I Admit It

I’m odd. I love cold weather. I even enjoy the occasional light snowfall. The world is pretty, cloaked in silent white.

But I’m about done with this nonsense. We’re having two to six or more inches of snow tonight. Wouldn’t be so bad except the edges of my street, as in where I attempt to park, are already saturated with snow, some that has been compacted into ice, difficult for Howie to maneuver, some of which has frozen solid in its fullest state, too deep for Howie to cross without risking damage to his belly. Then there’s the parking lot at work. It’s lost four spaces to snow piles. There’s only one separating mine from the snow. Much more and I’ll be out of luck too.

And oh yeah, did I mention what’s to follow this evening’s snowfall? Sleet, turning to freezing rain with up to an inch accumulation. Howie and I don’t like freezing rain. We don’t go out and about in ice storms. Well, Howie doesn’t. Sometimes I have no choice.

Therefore, I’d like to put in my request for two or three slightly warmish days to melt all this slop off the streets and then it can go back to being cold again. Yep. I like the cold part just fine.

Happy winter!

(Sorry I haven't been here lately. My much beloved great aunt passed away and I needed some time to regroup.)

Eerhhhh

Fever rages

Skin too tight

Out

Out

Out

Let me out

Away from the ache

The burn

Clenched muscles

Ribs splinter with each cough

Pain unbearable

Cough

Cough

Cough

Body wracked with broken sobs

So dry

Oh so very dry

Skin leached by ineffective drugs

Lungs still full

Praying for death

But no escape

No kindness shown me

I linger

Suffering

Ad infinitum

Yep, I still have the plague. Also known as bronchitis and a sinus infection. I will recover. I’m determined now if only to make those who did this to me very, very sorry.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry I went missing. I’ve been rearranging my house. Why? My father’s college roommate passed. Sad but not tragic. It was fast so no suffering and he had a long, full life. Yes, he’ll be missed but there are many memories.

And one major one now resides in my house. When I was a kid my dad would take me along when he went to visit. Not that I went to chat with them. No, they had things to discuss, none of which needed to involve me. Especially since I was five to eight at the time. I went for an entirely different reason.

Mr. Earl, as I called him since I couldn’t pronounce his last name, had a player piano. With many, many, many rolls. Yeah, I was taking piano lessons at the time but in no way sounded remotely like a pianist. But put a roll in and let me at the pedals, I always used the pedals, and I was magnificent. Gosh, there were lots of good days spent at that piano.

Now, half a lifetime later it, and three cabinets full of rolls are in my living room. What fun! I have a keyboard but playing it just isn’t the same as a real piano. So I dug out all my old books and have been having a blast. Instead of blogging or putting the last few things back in place in my house. Bad me. Or not. I’m enjoying myself and sometimes that’s more important.

Beau, as it turns out, is quite the musician. He and I are playing duets and will be going public in the near future. I play the written notes. He improvises. We’re quite a pair considering it’s been at least twenty-odd years since I’ve played. I suspect he’s played in a previous life.

The player piano feature? Oh it still plays. I’m just not sure how to rewind the roll. It’s a Playotone piano, manufactured by Hardman Peck. Can anyone help me out with that? I sure would appreciate it. There must be at least 300 rolls here and I’d like to play them.

Only in Reading

As I was crossing the street today I came upon the oddest thing. There were guys shoveling snow. That in itself is somewhat rare around here but that’s not what made me stop and look. Okay, gawk openly to be more accurate.

What caught my attention was that they were shoveling it, are you ready for this? Into trash bags. Yes, that’s right. Trash bags. And they weren’t merely using them as a means to transport the snow elsewhere in order to dump it out of the way. No, they had the bags neatly tied up, ready to be tossed in the dumpster which they then proceeded to do.

I admit it. I stood there, on the corner across the street and laughed out loud. With a total stranger who was doing the same thing. The things you see…

Way Too Much

I got a pack of cough drops the other day. Halls triple action cherry. Have you seen them recently?

The wrappers have changed. I guess they’re supposedly new and improved. They now have inspirational little sayings printed in the middle of a square of logos. Not just one per wrapper. No, there are multiple on each. Halls has even trademarked this, dubbing it “A Pep Talk in Every Drop”.

The sayings? Flex your “can do” muscle. Seize the day. Impress yourself today. Don’t waste a precious minute. Fire up those engines. Go for it. Don’t wait to get started. Be resilient. Dust off and get up. Buckle down and push forth!

