writer
Day was a blur.
Up early to write, then took time off for the gym and some much-needed purging of things past. Cleaned out closets, drawers, nooks and crannies…. Then made a trip to the Ark. The second this week.
Gotta look for an early rise and then get back at it. Lots to accomplish before the boys get here.
Enjoying the rain. Grass enjoying it, too.
Up early after some tortured dreams.
Spent the earliest part of the morning making revisions on the new stories, then put down the keyboard and picked up the fly rod.
Drove up to the South Platte where I spent the afternoon fishing. Had a terrific time. Caught and released five or six fish, and took home a nice brown and a good looking rainbow for dinner tomorrow night.
Scouted the campsite we reserved for the overnight with the boys. It’s a beautiful spot near the river, high up in the trees and boulders. Should give us good access to fishing, wading, exploring and all the rest.
Need to put in some time on the Symphony website tomorrow. That, and start making plans for Wyoming. Try and decide if I’m up for a side trip to Heart Mountain. Meanwhile, need to finish getting ready for the boys.
Been thinking about my mom and pop a lot lately. Guess that’s a good thing.
So, another one that slipped by. Or felt like it.
Got up early, and put in some good time at the keyboard but abandoned the writing before noon. Headed out to the gym afterward.
Trying to get things in order before the boys arrive. Think we’re doing okay, but probably need to pick up the pace if we want to have everything in place when they get here.
Best part of the day was the nap I got this afternoon. That, and the rain that greeted me when I got up.
Need to bear down the work for the Symphony over the next couple of days, and make sure I don’t have any loose ends when the boys show up. Keyboard time’s going to be at a premium for a few weeks.
Might go fishing tomorrow. Eleven Mile. Think I will, just to get away from things for a while.
Putting in time around the house again. Getting everything in order before the boys come. Also taking the time to jettison a lot of clutter that’s accumulated over the past couple of years. Happy with the progress, but there’s still a lot do.
Got up early and noodled through the two new shorts I’ve been working on and have to say I’m hopeful about both of them. Be great if I could finish them up and get them in the mail before the first of July, but things happen when they happen.
Made a trip out to the oral surgeon, then looped around to Macy’s, then headed over to the west side to drop a few boxes at the Ark. Hit the grocery afterword to pick up fixings for a pot of potato leek soup.
Commercial work coming my way tomorrow, and that’s always good. Help defray the cost of the new sleeping bag!
Yesterday’s cool weather vanished by afternoon, and we’re staring in the face of another 90 degree week. Heard there’s rain in the forecast, but we’ll have to wait and see. Skies are smoky from the fires, the mountains hazed over. Hope the forest service can keep a lid on things. Kind of early to have the whole summer ruined.
Woke to a nice quiet morning. Was hoping it might have rained overnight, but no such luck. Still, the yard’s holding up.
Worked on one of the short pieces today. Feeling pretty good about it, though this one’s still some days off from being a reader draft.
Had scones and coffee on the back patio with K. Enjoyed the morning before the sun started bearing down. Spent the rest of the day at the movies. Hit the gym in between, but nothing too crazy. Had a short FaceTime with the boys, too.
Don’t figure to do much around the house tonight except hang out. Thought about going for a walk, but the temps are still pretty high. Guess we’ll just hang back, go to bed early and look for an early rise.
More crazy dreams, and another early rise.
Worked on a new short this morning, then abandoned the keyboard for a paintbrush and set to finishing the potting shed on the back patio. Everything went as planned.
Took a break a little after noon for cheeseburgers at Sonic. Came home to a nice rain.
Taking it easy tonight. Having K over tomorrow for scones and coffee.
Slow one.
Up early after bad dreams. Put in the last of the revisions on Lucky Tom, and sent the ms. off to be copied. Giving K the first shot at a reader draft. Gonna take a break from it and get back to some of the short fiction. Hope to get some new things rolling over the next two weeks.
Rejection from CR this evening. Another twelve month wait. What the hell is it with these guys they can’t cough up a ‘no’ in a reasonable time?
