After all these months of wearing masks and taking proper precautions, I still have trouble remembering to put on a mask when I go out—especially if it’s something quick and routine, like taking the dogs for a walk. It’s not like I’m hiding the masks; they’re hanging right by the door. Am I the only one with this problem? I can’t be.
I decided I needed a mnemonic reminder. So now when I go out, I (try to remember to) chant to myself, “Going out? Cover your snout!”
It helps. Just like “Going out? Don’t go without!” helps me remember to take my wallet when I’m going to the store.
Neither is foolproof. I’m grateful for Google Pay on my phone, which saves me about once every few months, when I find myself at the grocery checkout, patting my pocket, and cursing softly because there’s no wallet there.
Some of us need all the help we can get, these days.
Not everybody likes it, though.
Just in time for the holidays, I have put on sale a complete autographed set of The Chaos Chronicles (to date), right here in my 
Audiobooks of The Reefs of Time and Crucible of Time have hit the ground with a hop, skip, and a twist. The narrations by Stefan Rudnicki have been finished for a while now. But their appearance in stores has been erratic and slow. A glitch at Findaway tripped up the distribution of Reefs, which should have been out a month ago—but it’s now finally appeared in a handful of stores. Unfortunately, Audible is not yet one of them. Lon-n-ng review times (caused by a flood of new submissions) have caused delays for both books in getting into Audible and Amazon.
Squirrels! The destructive little buggers have outdone themselves this year. They’re not just chewing the Christmas lights on our outdoor tree; they’re chewing the wiring and the electronics on our rooftop solar panels! And when workers came to repair the damage and install critter guards (which we should have had in the first place), they found a nest under one of the panels. And then they saw a fat squirrel dive right through a roof vent into our attic. We’re lucky he saw it go through, because the vent had been hidden by the panel, and otherwise, we might not have discovered the hole the little varmints had chewed.