Okay. Nothing really wrong with the message. We can all use a bit of encouragement from time to time. I’m just having a problem with it being supplied by my cough drop. I feel, I don’t know, bombarded? Assaulted? It’s just weird. And a little annoying. One tidbit per wrapper might not be so bad but several? No, thank you. Honestly, when I’m coughing my head off I don’t really care much about the wrapper or anything that may be printed on it. I simply want it to be easy to remove and the cough drop to work.

Book News!

Questing, book one of my Cosmic Connections series, is now available in print! It can be found here.

Although I adore the whole concept of ebooks, I must admit it’s pretty darn cool to be able to hold a paper copy of my words in my hands. There’s nothing quite like a pretty, shiny cover with my name on it to make me sigh.

Blurb –

Jordan McKade knows Kiley Fisher is his destiny the second he sees her. She, however, needs a lot more time to accept it. The last thing he wants to do is scare her away before she’s ready and it takes more self-control than he ever thought he possessed not to blurt out how desperately he wants to fuck her no matter how true it is.

Kiley’s problem isn’t that she doesn’t want him. It’s that she’s intimidated by the super sexy Jordan with his overwhelming business success and his voice that is so sinfully sensual she is ready to come every time he speaks to her.

When a no-good crook uses Kiley in his nefarious plans to save his own ass, Jordan comes to her rescue which finally lands them in a setting where they can no longer resist each other and the chemistry that’s been slowly building between them ignites in an inferno of passion.

I'm Back!

Oh, you didn’t notice I was gone? That’s okay. I know I’m only the center of my own universe, not yours. As it should be.

I wasn’t off having fun. Nope, nothing of the kind. I thought my computer had up and died on me. It wasn’t terminal, however. It only had a very nasty looping virus that wouldn’t allow it to boot. So it just seemed dead. Poor thing kept trying, over and over again, getting faster with each go round.

I took it to the nice folks at Tech Basement and they brought it back to life. Sort of. Oh it boots again. And I can do all I used to do. But they salvaged the documents from the D drive, not the C drive. D drive was the one I used for back up and miscellaneous stuff I didn’t really need. C drive was where all the important, every day stuff was kept.

I called them and they were very apologetic. They said I could bring my computer back and they’d try again. I’d have to leave it with them for a week. Hmm, not sure I want to do that. I reclaimed most of my poetry from the site where I post it, Wordmachinist.com. The books I’m working on I make a habit of emailing to myself every time I add to them, so they’re safe. The most important things lost were pictures. Of friends. Of Beau as a tiny kitten. A few days spent roaming the city. Still, I’m not sure I want to turn my computer over to strangers again. Have you ever done that? It’s hard!

I will now be much better at backing things up to my hard drive. Every other day instead of every other month. Yep, sometimes I have to learn the hard way.

I Have the Plague

So does nearly everyone else at work. But it’s okay. Unlike the rest of them, it’s not going to kill me. Oh, I’m plenty sick but I’ll be just fine. You see those that released the virus there with the intention of doing us all in failed to take into account my genetic make up.

I’m not entirely human so although it’s affecting me, it won’t last. My system will eventually win out and then there is going to be hell to pay. Yes, they are going to be very, very sorry they attempted to include me in their dastardly plot. Even now I can feel the virus mutating within me, morphing into something they have no defense against.

I will find them when it is ripe. When I do I will spread the new strain I’m incubating among them, being sure to come into contact with all concerned. Then I will simply sit back and watch their demise. I can’t wait to see their expressions when they realize what is occurring. What fun it will be watching them scurry around, trying to come up with the antidote in time. Which, of course, they won’t since time will not be on their side. Ha! Bioterrorists beware!

Hey, I haven’t slept in days. See what happens?

A Thought

I had a conversation with a friend the other day. We were discussing all we accomplish on an ongoing basis. You know, the things you just naturally do to get on in your life. It got us started on how scary we’d be if we were ever consistently our best selves. Scary amazing, not scary frightening.

No, I’m not implying either one of us is lazy. Far from it. What I mean is how much of other life stuff gets in the way, bogs us down so we are unable to give every little thing we do our all. Think about yourself for a moment, if you will. As you go through your life, how much of your focus is on what you’re doing at the moment? Or is your mind always split between that and a gazillion other things?

Personally, I have instances of intense focus though not as many as I’d like. Hmm, I’ll have to see what I can do about that. The question is how do I go about it and still manage to do all the other things that need doing on any average day? Some things are going to have to go but it’ll work out. I’m sure I do plenty that isn’t really necessary.

What about you? Are you generally happy with your efforts or do you fall short of what you’d like to be doing? And, if so, how are you going to fix it? No, sorry. I don’t have answers. But I might, now that I’m pondering the whole thing and when I do, I’ll share.