Since phase 6 of the annex project is mostly Jae’s responsibility, I’m allowing her to decide what to concentrate on next; right now, it’s the bar atop the utility room. She’s put in some shelves in the back (facing Chekhov’s cottage) and asked me to build a counter running along the west side; you can see it here a little while after I finished sanding it. The center is going to be a display centered around a statue of Aphrodite, but since the roof isn’t really strong enough for a marble statue Jae asked me to find a resin one I liked. I really liked this modern take by Carlo Bronti, and a generous gentleman sent her to me just a few days after I added her to my wishlist; even though the area isn’t ready for her yet, letting her stay boxed up didn’t really feel right, so here she is overseeing the construction. I really can’t quite picture what Jae has in mind for the area, but I trust her skill and I’ll find out soon enough. And once it gets a bit warmer again, I’ll get out there to finish the paneling in the vestibule; you’ll probably see a picture of that later this month.
Posts Tagged ‘Presents’
Annex 101
Posted in Diary, tagged Presents, Sunset on March 24, 2023| 1 Comment »
Thanks to a very generous gentleman, we now have a wood-burning stove for the atrium! According to the specifications, it should be more than enough to heat the area, which will mean no more shivery runs from the hot tub into the lower bathroom after a nice, relaxing soak; it will also help keep the cottages and upper bathroom warm next winter, and protect the pipes during cold weather since the well is in the utility room, fairly close to the stove. It should also help me save on electricity, since Sunset is 11 acres and the majority of that is trees; even just picking up fallen branches should provide plenty of fuel. Since it arrived less than a week before the end of winter, it won’t be of much help this year, but that’s OK; at least I’ll have plenty of time to get the chimney installed and all the other prep long before it starts getting chilly again around the end of September. Since it weighs about 150 kg, I reinforced the deck the same way I did under the shower pan, then we put down four concrete pavers and a marble slab Jae scored several years ago. She and Grace figured out what we needed, and since I’ve never owned a wood stove before I trusted them; it certainly is a nice looking unit, and I’m looking forward to getting it ready to at least test as soon as I can budget the rest of the stovepipe, fittings, etc.
Dimensions of Support
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged activism, blogging, Presents, psychology on March 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »
It’s always been difficult for me to ask for what I need, even from close friends; exactly why this should be the case in a person who has absolutely no problem speaking her mind in any other way is a conundrum I’ve never been able to adequately explain even to myself, much less anyone else. But it’s something my friends have long noticed and lovingly chided me for, to very little avail. Now, I’ve never had a problem asking for payment for services; the issue only arises when there’s no direct quid pro quo. That’s why appeals for financial support from my readers are always difficult for me to write, and always seem awkward to my eyes when I read them. So when several of y’all responded to last month’s “Inner Circle” by subscribing at my new $10 per week and $25 per week levels, it was both satisfying and validating on several levels. The more obvious one is, of course, the economic dimension; things have been a bit tight since autumn, and with tax time coming up (much more painfully than usual thanks to a 50% increase in my property taxes) it was quite a relief for more to come in just in time, not to mention helping soothe my anxiety about the rest of the year. But there’s another dimension, too; such a positive, concrete response to my request helps to quiet that part of my brain which generates formless, unidentifiable anxieties about asking, and thereby makes it less scary to do it again in the future. So to my new subscribers, thank you for supporting me in two very important ways. And to those who haven’t joined yet: won’t you please consider adding your contributions to the team of generous folks who make my work possible and my life just a little bit easier?
