Category Archives: travel

Bible study, family, miscellaneous, The Forest Throne, travel

Random Friday Thoughts

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Dateline: Jan. 20, 2022

Between leftovers and some takeout, I had to fix only one meal. Grandpa’s Mythical Sandwich was a hit, as always.

Yes, the dateline shows that I’m writing these Friday thoughts on Thursday. At least I’m beginning these thoughts then.

Yesterday (Wednesday), we drove back from West Texas from having babysat our four grandchildren last weekend and staying a few extra days. We might have come home on Tuesday, but Lynda had a stomach bug, so we delayed a day. Actually, we had been uncertain of which day to come home on.

But yesterday morning before we left, our son-in-law was sick, went for a covid test, and was positive. So we have been exposed. As it turns out we hadn’t been all that close to him in the house, so maybe we will be okay. But, let the quarantine begin. I guess 5 days. Except, I have prescriptions to pick up at Wal-Mart and a few after-trip groceries I must get. I’ll do that this morning.  I’ll have to miss the monthly meeting of the Scribblers & Scribes, our critique group, Thursday night. I’ll send my piece to them by e-mail.

With The Forest Throne done and waiting on beta readers, and with the church Centennial book done and waiting on proof-readers, I’m about to spend time on my next writing project. As I said in my annual writing goals post earlier this month, it would be a Bible study. But which one? On Tuesday, I consolidated my various files from the Holy Week study I taught last Lenten season, on the Last Supper. Thursday morning, I found my hand-written teaching notes and will go through them over the next several days.  I have a feeling I will make this my next book rather than the study I did on 1 and 2 Timothy some years ago. But we shall see. I should know by early next week.

I’m in the process of contacting an artist about a cover for The Forest Throne. Hoping to make contact on Thursday. Also, the first beta reader of TFT is my granddaughter Elise, 8. She loved it. She also picked up on a number of subtle things I put in the book.

I’ve been brainstorming the concept of individualism, having posted on that before and wanting to do a follow-up or two, possibly even write and publish an essay on that. I have come to the conclusion that the opposite of individualism is collectivism. I even found a quote by Dr. M.L. King that agrees with that, but I can’t trace it back to the actual speech or document, so hate to use it. I don’t know that this essay will ever happen, or if it does it will be anything more than serialized blog posts.

The drive home from W. Texas was pleasant. I was worried about road conditions near the end, in our own county, as the forecast was for a wintry mix that afternoon. As I looked at radar that morning, frozen precip was showing over Oklahoma City, where we were making a brief stop to drop recyclables from our daughter’s accumulation. But after driving an hour and a half, and checking the predicted radar again, it showed the OKC precip abating by the time we would get there, and that what would fall toward the end of our trip would be minor at most. So on we drove. We stopped about 45 minutes from home and made a couple of phone calls, learned the roads were fine, and so we continued on home.

I’m in the midst of reading three different books (well, four if you include the one I read 3 or 4 pages of on my phone a day—no, five if you include the book I’m reading for Life Group teaching), two of which are books about writing. I took those two with me to Texas, and made good progress in them. One I should finish in three days or so; the other will likely take over two weeks. It’s interviews with 20 writers, and I’m just reading one interview a day.

That’s enough random thoughts. I hope to head to the sunroom later, with my handwritten notes, and get to work on the Bible study. See you all on Monday, when I hope to get back to something on my list of upcoming blog posts.

Documenting America, family, travel

Milestones and Breakthroughs

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Dateline 14 Oct 2021, Big Spring, Texas

Elijah enjoyed the bowling and wouldn’t use the launching rack.

The wife and I have been on grandparent duty for the last week. The parents have been around. We had relatively few times where we had to babysit. We came to celebrate birthdays. Youngest grandchild Elijah turned 5 on Oct 3, and his dad, Richard, had a birthday on the 6th. The celebrations were delayed due to a conflict with church activities last weekend. On Saturday they did a bowling party for Elijah. I guess 5 years old is a milestone if not a breakthrough.

Ezra is in the middle of the photo, in scout shirt with hands in pockets.

On Monday I did parent duty at Ezra’s cub scout pack meeting. He had missed the week before so didn’t have his toolbox put together. The cubmaster told him to have it next week. Grandpa remedied that with him this afternoon at Ace Hardware. I only got him  only the box and a few tools, telling him I had some surplus tools at home which, had I known he needed them, I would have brought them. At the pack meeting they learned a little about car maintenance. Checking the tire air pressure (and where to find the right pressure) and checking oil level are now part of the scouts’ knowledge base. And we got to use his tools this afternoon on a home repair.

