Writing Inspiration and the Rental Typewriter

I've been reading a book by one of my favorite authors, Ray Bradbury, called Zen in the Art of Writing, which is filled with fun facts about his life. It's a series of essays that prompt you to look within your own memories to call upon ideas for writing: as long as you have your memories, you will never be without material.

By reading this book I had an unexpected new idea for a novel come forth just like that. I didn't rack my brain for an idea, it came from reflection, triggered by these thought provoking chapters.

Now I will have two ideas battling to be written this November--I'll need to start a list, or perhaps a file, as Bradbury had. Mine will undoubtedly be digital.

There were a few astonishing excerpts about Bradbury's life in his book, one of them being the rise of digital and futuristic ideas in his writing--did you know he was hired to help imagine Spaceship Earth in Epcot?--versus his actual methods of writing. And this is my favorite part.

He started out as a very poor writer, publishing a short story a week to pay for his $30 a month rent and feed his wife and children. When his daughters got a little older, he would get distracted from work because he wanted to play with them. So he went in search of an office, which he could not afford, and found his way into a California public library. This new "office," and the countless books on its never-ending shelves, inspired Fahrenheit 451.

Ironically enough, the futuristic book was written on a typewriter, and I was amazed and inspired while reading about this object. The rental typewriter is one of the most motivational tools I've ever heard of for a writer. He would place a dime in it, and he would get half an hour to type. For a man who was lucky to make $1,000 a year, this was expensive. It forced him to write as many words as possible in a half hour, and he eventually wrote the first draft of his first (intentional) novel, which cost him nine dollars and eighty cents.

I wish I had a dime typewriter--or maybe a dollar typewriter--to motivate my writing. To me it sounds like a futuristic tool. I'm pushing the idea for an app. How about a writing program that charges you by the half hour to use it, and then goes blank, until you pay another dollar? It would have to be very appealing. Maybe Scrivener could make it work?

The idea of writing my next novel on such a program sounds like a great option--I do very well with motivational tools like that.

I wonder if Mr. Bradbury ever imagined such tools as Ilys or Write or Die, like he imagined ATMs and earbuds. I'm positive, in his writing, he could have envisioned something greater.

2014

Happy New Year!

Eric and I are starting off the new year in our brand new apartment. Literally, it's a completely remodeled apartment with new everything: floors, cabinets, appliances, counters, light fixtures, closets, doors, windows, and bathroom.

We are excited to be in here after living for three years in our old apartment complex that hadn't been updated since 1964. We are guessing that year, because that was the year stamped on the bottom of our toilet lid.

We really did enjoy living there. We were very happy and will cherish the memories of our first apartment together--but out with the old, in with the new!

We spent this Christmas and New Year's Eve in California.

A great group of people came over for a last minute Christmas Eve/apartment warming party, then we spent Christmas morning at our apartment, followed by a drive to Santa Rosa to spend the rest of the day with the Barger's. 

New Year's Eve was different for us this year, but an amazing experience! We got all dressed up for a formal masquerade ball at the San Francisco Symphony. The price of the seats included masks, beads, and noisemakers, the concert, and the after party which consisted of two live bands with dance floors, endless Prosecco, food, and a midnight balloon drop. This was the first time we've ever gone out somewhere on New Year's, and it was right up our alley.

I have a hunch that 2014 is going to be another awesome year! 

Stay Positive, Stay Positive

Staying positive.

It's November, and I'm participating in NaNoWriMo again. That means I need 50,000 words (at least) by December 1st. I'm off to a good start thanks to some frustrating things that happened recently. I love channeling my emotions into productive things.

The secondary characters in my novel are a middle class family just trying to get by, dealing with financial hardships. I relate to these characters the most. Here's why.

The past few years in California, we've been dealing with increasing rent prices (like most people around here), and it's been exhausting. Every year our rent has gone up about $300 to meet market prices.

We started out years ago living in a 1 bedroom for around $1,400 a month. You can't even get a studio for that price in Mountain View anymore.

This year was the only year we've lived here when market prices have gone slightly down. The apartments around us in our complex were renting for lower prices--about $100 less than we are paying now. Yet our leasing office still raised our rent by almost $200 a month. They expected us to pay the increased rent, plus pet rent and utilities, for a two bedroom apartment with no air conditioning, a horrible dishwasher, no washer and dryer, and cabinets from the 70s. Did I mention we have a toilet with a crack in it and two-pronged outlets?

