What I Will Be Doing Today

Since I’ve called it quits on NaNoWriMo this year, I’ve freed up some of my day today. Here is what I will be doing, for anyone who may be curious:

1. Replace the doorbell. I’ve replaced our doorbell at least once before. I actually headed to Home Depot first thing this morning to get a new one. I installed it, but there is a problem. One of the wires is bad and when I tried to strip it, it basically crumbled and is now too short to reach the lead. So at some point, I’ll have to extend that wire. In the meantime, the new doorbell is on and at least it looks nicer than the old, cracked one¹.
2. Replace the flapper in the master bathroom toilet. Kelly bought a replacement and I just need to pull out the old one and swap in the new one. There was a slow leak that would cause the basin to refill throughout the night and I think (hope?) this will fix the problem.
3. Try to complete “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first part of The Lord of the Rings. I don’t often have the ability to read for a big part of the day, but I think I may have the time to get in a lot of reading today. I am currently through 115 pages of The Lord of the Rings. “The Two Towers” begins on page 410 in my edition which means I need to get through about 300 pages before bed tonight. It’s a lot, but not unheard of for me, if I am given the time.

Tomorrow, I may get to work on the second draft of the story I wrote a week ago or so. And then I have two other stories lined up. One is the second draft of an “epic fantasy” that I wrote early this year. The second is a new science fiction alternate history that involves two passions of mine: baseball and the Apollo program. Since all of these are relatively short stories, maybe I can finish and submit a couple of them before the year is out.