Who knows where the time goes?

(Yes, that's a Judy Collins song title and album. A very good -- if retro -- album as it happens. But take it as a point of departure.)

Yeah. That kinda week

I didn't post last week, not even an "I'm too busy to post" post. Trying to reconstruct where that week went, I see:

• a routine dental exam
• a routine eye exam (and hours thereafter during which the world was fuzzy)
• a broken sprinkler system
• overgrown bushes trimmed so the sprinkler people could get at the water cutoff
• landscapers contacted because I have way more overgrown bushes than I care to deal with
• a semi-repaired, aka semi-broken, sprinkler system to diagnose, and the return of the sprinkler people(*)
• headsets researched; one acquired, installed, and tested for an upcoming authorial interview/podcast (more on that another day)
• sysadmin duties on my wife's recalcitrant computer

(*) Hmm. "The Return of the Sprinkler People." A title yearning to become a story?

All that coming, of course, on top of life's usual distractions ....

When I managed to eke out time to actually work, I focused on "The Company Mole." This new novella follows my SF-mystery novelettes "The Company Man" and "The Company Dick," which appeared last year in The Grantville Gazette ("Universe Annex" Department).

And herewith the good news! A complete draft of "The Company Mole" is in the hands of my first and favorite reader, aka my wife. (Also, fair compensation for the aforesaid sysadmin services.) I have high hopes of wrapping up and submitting this story ere long.