Our clothes dryer started making funny noises the other day.
Not just strange noises – alarming noises; like the sound a battleship might make sliding out of a dry dock on its first launch.
I was less than thrilled with this development, since we just replaced our defunct dishwasher a couple of weeks ago. I was not in the mood to replace another appliance. (more…)
Early last December, my wife was running errands with our little girl. She had just parked in front of a strip mall to drop off my dry cleaning, when she glanced in her rear-view mirror and saw an out of control Jeep launching over a curb, headed right for her.
The Jeep plowed into the back of our car, driving it up onto a high curb and into a large stone planter. The driver was suffering from a seizure, and had lost control of his vehicle.
He didn’t even realize what he’d done.
He had come within a few seconds of killing half of my family, and he had no idea. (more…)
Thirty days.
Thirty days of writing and posting something daily.
Thirty days – without a break – of forcing myself to do what I love.
It seems silly that I would have to force myself to write, when writing is what I’d like to do for a career, but it’s true.
Writing requires effort, and effort requires discipline. Thirty days ago, I was a little lean on the discipline, and as a result I wasn’t making much effort.
Then I started the Write Every Day challenge, and I learned some pretty cool concepts along the way.
I learned that when you practice something long enough, it becomes a habit – it gets ingrained into your daily routine to the point that if you stop doing it, something feels wrong. (more…)
I was on a roll this morning.
I had worked diligently on my novel, and was kicking around ideas for a post to the site, but I had to take a break, for, umm… er…
OK, OK, I had to use the bathroom.
Yup, being an author is pretty glamorous.
Anyway, I closed my laptop and went off to take care of the necessities, if not the niceties, of daily life. I planned to come back and work on a blog post, then do some bits of site management.
In other words, I was being productive, and feeling pretty good about it. One little bathroom break wasn’t going to break my stride. (more…)
A lot can happen in ten years.
When we moved into our house nine years ago, the kid next door was a shy little six-year old. Today I glanced out the front window and saw him pass our house – driving his dad’s pickup.
My niece still enters my memory as what she was ten years ago when we left our hometown to move here – a tiny little girl with a mischievous grin. She’s now almost six feet tall, looks like a model, and is engaged to be married.
Wait, wait… slow down, it’s going too fast… (more…)
Jet Screamer
Meat Sandwiches