Re-reading The English Patient. What a piece of work. Even better now than the first time, but that’s the way it works, right?
Missed one call today, caught up on another. Old friends.
Wish I were either smarter or dumber. Knew how to fix things, or stopped giving a damn.
Up 5:45.
More revisions, another sweltering day.
Hit the gym around noon, and put in a better workout than I thought had in me.
A strange, muggy, mid-afternoon rain came along to cool things down, but the humidity hung on. Temps are supposed to break soon, but no one knows when.
Tired. Really tired.
Calling it. Going in to cook dinner.
Well, here it is nearly six o’clock, and here I am still behind on pretty much everything.
The edits on the long piece are getting shorter and easier. I think I’m coming close to where I want to be. Meanwhile, plans for the boys visit need to be taken care of, phone calls and letters need to be made, painting needs to be done, and other, unnamed and unremembered chores need to be addressed.
Punching as hard as I can here, but falling way short of where I want to be. Weather’s part of it. Temps are well into the nineties, and there’s a mugginess is something I haven’t felt since leaving the Midwest.
Went to the gym early this afternoon, but called it quits after a long bike ride. Even there the humidity was too much. Read there’s a break in the heat come Monday, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, gonna make the most of the time in front of us.
Finished Fiskadoro today. Enjoyed it very much. Surprisingly good.
Slept through the night for the first time in weeks. Woke fresh and went to work with a purpose.
Revisions throughout the morning, letter writing and other correspondence before noon, then off to the gym for a long workout and, afterward, personal time with a book. Doesn’t seem as monumental as it feels, but the weather being what it was—hot, muggy, unbelievably enervating—was pleased to get anything accomplished at all.
Got a letter from young Matt today. What a splendid surprise! Need to call him tomorrow and tell him how it made my day. Also got an early father’s day card from Dylan. Gonna hold off opening that one until the day proper. But again, what a nice surprise.
Gonna kick back this evening and wait for the heat to lessen. Open the windows and look for another good night’s sleep.
Rowdy day after a crummy night’s sleep.
Got up early to meet my buddy, G, for coffee across town. Had a nice visit. His SYFY show is due to premier in about a month. Excited for him.
Went to work after I got home, getting in a few stray revisions. Wrote a blurb for my buddy S from the gym, too.
Worked out for the next hour and a half, then stopped by the grocery to pick up some things for dinner. Cooked a corned beef yesterday, figure to turn it into Reuben sandwiches tonight.
Close to finishing Fiskadoro. What a strange, but likable novel. Haven’t ready anything quite like it before from Johnson.
Temps are now solidly in the high nineties and low one hundreds. Heard Grand Junction was expected to hit 107 tomorrow. I know it’s going to happen—it always does—but I’m hoping like hell we make it through this heat wave without a fire.
Lots to do this week. Lots of catching up to do, too.
Beginnings of another hot stretch, I think. Strange day weatherwise. Hot, humid, rainy. Made the most of it, though. Was up early to work, finished the draft/outline of the long piece, then spent the better part of the afternoon painting.
A lot accomplished around the yard over the past few weeks. Happy about that. If we can manage to paint the lower half of the house before winter, I’ll be even happier.
Didn’t get out today. Didn’t workout either. Managed a nap, though, and that was enough. Looking forward to a nice quiet evening, and an early rise for coffee with my buddy, George.
Meantime, breakfast for dinner. Scrambled eggs with trout and hash browns. Does it get any better than that?
Dinner at Kath’s last night. Splendid time as always, but maybe moreso because the weather was perfect and the scallops were out of this world.
Up early. Started work on the outline for the new novel. Took a break around noon to work on the lawn and enjoy a quick trip to Starbucks. Spent the rest of the afternoon behind the chop saw, making shelves for the potting shed.
Yard’s looking good. We’ll see how well it holds up next week when the temps work their way into the high nineties. Laid down some turf builder today in the hope of juicing things up.
Brief FaceTime with the boys. Was in the middle of construction so didn’t have as long a talk as usual. Will make up for it soon when they come out.