Diary #652
Posted in Diary, tagged holidays, Presents, Sunset on December 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »
We’ve got a certain routine on holidays; some friends who don’t have local family come out for the feast, and we eat, drink, and generally make merry. This time it rained all day on Christmas, but we were snug in the house and the atrium roof was wonderful; despite the torrential downpour, people were able to come and go between the main house and the cottages completely dry, and though the new bathroom is still incomplete the toilet is functional, the door works, and there’s light and a heater. If only the damned gas company had come to connect my new heater as they were supposed to do weeks ago, we wouldn’t even have been affected by the two long power outages (22nd-23rd and the morning of Boxing Day) at all, because the only major appliance the generator can’t handle is the electric water heater. Ah, well, it still wasn’t remotely annoying enough to ruin an otherwise lovely Christmas, and next year we should have most of the bugs worked out of our backup systems.
Diary #651
Posted in Diary, tagged disease, holidays, Presents on December 20, 2022| Leave a Comment »
It’s been a long time since I was as sick as I was last week; on the day my previous diary appeared, I was just finally feeling up to doing all my regular chores again, and my appetite didn’t fully return until a few days ago. It had me worried because on the last day of my toy drive I got a surge in donations that brought me to $1200, more than ever before, yet I wasn’t in shape to go shopping! Fortunately there’s a Target not far from the Olympia collection center, and I felt well enough Wednesday morning to make one last trip; my trunk was already full, and I topped off the back seat at Target before delivering everything to the collection center and returning home before dark. Since then, I’ve done a few small tasks on the new bathroom, but it’s so cold outside I’ve used my convalescence as an excuse to mostly just putter around inside, getting things cleaned up before the holiday. And in the long evenings, I’ve actually had time to do some pleasure-reading for the first time in I’m-ashamed-to-admit-how-long. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the holiday, and once again I want to thank all of my readers for your generosity, both on behalf of the kids and for the nerdy, thoughtful things y’all sent to me personally!
Last Chance for 2022!
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged activism, holidays, Presents, Toys for Tots on December 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »
If you’ve been putting off donating to my toy drive this year, this is your wake-up call! TODAY is the last day for donations; the collection center only accepts them through the 17th (one week before Christmas Eve), and I need at least a few days to buy them and get them to Olympia before then (especially because it’s been unusually snowy already this month). Please help me to make this a merry Christmas for children who might otherwise have nothing; every $100 buys five to ten toys (like most things, they’re far more expensive than they used to be), so a successful drive brings joy to dozens of children. But I can’t do it alone; please help top off my toy-buying account for this final shopping trip this season!
Yuletide 2022
Posted in Holidays, tagged activism, games, holidays, Presents, Toys for Tots on November 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Every year on this day, the traditional beginning of the Yuletide season in the US, I remind my readers that the real spirit of the season involves giving to others rather than literally fighting to get more for yourself. Children and whores are St. Nick’s two favorite groups of people; you can help the latter by donating to a sex worker charity such as SWOP Behind Bars, or you can help both by booking a session with a sex worker you know has kids. If you don’t know any, you can help by participating in my annual toy drive! From now until Monday, December 12th, I’m collecting donations with which to buy toys, which I then donate to Toys for Tots. In the past I tied session-time to the donations, but since I’m semi-retired that’s not really a workable deal any more; besides, my readers have always been so generous I’ve only had a few collect on the bargain! 
If you’re in the Seattle area, we may be able to meet in person; otherwise you can send it via PayPal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net. Since I’m also working on my own blog’s funding right now (see that thermometer in the right-hand margin?), make sure you put “Toys for Tots” in the memo so I’ll know where you intend the donation to go. And if you can afford only one, please make it to the toy drive!
As you can see from the pictures, my readers have always risen to the occasion to help provide some simple joy to needy children who might otherwise have nothing on Christmas morning. If you’re not hurting economically yourself, please consider donating (either to my drive or to one near you); rising inflation is taking a bite out of many people’s income, so there will be less money for toys this year. And while we adults can understand that, it can be heartbreaking for very young children to think Santa Claus has forgotten them or bypassed them because they were naughty. Please help if you can!