Ephraim approaching the finish line. The boy is second can just be seen in the trees over Ephraim’s left shoulder.

Tuesday, oldest grandson Ephraim ran his final cross-country race of the year, the District finals. It was held in Big Spring, where they live. That may have given the Big Spring kids a bit of home course advantage. Ephraim had missed the last race, as he was recovering from an ingrown toenail and the coach rested him. Last year, in 7th grade, he finished 13th, which wasn’t too bad for his first year. Now in 8th grade, he is best on his team (a small team at this particular race). How would he do? His female counterpart won the girls race by a big margin. Then came the boys race. At the first viewing place, right after the start, Ephraim was 2nd or 3rd in a bunch. At the second viewing point he was 2nd but was passed and in 3rd as they went out of sight and started to spread out. Two minutes later, at a very brief view, it looked as if he was 4th, but they were far away and it was hard to tell.

Big Spring took 1st place in both girls and boys races.

Then came the viewing place on a good straightaway, and he was in 1st! And seeming like he was pulling away. He went up the hill and looked strong. At the final straightway leading to the finish line, he was still first with no one else in view. He cross the line a full 25 or 30 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. I consider this a breakthrough because now he knows he can win, and how hard he has to race in order to win.

Useless and Nitwit are allowed on the kitchen table to escape the torments of Nuisance.

The week has been made a little more exciting because of the three new pets in the household, a kitten who is almost a cat, a full blown kitten, and a rambunctious lab-mix puppy. They are new to the household after older pets expired earlier this year. Their names are Nuisance, Useless, and Worthless, though the latter name was replaced by Nitwit while we were there. No, that’s not their real names; that’s just what Grandpa calls them. Nuisance (the dog) is very powerful. I walked her 1 3/4 miles almost every day, and she had as much energy at the end as at the beginning. I won’t say that I will miss them when we go, though Useless was starting to cuddle up with me the last few days.

You can tell when I started to advertise it.

And, the last breakthrough, again more of a milestone, was me posting my 1000th book sale. Actually, as of 10 p.m. today (Thursday), I’m still at 999 sales. I should have another sale soon, perhaps by the time we get back home on Friday. While it’s a milestone, it’s still less than 30 sales per item for sale. I still work, publish, and sell in obscurity. Maybe someday I’ll be able to report sales that are more of a breakthrough rather than a milestone.

family, travel, Writing

Grandpa, You’re Boring

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Our only reason for going to Universal was the Harry Potter exhibit. We didn’t see much of this. We went on the Hogwarts ride and, while it made me a little sick, I managed not to puke.

On May 20, about noon, Lynda and I pulled out of our driveway and began a three-day drive to Orlando, Florida. We had much preparation for this trip, though the decision to make it took a long time. We were to meet our daughter and her family there. They had saved up for a long time for a big family vacation, and this was it. They had invited us to go along, and we were providing the accommodation through a timeshare exchange.

We weren’t sure we were going to go, what with covid and then the gas shortage. But things seemed to be falling into place, and a few days before the time, we made the decision to go. We told our son in a phone call but forgot to tell our daughter. The first night in the motel we let her know via Messenger and she replied, “Oh, I didn’t know you had decided to go.” She wasn’t upset; we just had forgotten to tell her. That meant that she wasn’t able to make suggestions about things we could bring with us that they would need but couldn’t take on the plane.

You go to Florida you expect to see an alligator in the wild, right? We had two in our resort ponds.

Fast forward to Orlando. Our daughter, her husband, and their four kids had four days planned for theme parks: three at Disney and one at Universal. Then they added a second day at Universal. We bought tickets to go to Universal the same day they did. The other days we planned to just stay in the resort (which was very nice), doing the usual things we did at home, plus maybe a little walking, a little shopping, a little sight-seeing. In truth, we did less than that. Other than preparation of meals for everyone, or taking everyone out to eat, we just had a restful time. Oh, yeah, I played chauffer to reduce parking costs.

What’s a vacation without a little trauma? In this case, a foot gashed on barnacle-encrusted rocks at a Gulf beach, requiring 4 stitches.

