Holiday hustle...

Wild day! Woke up to snow. Shoveled the walk(s), hustled off to the gym, came home for quick shower and cup of coffee, then headed for the office to write. Short but productive morning. Back home at 12:30 to take care of matters around the house. Got some research out of the way for the SF trip. Starting to feel organized. More about this later. Taking clients to the Broadmoor for dinner this evening. Gotta run and dress.

Egg nog, nig-nogs, and more...

Savage journey into the heart of King Soopers in search of mushrooms this evening. Would gladly eat a bowl of poison ones before ever venturing back into that store again. What a horrible place it's become! No way to make a quick break in and out anymore. Need to try the Safeway up in Old Colorado City from now on. Biggest disappointment? The egg nog. It was either lactose tolerable, light, sugar-free or some other bastardized recipe the food Nazis have decided to foist upon us. Need to make a special trip to the dairy for the real thing.

Not much writing today, but did manage to get cross town and have three pair of glasses repaired. No one downtown does that sort of thing anymore.  Now if only the lab can get the prescription right on the new pair.  

In the spirit...

Back clicking on all cylinders after a good night's sleep. Crazy. Woke up expecting a pair of unsteady legs, but felt stronger and stronger as the day went on. Got some good revisions in on the new story. Feel like I might have a good draft by week's end, holiday schedule providing. More  decorating still ahead, a party or two to attend, guests arriving. We'll see how things go. Trimming the tree tonight. Should be fun, as always.  

Down with something...

Got sicker as evening wore on last night. Turned in at 8:00 pm, woke this morning still feeling lousy. Had a single cup of coffee and went directly back to bed. Up around 11:00. Wonder what it is that's got hold of me? Whatever, no one else seems to have it.

Christmas tree up! Decorations ongoing! House is looking fine. A beautiful snow started about an hour ago, and everything's blanketed in white. Looking forward to a quiet night in. Maybe a fire.

Plugged in again...

Been a little under the weather today. Still, got in some writing and brief walk. Conference call with a possible new client. Fingers crossed. Bought a new iphone 5c hoping to upgrade my current connections and, with luck, make it possible to find a cell somewhere on the mountain next summer. Reception up there's been getting progressively worse with AT&T. Each year a new low. Last summer couldn't catch a cell until just outside Casper. Anyway, lowered my rates and got a free tablet into the bargain. Now I'll have something I can read when I hit the rack at night. Hope so, anyway. 

A quiet Thursday evening...

Got some sleep last night. Amazing what some shut-eye can do for you. Back and forth day at the office, but got enough accomplished I'd call it a win. Still trying to hook up with a new phone and carrier. Maybe tomorrow.

Read about a marathon reading of War and Peace taking place in Russia. Smithsonian Magazine carried the story. Pretty cool. Each participant logs in a three minute stretch, then passes it off to the next guy.

Almost at the end of N. Maclean's Young Men and Fire. Not a brilliant book, styistically. But full of heart. It's going to be one of those reads that stays with me the rest of my life. Really sad to come to the end of it.

Need to move on to the second round of readings for the SF stories. Have thought about all of them, and can't wait to dig in again. Lots of good stuff there. 

Nice day today. Warm again. Can't believe Christmas is only 15 days away. 

Restless in Colorado Springs...

Up at 2:00 am. Back to sleep after 5:00. Not good. Early to bed, late to bed, no difference. Still can't seem sleep through the night.

Made some progress on the new/old story at the office. Not a lot, but enough to feel as though something was accomplished.

Called the English department of Northern Kentucky today to see if I could find out what happened to my contributor copies of the Licking River Review. "Stuck" was supposed to have come out in # 45, last year, but have no idea whether the issue even ran. Last I heard, there was a death on the editorial staff, and the publication date had been pushed back. Looking forward to a call back to see where things stand.

Should have been a warm afternoon--weather reports called for temps in the 60s--but I swear it didn't reach much over 50. If that. Got in a mid-afternoon walk and quick workout at the gym after work. But tired. Had a difficult time getting motivated.

New phone. Gotta get a new phone before SF.

Inching along...

Much excitement. Iron works guys showed up with hinges for the back gate this afternoon, followed by the plumbing team who roto-ed a ball of tree roots from the back yard clean out. Now if we can only get the bricklayer to come back and finish the porch!

Not much writing today, but a decent round of revisions. Who knows, may finish a new story yet.

Hit the gym late afternoon, then went back to the office to take care of some housekeeping chores. Quite there. A nice wintry evening in Old Colorado City. Printed the last of the materials needed for the SF workshop. Want to plunge back in soon, and begin making notes. 

A second set of eyes...

Restless night's sleep. Heard one of the kitties cry around 3:00 am, sat up and didn't go back to sleep until 5:30 or so. Never did figure out what the problem was.

Made some progress revising a draft that's been hanging around for two summers now. Think I finally discovered what it was that needed fixing. Still a long way off from finished, but much better in pace and form. Feels as if it might come together quickly now. We'll see.

New glasses had faulty lenses. Prescription reversed or something. Everything corrected, so should have new eyes in two weeks. Looking forward to that.

Cool today, but sunny. More of the same tomorrow.. 

 

Early to rise...

