Passing the time...

Had a nice dinner last night with K and S. Nothing too special—just corned beef, cabbage and soda bread—but somehow it came off as a small feast.

Easy night, easy morning. Getting up later than usual, but it hasn’t seemed to make much difference. Work’s still getting done.

Miss the boys. Haven’t heard from them since we got back from Pittsburgh. Not our place to bitch, so I won’t, but I’m sure looking forward to seeing their faces again.

Got out for a walk this afternoon. Nice day, for the most part. Sun drifted in and out of clouds. Seeing more people afoot than a week ago.

Passed the 60,000 word mark on the new ms. today. Hope to finish soon. Looking forward to writing another short piece or two, then leaping ahead with revisions.

Still haven’t hit stride with working out at home, but trust it will come. Meanwhile, more of the same.

Yeah.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

By any other name...

Getting used to this COVID-19 thing.

Skipped the gym today and went out walking. Came home, took a nap, and went back to work.

Read two new N pieces today. Made headway on the new ms. Everything else was blue sky and beautiful weather. Spring’s standing on the doormat, waiting to come in.

Made an early trip to the grocery store today to see if I could score some paper. No luck. The hoarding is still full on. No worries. Will figure something out when the figuring’s necessary. Meantime, glad to know everyone’s okay.

Signing off.

Social distance.

More of the same...

Still here.

Woke to the sound of chuh, chuh, chuh this morning. Was deep in sleep and thought I was dreaming. Got out of bed and turned up the sash to see my neighbor chipping ice from the windshield of his wife’s car. Came up with a description of them a long time ago: full half-assed. They never cease to live up.

Got in more good work at the keyboard, thought the output wasn’t as prodigious as yesterday’s. No complaints. Just happy to be here, writing. It’s gonna be day-to-day for a long time, I’m afraid, but I’m ready for it. Turns out all those summers in Wyoming, huddled in a tent during a three day rain, are paying off.

Grocery stores are still crazy. Paper shelves empty, chip shelves running over.

Bratwurst tonight. Chips? You bet.

Looking to another quiet night...

Back at it.

Up early, pounding away on the new ms. Looking to make hard run to the end, finish the draft, and start making new notes by the end of the month.

Ran out of thyroid medicine and had to make a trip to Kings Soopers this afternoon. Empty shelves everywhere. Glad I wasn’t on the hunt for food. People are taking his harder than I would have thought.

Took a nice walk around the neighborhood when I got home. Always gets to me, trouncing around the places Jack and I used to go, but it was good to be outdoors in the fresh air even if it was cold.

Worried about my peeps, here and there.

Hope we get this thing under control soon.

Friday!

Starting to feel the constriction. World’s closing in, but not altogether in a bad way. Folks are nervous, but mostly nice. Helpful.

Heard the boys’ schools have shuttered for a month. Expect others will do the same. Missing my people, but at the same time (knock wood) happy to know no one is sick.

Making headway on the long piece. Everything else in limbo.

Weather was good today. Then came the snow. Sunny tomorrow, if the forecasters are right. We’ll see.

Laying back tonight. Will take whatever comes when it comes.

Breathe...

Slept in till 7:30 this morning. Didn’t seem to be any real urgency to the day. Managed some decent draft time, then headed out the gym.

People are keeping to themselves, which is probably good. Quiet afternoon.

Weather’s supposed to change, snow tonight. Hope so. Need the moisture.

Some kinda sadness coming down.

Figuring things...

World’s gotten smaller with the corona virus. Hadn’t been getting out much, but even less now. More disappointing is not being able to see the boys—and mom. Tough getting a read on how long the precautionary flags will have to fly, but imagine things will get worse before they get better.

Why does the joy of having more time to write always have to come at the expense of some other nice part of living?

Put in some good drafting time at the keyboard this morning. Passed the 45,000 mark on the new manuscript, and still feel good about the direction it’s going. Like to put a pin in it by the end of March or first week of April. We’ll see.

Time to tough it out...

Getting sloppy with the entries of late. Nothing intentional. One thing or another has come along to hamper things.