We had great interaction with all the grandkids. I had several good conversations with Ephraim, the oldest. He and I are sort of planning a book together. I think I’ve mentioned it before in these posts. Tentatively titled, The Forest Throne, it will be a time-travel sort of book. I’m brainstorming it now, trying to figure out how to make it unique, not just a run-of-the-mill time travel story. I talked to Ephraim that I was concerned that I’m too far removed from being a 12-year-old and how to make the book suitable for kids that age. He said not to worry. I should write the book and he’ll make adjustments to make it suitable for kids his age.

The lines and noise level at Universal made the experience less that satisfactory for us boring, old folks.

The day we went to Universal I had problems getting Lynda and me into the park, something about our e-tickets wasn’t right. So the rest went on. Later we all met up. Then Lynda and I got in line to do the Hogwarts Castle ride. That was an hour, maybe more. From there we went to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. That was over an hour wait, most of it in the sun. Lynda was tired, I wasn’t tolerating the noise level very well, the heat bothered both of us, and the walk to find a quicker place to eat took us all the way back to near the park entrance. So we left, getting some ice cream near the entrance.

A big city has a variety of foods. One evening of a down day I sprung for Indian food, which made the day worthwhile.

It was a couple of days later that I was talking again with Ephraim. I don’t remember exactly what it was we were talking about, but probably about my not enjoying amusement parts because of lines, noise, and not liking any rides that are high, fast, or quick turning (which is all of them). Ephraim said, “Grandpa, you’re boring.” I replied, “I try to be.”

He didn’t mean it in a bad way, but I’m very happy to be described as boring. Maybe it isn’t quite true that I’m boring. As I look back on my life, I’ve done a fair amount of risk taking and exciting things. But no more. I’m happy to sit at home, write my books, trade my stocks, walk the streets and trails for exercise or on the elliptical. Let others have their amusement parks. I’ll take boring any and every day of the week.

Masks and wands at the ready is how you do theme park at the end of a global pandemic.

We were with the kids from Saturday May 22 through Tuesday June 1. They left for the airport and a couple of hours later we hit the road. We made it home in two days this time, as we were in a mind to travel and, except for one major slowdown on I-40 in western Arkansas, the roads were clear. Now having been home for five days, I can say, “It was good to be with the kids, and it’s good to be back to our boring existence at home.”

What’s going to happen with The Forest Throne? If I don’t make it my next book, Ephraim may be too old by the time I get to it for him to help with it. My brainstorming is causing all the parts to come together. I’ve figured out an angle to make the time travel different. I’ve figured out two stories of this unique time travel. The last piece will be how to finish it all, for it won’t be a series that goes on forever. I’m brainstorming that now.

C.S. Lewis, Christianity, family, Genealogy, The Teachings, travel, Writing

Hunkering Down

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[Note to self: Don’t hit the browser back button when typing a post if you haven’t hit “save draft”. Maybe the second time will be a charm.]

This is looking up the street from our house on Thursday 2/11. It is sanded (actually gritted). I believe I could get up it if I tried.

I’m looking out The Dungeon windows to a light snowfall. It’s just condensation due to the cold, 14°F. We were supposed to be in Texas this weekend, watching the grandkids while their parents were at a church event. Wednesday last was our departure day. But we woke up to a winter glaze on the roads, a freakish ice storm overnight. It had been predicted then removed from the forecast. After a quick survey of the situation, I postponed the trip a day.

If not, perhaps I could get down the hill then loop around the circle and go up the next street which, last time I checked, was free of ice.

I spent time chopping and clearing ice, spreading rock salt and sand. I was able to get the already-loaded van up to the end of the driveway. Once the City truck came by spreading grit on the road, I probably could have made it up the hill. But reports on conditions elsewhere indicated the trip would be difficult. Thursday morning was not much different. Radar showed light, frozen precipitation along our route. I delayed the trip from morning to afternoon. By noon it was clear things were no better. Reports of accidents along our route said it all. I cancelled the trip.

So were are unexpectedly home. The forecast now calls for 6-10″ of snow Sunday-Monday, with temperatures like we have now or lower. After a trip to Wal-Mart today (hopefully) for fresh items, we will hunker down. I made a large pot of soup yesterday. We have enough frozen, canned, and boxed food to get by a long time should the W-M run not be possible. I plan to write in the church anniversary book. I plan to begin the editing process in The Teachings. I will read C.S. Lewis and other things. On Sunday I will teach Life Group from home. And I will walk outside a little but get my main exercise on the elliptical. I might even get a little genealogy research done.

