July 2021 News
Morning guys. Happy almost independence day to my fellow yanks.
Writing
Edits are still underway. In fact I've written 15,000 new words based on my editor's feedback. The direction I'm going feels like the way the story should have been from the beginning.
Added objects:
- Yet another character hellbent on committing suicide
- More unrequited love
These don't in themselves feel like strong selling points. I promise they're both overflowing with goofs and gaffes and good times.
Kayak biz
Did I mention the business idea my wife and I had? Moreso her? Well, we purchased some hardware (trailer, kayaks, paddles, life vests), arranged some insurance, built a brick wall of a waiver (in case ya die), commissioned a logo (can't show you yet), snatched up some online real estate (nine URLs as it were), and (here's the kicker) opened our business on Google. That part just felt like another small step in the process. But as soon as we did it, my phone started blowing up with requests. Turns out the demand is such that our service sells itself. Out of the kayaks we bought, we've already nearly paid off two. We're scrambling to fill requests and we're not even freakin opened yet. Good times. Much busy.
Natasha the spider
We found a black widow in the yard a little over 2 weeks ago. She was protecting her eggsack with unshaking vigilance until a few nights ago, when her new babies spilled out into the web-home she'd made for them.
Overnight we've gone from 1 to 251 black widows in that section of the yard. The nature-enthusiast in me prevented me murdering or displacing her, but I'm second guessing that. I'll keep watching to see what their plans are. I'm no scientist but I'd wager that ~97% of those baby spiders won't live to see adulthood. Time will tell.
Here are pics!
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| Natasha, our resident black widow |
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| defending her eggsack day and night |
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| snacking on a beetle |
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| proud mama |
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| hundreds of babies |
That last picture was taken a few days ago. Since then the baby black widows have been spreading out, probably already sick of each other's shit. This is resulting in a rapid decline in their numbers, as is surely expected. Not least of all because there's an ant bed on the ground beneath them, and the ants will eat everything they can get their mandibles on, no matter the risk.
Natasha, now having spent all maternal energy and presumably achieved her life's mission, has taken up a new side hobby. She's building a ball of ant corpses. It's about the size of a pea right now. I'd love it if she just keeps adding to it until it's marble sized. What a brutal queen. Meanwhile, the more industrious of her brood have seen their own successes in catching ants and slurping their liquified innards.
I bet you didn't expect the monthly report to go this direction.
see you next month
dtl