Well, we said forget it to this new rent increase. You come down, or we're looking for other places that will offer us more. The leasing office (or vague "corporate") stood their ground and wouldn't come down. Eric played their game, calling them for weeks and leaving messages with no call back. Finally they answered a call and said "corporate" would let them go down in price by $50. So we would only pay $200 more than our new neighbors. Okay, that's so nice of you.

Feeling pushed out, we went apartment hunting to see what we could find. We know that apartment communities don't really care about their tenants, so we don't expect to be treated better or have our rent not increase elsewhere, we just wanted to find something worth the rent increase. And we did!

We found a completely updated place, with double-pane windows, central heat, air conditioning, a full size washer and dryer, plus a back patio and dirt patch for Mia. It's pretty much the same exact layout we're living in now, except it's completely renovated. It's at the same price that we would've been paying at our current place when the rent went up.

We are giving up a little space and storage, but we are gaining a full size washer and dryer plus hardwood floors! Do you know how much time that will save in a month's worth of cleaning and laundry?

They also have cheaper pet rent and a gated community, and we are only increasing our commute time by a couple minutes, as it's just down the road. Did I mention the community garden? How about the lack of asbestos in the ceiling?

We decided, even if they raise the rent a lot, it will be worth it. Safety, health, time, comfort, and completeness will be worth the move.

So we put down a deposit and are preparing to move. Now that we've let our current rent go month to month, "corporate" decided that they wanted to keep us and gave us a better price by going down $115 a month. Oh really? I thought it was impossible to bring the price down more? Too bad, so sad. You lost us as tenants and will have to rent this place out for much less, losing money. You shouldn't have been so stubborn. We would have gladly stayed here if you hadn't played this game with us and tried to charge us more money than this place is worth.

No, we won't be saving money by moving. It will be about the same. But at least we won't be settling for less.

To top off the financial burden list, we found out today our healthcare costs have risen by 30%. That's a lot! However, when Eric told me this, it led to a wonderful character rant by my hardworking middle-class father which was a great start to NaNoWriMo. I guess I should say thank you to Obamacare for 2,698 words of infuriated literary genius. I love channeling negative things into something productive, hence, this blog entry.

Moving on to the Dog Park!

This happened when I got out the chicken training treats.

Wow, I can hardly believe the progress we've made with Mia. Our dog trainer, Amelia, is a life saver! She has gotten Mia farther than I ever thought we'd get to in just four sessions. During the last session, which was two weeks ago, we started to apply our training to dog encounters. It was very stressful, and we needed a lot of practice.

When Mia encounters a dog on a walk she reacts like a complete psycho. We've been using positive reinforcement and a Pet Corrector to snap her out of it so she realizes she doesn't need to react. At first it was very stressful, because instead of avoiding dogs we were pursuing them. Mia reacted viciously on our first dog encounter near our apartment. That's when Amelia introduced the Pet Corrector, which is a canister of compressed air that emits a loud hissing sound when pressed. When we first used it, we sprayed Mia right in the face. It scared the hell out of her. She quickly learned that reacting at a dog might bring about this scary effect.

I felt like the worst mom in the world at first. Mia hated the Pet Corrector so much. She was terrified of it. I was also feeling guilty and sad because the leash pulling was rubbing a raw spot under her arm from her harness. I didn't want to take her back outside until buying a new harness, but the dang thing didn't fit. We even bought the next size up and that was too big. There is no in between size of a no pull leash apparently! I am still shopping for a good harness, but meanwhile I wrapped her current harness in moleskin to lessen the painful rubbing. It took a few dog encounters before I got more comfortable with tugging on her leash and using the Pet Corrector.

Now I'm amazed at the result of this effort. Mia realized that she doesn't need to react viciously at dogs. The dog won't attack her, it will walk away, and then she can relax. Where once I thought I had traumatized my poor puppy, I now see how I've alleviated stress for her. Our homework was to encounter 100 dogs in two weeks. We didn't get to 100, but we did see 30 or so. Each dog encounter got easier, until Mia felt she could sit and relax when a dog was 20 feet away. I didn't have to use the pet corrector anymore from this distance. Mia even let a dog walk past us on the other side of the street without barking once.