COVID-19 messing with us. Old plans cancelled, future plans in doubt. Better safe than sorry, to be sure, but was looking forward to seeing mom, and the boys again.

Meanwhile, life goes on.

Heavy into the steroids and antibiotics, hoping they stave off the infection long enough to get the tooth implant going, and the nasal polyps under the knife. Old age! Whoohoo!

Meanwhile, there’s all the rest.

On the bright side, there’s brightness, at least at the end of the day, and summer is on the way. Also on the bright side, the new joint is coming along on schedule.

Easy day at the gym. Arm is killing me, but nothing to do about it.

Just go with it...

Slow day, so I should have some inkling of where it went, but—

Pounded away on the new piece and made progress, yet maybe not enough as hoped.

Ran errands, shopped, cooked up a batch of chicken noodle soup. All like sleepwalking. Still can’t get this time thing resolved. Maybe tonight. Hate this end of Daylight Savings.

Best to call it a night.

Start again tomorrow.

Eyes wide open...

Guess I’m still running on Pennsylvania time. Up early after a good night’s sleep, and off to the cottage to work. Plugged away at the long piece, crossing the forty-thousand word mark just around noon.

Hit the gym early and had a nice workout. Place was dead for the most part, owing to what I don’t know. Just happy to be back at it.

Met my buddy George at the Broadmoor for a beer and a nice chat. He’s on his way with his new TV show, and I’m excited for him. Sounds as if he’ll be shooting in a month or two, in Labrador and Nova Scotia. Invited me up to have a look. We’ll see.

Got an acceptance slip from Waymark Literary Magazine (Kennesaw State University) this evening. Two in a week. Wow. Maybe things are going to move a little more quickly this year.

No big plans for the evening. Gonna hang back, rest, and look to see what we can do about shaking these colds.

New Coronavirus case reported, first in El Paso County. Like to believe they’re going to contain this mess, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, keep plugging.

Back at it...

Up early. Hit the keyboard hard and make some good progress. Coming up on the halfway point for the new long piece.

Rest of the day went to the gym, and the boys.

Need to get a letter off tomorrow.

Stopping at that.

What's not to like?

Side benefits of having lived a full week on eastern time—a five o’clock rise. Out of bed and out to the cottage for a long spell at the keyboard, composing. Still no easy feat, but the draft time feels stronger and more concentrated this go round. Hope I’m right about that.

Worked revisions on a couple of short pieces before leaving for the gym. Started in on a new N story, too.

Called the lovely folks at the medical office to try and get a read on the cost of the surgery and was given the run around. Not even a ballpark. They didn’t seem to understand my reluctance to sign on knowing I would only be charged, at most, 20 percent of the total cost. I tried to point out that 20 percent of two hundred would be perfectly acceptable, while 20 percent of, say, five hundred thousand wouldn’t. They still wouldn’t throw out a number. We’ll see what happens next.

Good day at the gym. Light traffic again, which always makes for an easier workout. Glad to be back in the swing, though I can tell the difference after the six day layoff.

Pretty day. Wish now I’d gotten out to see a little more of it.

Text from my buddy, G, who’s back in town. Gonna meet for a drink at the Broadmoor on Friday and catch up on his doings back in LA.

Rolling on...

Easy night’s sleep, easy rise. Took a little bit to get in to the groove of the morning, but managed to make headway with the new piece.

Hit the gym early afternoon. Good to get back in the swing. Didn’t push things too hard, but didn’t lay back either. Just a nice even workout.

Caught up with the folks at the Storm’s clinic, end of day. Long talk with the docs about surgery. Meantime, back on a long regimen of steroids and antibiotics.

Good news of the day, the San Antonio Review is bumping my story up for publication online tomorrow. Print issue to follow at a later date.

Looking forward to getting my head in a new Masterclass.

The long way home...

Left on a train for Pittsburgh a week ago today. Spent Monday night eating steak in a dining car while the plains rolled by…Tuesday evening watching the sunset over Chicago…Wednesday catching up with the boys and their parents…Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday flat out goofing off. Swimming classes, karate classes, games of chess, croquet, Zingo, Go-fish….

