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I'm going to set my goal for 40 again this year. Though I may pass that, I am moving and that could definitely throw things off.

Series (loose) goals:

Murderbot: Read 1-6 (ongoing series, currently caught up, new one coming 2023)

Joe Pitt: FINISHED!!

Sandman Slim: Read 1-8, To read 9-12 (ongoing)

Albert Samson: Read 1-3, To read 4-9

Hollywood's Garden of Allah: Read 1-2, To read 3-9

Themis Files: Read 1, To read 2-3 plus bonus online chapters

The Expanse: Read 1-2, to read 3-9

The Immortal Doc Holliday: Read 1-5, To read 6-10

Eric Carter: Read 1-2, To read 3-8

Beasts of Burden: Read 1-3, To read 4-5

Read more Robyn Peterman series maybe, they're kind of addictive. Forget that - I can only take so many never-ending story arcs.

Misc:
Mona Lisa Overdrive from Gibson's Sprawl series
KSR Mars Trilogy 2 & 3

Covers

January
- -

February
---

March


April
- - - -

May
-

June
- -

July
- -

August
- - -

September
-

October
- -

November


December
- - - - -

Genre totals:

Urban Fantasy: 15
Sci Fi: 4
Horror: 6
Mystery: 5
Thriller: 2
Romance: 1

Some of the UF would have also fit in other genres but I limited myself to one genre per book for this list, otherwise I'd have no way of knowing if I correctly counted. LOL

Ok. I'm done. LOL

FIRST! :D

Nyssa wrote: "FIRST! :D"

Yay! :D

First book of 2023 will be book #2 in the Eric Carter series, Broken Souls, since I'm currently reading it and 2023 starts in an hour. :D

NOT FIRST!

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "NOT FIRST!"

:D It still counts!

I fly back to Nashville tomorrow night, then I start the "pack and trash" process. Ugh. On one hand, I'm very excited to be getting a fresh start in Florida with a lot less stuff, but I know for the next few weeks I will be sore and tired. I fully expect my nightly reading sessions to be shorter and less productive for a while. But I'm cool with that. :D

Once I'm back in Florida, I'm going to be taking the first few weeks off before I start looking for a job, so I should get some extra reading in then. I need to find a new doctor and all that fun stuff so I want to make sure I am free to schedule appointments and such.

I wish you the best, Christa!! Stay safe, and good luck!

Nyssa wrote: "I wish you the best, Christa!! Stay safe, and good luck!"

Thank you!! [[[HUGS]]]

Of course! (((HUGS)))

Best of luck on the move. I am personally hopeful not to move again. Ever. I've done it enough.

Make sure to say bye bye to everything. Here's a moving song for you from maybe my current favourite band:

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Best of luck on the move. I am personally hopeful not to move again. Ever. I've done it enough.

Make sure to say bye bye to everything. Here's a moving song for you from maybe my current favourite..."

Thank you and thanks for the song link! :D

Wishing you the best this new year.

Spacechik wrote: "Wishing you the best this new year."

Thank you! I hope it's a good year for you as well! I think we could all use a better year this year.

I ended up staying in Florida a few extra days because flights at Orlando were disrupted due to the air traffic control issue earlier in the week. So I'm flying back to Nashville tomorrow afternoon.

I made good use of my extra days. Ran a network cable to my room so it'll be ready for my desktop computer and media server, and got a few other things done. Tried to join Nextdoor (yeah, I know) but whoever the founder for the neighborhood is on there left out a whole ass street when they drew the boundaries, and it happens to be the one I'm on. I contacted support but if the founder doesn't change it, I may be forced to create a neighborhood called "The Rest of Lake Griffin Isles" or something. LOL

I have a new project. A 1991 Club Car DS electric golf cart that some friends gave to my mom. I tracked down service, parts and owners manuals online and got the name of the best GC service company in the area so I can get started on that when I get back. It runs but it hasn't been serviced recently and also I need someone to show me stuff so I know what to do to keep it in good running condition.

Last but not least, I finished my first book of 2023 the other night! Yay!

Wow! You're doing awesomely well!

I hadn't heard of Nextdoor. I just looked it up. Interesting concept.

Congrats on finishing your first read of the year!! :)

Nyssa wrote: "Wow! You're doing awesomely well!

I hadn't heard of Nextdoor. I just looked it up. Interesting concept.

Congrats on finishing your first read of the year!! :)"

Thanks! There will still be a ton to do when I actually get the rest of my stuff down here, but I feel like I've made a solid start.

