Yes, thank you. It was a lovely day...

You can’t make this shit up.

Called the doc at 9:00 this morning. Hung up, after being on hold 2 and a half hours. Drove out to the main office around two, to schedule an appointment in person, but only got the run around. Leaving, ran over a “patient parking only” sign and severed the brake fluid line in the truck.

Could’ve F*cking killed someone, but didn’t. Professional reasons.

No point going into the rest of the day because it wasn’t any better. Arm will, apparently, have to wait.

That’s it.

Welcome to the Days of Covid.

Et cum spirit tu tuo...

Self-diagnosis: brachial plexus injury. We’ll see what the doc says if/when I get to see her. Meantime, serious-ass, unrelenting pain. On the positive side of things, the lower retainer in my mouth broke, so I have something to offer a distraction. Old’s not the problem. I can hack old. Pain’s not the problem. I can hack pain. Money is—and always will be—the answer and panacea to everything medical, and otherwise.

There, bitch over. I’ll call the doc and orthodontist tomorrow and see what cooks.

Had a great day today, driving up to Sedalia and back down through Deckers. Scenery was wonderful. Even saw a wild turkey! Enjoyed a nice ham and cheese sandwich up on the mountain, and the Jeep didn’t think about breaking down until the air conditioning cacked. But hell, it wasn’t that hot, so who cares.

Observed lots of folks milling around the small towns today, and only one or two of them with masks. Social distancing apparently not a big thing with them. Judging from that weak bit of empirical evidence, I’m gonna put my money on a new uptick in infections about two weeks from now.

Breeze blowing up this evening and overcast skies. Haven’t seen rain in forever, despite the predictions of the weather people. Tonight? We’ll see.

Maybe it's time for acupuncture?

Nice lemon pasta dinner at K’s last night. Perfect evening.

Woke early and went to work on a new story. Arm’s been dreadfully sore, making the keyboard a more painful experience than it typically is, but pounded out a couple of thousand words just the same. Gotta make a doc appointment this week. See if I can’t get something done about it.

Worked out early afternoon, then went for a long walk up to Walgreens to buy some painkiller patches. Saw three deer, all young, walking up the sidewalk while going though the boys old neighborhood. Must have been on the hunt for flowers.

Day started out overcast and cloudy, but improved considerably as the afternoon wore on. The wind picked up, but the sky turned blue and the sun came out.

Taking it easy this evening. Hot dogs and potato chips. Maybe a little sipping whisky. See if I can’t catch up with Mom on the phone.

All the better for it...

Up early yesterday for a nice secluded day on the water. Drove down to the Arkansas and up Bighorn Sheep Canyon a few miles above Five Points. They’re resurfacing the road, so going was slow, but hit a lot of nice runs before the day was out and saw a lot of nice fish.

Caught five good brown, returned all but two. Also hooked and lost the biggest fish I’ve seen in my thirty-plus years of fishing that river. An absolute monster.

Up early again this morning after another hard night’s sleep on the bum arm. Somewhere in the middle of the night it ceased hurting, but came back again, with a vengeance, toward dawn. The day off was good for the head. Gave me the time to figure out where I’d gone wrong with the story I tore up. Went back to work on it this morning and, presto, it found its way to respectability.

Put in a good workout this afternoon, then went off to run errands and hang a few flower pots for K. All in all a nice quiet day.

Hey. Trout dinner tonight.

Getting my hands dirty...

Tore apart one of the short pieces I was working on an started over. Spent the morning drafting and reading. Found a new(er) short ”Warrior Jesus” by T.C. Boyle on the Narrative website. His work has a bite to it I can’t help loving. Made me think I need to pick up something else of his soon.

Got in a nice workout just before noon. Integrated bricks into the routine along with the jump rope, medicine ball and cargo straps. Not perfect by any means, but a challenge all its own.

Hit Costco later in the day and Lowe’s after that. Trying to collect all the lawn & garden stuff I need before the hot weather draws down on us.

Sprinkler guys came . System’s up and running again. Let’s see what it does for the lawn.

Heading down to the Arkansas tomorrow to do a little fishing. Looking forward to the drive as much as anything. Taking a box of streamers with me for fun, see if I can scare up something unusual.

Weather beautiful today. Windy later, but still nice. Looking for more of the same tomorrow.

Hey, It's Monday! Again...

It’s like the days get more and more surreal.

Made an early rise thinking to pick up some plants and bushes at Lowe’s. Website said they opened at six, but as it turned out their idea of six is other people’s idea of eight…so, reset.

Got what we needed after the store opened for real, but by then the chance of any decent writing time was shot to hell. Worked out instead, then planted, pruned, and policed the yard.