This was put to the ultimate test today when we went to the dog park. I'd been dreading this, and was extremely skeptical we could pull it off. Mia was overanxious when we stopped and got out of the car, but Amelia took her and walked her back and forth, parallel to the fence of the dog park, until Mia was able to calm down. One step at a time, we got closer and closer to the dogs. After she got over the initial stress of the new place and new dogs, Mia started to look at those dogs playing like a child looks at a Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. It was the most exciting thing ever, and she was frustrated that she couldn't go play!

Except we all know what happens when dogs get too close to her. That playfulness turns into fear, which turns into reaction: snapping, barking, lunging. So we tried getting closer and closer to the fence, giving her treats when she did not react and when she visibly relaxed. The other dogs were so interested in her, as were the owners. The dogs came over to see her, and Mia got a treat for not reacting. The owners came up to talk and ask questions, and I swear, people at the dog park are the nicest, most understanding dog owners I've ever seen! They were so kind; some owners even volunteered to let Mia get close to their dogs. I don't think we are ready for that yet, but maybe soon!

Mia was able to get all the way up to the fence and stick her nose in to sniff or get kisses from the biggest of the big dogs! She did lunge and bark a couple times, but ceased immediately when the Pet Corrector was sprayed. She just relaxed, dog watching, and having a good time. Mia's biggest training reward will be to get in that dog park and play with the other puppies, when she's ready, which might be sooner that I could have imagined.

All tired out from training.

2013 Gardening

Before: Right after first planting in July.

Now.

I started the garden very late this year, since I was in Pittsburgh for all of June. July and August can get very hot in Mountain View, and the weather is quite sunny and dry. I did some blog research on late planting in the Bay Area to figure out what seeds to buy for my earth boxes. Eric and I went to Summerwinds Nursery on the 4th of July to get started. We bought six sweet corn seedlings, six cucumber seedlings, lettuce seedlings, swiss chard seedlings, spinach seedlings, a green pepper plant, a black krim tomato plant, and a Bulgarian Carrot Pepper plant. I also planted lima bean seeds, sunflower seeds, and herb seeds of basil, oregano, chives, and parsley.

Even with partial shade, the spinach bolted right away. The Romaine Lettuce and Rainbow Swiss Chard, however, did very well. I got so much lettuce I started giving it away, and it was delicious. It finally bolted, but I feel like I got more lettuce than I paid for. The Swiss Chard is still doing really well, though it grows much more slowly than the lettuce. I harvested early, and now it is growing back. I was only able to make a couple dishes out of the Rainbow Swiss Chard so I'm excited to be getting some more. Today I cut down all the bolted lettuce and made room for some cilantro. I hope to plant some spinach in place of the lettuce when it gets cooler. I saved the seeds from my first try.

Romaine Lettuce flourishing.

Rainbow Swiss Chard loving the earth box.

Amazing colors.

Lettuce is gone now.

My corn seemed to do well at first, but then completely stopped growing. The seedlings pollinated and developed ears of corn with silks, but then just stopped doing anything. I waited a long while but finally pulled them out today. The roots were so shallow they weren't even absorbing water, yet the small stalks were still alive. I have no idea what happened there. I planted a few sweet corn seeds in place of the failed stalks, just to see if they would sprout and do better. It's a perfect environment in my earth box. They either did not get enough sun, were too close together, or just didn't like to be transplanted. I also planted some more cilantro seeds in their place. If one cilantro seed doesn't do well I will have another.

One corn plant I replanted as an experiment to see if it would do well
away from the others. It got a little taller but then quit.

Here's where the corn was before I pulled it out.
Now there are four seeds in there--three corn and one cilantro.

Tiny cilantro seedling.

The peppers are doing amazing. They are huge plants and have a ton of peppers ripening. Bulgarian Carrot Peppers are really freaking hot. Don't ever cut them without gloves. I learned that the hard way. Everything on the internet says they are mild peppers for some reason. I used two tiny ones in a 1lb ground turkey taco recipe and it was pretty hot. It took me three recipes to use up a large one. I will most likely be giving these crazy things away because there is no way we can handle that many hot peppers.

Bulgarian Carrot Peppers.

Green Bell Peppers.

