Update: Look at that, it’s February, that was fast

Okay, so I didn’t feel like I was pushing all that hard during January, and there were those stressful power outages, but of course half of Christmas Break occurs during January, so there’s that. Anyway, I’m keeping a running total of wordage, so I know that in January I wrote 80,000 words for Tano’s next book. I’m wistfully noting that if this were going to be a short book, like SUELEN, it would now be finished. In fact, if it were going to be an average book, like MARAG, it would still be finished, or nearly, because I started the month with 35,000 words already sitting here.

As it is, no. I’m going to let it go to 200,000 words or thereabouts, then trim it back to some reasonable length, because that’s just how it’s going to work this time. I do need to decide whether I’m keeping the current title or changing it, so I can start referring to it by title instead of as “Tano’s next book.” Not that that isn’t clear, but still.

Anyway, here we are, February. February is a terrible month. It’s terrible for two reasons – no, three –

A) February is the depths of winter. Though you can’t tell at the moment, which is why I forgot that for a minute. It’s 70 F today, thus turning all grassy areas into a quarter inch of mud on top of soil still frozen as hard as concrete, so that’s not great. Anyway, the dogs love that we’re going out to the Arboretum every day (and then washing 24 little feet). Joy spent an hour barking at imaginary birds in a shrub yesterday rather than running madly around, but whatever, I’m sure that was fun, for some reason.

Where was I going with this?

Oh, right. Springlike weather notwithstanding, it’s not spring. Ordinarily I love winter and enjoy snow, but we don’t have our new generator yet, so right now, not so much. We have the propane tank and the cement foundation for the generator has been poured, so we’ll get there, I suppose.

B) February is short. I don’t mind, exactly, except that I would like to declare that I’m finished with this book by the end of February, so a longer month would be nice. I admit, this is totally unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

C) My birthday is in February, and I’m long, long past the time of life where I thought cake was worth having to note the fact that I’m older. Though I suppose I should make a cake, because whatever, at least I will have an excuse to do that.

Not that I would be 20 again if you paid me. I would absolutely be 40 again, though.

Meanwhile!

My very favorite purchase of 2025 so far, and in fact this is the single item I like best that I’ve purchased for a good long time:

The Airmoto Smart Air Pump.

You know, back in the dark ages when my car did not tell me about tire pressure, I never put air in my tires and never thought about it, and I never had a flat except when I picked up a nail or something. But those days are long behind us, and now my car tells me all about the tire pressure, so I know that two of the tires are down to 30 psi and a third is flirting with 28 psi, and if that tire drops another pound, I’m going to get a low air warning.

I am absolutely sick and tired of messing with gas station air pumps. I’m tired of asking neighbors if they would mind blowing up a low tire. I’m tired of driving on tires I know are low for two months because I don’t want to deal with it and eventually I’ll need to take the car in for an oil change and they can do it. I’m REALLY tired of knowing the tires are low and we’re expecting temperatures to drop to 8 F and then probably I’ll get a low air warning. I had a slow leak last year and was putting air in that one tire every single week until finally the dealership found the leak and fixed the tire, which was an hour and a half out of my life that I’ll never get back, by the way.

I had no idea that anybody made a cordless, tiny, six-inch air pump that charges by plugging in to a normal wall socket or your cigarette lighter in your car, that comes with a tiny little hose you screw into the air compressor and then SCREW ON TO THE TIRE VALVE, so you know it’s on there and you’re not accidentally letting air OUT of the tire instead of putting air INTO the tire, which I have done. (If you’re the sort of handy person who would never do that, try not to laugh.)

Anyway, I saw an ad someplace for a teensy air compressor and I thought, Really? And went to Amazon and poked around and bought the one linked above. Yesterday, when the temperature was up and it was a nice day, I tried it out.

First, wow, the directions are awful. Not only is the print tiny, but I was like, “What are all these little pieces? Am I supposed to do something with these? There are no instructions for any of this! I kind of get the part with the controls, but what are these THINGS?” So I did what I’m sure is second nature to anybody who grew up with a smartphone, but has taken me a while to learn to do: I googled a short YouTube video showing me how to use the air pump. Oh, the things are extra valves for blowing up basketballs and bicycle tires! I can just ignore them! Well, maybe you should SAY SO in the instructions, for people like me who have no clue.

Anyway, the hose already has the right screw-on attachment for a car. You don’t have to do anything with the extra little valves and things. There’s a release button on the back of the air pump which releases the hose from its storage compartment, another detail left out of the official instructions. You then screw the hose into the compressor and then screw the other end to your tire’s valve and push buttons until the air compressor turns on. The instructions for which button to push are probably okay, though I watched that part of the video too. The itsy-bitsy air compressor worked like a charm. It puts about one pound psi into your tire per minute, which doesn’t seem a lot slower than the big compressor at the gas station. I love it already and I will never be without it.

I think the recent tech things that have made the biggest difference to my life in the past couple of years are my robot vacuum cleaner, my kitty fountain – they really love it and were not happy when the fountain turned off during the power outage – and now this teensy little air compressor.

So if you never worry about tire pressure and don’t find this an extra stressor in your life, great, but if you had no idea you could get something like the above, now you know this is a thing.

Meanwhile!

I have been poking along, very slowly reading a novel, which I started some time last year. Structurally, it was about the strangest book I’ve read for a good long time. I finally finished it, so I’ll tell you about that later this week. Maybe Friday, since I don’t think I have a post scheduled for Friday (and completely forgot to do a post last Friday, sorry!).

Also, since it’s February, I should do the next newsletter. And check to see how many more chapters I have from “Midwinter,” since eventually I will need to finish that story. Though I think it can perfectly well wait till I’ve finished a draft of Tano’s next book, whatever its title eventually turns out to be.