Tried to nap after the work was finished, but the arm and shoulder wouldn’t go for it.

Went out for a walk instead.

Think I need to go fishing this week. Maybe tomorrow. We’ll see what the weather has in store. Could use a week on the mountain to get my head straight again.

Happy birthday, ma...

Felt like I’d been maybe spinning my wheels at the keyboard the past couple of days, so took the afternoon off and plunged into yard work instead. Mowed, edged, weeded…cleaned up some of the old edges. Made pretty good progress until the neighborhood woke up. The arm’s gonna give me payback tonight, but i’m glad i did what i did.

Talked to Mom for a long while this afternoon. It’s her 90th birthday. Figured to be down there for it, but figured to see the boys, too, and that didn’t happen either. She sounded happy, as always, so that’s the good part. Look forward to seeing he

Cooked up a pot of cream of broccoli soup for dinner. We’ll see what the evening brings.

Pizza time...

Slept like a dead man last night thanks to two bottles of wine and a couple of Aleve.

Had a spirited dinner with K the night before, and it set the right mood for the weekend.

Up early writing, editing the new novel, and cleaning up old files. Held off taking a walk after seeing what a nice day it was and how many people were taking advantage of it, but got in a nap and little bit of reading time.

My god, what an extravagant waste of a day!

Got a facetime call from Jack mid-afternoon, and a walk later on, so things went about as well as you could have asked.

Saw some new sprouts coming up in the lawn. Let’s hope the fungicide is doing its part, too.

Kicking back tonight, like always.

Tomorrow—to fresh woods and pastures new.

Yeah, another Friday...

Man, oh man. A Friday that felt like a Saturday.

Didn’t sleep last night. Arm hurting too much. Fell out of bed early and did what work I could until I called it quits and went for a walk.

Rest of the afternoon wasn’t much better. Had a nice talk with my buddy Smith, but the rest of the time I was busy trying to find a comfortable way to move around.

Anyway, gonna pour a glass of wine tonight and see if that helps.

K coming for dinner.

Wish I felt better.

Thursday...

Hey. Here. Present and accounted for.

Pushed ahead on all literary fronts before taking a break to work out.

Rest of the day—small walk aside—talked FaceTime with Jackie. In other words, a nice satisfactory afternoon.

Got a sterling rejection from the New Yorker for “Aftermath.” There was “much to admire.”

So, onward and upward.

Seems like only yesterday...

Got a little rain last night. Not much, but some.

Slept pretty well, given the arm’s still bad.

Spread out the writing between the new shorts and the novel. Did a little bit of research, too, and made a couple of new submissions.

Can I gripe for just a second? I know this is getting to be old hat, but today I discovered a story of mine—one that had been under consideration more than a year—in rejection pile, this time without even a note to accompany it. It’s only because I cross-reference the hell out of my work that I even noticed something was amiss. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is BS business. Glad I like writing, or I might quit.

Worked out early this afternoon, and got in a lot of exercise. Even so, can feel the difference not having weights.

Nice day. Wish I’d gotten out for a walk, too, but you can’t have everything.

Gonna take it easy tonight. Get in some reading. Like that.

Coasting along...

Two pretty days back to back. Supposed to get some rain, but it’s never materialized. Overcast again tonight, so maybe after the sun goes down.

Put in a good morning’s writing, then went out to the garage to work out for a while. Sure missing the weights at the gym, but glad I have my jump rope and medicine ball.

Got a call from the boys just after noon. Nice catching up with them so much lately. Enjoying it in the event the COVID-19 crisis clears up and they start going back to their old routine.

Read a couple of states are going to start opening up again. Hope it doesn’t kick off another wave of illness, but can’t see how it won’t.

No walk today. Maybe tomorrow.

Meantime, giving myself over to the same old, same old.

Here's to us...

Woke from a bad dream at five, rolled out of bed at six, brewed a pot of coffee and went to work.

Close on the new stories.

Took a couple hours off around mid-afternoon to clean the house. Got in a trip to Costco, too, to pick up water and a bottle of Jack. After that, a long walk downtown to the Post Office.

Anniversary of my dad’s death today. He would’ve been a very cranky ninety-four. Gonna watch Singing in the Rain tonight in his honor.

Can't Quite Get Started...

Well, today makes two in a row.

Up early, but couldn’t find the muscle to make it more than just another quiet day at home.

Got some good revisions in early, then put up the keyboard and settled into yard work. Doused the lawn with another application of fungicide and laid out new grass seed, top soil.

Had a sprinkling of rain, but nothing like the weather folks promised. Maybe it’ll happen tonight, we’ll see.

