Word of the Day

juxtaposition juhk-stuh-puh-zish-uhn

noun

The act or an instance of placing two items side by side, especially for comparison or contrast, or the state of being so placed.

[French juxtaposition : Latin iuxta close by + French position, position (like we couldn't figure that one out), from Latin (so what time? early? late?) positio, position-, placing, position, from positus, past participle of ponere, to place.] (Well that clears it all up nicely)

OK so today's word has nothing to do with anything. I just think it is a cool word.

This week I've moved my plastering to the south wall of the loft (and select other places while I've got my super grungy plastering/painting outfit on anyway). The house has 15/12 pitch roofs which means the place where wall meets roof peak is way up there. So, I have one section of scaffolding, then on it four solid wooden chairs, and on them a kitchen step stool. It's real solid but still a tiny bit scary. When I return home this evening, I plan to turn off the heat pumps (hopefully the house will be cool enough to do this) and sand the top of the wall.

On a side note, I saw a bit of movement from the corner of my eye and turned my head to see a skink lizard on the arm of the sofa where I sit, sunning himself in front of mum's big window.

Once I've sanded the top of the wall, I can remove the chairs from the scaffolding (they take up lots of space) and finish plastering the rest of the wall (or as much as I can reach from the scaffolding). I figure I'm still maybe a week away from painting. I'm working on several areas at once so I can paint a lot while I have the roller wet and all. I'd much rather do a large section and then throw away the roller than keep doing little areas and cleaning the rollers each time.

The skink has moved to the seat cushion. It is really a good thing I am intrigued rather than freaked out by things like wild lizards running loose in the house.

Along with all the plastering and painting I've been working on the last few weeks, it is now time for a new work year to start since my teaching year coincides with the school year. I've been up to my eyeballs in trying to schedule students, working out the fee structure for the new year, printing out new lesson forms, brochures...

Needless to say, I'm not doing much writing. I think I managed one poem last week (or maybe that was the week before) and there is another niggling away in the recesses of my mind. I just need to focus and let it work its way out of the mists into the light. Both my novels are on the back burner but not forgotten. Ideas for three more are teasing me too. I had meant to compile facts, character sketches, timeline... for one of them, Still Waters, and then write like a maniac the month of November, participating in NaNoWriMo. Now, of course, we have a wedding mid month so I think trying to write 50,000 words that month might be an unreasonable expectation. I've got a file of Novel Ideas and I just keep stashing ideas there for future reference.