I realize that the last paragraph is all about me. “I plan…I will…” Obviously I will do that only by the grace of God and the strength and abilities He has given me and continues to give me.

Oh, in the last half-hour we learned that the church event have been postponed due to…weather.

family, memories, travel, Writing

Back In The Saddle

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Here’s what I looked out on from my chair on the porch.

Or, rather, back in my chair, at my computer, with my books and tools around me, ready to write—or in the week, mainly edit.

My wife and I were away for a little over a week. This was scheduled, then changed. Our son-in-law was to go on a mission trip to Mexico and we were to go to Big Spring, Texas, and help our daughter with the kids. The mission trip was canceled, a fairly last minute thing, due to not having the minimum number of people necessary to make it happen. They decided to get away for a few days instead and asked us to join them. We agreed, with the time commitment being a little shorter than the mission trip would have been.

Fishing wasn’t what I most wanted to do.

The trip was to Ruidoso area in New Mexico. I had never heard of this resort area, up in the mountains. South of Albuquerque, west of Roswell, it’s pretty high up. We had a rental house at elevation 6950 feet.  It’s monsoon season, and we had rains all but one day. It didn’t really slow us down at all. Daytime temperatures were 75 to 85 when it wasn’t raining, nighttime lows were 57 to 62. Very pleasant.

We had fun at the Flying J Ranch.

The wife and I did very little planning for this trip. We were supposed to drive to Texas on Friday August 2 then drive with them to New Mexico, a five hour drive, on Saturday August 3. But at the last minute we left the afternoon of Thursday Aug 1, intending to pull up at their door after midnight. A wrong turn in Wichita Falls means we didn’t get in until 3 in the morning. Alas.

Ah, yes, jail the outsiders.

The trip was nice and relaxing. Our rental house was just the right size for us. Richard took his older boys fishing a couple of days. I’m not into fishing so didn’t join them. I wanted to hike. I went on four of them all together. One on Sunday in the neighborhood with grandson Ezra, 1.57 miles. One Monday at Grindstone Lake with my daughter, her two youngest, and my wife, 2.45 miles. One Tuesday at a Federal recreation area, with most of the family, 1.56 miles. One Wednesday (the day we were leaving to

Elijah panning for gold at the Flying J Ranch.

come home), up a hill near our house with the two oldest grandsons, 1.25 miles without a trail. And a different one back at that recreation area, 1.61 miles. None of them were overly strenuous, but had uphill segments where I had to stop on occasion.

The house with the red roof is the one we rented, as seen from the nearby hill we hiked up on Wednesday.

On Sunday we went to a church, not knowing it was next to one of our denominational campgrounds and that they were just finishing a week of family camp. So we attended a camp meeting type service. We then drove up to a ski area to ride the gondolas, but they had closed due to rain. I’m not a fan of mountain roads, but we did okay.

Plenty of deer came by our cabin, this one right up to be fed.

When not engaged with grandkids, I did a little editing in my completed books, did some reading (as described in my last post), though I found the reading hard going, too intellectual, I suppose, for reading in somewhat distracted conditions. Still, I enjoyed cool mornings or evenings on the porch, coffee and book or e-reader at hand, soaking in both knowledge and clean, mountain air.

I was on the hike too, but took the photo.

Ruidoso is a place I would like to go back to. We found out what was available in the Smokey Bear Ranger District, specifically the Cedar Creek Recreational Area, which included camping, picnicking, biking, and hiking. Several longer trails are available which I would like to hike. Perhaps we’ll go back some day, and make some more memories.

Documenting America, Engineering, travel, Writing

Not Quite Back to Normal

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The grandkids found a wild blueberry patch in the woods across the street from our house. How many years has that been there and I didn’t know it?

After 2,700 miles in the last 24 days, consisting of two round trips from home to West Texas, first to pick up grandchildren to stay with us then to return them, things are back to normal today. That also includes our special bug infestation earlier in May, something I haven’t written about here.

I took the grandkids to a Wednesday evening service project at our church, packing meals for the food challenged.

Well, not quite back to normal. This afternoon we have our quarterly pest treatment. We always have some prep work to do for that and putting things back afterwards. Then there’s the question of groceries and whether we have enough or if we need to make a quick trip to the store. Then there’s getting the checkbook and budget up to date for all the debits on the trip, and filing the receipts. The latter isn’t critical, but I like to have finances up to date always.

