Write Every Day February 2025: Day 0

What Is Write Every Day?
Exactly what it sounds like. Every month a different person plays host to a community who encourage each other to write on a daily basis.

zwei_hexen keeps a list of past and future hosts here. There is a need for hosts for some of the upcoming months, so feel free to sign up if you are interested in hosting.

My job as a host is to post an entry every day, keep a tally of who is participating, and in general be encouraging and supportive. I will tag every post Write Every Day so those posts are easy to skip for people who are not participating.

Who can participate?
All are welcome to comment on any check-in post to say that you wrote that day. Or didn't, maybe you wanted to write and life got in the way and you want to talk about that. Victories, challenges, process, blocks - all are good topics to raise. If you'd like to cheer on or commiserate with someone else, please do - conversation is encouraged.

What kind of writing?
Whatever you like. If you want it to count, it counts.

How much do I need to write?
Any amount counts. The traditional minimum unit is an "alibi sentence" - a single sentence that lets you check in and say you've written today. But you don't have to write new words, either: research, editing, transcription, outlining, and other activities that get you closer to a finished draft all count.

How often do I have to check in?
Drop in or out at any time, or check in for several days at once, if you like. Please respond to the most recent post and say what day(s) you're checking in for, so I can keep the tally straight.

What does the tally look like?
For each day, I list the people who checked in that day, and I publish the tally-to-date in every check-in post. (Please keep an eye on whether I got you down correctly!) You can use the running tally to recreate your performance for the month, but it's not going to be readily visible that one person wrote most days and another wrote only a few.

Welcome aboard!

i contain unquietudes

The Bad: His Lordship, Lord Brock of the Brockton Brocks, has been feeling poorly. He stopped eating for a few days, which is apparently really bad for cats - their organs can just shut down. A visit to the vet found him underweight and dehydrated. They gave him an anti-nausea shot and an appetite stimulant and I have been monitoring his intake (and his outgo) like a hawk watching a rabbit warren for the past week.

He had another exam today and he appears to be mostly out of the woods, but I did go home with some more meds to give him over the weekend if anything goes south.

(I will not tell you the stuff I learned at the vet today about anal glands because what the hell, nature?)

Anyway. This meant cancelling on the nephew I was going to help move today, because there is no way I'm leaving town for a whole day until I'm sure he's stable.

***

The Good: There were two contractors involved in the building of my kitchen, the guy who built the frame and the guy who did the interior. I got to watch them have a full-on meltdown at each other over who's fault the frozen pipes are. Wednesday the interior guy came by and moved the pipes and insulated them so in theory this problem should now be solved. Fingers crossed. I haven't had a problem since, but also it hasn't gotten below -5 C yet this week.

Basement guy is now saying he'll be done on Tuesday. ! Could it be true!?

I expect I'll have to do some additional trim and repairs down there. (And painting) But the idea that this could actually be fucking over soon? Be still my tremulous heart!

Next house goal: get a new boiler. Right now I can a) take a shower b) run the dishwasher OR c) do laundry, but I cannot do two of the above on the same day. I might spring for one of those tankless ones, I have to do some research first.

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The Ugly: I have almost no teeth left in the back lower jaw. If I could speak to my 12 year-old self, one of the things I would stress is to stay on top of the teeth during those few years I would have insurance and DO NOT go to the very nice lady that your dad recommends, because being a completely painless dentist was apparently not as good a thing as everybody thought at the time. My current dentist is a semi-retired Egyptian woman who makes me cry on the regular, but she was able to extend the life of most of my teeth far past the point where I thought I was going to lose them all.

Aside: Teeth not being covered by provincial health insurance is a crime against humanity.

Anyway., So now I have this bridge thing that I'm supposed to wear every day, at the absolute minimum whenever I eat. I hate it. It's uncomfortable and I don't like having things in my mouth. The thing is, I could same the same about my bite guard (I clench my jaw really hard in my sleep) and that I wear every night. But this thing - I can never remember. It's like a mental block, every single day I eat dinner and as soon as I'm standing up to get rid of my plate I think Oh I forgot that bridge thing, I need to remember to put it in tomorrow. Every day. Every. Day. For the past three months.

What the fuck, brain?

***

All Of The Above: I got my election bribe money today. I immediately donated it to one of the other parties.