Last week’s conversation was about hubris. This week I’m exploring another vocabulary-building word: hiatus.
According to the online dictionary Oxford Languages, hiatus (noun) is “a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process.”
What sequence, series or process are you pausing from?
A good question, Lily. I am pausing from the ongoing daily sequence of writing my “G” series and rehearsing for Sister Catherine’s Living History debut. These pursuits took several hours a day. Series book five, Justice in Big-G City, was submitted for consideration earlier this month. Last Sunday, Sister Catherine presented her history with the Sisters of Providence mission in the Nisqually Diocese (roughly, all of Washington and Idaho and part of Montana). She and I were delighted with the large audience, and their excellent questions afterward.
Sister Catherine is now stowed in the closet and the file cabinet, and I am on- –
Hiatus!
Exactly, 9. But don’t confuse hiatus with inactivity. I’m sure you and Lily have noticed some household projects falling by the wayside this past month.
Like the burned out fluorescent tubes in the bathroom. It’s so dim in there I can hardly see to put on makeup!
Looking toward next time, you’ll be glad to know those were replaced Wednesday, which is quite helpful to my main bathroom activity- -reading.
Hiatus project: The bathroom light fixture is not a thing of beauty, but it’s functioning again!
For folks nearly sixty-five and/or beyond, there’s a furtive aspect to replacing anything flush against the ceiling. God forbid anyone should discover I used a step ladder (!) to complete this operation. I’ll confess replacing fluorescent tubes is not my favorite activity- -lining up the little pins, the tight tolerances to get the old ones out and the new ones in, and, before that, trying to remember how the cover opens. However, it is done! Hopefully for a few years.
Yesterday’s hiatus project was priming replacement siding, part of July’s deck renovation. I guess I haven’t painted anything since moving into this house (May 2018), because I spent twenty minutes searching for the multi-pocketed canvas bag of painting supplies. Surely I hadn’t given it away with Bruce’s shop stuff I knew I’d never use, like an anvil (?), and a table saw. For whatever reason, the bag was concealed in an ill-constructed wall-hung garage cupboard.
Hiatus project: Primer on siding replacement boards with paint to come today. . .
And you hardly got any primer on your work jeans.
Yes, 9, I was very careful, just like a Big Girl.
It being September, a lot of tomatoes are coming in. Like ALL of them, both black cherry and sunrise slicing varieties. And quite a few purple beans (spoiler alert: they turn green when you cook them), and some, but not a ton, of zucchini. I have three or four times gifted my neighbors with this fabulous yield, but the tomatoes are really overwhelming.
Another hiatus project?
On the nose, Lily! My favorite way to preserve tomatoes is dehydration, converting them more or less into tomato leather that I freeze and then cut up to toss in salads, etc., during the cold months.
Hiatus project: Tomato preservation. Dehydrator, about a quarter of today’s yield, and the freezer-ready result.
There’s one other major project I’ve taken on: reading back-issues of magazine subscriptions. I love both The New Yorker (a weekly, two and a half issues behind after burning through 3 this week) and The Sun (a monthly, with only September unread). I’ve re-instituted the habit of reading at least one article with my morning coffee, easier to do somehow with the hours of daylight decreasing.
Hiatus project: Catch up on subscription reading!
At first I planned to go on hiatus for one week. Now I’ve extended it to two. For one thing, the tomatoes! For another, there are some actual fun things I’ve had on my To Do list for a while, plus a couple of special events. Wow! Pow! Biff! Bam! Adam West Day happens this Saturday at Kirkman House Museum (which boasts an Adam West Room, including Bat Poles, Walla Walla’s best photo op), and the last Walla Walla Sweets Rollergirls roller derby match-up September 28 (more about them at http://www.wallawallasweetsrollerderby.org/)!
Hiatus from the hiatus projects: Adam West Day September 21!
I’ll soon be back on the split writing/performing trail, appearing as (resident) Nellie Gilliam Day at Mountain View Cemetery’s fall tour, 10 AM October 5, and drafting the next “G” series book (working title Battle for Big-G City). Plus, The Sun accepted my “Readers Write” essay for their October 2024 issue!
Because a hiatus, after all, is just a pause. . .