Then, there’s my speaking engagement tomorrow, to the Village Lake Writers and Poets. This was supposed to have been in April, but I got bumped when another speaker was booked over me. I’m mostly prepared, but would like to run through it a couple of times today and tomorrow morning. My topic is “Genre Focus Disorder: Is Poetry the Cure?”

One other thing is an assignment from my former company to write a construction spec. I’ll need to look at that a little today, consider the deadlines, and decide how much time I’ll need to put into it. It isn’t huge, but it’s the first “major” assignment they’ve given me since I retired on January 1st this year.

Couldn’t let them be on screens all day. Chores were assigned, and done cheerfully—for the most part.

As for blog post, I have nothing planned. I’ll be thinking about them over the next few days. I hope to quickly get back into my rhythm of Monday and Friday blog posts. I normally try to plan ahead for those, knowing a week or two out what I’ll be posting about.

Trips aren’t over yet for the summer. We will soon make an overnight trip to Oklahoma City for a church event. Back to Texas a little later to help the kids out, and maybe one more time for the oldest grandchild to come stay with us for a week. It’s all good. I enjoy long distance driving, as does the wife. A road trip us usually a joy.

Now, will I be able to accomplish a little writing today? Documenting America waits. Stay tuned.

expatriate life, family, miscellaneous, travel

Notre Dame

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It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us.

I imagine just about everyone who has a blog and who at some time has visited Notre Dame will be making a post about it. I’ll join that army.

We visited Notre Dame in July 1982 while touring Europe en route to the USA from Saudi Arabia. We had just finished our first year in Saudi. Charles was 2 1/2, Sara a little over a year. Perhaps we were foolish taking two youngins’ on such a trip. We were young ourselves back then—and probably foolish.

Hard to get close enough to see people and much of the structure.

Lynda’s must-see city in Europe was Rome and mine was Paris. So we started our 28-day tour in Rome and ended it in Paris. It was a magical time, a once in a lifetime experience. Lynda and I have lots of good memories of that trip.

And a few photos. I think it was our last full day in Paris that we went to see Notre Dame. We had five nights and four days there. The day we arrived we learned the Louvre was closed due to a labor dispute. Bummer. We did other things, and I think the third day we were to go to Notre Dame, but the Louvre opened so we went there, leaving the famous cathedral for the last day in Europe.

Wish I were a better photographer.

We were at Notre Dame somewhat late in the afternoon. After relaxing and taking photos around the outside we went to go inside. A worker stopped us, saying mass was just starting. Not being Catholic that didn’t lure us in, but they would let you in if you wanted to attend mass. Lynda did that while I kept the kids outside, then, maybe ten or fifteen minutes later we switched. I felt a little guilty telling the worker I wanted to attend mass when I didn’t really, but, sometimes we do what we have to do. This was our last opportunity on the trip.

The interior had many beautiful views.

I remember inside as dark but beautiful. I made a quick pass around the inside perimeter, admiring all that I saw. I don’t have specific memories of this or that piece of artwork, but no matter. I went, we went, and that’s what was important.

While inside I snapped some photos. We had a good camera, a Nikon SLR with a telephoto lens, but I wasn’t much of photographer I’m afraid. You can see them on this post, not quite in focus, looking like they were taken in haste instead of with care. Alas.

The cathedral dominated the entire area.

I don’t remember which of us took the outside photos, but it was probably me as I’m not in any of them but Lynda and the kids are. They might be a little better than the inside ones.

We didn’t keep a trip diary then, so have no notes of what we saw, only the photos and perhaps a postcard or letter mailed home, which parents saved and gave to us years later. If time allows, I’ll find them in a file and see if I have anything to add. Given that this was our last day and we were then to head home to see parents, I don’t think I’ll find anything in there.

The fire was, of course, devastating. It’s a shame, though we look forward to rebuilding. I suspect I won’t ever get back there again, as there are too many places in the world to see should I ever again make an overseas trip.

family, travel

A Long Vacation

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Mel's Diner has singing wait staff. They were very good.
Mel’s Diner in Branson has singing wait staff. They were very good.

Every now and then I see something that says that Americans take shorter vacations than we did 40 years ago, or whatever timeframe yo want to pick. I suppose that’s true. Many people never take a week-long vacation these days, let alone two weeks. They opt for four and five day weekends. Which is better: the long vacation or the long weekend?

