So, the great retreat has begun.\u00a0 On Friday the pool guys showed up and closed it down for the season.\u00a0 Of course there was some drama.\u00a0 I had asked the guy in charge to tell his crew to patch three liner holes that had developed above the water line.\u00a0 He warned me that one of them boded ill and meant I might soon need to install a new liner at a cost of gazillions of dollars.\u00a0 I told him okay, but have them patch the holes anyway.\u00a0 So of course, he didn\u2019t tell them and so they had to go back to get more glue or something.<\/p>\n
And Camera Girl\u2019s house plants needed to come back inside soon.\u00a0 So, I moved them into one of the decks in advance of dragging them up to the top floor.\u00a0 This may sound trivial but some of these things are taller than me, awkwardly shaped for the stairs, covered with huge needle-sharp spines and incredibly heavy.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s always a ticklish chore.\u00a0 One day I assume it will be the cause of my death.\u00a0 What I should do is set up a temporary pulley system on the top balcony and let mechanical advantage do the heavy lifting.\u00a0 But I\u2019m too lazy to design it.\u00a0 Maybe next year.<\/p>\n
I also have a bunch of plants that I need to transplant outside.\u00a0 Then it will be time to stow away all of the outdoor furniture and begin the winter-proofing of the exposed wood.\u00a0 To be honest, I\u2019ve never done a decent job of this but I\u2019ve sworn a horrible oath to do it this year.\u00a0 And then I have to winterize the lawn mowers.<\/p>\n
And finally, the biggest chore I have to shore up about eighteen posts on the pool fence.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got a few kits and I\u2019ll buy the rest but it will be a load off my mind to have that damn thing completely reinforced.\u00a0 There are also two gates that need some work but those can wait.\u00a0 A gate\u2019s not much use if the fence around it is on the ground.<\/p>\n
So, there\u2019s plenty to do and things will be getting busy at work soon, so I\u2019ll be stressed and agitated while I try to publish and market my brand-new book.\u00a0 But that\u2019s what life is all about; conflicting priorities and humans choosing priorities.\u00a0 It\u2019s what separates us from the Neanderthals and Denisovans.\u00a0 We choose wisely.<\/p>\n
I have a feeling I\u2019ll be self-publishing the book.\u00a0 I watched a video where the guy said that most trad-published books get an advance of only about $5,000 – $10,000 and since the publisher doesn\u2019t market your book for you most of the work (other than putting a cover on it) still has to be done by the author.\u00a0 Well, if I\u2019ve got to drum up the buyers myself, I might as well keep 70% of the profits instead of 10%.\u00a0 And that way I have the discretion to use deceptive sales tactics like increasing and decreasing the sale price whenever it suits my devious and even diabolical plans.<\/p>\n
Well, I need to start making a Gantt Chart of this publishing and marketing process.\u00a0 It sounds complicated and annoying.\u00a0 So right up my alley.\u00a0 I wonder if Donald Trump has any time available in his schedule to market my book.\u00a0 After all, I\u2019ve been of invaluable help to him in his campaigns.\u00a0 But how quickly people forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, the great retreat has begun.\u00a0 On Friday the pool guys showed up and closed it down for the season.\u00a0 Of course there was some<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3366,1289,1263],"tags":[1290,4484,4491],"class_list":["post-34418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-dunwich","category-fiction-by-me","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","tag-my-fiction","tag-the-american-archipelago-book-1-the-sniper","tag-the-compound"],"yoast_head":"\n