0640: Past time to get up, really. I let myself linger in bed far longer than I meant to, but man, did it feel good. I told the already-up-and-cerealed manchild that yes, he could have some computer time before going to wait for the bus, and deployed the travel-sized coffee grinder because the big burr grinder has been steadily breaking for the past 6 months, and yesterday, really refused to grind. Once I got over it enough that it was funny, I kept mumble-singing Memphis Minnie, amusing myself greatly, not sharing the joke because I’d just have to explain it to pretty much anybody I tried to share it with.

Today, we’re going to do a real productive day. Really for real this time.

0720: The morning bookkeeping’s done, first email pass done, and I’ve written a few things we need from the market on a post-it. Boy’s gotta go down for the bus in 10 minutes, so it’s about time for us to start the dance where I ask him why he isn’t ready, he says he can’t find his shoes, and I say that if he were to put them by the door, then he’d know where they are all the time, instead of having them randomly be anywhere in the house where he happened to kick them off. It sounds like it’s drizzling. Had I realized that, had I been thinking, I might have not bothered to make coffee, driven him down to wait for the bus in the rain inside my car, and then headed to pick up those few things from the market and just coincidentally, you understand, found myself buying an enormous latte. But, no: I blew off a lot of work yesterday and it’s all gotta happen today, so there will be no using the guise of altruism and responsibility to go get myself a coffee treat.

0725: But it’s raining kinda hard. So maybe there is. He is gonna get a ride to wait for the bus. I don’t do it often but… every now and then… if the weather’s foul… and it is… We’ll just see if, while sitting at the end of the rather long driveway, I change my mind and just do happen to go where there’s espresso.

0820: Oh fine. I caved. Perhaps excess caffeine will make up for the productivity I gave up yesterday when I sat down… and stopped moving for most of the day. So in about 2 minutes when the liquid strength is gone, the workday begins in earnest. No playing. It may be a day that calls for extra-loud, extra-toe-tapping music, because the truth is that doing production carding is a slog and sometimes it can be brutally hard to keep on going.

0915: Brief email wrangling of the most urgent variety. Oh god, why didn’t I clear out more email yesterday? WHY??? My first spinnng workshop DVD is getting close to market and there’s work to be done towards Louet building a workshop-in-a-box kit with it. I’m excited about it for sure. There’s also tech edit work to be done today. There aren’t going to be enough hours. The batt shipment I hoped to get out this evening is either going to go Saturday morning, or Monday. See, this is why I hate sitting still. Actually, I like sitting still and taking a break sometimes, but the truth is that afterwards, I always seem to wish I had that time back.

1015: My wonderhusband brought me new tunes for working to. This time, it wasn’t even a trick — like the mix CD he made and left in my car, which turned out to be beyond a rickroll: it was entirely made up of New Order extended dance versions. I finished up a batch of 26 batts bound for Amy King in Maine, part of the order I keep hoping to finish and ship tonight. I named it “OMG It’s October.” Because seriously, OMG, it’s OCTOBER, people.

1130: Could be lunchtime. If it’s fast. I break to meet my husband in the kitchen and see what’s there to eat.

1152: Had a lovely quick lunch of leftover brown rice, chicken, peas, and cheddar cheese. Back to the grind.

1335: Almost done with the second-to-last batch of batts for Amy’s order. Worked on it through a tech editing call and a call about lining up one last thing for SOAR materials. There’s an outside chance I might actually get this order done today… and then too, I just remembered today is the day school sends home midterm report cards. Seriously, already? Yeah. Seriously. Wow.

1400: One more smaller batch to go. I can do that in 3 hours, surely. Batt count for the day so far is 52.

1440: On track, but taking a 5 minute break for my feets and a pint of water.

1600: I’ll be working late, but I’m finishing this today, fer cryin’ out loud.

1630: Reviewed the midterm, and because he failed to turn in 2 language arts assignments, letting him pick a fast food dinner is off the table. My better half is heading over to spend the evening helping his dad with his new computer, so at least nobody will hate me for working late tonight. Dinner’ll be a quickie: tortellini, which the kid loves. Another half hour or so of work to go before I break for dinner. But since it’s Friday night, I’m treating myself to a hard cider while I work late. Had to spray the cat with water for jumping on my hard-working LaserJet again. Grrrrr. Will she ever learn?

1730: Just about done. All that remains is bagging and tagging and getting it all in the box and to the post office, but that’s for tomorrow. Not a bad day’s work: 88 batts all told, which is a record for me, and therefore, I’m not going to kick myself any harder for the slacking off this week. I made hundreds of batts. No wonder my feet are tired.

1800: Dinner handled and back to work.

2010: My better half is home and I’m knocking off batts. Made some headway on the ones that have to happen next week… perhaps enough to buy myself time to take off and go get a massage, which I’ve been trying to reward myself with for a while. Heading to the family room to watch a movie with my family, while working on that DVD copy on my laptop. Usually I’d spin or knit or something, but I want to get this done and my hands are really, really sore from carding so they need a bit of a break.

2255: Bedtime. That writing isn’t done, it’ll have to be first thing tomorrow morning, around 0600, at this point. I’ll be sound asleep by 2330 and awake by 6 whether I like it or not, even though it’s Saturday. It’s been that way for at least 2 years now. So tomorrow’s getting that box shipped, finishing that writing, and a range of household chores like sweeping and mopping the kitchen and doubtless doing some laundry. There’s always more of something to do.