I just realized how long it's been since i dropped in here to chat about life and stuff. My only excuse and explanation is that I've had a series of decisions to handle lately. I've come to realize that one of the things I hate most about living alone is the sheer responsibility of it. There's no one to discuss a problem with-- no one to offer a solution I haven't thought of -- no one to force me to make up my mind -- and no one to blame if it all goes wrong.

     What all's been going on? Well, I guess it all started with an unexplained leak -- just a wet bathroom floor. Our housing complex has a history of problems with underground pipes leaking and seeping upward, so that was one possibility. But we had also had previous problems with the roof  over the bathroom, so . . .  Finally narrowed  it down to a leaking toilet, but couldn't find the real source because I'm no longer agile enough to squeeze into a small space and stand on my head to look at the underside of things.  And then, there was the decision of who to call. All was resolved eventually and handled by my homeowner's insurance, but not before my schedule faced major disruptions. 

Then came an aging cat whose problems I could no longer ignore. Nutmeg was going on 16, so it was not really a surprise, but you  never expect wonderful creatures to fall ill. Suddenly she was not eating, losing huge amounts of weight, and looking odd. She was still lively and interested in what was going on -- the other cats could lure her into play and chase time --and she could still jump from the floor to table and countertop. But she grew weaker and unsteadier. Eventually she started to tell me that it was "time" in a soft and plaintive voice, but I didn't want to hear it until a Sunday morning when she tried to come to greet me and fell over, unable to walk any further. With a breaking heart, I had to be the one to decide to take her to the emergency animal clinic where they do compassionate euthenasia. Talk about a hard decision!  

Then there are the books! Through some idiocy on my part, I ended up with two different books in the final stages of preparation--one fiction, one non-fiction. And both had set dates for pre-orders and launch activities. I had also decided to publish both of them using new editing and formatting software, and now had no time to change those plans. So I've been juggling files for day.s  Just yesterday morning, I thought I had finished the final submission for my first Kindle pre-order, scheduled to ship on September 19th.  Then an e-mail from the Kindle folks informed me that they had discovered  three spelling errors (two of which were French terms they didn't recognize.). The only correction required was the insertion of a single space between two words. But was there an easy way to do that? Nope! I had to remove the file, create an entirely new one with the new software program, and then go through the whole submission process again. Sigh.

And now the latest. I've been planning a trip to a writers' conference in San Antonio for months -- have all my flight and hotel reservations, and a couple of jobs to do once I get there. But my perfect flight schedule took me through a landing at Houston's Hobby Airport.  With just 10 days to go before my departure, i had to read the future and try to decide if that currently-closed -and-flooded airport could possibly be high and dry in time for my flight to go as scheduled. Maybe! But what if it's not! The consequences of the wrong decision multiplied every day I delayed. So yesterday, I had to bite another bullet  and make the decision. I'm now scheduled to fly through Dallas (Love Field), which will certainly be drier. It's a tighter connection, however, so the outcome of that decision is still to be determined.

As for today's decisions -- I could either do a grammar edit on another chapter or write a blog post.  Here it is!