Nextdoor can be iffy depending on the neighborhood. In Nashville, most of the stuff on there was NIMBYs, MLMs, people complaining about their neighbors over petty shit, or people that seem to lose their damn dog every week or so. LOL I joined, got verified, then deleted my account the next day. :D I'm not sure what it will be like here as I can only see the public posts until they sort out my verification, but I do know a lot more people here than I do in Nashville so that's something.

So, three days ago, I learned about Nextdoor from your comment; today, I got an invite (in my mailbox) to join one set up for this neighborhood.
Nope, I'm not creeped out at all! LOL

Nyssa wrote: "So, three days ago, I learned about Nextdoor from your comment; today, I got an invite (in my mailbox) to join one set up for this neighborhood.
Nope, I'm not creeped out at all! LOL"

LOL Yeah, that's pretty creepy timing! The first thing I did when I signed up was check "no" on sending neighbor invites and block the app from using my contacts. :D So far it's been pretty useless to me. No one in my actual neighborhood is really active, so all the stuff in my feed is from The Villages which I absolutely do not care about. Though there was one concerning yet entertaining post from a guy threatening to go all vigilante because his car got hit in a parking lot.

OOF. Guess it's an excellent way to know to stay away from him.

Good luck Christa!

GA wrote: "Good luck Christa!"

Thank you!

The dumpster was delivered on Friday and the big cleanout started on the weekend. I'm going slowly but surely. I have it for two weeks so I'm not rushing.

Started reading , finally. I bought it when it was on sale two years ago. Of course, now it's on KU so if I was psychic, I could have saved myself $4.

PS - I miss Florida. LOL Won't be long, but still too long.

It's a good sign that you miss Florida.

Happy dumpster filling. I should do that this summer just to be rid of stuff, but I think I'm going to have a garage sale with the two oldest kids to get rid of some stuff.

Good luck to you both on the big cleans!! :)

Today is the last day with the dumpster. Tomorrow my cousin arrives in Nashville. Saturday we load up her van. Sunday... WE GO TO FLORIDA!!

OMG I have soooo much to do today. I had to set an alarm to get up early to put out packages for USPS to pickup. Then I went back to sleep for a couple of hours. And now I'm sucking down coffee and trying to figure out my to-do list. Ugh. LOL And the mail carrier didn't pick them up till noon so that extra waking was unnecessary.

I know I have to do laundry because half of my remaining clothes are dirty and the other half is warm-weather stuff and professional attire (which I don't need, I am soooo allergic to office environments now, so I could probably send them into the dumpster).

Need more coffee.

Good luck with the move and all the figuring out.

On Monday my parents finally made a start with selling the house. I'll be moving in with my sister once the store's closed (probably July) and the house is sold. After that my sister and I are going to look for a bigger place for the both of us. It's scary and exciting.

Wow! Significant changes for both of you! I wish you both the very best!!

Stay safe! (((HUGS)))

Bianca wrote: "Good luck with the move and all the figuring out.

On Monday my parents finally made a start with selling the house. I'll be moving in with my sister once the store's closed (probably July) and the..."

Thanks! Wow, we're both going through a huge change! And yeah, it's definitely both scary and exciting!

Nyssa wrote: "Wow! Significant changes for both of you! I wish you both the very best!!

Stay safe! (((HUGS)))"

Thank you! [[[HUGS]]]

Wow. Big changes this year. I wish the best for both of you as well.

Spacechik wrote: "Wow. Big changes this year. I wish the best for both of you as well."

Thank you!!

It's official. As of two hours ago, I am in Florida. I have arrived! I'm freakin' exhausted and there are a lot of things in the van to bring in tomorrow but I made it.

Edited to add: We're a day "late" because we decided to spend a extra day in the hotel in Nashville as a "horizontal spa day" - ie, laying in bed in front of the tv doing nothing and only getting up to go downstairs to the restaurant and eat. LOL We needed an extra day of rest.

Still resting? Hopefully. :)

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Still resting? Hopefully. :)"

No, not a moment's rest. It's chaos down here. I'm not going to go into details because this is publicly searchable, but some shit went down (that other people have done, not us) and we have to move again in less than two months.

I'll be able to rest eventually, though. I hope.

Yikes. Hoping it turns out well.

Christa wrote: "No, not a moment's rest. It's chaos down here. I'm not going to go into details because this is publicly searchable, but some shit went down (that other people have done, not us) and we have to move again in less than two months.

I'll be able to rest eventually, though. I hope."

(((HUGS))) I wish you the best, hon.

Thank you both! [[[HUGS]]]

I have a job interview tomorrow and if that goes well, that will improve things immensely. *fingers crossed*

OH, that's fantastic. Good luck...'fingers crossed'....