My cucumber plants had a rough start. Immediately I realized I planted them too close together. One suffocated and died, and I replanted another. The other four grew long and tall, curling around everything. At first I had trouble with pollination. The blossoms were just falling off. Then, when I bought some marigolds to attract bees, and cucumbers were everywhere, the birds started eating them!!! I was so mad. So I bought netting to keep the birds off, and the cucumbers are finally doing well. There are a ton, and they are ripening one by one. Now the only problem is, I am having trouble keeping powdery mildew at bay. I sprayed with milk, which didn't really help, then tried baking soda, which helped, but it came right back. Now I am trying oils, and will see how that goes. The powdery mildew isn't supposed to kill the plant or inhibit cucumber growth, but I'm afraid it will if it gets out of control. The people at the Nursery told me I was watering too much and to not water for awhile. But I tried that and in two days all the plants were wilting. Not a good idea.

First planted.

Tomato plant and cucumbers.
Tomato looked like it was dying, but had a few inedible tomatoes on it.

Corn and pepper plants.

Cucumber and tomato again, after a little love.

Now: Huge cucumber plants covered with bird netting.

See those little cucumbers back there?

Odd shaped cucumber from uneven pollination. 

Valley Carpenter Bee hanging out on my cucumber plant.

Perfect and tasty cucumber.

My single tomato plant, which I planted in the same earth box, never did well in the first place, but once it started to do better and get blossoms, it suddenly dried out completely--seriously overnight. Either I didn't water enough, it caught a disease, it gave up on life, or the cucumber plant strangled it. I'm just not sure. But it's an heirloom tomato, and it's too late in the season for tomatoes, so I didn't expect much from it anyway. I'm just impressed that I got it to come back to life once, even if it was for a short time.

The sunflower seeds were fun. I enjoyed watching them sprout and start out as tiny little seedlings. Now they are huge. I had some issues with snails and birds eating the leaves, but they are strong, resilient plants. It's just so hard to believe that these huge stalks came out of tiny seeds and need zero help standing up on their own.

Today I planted a Meyer Lemon seed from a local lemon I received. I'd love to have fruit trees some day, and since it takes 3-6 years for a lemon tree to bear fruit, I figured I might as well get started. Apparently lemon trees do well in pots. You just keep pruning them so they don't get very large. I hope it grows :-)

There's a Meyer Lemon seed in there.

Italian Parsley.

Sweet Basil.

Tiny lima bean pods (Chihuahua not part of garden).

The birds feasted on these sunflower leaves for some reason.

Tall stalks, still growing.

Dog Training, Take 2

Our walk before training on the Baylands Trail.

We have tried dog training in the past at A Dog's Life in Sunnyvale. It was a program called Growly Dog Training, which consisted of 1/2 hour private sessions using a clicker and treats. The trainer was often late, yet never extended our time, and didn't give us much to work with. For $50 per session I expected to get a lot more out of it. We were so disappointed with the results at the end of five sessions that we deemed it a waste of money and quit. Granted, this was almost three years ago, so the program might have improved, but it's also gone up in price.

A friend of mine recently recommended a Bay Area dog trainer to us whom had done wonders with her puppies. She sounded amazing, as she had a great recommendation, five star reviews on Yelp, and would come to our apartment for an hour long private training session. She charged a very reasonable price--cheaper than the Growly Dog Training and every other dog trainer in the area. Since certain situations with Mia are still stressful for us and we were not traveling this fall, we decided to try again with dog training.

In just one session, Mia learned more than in all five sessions of the Growly Dog Program. She learned some new hand signals for tricks, how to look at me on command, and that she must now sit to get attention--no more jumping. I learned that hooking her leash to the front of her harness instead of the back gave me more control when going on walks, and that it was easier to keep her next to me. We practiced some exercises on how to "stay" and how strangers in the house mean Mia gets treats. Thanks to all the guests who helped me practice!

We have now had two sessions, and Mia has learned that she needs to sit in her bed before she can get what she wants. Since Friday we have had very little jumping. Instead of jumping on us for food, treats, leash, and toys, she now goes to her bed and waits patiently while we prepare these things. We are practicing staying in the bed when a person comes to the door. She is able to do this by the third try so far, but eventually we want to perfect this so there is no more attacking people as they come in, and no risk of her running out the door. We are learning to walk together, as well. We now have commands for turn, stop, fast, and slow. I've realized that this only works as far as the parking lot where we first practiced, because I took her on our usual park walk today and she didn't pay attention to me at all. We need to keep practicing and start from scratch at each new location. She really enjoys all of our new "games." Everything is fun when you get chicken!

