Oh, Wyoming...

Been racing along here, trying to punch things out the door. Lotta long format to contend with. Up at 4:00. Worked on Broadmoor script revisions, the reader draft of the Propaganda piece on "Heisenberg," and the critique of a new story submission for N.

Heading up to Wyoming tomorrow. Been thinking a lot about my dad lately. Had some good times with him up there. Glad to be going back. 

Gonna take it easy tomorrow. Get up early and pace myself. Don't want to forget anything. Got the glasses for the big eclipse, a meaty stack of reading material, so that's half the packing right there.

Expect to be off the grid for a while, but that's the way it goes. Will miss my boys, but feel good knowing they're in loving hands. 

A sleepy Saturday...

Just back from young M's first birthday party. Hard to believe he's a year old. Remember this night a year ago as if it were yesterday. Strange thinking so much time has passed. Strange, strange, strange.

Up later than usual this morning. First long night's sleep in ages. Took to the keyboard late as well, but managed to pump out some decent revisions on "Frank the Redeemer," the story I yanked from circulation a month ago. Might have the last of the changes in place by tomorrow with a little luck. Knocking wood as I say this. Been a while since I've been able to spend any time on the fiction. Felt good.

Worked till noon, then made a brief jaunt downtown to do some shopping. Nice day for walking. Warm, sunny, and a touch of breeze. Didn't rain until we came home for dinner.

Weather forecast for Casper the day of the total eclipse looks rosy. Hope it stays that way. Gonna be cold up in the Bighorns, and don't need to complicate things with rain. Some big fires up in Montana, but Wyoming looks clear.

Not sure what tomorrow's gonna bring. Hope it's good.

 

The eve of destruction...

Off the grid for a few days. Busy entertaining mom. Kept a low profile for the most part, but had a nice time despite the fact we couldn't seem to shake the rain.

Woke up this morning wondering if we'd be looking at nuclear night. Did the president really threaten the N. Korean's with war?

On the outside possibility the weekend is still in front of us, I spent most of the day at the keyboard working on another N. review, and an upcoming article for Propaganda. Got mom on the road by 10:00, then steamed ahead. Hit the gym late afternoon, but didn't have much in the tank. Tired from all the socializing.

Need to get off to a strong start tomorrow.

Providing there is a tomorrow.

 

 

The Weary Blues...

Hoping to have the Broadmoor script finished today, but it wasn't in the cards. Close. Very close. But no cigar.

More rain. Read in yesterday's paper it's a record July. Glad to put up with it if it keeps the fires in check. Wish I could say it's doing anything for the lawn, but can't. That particular tragedy is still month and a half away from being addressed.

Look forward to getting back to some fiction. Haven't even had much time to read. Trying to look at the hiatus as something productive.

Tired. Calling it a day.

 

Out with the old, in with the new...

Bummed. Sam Shepard dead. Moved on last Thursday, but it wasn't announced until a little after noon, yesterday. Quite the talent, he had. And was. Will really miss him.

Got the Broadmoor script in decent shape today. Should have it out the door by tomorrow. Hoped to have it finished sooner, but too much material to organize and too many distractions.

See there's a new Don DeLillo story in the NYer. Gonna save it for a quiet moment. Tonight, babysitting the neighbor's new twins.  

Small doings...

Another day--half day, anyway--with the Broadmoor project. Knocked off early afternoon to have a latte, and a brief trip to the gym. Dinner at K's afterward, and some time with the boy's. Rained like hell. Muggy again. Not a whole lot else to write about.

Settling in, looking ahead...

This one slipped right though the fingers. Into the cottage, early, to work on the Broadmoor script research, and didn't finish until 4:30. Then went to work on drafts of the N. critiques. Lotta time at the keyboard. Can't recall how the day started out, but overcast now and spitting a little. Might get another good rain tonight. Have to wait and see.

Text from P. Mom's coming up next week. Week after that, it's Wyoming, providing the weather stays clear enough to get up the mountain. Take that back. Wyoming's happening either way. It's making it up the mountain that's in question. Not driving that gumbo ever again if I can help it.

Missed getting over to the gym today, but glad to have finished the office work. Neck a little tight from sitting all day. Think I'll go hunt down a beer and relax. 

Need me a cold beer...

Full circle. Day started out cloudless and sunny, ended up with thunder showers.

Spent most of the day reading the Broadmoor book. Don't know what, exactly, Fitzgerald was getting at when he said the very rich are different than you and I. But Hemingway's retort (Yes, they have more money) only scratched the surface. What a bunch of self-congratulatory jerks S. Penrose and his buddies could be...

Wait. Not going there. Gonna try and not think about that tonight. 

Gonna try and be happy just to have working coming in.

 

Pushing the envelope...

Keep wondering why it is I've been so gun-shy about launching into a book-length story. God knows I crank out the words on the short pieces. It isn't the work. I can manage that. It's the mindset it takes to carry a new voice that far. The fear of failing, I think, once you've committed so much time and energy to paper. It's tough enough pitching 5,000 words in the trash. A lot harder to throw out 100,000. Still, the lure is there and maybe I just need to suck it up and take a chance. Have two pieces--maybe more--that might bear up under the strain of an expanded narrative. Should probably just leap in and see where it goes. Long format. That's where the money is. Craziness too. What have I got to lose except my marbles? 