Beat.
Looking forward to a nice quiet night in.
Glorious day up on the South Platte.
Place was quiet, except for the troupe of cyclists who rode through sullying up the late morning with their incessant chatter. Caught and released three rainbow, took home one brown for breakfast.
Don’t know the last time I’ve had so much fun on the water.
Mountains were green and the sky was blue, and the river was low and clear. Glad to have missed the ninety plus temps down below.
Looking forward to a nice night’s sleep.
Fly rod and vest are already ready in the foyer. Gonna get an early start on tomorrow, and test the fishing up on the South Platte tomorrow in Elevenmile Canyon. Been looking forward to this outing for a long time.
Woke early in the middle of the night with bad dreams and didn’t think I’d get back to sleep. But did, and still woke at a good hour to get some writing done.
Happy with the newest piece. Calling it “Sister Moon.” Figure to have the last of the touchups done by the weekend, push it out the door on Sunday or Monday. Then back to work on the outline/synopsis for the long piece.
Temps hot again today. Low nineties. The grass seems to be holding up pretty well, but it’s taken a new watering strategy to keep it that way. Predictions are for more heat for the foreseeable future, but we’ll figure a way around it, and take what comes, happily, as long as there aren’t any forest fires.
Went down for a nice long nap when I got home from the gym. Would have lasted even longer if the little man hadn’t wandered up and bitten my finger.
Missing my dudes. All of em.
Slipped into an unlikely groove today, and made the most of it.
Early rise, fresh revisions to the newest story, a good workout.
Temps rose into the nineties, but had a nice steady breeze all afternoon to keep things from getting too hot.
Looking to get up to Elevenmile in the next day or so and do some fishing. Be fun to kill a whole day up there.
Thinking ahead to the boys’ visit in July, and the short jog up to the Bighorns after they leave. Gonna be a busy month. Best I finish noodling with the long piece soon and send it off.
Took the day in a slightly different direction after getting up early and revising a new story.
Hit the gym around ten, then went off in search of drugs, blood tests, and food. Managed a couple of long phone calls in the midst of all of this, and pushed some paperwork along the way.
Hot one again. Mid-eighties or higher. A forecast of ninety tomorrow. Would like to get some grass seed and turf builder down, but think I’ll wait until Friday when temps are supposed to dip back down into the seventies.
Everything feels slightly out of kilter, but hey, maybe it’s me. Or maybe it’s just Monday.
Time to buckle down.
Good day. An early rise, a good chunk of writing time, and some yard maintenance in between.
Cleaned out most of the dead wood around the house, trimmed the hedges, and spiffed up trees with a bit of pruning. Made a stop at Rick’s, too, and picked up a couple of new shrubs for the refurbished flower box in front.
Took off for the theatre around three to see the re-release of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Great time. Amazing how well that movie holds up after forty years.
Home now, looking at an easy evening. Will pick up tomorrow where we left off today.
Temps in the high eighties for the foreseeable future. Summer is definitely here—until it isn’t again.
Up a little after six, then off to the cottage. Got in some good revisions.
Went to the gym a little after ten, and spent the rest of the day driving back and forth to Denver. Long afternoon.
Cut and trimmed the lawn when we got home, and that was the last of the energy.
Gonna sit back and take it easy tonight. Hit the sack at a decent hour and see if I can’t catch up tomorrow.
Pretty day today. Hot at times, but nice. Blue skies and only a few high clouds. Still snow on the mountains.
Another early rise.
Hit the cottage at a good hour and went to work on revisions. Made a few submissions, too.
Took off mid-day to run a few errands, and managed to kill the entire afternoon without meaning to. Just the way it goes sometimes.
Filled up the Jeep in anticipation of tomorrow’s run to Denver. That trip ought to consume the whole day, so glad I got the roses planted when I did.
Hot and sunny today with temps in the eighties. Supposed to be a carbon copy tomorrow. Looks like summer’s finally here.
FT’d with the boys just before noon. Won’t be long before they’re out here. Looking forward to seeing them again.
