The night before last, I was fighting with the thermostat, thinking that’s why the heat felt like the AC was on. It was 3:30 in the morning, took out the puppies, came back in to change out more batteries. The temp got to 44 in the house. Way too cold for sleepable comfort. (Yes, sleepable is not a real word. Authors have been known to make up their own. And that’s my story.)
Soooo, I keep thinking it’s me. I’m doing something wrong, and I don’t want to call someone over to fix it, get a big charge because a switch has flipped or something. Didn’t even think of the breaker box.
So I call an electrician. He says he doesn’t fix heat pumps. But I have 3 security lights out, 2 that were completely not working, and 1 that’s sensor won’t tell it to go off during the day. So I had him change them out so that when I’m up at oh-dark-thirty (yes, this is really a time…I have to get up at that time a lot….lately), I have some light. My main reason is so that I can see that the puppies actually go potty, because sometimes they get distracted with chewing on grass and the like, and so I can see if there’s a skunk about. I have run into one at night before a couple of years ago. So it’s possible. But I’m wondering if it’s better not to see a skunk in the middle of the night…what you don’t see can’t hurt you, right?
Then I call an AC/Heat guy, and he says it’s not a heat pump, but an electric unit. I’m not calling the other electric company again.
Soooo, he found out that the coils were burned out in the unit and luckily it’s still under warranty and no charge on that. But…you know there’s a but, right? If it burned out, there’s got to be a reason. Not enough air flow. That’s going to cost some money. So he’s supposed to get hold of me and they’ll work on that next.
Now, I’m only 1314 shy of getting my word count. See? You didn’t think I could do it with all else going on, did you? Ye, of little faith.
I turned in Silver Wolf Christmas edits, and today I’ll get my word count, but it doesn’t mean the story is done. *sigh* I haven’t figured out my big satisfying ending. Right now, I’m going back in and showing them trying to solve the mystery of who the bad guy is and where he’s at, and tie everything together. It’s a job, and somebody’s got to do it. My characters, as much as I’d like for them to get on the ball, won’t budge unless I help them out.
🙂
How many hands does it take to keep 2 Havanese puppies still for a photo? 🙂 <3
And that really is my story, and why I’ve been focusing on it and not on everything else that keeps demanding my attention, like electricians and heating guys. Oh, and I was working on training the puppies with all the strange men in the house. It was great. At first there was all the barking, but then I was able to use the collar on Max to get him to return to me–he actually ran outside to see the electrician, giving me a heart attack because he was barking and looking scary. Little dogs can still take a nice bite out of a leg. But I used the collar and he came back to me. We had several instances where I had to use the collar. But the key is to be consistent and persistent. After a few corrections, they were fine and stayed by me. He even sneaked out the door when we were in the backyard and I was showing the electrician which lights needed to be changed. Max was an angel. sniffing around at the plants only a couple of feet from me. No fenced-in yard, and off leash. I had scooped up Tanner when he slipped out. I couldn’t grab both dogs.
When the electrician came back in the house to turn off the breaker, we had to start all over. When we went outside to potty, it was much better. When the electrician came inside again, I was actually training them to Place and they ignored him.
Second man, new trial. Barking, only this time Max minded much faster. Tanner is barking some now too, but if Max doesn’t, Tanner quits. Tanner’s also more to just want to greet. So the AC man was in and out of the house so much that after a while, the puppies wanted to see what he was doing, but they no longer barked. The AC man sat on the couch to write up the paperwork and Max was checking him out, but we were good.
So, see? We had an added benefit to getting heat and security lights. Puppy training!
And I got all the stuff together to ship for party prizes, couldn’t write while all of this was going on. But the puppies totally crashed and I was able to make some headway.
Here’s the latest place I’m at with giveaways! 5 print copies of Savage Hunger at Night Owl Romance Reviews! Be sure and drop by to enter!
http://www.nightowlreviews.com/V5/Blog/Articles/Jaguar-Pride-by-Terry-Spear
Okay, off to write my last 1314 words and more..
Have a great…oh! Garbage Day. Knew there was something else I had to do today, besides taking Tanner in for rabies shot. 🙁 Have a great Wednesday!
Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
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Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com
Sun flare and can you see our fall colors? No? Well, see the three or four orange leaves? That’s it!
A great blue heron! I love reflections in the water, and it was especially nice to capture the great blue heron in the water. Now, I had Tanner with me, and he was soooooo good. Whenever I stop to take pictures, he lies down for a rest. Luckily, he didn’t see the herons. Well, and luckily I didn’t scare them off either.
You can see the white heron in the background.
And I’d taken a number of pictures of the fountain from the other side, but when I was leaving, I figured I’d had enough shots of the fountain and was just going to walk on by. But I glanced at it anyway, and saw the rainbow. I had to take several steps back to capture it, and rainbows move and fade, so I took several shots, hoping to capture it before it faded. These were so much better than the others I had gotten at a different fountain because the backdrop was so much better.
Tanner being an angel. When I was taking pictures of the pink fountain grass, he was lying down in the shade. He is really good about this. As soon as I start taking pictures in a spot, he lies down and waits for me to finish. I just step on his leash so he doesn’t wander off or chase something, and then snap away. Both of the dogs will do this together too, but my problem is when someone comes to walk by us if they’ve got another dog. So it’s just easier to deal with one, trying to train them to behave while on a walk.
I love the pink fountain grasses, and figure they’ll begin to fade, so wanted to get another shot before they’re no longer pretty like this.
Forgot my pink poodle skirt bears–perfect for that 50’s look!