Woke at 3:00 am. Got up and wrote a while. Had brunch with friends, then went off in search of Christmas. Untangled twelve strands of lights while watching a football game. The lights were more interesting than the game. Read, then went to the gym. Back home now, looking to settle in.

Uninspired musings...

Wild day. Braces broke last night (unglued bracket), and spent the better part of the morning chasing down the orthodontist. Meanwhile, forged ahead with revisions on an old draft. Surprisingly, or maybe not, discovered how to puzzle the narrative together without cutting the hell out of the story.

Beautiful day. Colder than last fall, but nothing to complain about when the sun's sunny and the skies are blue. Miss the long autumn of last year. Miss fishing. Keep hearing the line, "Swift as a weaver's shuttle fleet our years..." Browning? The Bishop Orders his Tomb at St. Praxed's?" I can't remember anymore. Hesiod's Works and Days, maybe?

Saw my brother standing on his front porch tonight as I was driving down the road. We waved at one another.

Bullets over San Bernardino...

More shootings. This time in San Bernardino. Not sure what's wrong with the world, but hope it enjoys a full and healthy recovery. Soon. Before everything worth appreciating vanishes.

A lot of uninterrupted time today. Made the most of it. Revised a new draft, made notes on an earlier one. Researched submission possibilities and read another (the seventh) of the stories to be discussed in San Francisco. Lots of work ahead. Notes, more notes. Reading, more reading.

Sunny most of the day. A welcome sight, the blue sky. Night comes too soon, and with it, dark, nighttime thoughts. Got to the gym to chase away the blues, but discovered my access card missing. Home now with a bottle of wine instead.   

 

Weekend's end...

Good morning writing. Making progress on a new story. Was hoping to catch the revival of Roman Holiday at Cinemark, but got waylaid. Ransomed the Jeep from the airport instead, then moseyed off to the gym. Dinner later with family. Mac & cheese! Back to work tomorrow. Stories for the SF class arrived via email late in the afternoon. Eager to start reading them. Another frosty night. Picked up a new light snow just before six. Plumber comes tomorrow, iron smith tuesday. Hope to get a tree-cutting permit from the Forest Service before the week's out.

Saturday, 6:15 pm...

Florida beautiful. Two days swimming in the ocean. Haven't done that in a long, long time. Flew back Thursday (Thanksgiving), but nearly hung up by a cold front with snow. Woke the following day to learn a gunman had shot more than ten people, then holed up in Planned Parenthood a few miles away. Standoff went on until 9:00-something that evening, marring an otherwise quiet holiday. Second wild shooting here in two months.

Copies of the New Guard arrived today. My story "Requiem for a Bantamweight," was one of the featured pieces. A finalist in the Machigonne Fiction Prize contest. Nice to see it in print.

Looking forward to getting back into some sort of groove. Soon.

I Loafed, and Invited My Soul to Do Likewise...

Worked on a new story this morning. Felt good to be back composing. Got in a long walk before noon. More importantly, before the wind blew in over the peak and the temps plummeted. Looks like it's going to be a wintry Saturday.

Wrote and posted some long overdue letters this afternoon. Made it to the gym before coming home.

A lazy day compared to most. Felt good to relax a little.

This Pilgrim's Progress...

The two pieces for the San Francisco workshop are out the door. Hallefreakinglujah. Figured to have them finished two days ago, but should have known better. Anyway, they’re out of my hair and I won’t have to look at them again until January.

Took care of housekeeping this morning. Sent letters to four or five pubs, inquiring after manuscripts. All over a year in the slush pile. Only one’s written back so far, but based on experience that’s one more than I’d expected. The story in question had been lost or misplaced. Worst part was, it cost me an IRC. Which are nearly impossible to come by. Half of our U.S. Postal Service employees don’t even know what they are.

Sunny day. Sunny, brisk, and full of fall. Saw the Cristo “Over the River” installation working its way through the courts in Denver. Would love to see it resolved, favorably, for Cristo. If it’s okayed, I have a serious notion to apply for a job on the crew. Fingers crossed.

When My Ship Comes In...

Dreary morning. Overcast, snowy, but clear by mid-day. Worked on "Bounty," the second of the two San Francisco stories. Shoveled the walk at noon, wrote a little more, then off to the gym. Miss the outside time, walking the neighborhood. Weather bureau says 50s tomorrow, so with any luck the fall weather will return for a while.

Copies of the Blue Crow Review arrived mid-afternoon. "A Convergence of Interests" appears toward the end of the volume. Pretty looking piece. That's two in a row. Kansas City Voices ("Burn Scar") was a knockout too.

Read in the Smithsonian online today some millionaire bought, and is restoring, John Steinbeck's old boat, Western Flyer. Now that's a project, isn't it? Oh, to win the Powerball. 

Peeking in...

Long time since checking in. Hard to explain the silence except to say it was combination of many, many things. Going to ease into it this time around, and not worry about catching up or looking back. 

Snow blew in tonight. First serious sign of winter. Finished Mrs. Dalloway earlier, and started Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire this evening. Worked on "Bounty" all day. Deadline for submission is Friday, but want to send it off before that if possible. My other piece up for review, "Bad Good Friday," is finished, pending a quick proof reading.

Flying to Florida for Thanksgiving. Be nice to get away for a while.