Tumultuous Tuesday ...

(Source)

Sometime after the Earth cooled, and the first primitive life forms began to appear¹, I was in the Air Force, working Weapon Control Systems on the mighty F-4 Phantom, the -C and -D models, juvat flew the latter. (By the way, if you chase the link under the photo, you'll get one of those 3-D look around views, kinda cool. They have the front seat as well.)

The cockpits I worked in were nowhere near as schmutzig¹ as the one depicted above. In my later years of working on the Phantom, when I had attained the lofty rank of Staff Sergeant, I would have had an apoplectic fit had I beheld a cockpit in such foul condition. I was known to go completely bat-shit crazy at beholding cockpits far less dirty than that. I didn't want any pilot of mine to roll the bird and get a face-full of crap from the cockpit floor.

Not to mention that there are certain things in an unkempt cockpit which can gum up the controls. Not good, not good at all. Rather a pet peeve of mine. (No doubt The Missus Herself wishes I took such care in my own lair, the semi-organized mess that it is. But it has the benefit of me knowing where everything is. More or less. And I seldom, if ever, roll that room.)

The renovation continues, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm reasonably sure that it's not a train.

Friday morning I awakened to the sound of drilling, and other construction-type noises. The contractors hadn't planned on coming to the house, but certain materials had come in, which they hadn't expected, so they decided to swing by and work. I had no problem with that, I did bemoan the lack of sleep afforded to me on that day, but I knew that in order to have restful days in the future, the project needed to get done. So I went with the flow.

Turns out the installation of the glass shower door was a "no go." The walls of the house are, apparently, slanted in such a way that from the base of the door, to the top, presented a variance of some 1.5 inches. Not good, especially if the goal is to contain the water from the shower head to the confines of the shower area.

As it's a walk-in shower, using a shower curtain was a big non-starter (that whole keeping the water contained thing, dontcha know?). Specialists will be brought in to measure and make custom glass for our shower. Oh boy, I can't wait to see what that costs.

But enough of the construction stuff, I weary of the whole thing, as does my better half. I got to play supervisor on Friday as she needed a day out with her Korean lady-buddies to try and regain her sanity. A well-deserved break.

For her.

So I drank coffee and worked on my laptop, incorporating edits to the novel, while the two Portuguese brothers worked on the renovation. We all listened to Portuguese music as well, it's better than I expected, even though the accordion starts to wear on you after a while. No doubt they would feel the same way about my bagpipe music.

Fair enough.

Saturday I continued incorporating comments and edits on the novel, most were very good, some were focused on reformatting practically the whole thing to a certain standard. A standard which, sad to say, I really don't care for. Not sure what I'm going to do with those edits. Time will tell.

Sunday I received some more pieces for my Napoleonic addiction -

Le Haye Sainte Farm
Chateau de Hougoumont
Both are on the field of Waterloo
(Source)

More things to assemble and paint, I'm going to be very busy in retirement!

I'm still deciding what to pursue next in the fiction arena, need to get the first book edits in place, then re-read it to make sure it flows the way I want it to flow. I've gone back and refreshed my memory on War in the Wild, where I left off and all that. I noted that the writing was rather lackluster on the last chapters I wrote. I need to rework those and up my game, or give up the attempt altogether. I still like the book, but I need to focus better. (And do a Hell of a lot more research!)

That being said, life goes on, life is good.

So I've got that going for me.

¹ Ya know, officers.

² Dirty (German)