Monday, April 28, 2014

Tired today from all the gardening. So I took the morning off from the gym. I should not have. I needed to get away and walk 10 miles! Had a boatload of editing to do, and mom was in rare form. So was Valentino. Seems every dog in the neighborhood, every motorcyle in Pennsylvania, every UPS truck in the world, and every mail truck in the Universe passed my door today. Val is in here with me now. Door is closed. And Lucy is asleep. I am worried about her. More teeth seem to be going the way of all flesh, and I am concerned about providing dental care for her and having her undergo anesthesia.

Mom called at least 10,000 times. She needed tissues, her blanket, the channel changed. She needed something to drink and made, oh, maybe a half dozen trips to the bathroom inside of 10 minutes. She wanted me to sleep with her and stay with her. She wanted me to know that the phone was ringing and that Valentino was barking (actually, that Some dog outside is barking). It was Valentino and he was at the 2-dog window.

More work came in—for which I am eternally grateful. By the same token, I need an environment conducive to working. And today was not it. I managed to get through a manuscript for the third time. The client noted that I had missed two questions. I was horrified. Of course, using page-down and page-up can cause misses. Worse than that, having mom call you continually, stopping to save your work, or losing your work when the dense file freezes are now all part of the game.

I love my work. And I love my solitude while I work, which is why I work at home. But the solitude part is harder and harder to come by. Still, I wouldn’t change much. Just need more cooperation from all the disturbing parties. Yet, I know this is something that I will not receive. I just have to cope.