Good luck with the job interview!

I hope everything turns out alright.

Ditto Spacechik & Bianca!

Good Luck w/ the interview! **Fingers Crossed** for you!

Thank you all! <3 I think the interview went well but I won't really know until I do or don't get called in for a second interview.

Wow. It's been a month since my last post and I still haven't finished reading Seveneves. LOL

So, the job would have worked out if I'd been able to take it. But I couldn't. Two issues - one is that the hours weren't as advertised, the other issue was a matter of company culture. It seems like a lovely place to work - if you happen to have the same beliefs as everyone else there.

Regardless, if I had taken it, I would be screwed right now because I am very much needed here at home. Things have been WILD.

So here's the deal. We found another place, secured financing. It's on the same road, so my mom gets to stay close to her friends which is super important. It needed work. But it was really cheap. For those who don't already know, we live in a mobile home community for age 55+. (No, I'm not 55+ but as long as one of the owners on the title is, it's fine.) The one we bought is a 1982 Fleetwood single-wide. We're moving out of a Double-and-a-half wide. My mama has to do some serious downsizing.

The new one is actually in good shape for it's age, but the previous owners were in the process of starting some upgrades when the husband passed away. So it's been sitting for over a year with partially completed things and... yeah.

A few weeks ago, a friend who knew the situation held a fundraiser for us. Because of that, I've got some breathing room, and I've been able to pay for most of the work that's needed, and also rented a dumpster for Mom's downsizing. Now, I, on the other hand, am basically living out of the boxes I moved down here with a little over a month ago. That's super annoying.

We closed on the new on on the 27th, and since then I'm back and forth every day between the two places on my golf cart. Overseeing repairs, meeting people for estimates, making lists, making decisions... I'm exhausted.

Oh! Good news - had the heat pump inspected and cleaned and it's in perfect working order. Yay!

I already got internet set up down there in my name (super 2-year promo deal on Xfinity 200mb with no contract! $35/mo with no data cap! Woooo!) And my plan was to set up my home office in my bedroom down there this coming week so I could start applying for remote jobs. But today we were informed that a friend is having new carpet put in our bedrooms for us. Dude is just gonna buy us carpet and pay to have it installed. This same guy and his father in law put a new toilet in the new place for us the other day. Because they decided we needed one. And they were right, we did need a new one, but I never in a million years expected friends to just go buy us a toilet, of all things. LOL The guy has also gotten into the habit of just showing up down there, fixing things and then telling me about it after. :D He fixed some loose fascia for me the other day. He just looks around for stuff he can do that needs doing.

I keep trying to pay these people but they won't take my money. I'm grateful and I've thanked them about a thousand times, but I've never experienced this and I'm struggling to process it.

The concrete driveway is a DISASTER. It needed to be fixed years ago but the previous owners never bothered. That will hopefully be getting fixed this week too. Most of the money from the fundraiser will be paying for that.

Last Saturday was the community carport sale. My assignment was to try to find a table and chairs small enough for the kitchen down there. But at one of the first places I stopped at, I bought a garden bench for $5 because I knew it would fit perfectly on our little dock. The guy I bought it from helped me bungee-cord it to the back of the golf cart and I proceeded to drive around with that thing on there for two hours. LOL I did finally find a small round table with 4 chairs for $20 so it was a success.

I'm not upset about the downsize aspect. I prefer small spaces and I certainly prefer less to clean. But this whole thing has been a lot. Like even the good things are things I don't know how to process.

I'm so overwhelmed. Things are coming together, and now I'm reasonably sure we're going to be okay, but my brain is just on overload. I try to read at night and I just can't focus. I have nothing resembling a routine and it's taking a toll. But our official moving day is on the 28th, because that's when movers are coming to take the big furniture down to the new place. I mean, you have to move Mom and her recliner on the same day, right? I'm thinking that once I have a space of my own again, set up with my stuff, and start to feel secure and safe again, then I'll find my new normal and things will start to make sense.

Or, at least, that's the plan.

That's a lot, and no wonder you don't have the time or energy to concentrate on reading.

It's great to hear things are turning out okay and that you've got such good friends.

Good luck with the downsizing, last projects and the move!

Take your time; the books will still be there when you’re ready.

It’s wonderful that you and your mom have such a caring community of friends.
If you feel you must offer them something, food would probably work.

Continued best wishes; and good luck on the job hunt!
:

Goodness, Christa! You have a lot going on. Nyssa has a point. People always like food! Payment in FOOD works! Best wishes, as well. Hope you find a job you like!