All in all a pretty swell time. Even got an acceptance slip from the San Antonio Review for “Kings in Exile.”

Plane ride home was exhausting, as always, but we’re back and the whole trip was worth it—despite the fact we both came home with colds.

Didn’t get as much work done on the new long piece as I would’ve liked, but did enough to move the piece forward. Hope to press ahead again tomorrow. Meanwhile, no word on Dreams of Stone. Who knows? Maybe this’ll be my month.

Beat. Calling it a day. Hope to make an early start tomorrow, and see if I can’t get my groove back.

What to do except move on?

Yeah. Getting it done.

Up early, making revisions. Then off to gym.

Snow came along around 7:00, 7:30 and looked as if it might stay. But the sun came out and evened things, and now it’s back to where it was.

Hit the gym mid-afternoon.

Home to clean up, pack, and whatever. Ready to get on the train now and figure the rest out later.

Can I say i’m sick of the gray skies?

Need to get some sleep tonight. Good sleep.

Let’s see what happens.

Talked to mom. Everything’s good.

Another Saturday Night...

Up early again. The bad arm. If it doesn’t repair itself, it may become the alarm I’ll use all summer. Or as long as I need before I finish the new draft.

Put in some good revisions this morning. Spent the afternoon shopping in advance of the trip to see the boys. Got a call from them as we were driving home. They’re excited to see us.

Haven’t been able to catch up as much as I’d like, but my N queue is empty, I have a handful of shorts in the mail, and I’m already making plans for my new schedule moving into spring.

The biggest chore over the next two weeks will be to stay healthy.

Gotta remember to give mom a call tomorrow evening. Won’t have another chance for a while.

Oops...

Did I fall off the grid recently, or have my posts mysteriously disappeared? The bigger question in play might be, why can’t I remember? Yesterday is a complete blur, with the vague exception that I recall getting a haircut. Or maybe I’m wrong about that. Maybe I don’t recall. My hair is shorter today, which would suggest a haircut had been had, but….

Early rise today. Almost like it was still 2019. Hit the keyboard hard looking to put distance between the first ream of blank pages and the last. Did all right. The new draft is coming along, and I’m enjoying the ride. We’ll see how long the feeling lasts.

Making preparations for the trip east. Leaving on Monday, so not a whole lot of time left to get things in order. Feeling some apprehension, but think it’s collective bit of nerves coming to life over the busy schedule ahead. A week in Pittsburgh, after that I visit from mom, after that a visit from the boys, after that a visit to Albuquerque….

Not sure how it’ll all work out, but it will. Meanwhile, there’s this dreary gray winter to get through.

Put the brakes on the Portis book. Don’t want it to end. Still reading the Ruark stories too, and re-reading D. Johnson’s Laughing Monsters. Would like to jump into a big old classic, but afraid it might de-rail my thinking at the moment.

Gotta open the new laptop and take it for a spin before I get on the train. Want to make sure I know where to find everything once the train leaves the station.

Did I mention the arm is killing me?

Sigh, and sigh again...

Hmmm.

Was plugging along, making edits, when I decided to tear off on a cleaning spree. Midway into it, got an email from American Short Fiction. A rejection. They’d held the story for two years, nine months. It was an apology of sorts, and believe me, I’m sympathetic to the workload they shoulder. But two years and nine months? I suffered through a marriage that didn’t last two years and nine months.

That’s why they invented the gym, I guess.

High point in day? Got to see my buddy Scout.

Not going to try and figure out what the low point was.

Time, an invention of man...

Suddenly, everything lit up.

Spent the whole day writing, goofing off. Then came crunch time.

Got in some nice writing, reading time. A walk downtown to window shop and catch a cup of coffee. After that, a long talk with mom…and here it is creeping up on seven.

Got to see my boy, Scout, and had a good visit. Lots of talk, some brushing… Still miss his bro, Sam.

Tomorrow, a new week. Seven days until the train to Pittsburgh.

World shrinks in one way, opens in another.

Go figure.