I have temporarily slaved my computer to my phone in order to get online for a few minutes. It is not an ideal solution.
***
Oh thank god, I said faintly, somehow the rtf file (opened with libreoffce) that previously would not show comments on a manuscript has suddenly decided it doesn’t mind doing so, which means I don’t have to install god-awful-horrible Word on this machine.
Not that I have internet available to me by which to install it. There are a lot of things a person can’t do when she lacks internet. Ordering takeaway in a new town has been much on my mind in that regard, lately. No internet, no takeaway menus, guess I have to cook. Feh. Lots and lots of other things too. “Oh I’ll just look that up no I won’t” is a pretty common mental cycle right now.
The windows in this house are old enough to have ripples, and consequently remind me of the house I first lived in, in North Kenai, which had a ripply window. The frames are similar, too, old white-painted wood, which helps the recollection; I don’t know that I’ve ever remembered, when looking through ripply windows before, that the Old Old House, as we came to call it, had one.
This house also has dust old enough to collect a pension. I’ve only sort of slowly been coming to appreciate how thick it is in places (mostly highish places I don’t necessarily look at carefully) and I’ve been vacuuming veilances and light fixtures while trying not to die of sneezing. The dust is nearly more than our weenie little vacuum cleaner can handle. When I win the lottery I’m going to buy a Dyson.
I opened the REDEEMER file. Then I kind of sank away from it in despair, but at least I opened it. Similarly with BEWITCHING BENEDICT, which really only needs a spell check so I can send it to the editor (it’s needed a spell check since the end of April or something, and…*pauses*…it appears the Random Problem it was having where it would either attempt to base its spelling expectations against an Irish dictionary or not at all has resolved itself, so I actually *can* spell check it now), and MAGIC & MANNERS, which is the above-mentioned RTF.
*rubs eyes* I had a plan, man. It was even a plan more or less based in reality. It didn’t take into full account the fact that after working incredibly hard the first 3 months of the year I was profoundly unlikely to get anything done in April, but it *nominally* gave a nod to that. I didn’t expect to get *much* done in April, and then I was going to kick into gear again in May. Except the landlord died and trying to get rid of stuff pre-move and then actual moving happened and so the three things I planned to have done by the end of June are…not done…and I knew perfectly well that July & August, being summer holiday months, were going to pretty much be a wash. But I wasn’t supposed to have to get much done in July and August. Some revisions, but mostly it was supposed to be just needing to hand stuff off to different team members, stuff like that. (Which I’d be having a hell of a time with even if I was AT that stage, because no internet. @.@) And now I’m just like I not only have no traction but I have such a mountain of work looming over me it seems impossible to deal with. (PLUS the house still isn’t entirely dealt with. I still need shelves. #sigh)
Anyway, at dinner on Monday Sarah told me to try not to be too hard on myself for the rest of the summer, as it’s not a realistic working window for me. And she’s right. I should try not to be. But what I wouldn’t give for a 3-5 day run on MAGIC & MANNERS so I could get the damned thing revised all in one go (revising is very, very difficult for me to do piecemeal).
***
Aaagh. I wrote the above on like…Friday. And I did the spell check on BENEDICT. And I went to my folks’ house on Saturday, and…forgot to send BENEDICT to Matrice.
Aaaagh. #headdesk I mean, obviously by the time you read this I’ll have presumably sent the damn thing to her, but…aaaagh.
We have passed the 3 weeks without internet mark. It’s obviously not impossible to get along without it, but god *damn* it’s inconvenient, and I’m starting to feel very…lonely. That sounds stupid, but even my local friends I communicate with mostly online, and all the rest of my friends live on the internet. And ‘local’ has changed meaning now, because I know no one in the town I’m actually in, so local-as-in-Dublin is no longer all that applicable. Anyway, today (Monday, August 3, when I’m writing this) is a bank holiday, so nothing’s getting done in terms of being able to acquire net access, so it’s still another week out in the absolute best of scenarios. Which we are all too wise now to imagine will transpire, aren’t we?
Several people have suggested getting a 3G dongle, which we’ve considered, but the mobile/3G reception at this house is SO BAD that it’s not worth it. Even using Twitter on my phone is nearly impossible. :p