Lynda and I were just on a two-week vacation (almost) with our daughter and her family. They arrived from Oklahoma City late on June 19. The next morning we drove east, in two vehicles, to Indianapolis. Strange place to vacation, you ask? Not when it’s time for the Church of the Nazarene’s quadrennial meetings. Three general conventions of the missions, youth, and educational organizations, followed by the General Assembly, the governing body of the denomination. Richard, our son-in-law, was a delegate to the missions society General Convention. They asked us to go along to help with the kids, as they decided to make a family trip out of it.

Elise, posing as a Chines opera performer, at the Indianapolis Children's Museum
Elise, posing as a Chines opera performer, at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum

Richard was tied up the 21st through 23rd with the convention. I took him to downtown, to the convention center, from the rental house we had three miles away. It was an older, three-story house that was nicely restored. The floors creaked, but the house functioned quite well. The Wi-Fi and coffee maker worked, as did the microwaves, and it had a nice front porch with chairs and table. What more could you ask for?

I won’t go into all the activities we did. Needless to say, with four children, and with me getting sick one day and Lynda not feeling well on a couple of days, we probably did less than we thought we could. On Friday we went to see the expo hall associated with the general conventions. The kids had a good time in the bouncy play place. Lynda stayed with them while I walked the exhibits. I bought one book, saw a couple of friends, and had a good time. We al

Worshipping with 25,000 others Sunday morning at Nazarene General Assembly
Worshipping with 25,000 others Sunday morning at Nazarene General Assembly

so went to the Sunday morning service, and met up with a friend from more than 40 years ago. It was all quite enjoyable.

 

Then, on Monday, June 26, we drove from Indianapolis to Branson Missouri for the second leg of the trip. Here we stayed in a condo we were able to book using points from our timeshare: same resort company, but different resort from where we own. So, we had no out-of-pocket expense for the accommodation. It was two story, with two large bedrooms (one up one down), and two pull-out couches. It is central to just about everything in Branson.

The week was interrupted, however, because we had a gap in having someone to watch Lynda’s mom. So on Tuesday afternoon I drove to our house, only two hours on back roads, and spent that night with her. Wednesday afternoon I drove back to Branson with her, and she was able to spend a little time with her great-grandchildren and eat dinner with us. I drove back late that evening, and left early the next morning for Branson. That was the day we planned to go to Silver Dollar City, so I was on the road by 7:30 a.m.

I was last in Marvel Cave in October 1974. The tour is now much longer and much improved.
I was last in Marvel Cave in October 1974. The tour is now much longer and much improved.

For those reading the blog who don’t know about Silver Dollar City, it is truly amazing. It’s a theme park, with clusters or rides appropriate for all ages. It’s a crafters’ location, with such things as blacksmithing, candy making, glass blowing, and more. Of course, there are many, many opportunities to be separated from your money. If you avoid, those, and concentrate on the rides and crafts, it is really a lovely place. I was last there in October 2014, and have been there (I think) three other times in my life. There’s still much I haven’t seen. Lynda and I are thinking of going back sometime this fall, though we’ll see.

We played miniature golf twice. The first time we didn’t keep score, the second time we did, and I beat Richard by one stroke and Lynda by two. Sara was only a couple behind that. The three older kids enjoyed it a lot, though they were certainly rambunctious, and keeping them where they were supposed to be, and not bothering other players, was a constant battle.

I won’t mention everything we did in Branson. We did quite a bit; not always the whole group of us, but everyday saw some activity. Then, on Saturday July 1, we made the two hour drive home. That afternoon, the kids rode bikes, Ephraim caught two snakes and several toads, the parents rested, and I took the kids blackberry picking. The boys grew tired of it and went back to the house, but Elise stuck it out. The next day was church at our home church, and an afternoon of more snakes, toads, play, and blackberry picking.

Miniature golf, with four kids, three of whom are players. What's not to love?
Miniature golf, with four kids, three of whom are players. What’s not to love?

The OKC group drove back last night, through a rainstorm, and got home around 11 p.m. The Bella Vista three took the occasion to watch a movie, and just read. I kept thinking about those that left us, and they there is no quiet for them, at least not for another 18 years.

So, all the posts over the last two weeks were written ahead of time and scheduled to go live on my regular posting days. I’m back in real time now. Back to the daily grind on Wednesday, back to my writing “career” today.

family, travel

Relaxing?

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I’m writing this post ahead of time, to go live Friday June 30. At that time, I’ll be on vacation with the family in Branson, Missouri, the day before ending our trip. The question is, will I be relaxing or not?

