Sometimes I need to do something physical to think things over, and get stuff in perspective, and to allow ideas (like the novel plan from yesterday) to mull in my head. It’s hard for me to do physical stuff because I have a disability which mean I get severe hip pain if I overdo the physical activity, to the point where I stiffen up and can hardly walk. So I end up avoiding it – which isn’t good for me, mentally or physically. One of my aims for this week is to sort out my working space and that includes the ongoing saga of the writing shed. One thing I needed to do was to clear out the existing metal contraption at the bottom of our garden that we inherited. It’s full of spiders, doesn’t have a floor, and I can’t stand up in it properly, plus I knew it would hurt, but I figured it was so important I would do it anyway. My wife was out of town, so I also had time to potter over it on my own. I spent the morning braving the spiders and other insects and years of cobwebs and grime, and sorted the stuff into freecycle, dump, and keep, and hosed everything down, including myself! I put some stuff in the loft, found the varnish and varnished my son’s bird-feeder that he made ages ago, and even found some more sunflower seeds to plant (the slugs and snails ate our first attempt). The gardener very nicely agreed to take the stuff to the dump / recycling centre and the freecycled stuff went immediately, so I felt very efficient. I also spoke to another shed company on the phone and got a quote – small progress – but at least it was some progress. The only thing still in the pile is the blue and white hammock (I freecycled it but no takers yet) – I love the idea of a hammock in the garden but have no idea how to put one up.
Next it was parents’ evening, so I had to switch modes from inexpert (and by now pretty stiff) shed clearer / writer, to school mum. I find shifting roles like that difficult (especially if I’ve been on my own most of the day) I worry I’m a bit hazy-eyed – like I’m Clark Kent and I’ve forgotten to take the glasses off. The final part of the trip into school involved playing maths games that you can do at home. The best bit was a game called hare and hound (despite the fox hunting allusion it had nothing to do with animals) – which you play with counters on a crisscross kind of diagram. Also there were ten-sided dice, which I am now coveting like crazy, even though I am trying hard to limit my Amazon purchases.
Writing-wise, I worked a bit more on editing my drama book, and feel asleep reading ‘Publishing 101’. Hip-wise, I was in too much pain to carry out any of my other plans for organising my books (and getting rid of some of them) or making the small spaces in our kitchen work better – back to non-physical stuff for a while now I think.