reading

I finished The Complete Shorter Fiction of Viriginia Woolf a while back. I enjoyed it more than To The Lighthouse. Many of these stories weren't published during her lifetime and some of them there was probably good reason, they just weren't up to it. But some of them show Woolf's wit and in a few even a lovely sense of humor.

23. Virginia Woolf The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf

I just finished the July/August issue of Asimov's which was a really solid issue with lots of good stories. It's always a treat to hit a copy without any duds.

24. Asimov's Science Fiction July/August 2020

nothing lasts forever

Found out this week that I will be going back to full time work (and pay) at the end of July. Returning to normal pay will be nice and it will be nice to have more time to accomplish things for work. But I will miss having a three day weekend every week.

During the pandemic I've done exactly what I was supposed to do for the general good. I've worked from home as I can and I've pretty much stayed at home unless I really needed to go get something or go to a medical appointment. I didn't even go out hiking in the mountains because frankly, everyone else was doing that and I didn't see how I could possible stay socially isolated on crowded trails and in crowded trailheads. So there has been lots of time at home.

When the reduced weeks started I thought I would have so much time I'd get everything done on my lists. It's amazing how much I have to do. I've just begun to scratch the surface. I have done a lot of work outside around the property, but there are a lot of recurring and one-time tasks still to do. I've just begin to work on the van, getting a few things done and several others started.

So I'd really like to work four days a week from here out, but there is a mortgage to pay, so maybe that will have to wait. I do have a lot of vacation time since I've only taken one of my scheduled vacations this year, so I will probably be taking vacation for a lot of the Fridays for the rest of summer. Maybe I can get some more of the things on the list checked off.

welcome to the jungle

Last weekend wasn't all that productive. Friday morning I went for a walk at a local park with a friend. I was masked, which feels kind of strange walking the the woods, but I'm trying to do my best not to be a vector even with my limited social contacts. I also made a trip to the hardware store with a long list I'd been adding to over the last few weeks. I clipped up a pile of rose down below the septic field. We spent much of the weekend providing water to parched plants, then on Sunday evening it finally rained after a month of very dry weather. Right before it rained I mowed about half the lawn. I had been putting off mowing because the grass was getting crispy and cutting it in that condition doesn't help it and isn't at all fun.

During the week I tried to pick away at weeding the garden when I could. We have finished eating the last of the early radishes and my second round of radishes hasn't done well with all the dry weather. We are getting peapods now and the bush beans are just starting to flower, so hopefully they'll be next. At some point during the week I also waded into a slope which still has rose and miscellanous vines which haven't been cleared. Got about a third of that done before getting chased out by biting insects.

Today I did more weeding in the garden, a job that is never finished until I till the whole thing under in the fall. I also worked on clipping the big pile of rose and Japanses barberry in the area beyond the stone wall. That's a big pile and will take days to get beat down. I did a bit of mowing, but there really isn't much left because what I mowed last weekend hasn't grown enough to bother with. Then I cleared the honeysuckle out of another area at the bottom of the property. One of those bushes was a monster! I had to use the 2 ton jack to get a start on levering it out then finish it with the 4ft pry bar. Now I have a lot of brush to cut up and transport to the burn area.