Diary #646
Posted in Diary, Music, tagged holidays, Presents, psychology on November 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »
When Yellowbird saw my diary of two weeks ago, mentioning that I couldn’t get a good picture of the diorama she had made me for my birthday, she let me know that she had taken some pictures herself; not only is she a much better photographer than I am, she also used Photoshop to give it a cool background. I thought this was the best one to show you the outside, but the inside detail is pretty amazing too. As of this writing, it’s still sitting on the dining table for people to look at, along with my other presents. Usually I pick things up fairly soon after parties, but this year the summer malingered for so long that it didn’t feel like proper Halloween weather until a week before the big day. So, I’m kind of procrastinating on moving on to Thanksgiving, though obviously I’ll have to stop doing that soon. And the end of Daylight Mismanagement Time is helping; now the sun has already set before I start dinner, so it’s properly dark by the time I serve it. And it really helps my brain to sit down to dinner with all the chores done and the animals fed, and without sunlight pouring into the windows as though it were mid-afternoon. I have to mention one other present: when I arrived in Seattle on Sunday, my landlord handed me a package that had come in earlier in the week; it contained the CD of Vangelis’ Albedo 0.39, but no note as to the sender. So if that was you, please tel me so I can thank you properly!
Diary #644
Posted in Diary, tagged holidays, Presents on November 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I must admit, I do like getting presents, especially thoughtful ones. When I arrived at my Seattle apartment last week, I found a number of them waiting for me: a set of luxurious royal blue bedsheets; two Joe Satriani discs; Vangelis’ Heaven and Hell; The Best of the Drifters; and the third Little Nemo in Slumberland volume. These were sent by several lovely readers and friends (y’all know who you are, and thank y’all very much!) Then on Monday, I got more from my family: Grace gave me a collapsible silicone electric kettle so I never again have to be at the mercy of hotel assholiness for my tea; Jae gave me a Halloween movie (Hocus Pocus) and a plethora of decorated Jack-o’-lanterns; Chekhov made me this very awesome brain cake (it’s chocolate underneath the creepy icing); and Yellowbird made me this awesome cardstock diorama of a haunted house (not pictured because the pics really didn’t do its incredible detail justice). The two of them also gave me some snake jewelry, which Snake Mama always likes! Then we celebrated by eating finger sandwiches (because that’s what I wanted to make) and extra-devilish devilled eggs while drinking prosecco and watching Halloween movies. All in all, it was exactly what I wanted all around, and I’m extra-thankful to everyone who thought enough of me to send or bring a gift!
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Diary #630
Posted in Diary, tagged imaginative fiction, Presents on July 26, 2022| 1 Comment »
My road trip was apparently more fatiguing than I had at first realized. On Wednesday and Thursday, I had to catch up on chores, and on Friday I had to do two weeks’ worth of grocery shopping because we were out of quite a few things. Then on Saturday I found myself completely out of energy, despite oversleeping every day since my return; I had a couple of errands to run, but after that I decided to start my edibles early and soak in the hot tub, then catch up on my writing. It was Sunday before I found myself mostly back to normal, and I put in a good afternoon installing flashings on the cottage eaves in preparation for the gutters, which I plan to start tomorrow as it’s supposed to be unusually sunny and hot today and much less so the rest of the week. Anyhow, though it may seem a bit silly, the high point of last week was receiving in the mail a disc of the first season of Professor Balthazar, which I’ve awaited for some time. These cartoons were created by a Croatian animator in the late ’60s, and I saw them as part of the ABC Saturday morning show Curiosity Shop in the early ’70s; I only found out recently that they were only licensed for that show, and could be obtained separately (sadly, it appears no copies of Curiosity Shop have survived). So I ordered the first disc and put the other two on my Amazon wishlist, and after several months of delay it finally arrived on Thursday. I’m pleased to say it was every bit as sweet and charming as I remember it from half a century ago, and I’m looking forward to getting the others soon. If you’re unfamiliar with the Professor and his whimsical adventures, have a taste at his YouTube page. 
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