Thinking out loud...

Bit of a late start this morning. Not too late, but later than usual. Pushed two of the three N critiques out the door early on, then sunk the rest of my energies into the Broadmoor project research. A lot of ground to cover for a ten minute video, but that's the way it works.

All's quiet on the literary front. Haven't heard a word from anyone in a long, long time. Guess everyone's on vacation. Or gone off to slit their throats. Anyway, gotta keep an eye peeled on a handful of month-end deadlines. Hard to believe it's only seven days until August.

Woke up this morning with a wild urge to delve back into Riverbound. See if I can't make some changes and start querying agents again. Not exactly sure where I'd start cutting, but reworking an old draft of a novel suddenly seemed simpler than starting a new one. Besides, I liked a lot of that book.

 

Wherever that river goes, that's where I want to be...

Nature is its own absolution.

Went fishing today. Got a late start, but no matter. Went fishing. Elevenmile was busy--lots of campers, fishermen, picnic-ers, and whatnot--but still managed to take a few small brown and have a good time doing it. Beautiful day, even when it started raining. Never felt more at home.

Saw some deer today. A snake or two. Was lost in the water, otherwise.

Filleted a brown for young J. He was so excited. Christ, but I love that boy. 

Rejuvenated now, and ready to take on the new week. Gonna have to move fast and hit top end early. A lot of work to do.

Fire and rain...

Friends over for dinner last night. Cooked salmon on the grill, and corked a couple of bottles of wine. Everything was going along fine until we went out on the patio for dessert. I'd built a fire, and just as it started to get going, a voice called out over the fence. Went to see who it was, and found the neighbor, standing in the dark in the middle of the driveway. She was outfitted in an oxygen tank get-up, and said she couldn't take the smoke. Was a tough decision to douse it, given the neighbor in question has been a major league pill since the day she moved in, but did, and that put an unceremonious end to the party. The woman has no manners. Never has. The annoyances she's created go on and on.  Had to dig deep and remind myself of my Catholic upbringing to find a charitable conclusion to the matter.

Up late after a fitful night's sleep. Some new kind of sinus infection. Downed Sudafed trying to get back in the game, but it hasn't made much difference. Guess I'll be looking at another trip to the doctor. Maybe an ENT specialist this time, I don't know. Whatever I'm packing I'd sure like to divest myself of it and get back to breathing again. Didn't get much of anything done today, a few revisions aside. Need to see about a better night's sleep and aim for a more solid outting tomorrow.

Thunderclaps outside the window. More rain on the way, maybe. We'll see.  

 

Terms of Endurement...

Felt the heat the second I walked out the door this morning. Humidity, too, owing to the big rain last night. Glad for the moisture, but whatever allergens it's bringing down with it I can live without.

Couldn't breath last night, and the later it got the worse it got. Downed a Sudafed around midnight and got enough relief I could doze off, but antihistamines make me crazy and I woke with that jangled feeling of having been run down by a dose of cheap over-the-counter speed. Still, did manage to knock out some good revisions on "Frank the Redeemer." Should have it tidied up and ready for the mail in a few days.

Got to the gym later in the afternoon, the grocery store too, to pick up my thyroid RX. Made the mistake of a rush hour jaunt, but still lived to tell about it. Good for another 30 days! Maybe longer.

Can't believe we're up against the end of the week. Seems like this one flew by. J and K coming over on Friday for a birthday celebration. Guess we're looking at a run to Whole Foods soon. As always, it comes together at the eleventh hour. What would life be without deadlines?

I remember reading about an island on the pacific rim. They had no word in their language for work. It was a concept foreign to them.

 

These days I sit on cornerstones and count the time in quarter tones to ten...

Coming at this late.

Got a little time at the keyboard this morning, then spent the better part of the day in Cheyenne Canyon with young J., fording streams, sharing peanut butter sandwiches, and pitching rocks. Got in some time at the gym early afternoon, then came home and worked out a couple of accounting issues. Hate worrying about money. Hate thinking about it. Had a hand in a lot of different jobs over the years, but nothing demanded more and paid less than writing. We call that irony.

Need a win here. Doesn't have to be big. Just some small thing to put in the plus column.

Hot summer day, carry me away...

Well, another Monday in the books. That's gotta be a good thing, right? Managed a little bit of everything today. Early walk. Solid time at the keyboard. Some good revisions on an old ms., and a successful trip to ReStore to recycle scrap lumber and other odds and ends. Later, a trip to the gym.

Talked to Mom last night, and sister Mary for a while. Caught up on family news, which was tame this time out, and uneventful even by the most boring standards. Happy to hear everyone's doing well. Like to make a run into New Mexico sometime soon, providing it's a fishing/writing excursion and nothing too hard on the brain. A lot of nice water down there, a lot of wide open space. Maybe this fall. Maybe sooner, though not likely.

Hot today. High eighties, with hot winds. Supposed to be the same all week. Hope not.