Went off on a two-mile walk, then came home to some Cicero and a small nap. Also looked over the proofs of “Morphosis.”

That’s it.

Will give it a better try tomorrow.

Getting lazy, and liking it...

Another amazing day in quarantine.

Hit the keyboard early, but got distracted by an amorous squirrel couple mating on the fence. Was just hitting stride again when we got a call from the boys. After that, there was a long walk, and after that we closed the blinds and blew the rest of the afternoon watching Dr. Zhivago.

Wild times, indeed.

Pizza tonight. Yard work tomorrow—providing it doesn’t rain.

Not bad for a Friday...

Arm still giving me fits. On the positive side, it’s an excellent alarm clock. It goes off a little earlier than I’d like, but once it does there’s no going back to sleep.

Hodgepodge of goings on this morning, but managed to get in some good writing time anyway.

Decent workout, too. Plus a three-mile walk.

Made brief trip to Safeway to pick up some food, and came back with a headache. Gotta say being out among people isn’t so much fun right now.

Taking it easy tonight. See if I can’t beat this arm thing long enough to get a decent night’s sleep.

Tax day, deferred...

Gotta get this arm repaired. Woke up at two and couldn’t get back to sleep until four. Tossed, turned, nothing helped. Been popping Aleve like it was dope, but it doesn’t help. First thing I’m gonna do when this COVID-19 stuff is behind us is see my doc and get an RX for some physical therapy. I may have to wait a year, or two, at the pace things are going, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it.

On the positive side of things, had a pretty good day writing. Found the end for one of the short pieces I’d been working on, and put in some decent revisions on the other. Things are coming along more slowly than I’d like, but at least they’re moving.

Took a walk downtown to the post office around noon. Streets were empty. Construction guys over at CC were working away on the new arena, but the rest of the town was dead and a long way from looking for resurrection. Weather was nice again, but it’s not supposed to last. Been hearing reports of snow all day.

Made a pot of tomato soup for dinner. Seems like a good night for it. Boys called late in the day, and that made everything even better.

One last thing…

Told myself when I started this journal I’d keep politics out of it. Other things too. If these writings outlive me, just know there was a reason for that decision, and that the past few years have proved it to be a sound one.

Battling back...

Could have sworn I wrote an entry last night. Maybe it’s my imagination. Wouldn’t be the strangest thing that’s happened in the last month, would it?

Anyway, back now.

Put in a long day at the keyboard, working two short pieces side-by-side. Took a nice walk early afternoon, then got in some workout time in the garage. Rope, straps, medicine ball. Did it all.

Monkeyed with the computer for an hour or so and discovered my aptitude for technology is wanting. Managed to download something that disabled something else that left me unable to download pics from my phone. On the bright side, I didn’t shoot the computer. Yet.

Pretty day. Woke up to snow, and now it’s gone. Temps only made it into the thirties, but the sun was out and the sky was a perfect blue.

Saw they saved City Lights with a GoFundMe campaign. Nice. Would’ve been a smaller world without it.

Happy Easter, world!

Quiet day on the homestead.

Put in some decent work this morning. Snow started falling out a cloudless blue sky around nine, then thought better of it and quit.

Caught up on a little bit or correspondence, a little bit of housekeeping. Later, read a nice story on Narrative, “East Beach” by Steven Potter. Also caught up with an essay in the New West anthology before settling in for a nap.

What a day!

K came over for dinner tonight. Nothing fancy, but it felt like a feast. Cheeseburgers and corn, key-lime pie for dessert…

Gonna leap in with both feet tomorrow.

One big adventure...

Woke up around five with my arm pounding. Decided to get up and write. Made some decent progress on the newest story and did a quick sketch for another. Gave away the keyboard to go grocery shopping and pick up some grass seed at the hardware store. Took a while to get in and out, but it wasn’t as bad as it might have been. People are being pretty civil, and most are willing to follow store orders. So here’s hoping we dodged the C bullet yet again.

Thought I might get in another hour of writing after we got home and disinfected the food, but mom called just as I was sitting down and that, as they say, was that.

Spent the rest of the day de-thatching the lawn. Need to get another application of F-stop down to kill the fungus, but will have to wait until a sunny day comes along. Weather folks are predicting snow tonight, cold temps for most of the week. We’ll see what comes.

Kids across the street are having an Easter egg hunt. Dave’s running his leaf blower. Cherry, our neighbor on the corner, is in the hospital recovering (I hope) from a broken hip. Sounds like a scene from an Hieronymus Bosch painting, doesn’t it?

Tired from the fresh air and general lack of activity. Took a walk tonight, but barely made it around the block. Looking forward to a nice movie.