great.
In the last week or so I've wanted tuna cakes for dinner--I make them like my mom's salmon croquettes but using that good tuna ordered from Oregon. But each time dinner rolls around I'm too lazy to fix them, so this morning I made tuna cakes and summer squash casserole. Had myself a great dinner, with cooked fresh spinach added.
Since our heat spell continues and it was 100 today, it was good to stay home. I watered my porch plants once and will give them a drink again tonight. I do hope this won't last all summer!