Probably because I woke up extra early this morning and got up before the pets came to get me up, Temmy didn’t try to break into my office first thing this morning. Today, she waited until after she’d been fed before trying to break in. I think it was her way of telling me to hurry up with my morning tasks and get to work.

I had to operate differently this morning too. It was the wind that woke me up (after I’d had a thought that Merlin was wanting onto the bed, but he was actually snoring at my feet already and I turned on my light for nothing. At nearly 11 years old, his eyesight isn’t what it once was and he doesn’t even trust himself to jump on the bed in the dark. Granted, Coville slips there sometimes and Merlin has landed on the black cat one time too many I’m sure. Coville doesn’t get angry and hissy about it, but he does give a good, “You would step on me?” meow. Coville is good at packing on the guilt.

Anyway, wind. We had high wind advisories for today. I don’t handle wind very well. I don’t like being out in it. I don’t like listening to it. It’s a necessary evil. But I don’t have to like it. I don’t like wind warnings, and double to high wind warnings. I decided to put on my AfterShokz Titanium headphones. They are jawbone conductors, so they leave my ears open (the better to hear you with, my little Temmy). At least they help to distract me from the wind, especially as I’m listening to craft workshop videos.

I was in my office listening to a workshop I’ve listened to many times before but at lower volume while I was writing. I do this so my subconscious can really take in the information. Yes, sometimes it’s difficult to listen, but not listen while writing, but once you get used to it, it’s not too much different than listening to the radio while driving. I spent a lot of years on the back of a tractor going around and around in the field while listening to the country western station out of Fallon (because it was the only station I could get on my Walkman) and thinking about the story I was currently working on and couldn’t wait to get back to writing later that afternoon.

I noticed Temmy was hanging around with me a lot. Only when I picked her up and she wanted to remain with me did I realize that the wind was bothering her too. So I held her until she fell asleep. Then I got her to sleep on her cat box. This cat box was vacant in my office all last summer. I’d been hoping that Bella would use it, or maybe Coville would sleep on top. Neither of them ever did. So, last summer, I only had my office dogs. No office cats.

When we got Temmy, I pulled the cat box out so she could use it. It was an interesting toy, but she’s never had much use for it either, although she does fit into it better than the other cats. Good thing she’s small. (According to my scale, she ways 7.6 pounds as of last week. When we got her, I calculated her adult weight would probably be 7.2 pounds based on the vet’s records we received at her adoption. I think she’ll come in just under 8 pounds, which is good. I’m glad she’ll be smaller, but being over her estimated weigh means she won’t be a sickly cat either)

Today, after holding her, she fell asleep twice on top of the cat box. She still tried to explore some, but she seemed perfectly happy to lie down by the dogs and sleep. The picture above is Temmy and Kreeli, office cat and office dog in their yin/yang positions (grin). It would be nice if she’d permanently settle into this routine and I’ll finally get my office cat.

But I know that one day Temmy will be a calm little creature and the next she’s a hellion. We’ll see what tomorrow holds.

Sorry for my many digressions above. Blame the wind. It does set me on edge and I probably go into full panic mode.

After I’d had more of the wind than I could take, I headed into my booth to record punch ins for Hot Yoga. After I was done with that, I read Give Up the Ghost. That gave me about an hour and a half where I didn’t have to listen to the wind. It was all my voice could handle too.

The punch ins are merged for Hot Yoga, so I’ll be able to release that audio soon. I’m hoping I can get it up tonight. I did the cover for it when I did the cover for Tree of Death. Lovely Amazon now has different requirements for their covers, so I also had to go make slight changes to them for ACX. Yeah! (yes, that’s some sarcasm.) At least I know so I’ll just be able to format all the covers with that in mind going forward. I’ll hope that other platforms will keep their own dang banners on their own dang real estate and not put it on mine. It almost makes more sense to put the banner above or below the cover picture, not in the small right hand corner. Oh well, no one asked me.

I guess I’ll just keep up the creativity side and let them deal with the online sales. Everyone hopefully does what they do best, right?

And I’ll go play with my cats and dogs. That makes me happy. And I love it when they keep me company while I’m writing. It makes the sitting along in a room making stuff up feel not quite like sitting alone in a room.

Soon, I will get to recording Loki again. That is coming up. Soon.

Until next time, cheers!