I appreciate everyone's help with training. I won't be able to have large groups over until she has a good foundation. Also, no one will be allowed to give her the same amount of attention she used to get. She has to trust that strangers are not going to touch her until she is comfortable with them. We need to end the snapping and lunging at people so this is very important. If you come over, please don't pet her at first, but you can give her a treat! Strangers mean chicken--that's what we are trying to accomplish!

New bed for the living room.

Tired from training all day.

Mia and Cherry Blossoms

On the latest episode of "Little Chihuahua, Big World," Mia can't go potty outside because the wind is so scary. The blustery days we've been having lately send lots of pollen, leaves, dirt, and other debris flying around in all directions, which means Mia has to stop in her tracks and cringe from the mysterious attack. In our little dirt patch--my flower garden, her potty patch--a loose wooden board that is used to cover up the space between fence and concrete so that little puppies can't escape, got knocked over from the wind, and, of course, it happened while Mia was right next to it trying to go to the bathroom. So now she is terrified of the strange, unexplainable force that knocked something on top of her. Every time she hears the wind from inside the apartment she becomes very alert. She was sitting beside me on the couch, but when the blinds started moving by themselves, she immediately scurried off into the bedroom to hide in her bed. World 1, Mia 0.

I have mixed feelings about the wind. I'm glad that all the pollen is being knocked down, but not happy that it's being blown around and around again. My allergies are absolutely horrible. I've been taking Zyrtec, Sudafed, and Dayquil. Yesterday I bought a Neti Rinse, but have yet to use it. I requested an appointment with my doctor, thinking that maybe I had a sinus infection. That was April 4th, and my request is still showing online as unanswered. I should have talked to the receptionist in person today when I went to get blood taken to check my potassium levels, but the ordeal of getting my blood taken causes me too much anxiety and I can't think of anything else. I keep telling myself that it's just allergy season and the congestion and sneezing will go away with the pollen, but I can't hold out much longer before calling PAMF and requesting a different doctor. The wind is definitely not helping. What we need is a good long rain. Oh wait, this is California.

All the spring sun, however, is making my ground cover of baby's tears and alyssum grow beautifully. And the cherry blossoms in Charleston Park are exquisite. Mia and I take a walk in Charleston Park every weekday. Today when we dropped off Eric and went to the park, the colors of the green grass, bright blue sky, and pink blossoms were just perfect. Minus the allergies, I love the early Spring of California.

There are two things that Mia has been doing at the park lately. One, is that she likes to go up to any men seated at benches and immediately become best friends. Anyone who knows Mia understands that she is a highly stressed out dog, and she barks and nips at strangers. But there is something about the Googlers sitting quietly on the benches at the park that turns her into the sweetest, best behaved little dog of all time. I have a theory behind this. When we adopted Mia, the people at the Humane Society told us that she had been previously adopted by a retirement community and then returned for bad behavior towards children. I bet it was her job at the retirement home to go up to the elderly, most likely sitting down, in wheel chairs, or moving slowly, and to be a therapy lap dog. Of course, what happens to little dogs who are allowed to take possession of laps, they begin lap guarding, which probably made her defensive towards the quick-moving, reaching children that came to visit their grandparents. Poor Mia. But why else would a dog who is normally afraid of everything and anyone, insist on going up to the random strangers sitting in the park? It's definitely something she feels comfortable with.

The other thing, which is really new, is that Mia has suddenly discovered California Ground Squirrels. She likes to sniff them out in the grass and chase them when she finds them. Now, whenever I say, "Where's the squirrel?" she gets crazy excited and starts looking. She wants to walk by the grassy area next to the trees so she can find them. It only took her two and a half years to realize there were squirrels and that she could chase them. I won't let her run to far, and they are very fast. I don't think she could ever catch one. Also, the squirrels quickly learned the sound of her collar, so as soon as we start walking down the sidewalk of the park, you can see all the ground squirrels in the grass scurry into the trees and their holes. We haven't found a squirrel to chase in at least a week. Squirrels 1, Mia 0.

This post is mostly about Mia, not just because of the wind and squirrels, but because at the end of March she had her 4th birthday. I can't believe she's been with us for almost three years, and that she is four years old already! We celebrated by giving her a can of Beneful and a piece of chicken--her favorite. She may be afraid of everything except strangers sitting on benches, but she is my baby and I'm so glad that she's been in our family for so long. I'm still working on Eric for that second puppy, so that Mia can have a friend to play with. Come on, Eric!