w13: sunday review

well, it's been a quiet week here in lake hooksforeverything.

things i intended to do and did:

• cleared the conservatory tables and started peas and cucumber seeds;
• removed spiteful comments from my assignment and uploaded;
• kept my phone in greyscale all week (except for that ten minutes I had to order someone flowers, I wasn't doing that in greyscale);
• answered the phone to the assessor who was trying to find a fundable disability accommodation for me (alas, my disability accommodations are all 'can you please fund me enough to automate the rest of my life so that I only have degree stuff on my to do list' and that's not, apparently, within their remit);
• stared directly at the sun during the partial solar eclipse;
• no-spend week :) only scheduled, automated transactions.

things i intended to do and did not:

• pull the nails out of the reclaimed boards;
• assemble a freestanding sink.

things i enjoyed

• reading a lot! library books on the kobo, either in bed with the dogs asleep on me or on the sofa with the dogs asleep on me. Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth were highlights, obviously, but I also enjoyed It's Okay To Be Angry About Capitalism and The Making Of The English Working Class, because I am in fact angry about capitalism and I am not a fan of exchanging your labour for the right to eat food.
• sunlight. it's light before I wake up now and it's not dark until half six. although today we put the clocks forward, because some clever sod thinks it's funny to have noon at 1pm in summer. I just looked it up - it is 'to make sure that people's active hours coincide with daylight hours so that less artificial light is needed'. To save on candles and lantern oil. And when I look up the campaigns to have the same time all year, they're all asking to keep solar noon at 1pm. There's even one that wants to have noon at 1pm in winter and at 2pm in summer. We really will do anything rather than acknowledge the physical reality we're in, won't we. They happily say it will enable people to be outside after their work day! Yes, I see that, hear me out, what if we
• ok i've stopped.
• Brainstorming a new story about an itinerant optician in a post-apocalyptic world. They call her the Eye Tinker. She goes from settlement to settlement with her big bag of tiny screws, and she's trying to figure out the electronics of an invention that can recharge hearing-aid batteries with a hand crank.
  • 'But you've got to have a conflict!' says the Writing For The Market voice in my head. 'Can she have a fist fight with someone who's hoarding the tiny screws?' No, she cannot. 'Can she have to choose between a blond man and a brunet man?' No, she cannot. 'Can she have a race against time to deliver a fitted spectacle frame to a dying child?' No, I'm sorry, they ate all the children. 'What?' What?
• Setting up an account on a stock trading site so I can put my unearned currency into specific European and Canadian companies. No particular reason. Just felt like it. Just me being a silly. Don't worry about it. I like their fun graphs that go wiggle wiggle.
• On Friday I thought I was taking Priscilla to the vet for her yearly vaccines but apparently they'd booked us in at a different location, so Priscilla cuddled the receptionist and ate a biscuit while I rebooked, and we went home again. She thought that was excellent. 'We should visit that lady more often, mama.' No, we should not.

intents for next week:

• buy into the companies I bookmarked;
• pull nails out of the fence boards;
• figure out where that hazel shrub is going and plant it;
• scrub that back corner;
• ask R if he'll help me take down the shed I'm not using that keeps that corner dim and damp;
• some piracy;
• start the third assignment with a minimum of spiteful comments.