From June 20-25 we were in Indianapolis, where our son-in-law, Richard, was a delegate to some of our church quadrennial meetings. Since Richard and Sara decided to make a family trip out of it, Lynda and I are along mainly to help. I write this before we even left. Our preparations for the trip are stressful. I can only imagine what Richard and Sara are going through.

We leave (or left, as you’re reading this) for Branson on June 26. There’s plenty to do there. Silver Dollar City will be on the agenda, as will a show, and probably a movie. Maybe even relaxing by the pool. Possibly the grandkids will allow us time to get a little reading in.

But, will I be able to relax? It’s been a busy time at work and home. I certainly need to decompress a bit. I’m just not sure this vacation is going to do the trip.

I’m scheduling this to post on the 30th. Possibly I’ll find time to come back and edit in some things about the trip, and report on my being able to relax.

self-publishing, Short Stories, travel, Writing

A Short Story Completed

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This summer, writing has taken a backseat in my life. I haven’t completely abandoned creative writing, but time to give it much focus simply hasn’t been there.

What have I been doing instead? Well, in early June we babysat our three grandchildren for almost two weeks, then their parents arrived and stayed with us a few days. They went on a ten day road trip, coming back in early July for a couple of days. That has a way of taking up a lot of your time.

Then there was my wife’s family reunion the last weekend in July/first of August. I was reunion planner. I know, that sounds strange, doesn’t it? But I was, and it took a fair amount of work. Part of that was completing a formal edition of my family history book. Seth Boynton Cheney: Mystery Man of the West, focuses on the patriarch of the family, but it’s much more than that. 292 pages of biography, photos, maps, document images, and pages and pages of data I’ve collected on a number of ancestors in the family. My goal was to have it published by June 15, to give people plenty of time to order it before the reunion. I came very close to making it. The book was done by the 15th and a proof copy ordered. It then took me to June 27th to have all the corrections made and have it published.

Then there’s stock trading. That took a back seat to the reunion, but since that I’ve hit it in a big way again, trying to make some money to augment the retirement funds. I’m actually not doing too badly for the year. I have losses, but almost none since April, with a string of winners since then helping to recover from other losses. Unfortunately that work isn’t going to change very soon.

Work at CEI has been about normal. I submitted abstracts for presentation of two technical papers, one of which was due Friday. I came within about two paragraphs of completing it then. I printed it out and have it at home with me. Hopefully tonight I’ll be able to read and edit it and figure out those couple of paragraphs I lack. Tomorrow I’ll be able to type the changes and upload it sometime in the morning. I advised the organization that I’d be on that schedule, and they said that was fine.

So, back to the short story. It is the last in the Danny Tompkins series that explores teenage grief at the loss of a parent. The subject for this story eluded me for half a year. Finally around May I knew what it would be, and I wrote a few paragraphs. The hindrance of the “blank page” having been overcome, I came back to it from time to time, as I could carve out a little time for it. Slowly it came to being.

On Friday I worked on it a little on my noon hour, and realized I wasn’t sure how to end it. This one ends the series of five stories, so the ending needed to be both for the story itself and for the series. This afternoon I sat down to work on it, first editing what I had. As I did that the idea for the ending came, it being a little different than I’d thought it would be. It reads more as a memoir than a story, but it’s done, and it’s as good as I can make it, so I’m going with it. I did the Kindle version formatting this afternoon. I was about to work on a simple cover for it, but realized I can’t get to the photo I was going to use. So I’ll have to take another photo, which I’ll do when I go upstairs. I know exactly what I want with it.

My goal is to have this available on both Amazon and Smashwords by Wednesday, August 19. It will be close, but I think I can do it. Smashwords doesn’t take much more formatting than does Kindle, and the same cover works for both. With luck I’ll have it all done tomorrow evening, and the books will be out in time. I also need to go back and add links to all five stories to the ones already published. That I’ll do before the week is out. Then, next weekend I’ll begin promotion of the new story and the set.

After that, I have another story started in a different series. I need to finish and publish that. Then, I’ll see.  I know which two novels I’ll work on next, and which book-length non-fiction. We’ll see which of those bubbles up to the top. The busyness doesn’t appear to abate in the months ahead. Another reunion that includes a long road trip awaits. A business trip will take me away for a couple of days in September, and another might do the same in October. But I’ll be writing. I’ll keep my few fans updated here.