Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Here’s a fairly short, or not, post to say hi and send along a few updates to prove I’m still here.

It bothers me that I haven’t posted anything, but I haven’t had anything to say. Why write mumble jumble. Wait. This might be mumble jumble. I’ve been writing which is a good thing.

The good news:

One book is with my editor–Two-Five Ranch Outlaws #2. I’m hoping to publish in September. Pre-order info will be posted later if I go that route. I’m champing at the bit to do a cover reveal. Should I without buy links? I used to all the time but when someone says, ‘Oh, I have to read this. Where can I get it?’ Sadly, I have to say it isn’t published yet. Then by the time it comes out, no one remembers they wanted to read it.

Book #1 is the cowboy in my website header and available for purchase now.

More good news:

I’m in the process of writing the ending to a standalone western holiday romance. This book came to me out of nowhere. ❤ I got up one morning in the wee hour over a year ago and wrote the beginning so I didn’t forget it. Then with the sickly year I had, the beginning sat and sat before I could get back to it. It’s on my editors list now too. I’m keeping it under 50K words. My published holiday romance is a novella. My blog readers know this, but if you don’t…the novella is more heartwarming and sweet, but it doesn’t fall under the “sweet” genre. It isn’t western, but I gave my hero horses. Duh! 🙂

Not so good news:

I’ve been living existing with an awful, AWFUL sickening smell in my apartment. It smells like a dead animal, landfill, sewer gas, boiler fumes/exhaust, etc. The boiler isn’t on most of the time, but it comes on at a certain external temperature. I hear water going through the pipes and the bleeders chattering. My apartment heat is NOT on, but I hear it going to other apartments. You know what? I should not know things like what bleeders sound like, but that’s for another post.

I can’t precisely describe how rotten the smell is. I’ve been trying to eliminate possibilities, but I’m a tenant, not a maintenance person. I have done more guessing than they have. You know why? Because they can’t smell it. One maintenance guy did smell it. Bless his heart.

I have been wearing a mask in the house and to sleep because the smell nauseates me, gives me a headache, scratchy throat, and I can taste it! It burns my eyes. This can’t be good! No one else in my building has an issue. It’s been a month or more. I’ve treated drains. No change.

One day this past week, they brought in a commercial ionizer and let it run for four hours. I had to be out of the apartment. When I came in later, I still smelled the stench. A manager suggested I buy an air purifier, so I did. Then I bought a larger one that arrived today because the other didn’t help. The manager said it would draw that stink right out of here. Well, it didn’t. My smarts and instincts tell me that you aren’t going to get rid of an odor that continues to leak from somewhere.

One manager told me he’d “round up” a device to detect radon and all the other ‘don’ toxins. I’d like a timeframe on that. It sounds important to me!

It IS important to me. I will update this topic when I have an answer. This month, I signed my lease for another year. However, If they’d rather I moved out then fix the issue, well… I say no more for now. I love the building I’m in and chose this one out of two others I could have had. Sigh.

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On a happier note:

I’ve been walking, getting in my steps, and taking pictures. Soon, I’ll write a follow-up post to one I wrote earlier about getting steps in thanks to my fitness wrist tracker. I’m on my third tracker since the first post.

Well, this mumble jumble took up more space than I expected. I hope you’re all having a terrific summer. Take care, my friends! Stay safe.

Thanks to Pixabay for each of these images.