The Writing Moment
Encountering a friend who just retired, he asked what the other was now doing with his time. “Well,” the new retiree replied, “I’m publishing my second collection of poetry.”
“Great, congratulations.”
“Thank you. I’ve worked on it for twenty plus years.”
“Who is the publisher?”
“I’m self-publishing. After being rejected one hundred twenty-seven times, I just want to get it out there.”
Friday’s Wandering Thought
He always liked it when he encountered friendly bathrooms, ones with polite lighting and friendly mirrors. Too many times, he encountered mean-spirited bathrooms where he saw himself in the mirror and gasped, “OMG, WTF happened to me?”
Fried-day’s Theme Music
No reason but whimsical demons to call this Fried-day.
It is Black Fried-day, though. Hearing shoppers declare themselves fried or exhausted today after a day of shopping would be about a one on the surprise scale that ends in ten on the high end.
Today is 11/25/2022. My friendsgiving (never sure if I should capitalize that word) was comfortable and satisfying. Smaller than planned, just twelve, but excellent conversation and a spread of food worthy of a feast. Hope you had a similarly rewarding day yesterday. Let’s do it again today.
Many will be doing it again today, because leftovers. More need not be said except I hope no one wastes food and that some is shared with the less fortunate. No one should be going hungry if we were socialized and organized right. There is more to say about it all, but it’s all been said.
Beautiful weather graced us yesterday but Gloomy Gus has taken Fried-day. Sun had a moment about an hour after its 7:13 AM rise but then Gus sprayed gray over the shine. Whether Gus will have his way with the sun until daylight’s departure at 1642 is open for betting. Currently between 3 and 4 C, a high of 55 F is possible. As always with the weather, politics, and the economy, we shall see.
Black Fried-Day has The Neurons circulating “D’You Know What I Mean?” by Oasis, 1997. This came about from listening to small knots of conversation and overhearing someone in each knot at least once rhetorically flourish, “Do you know what I mean?” Cogitating as part of the greater reflection process done later, that aspect amused me, along with hearing, “litte tiny” mentioned and “I was thinking to myself”. Those phrases always make The Neurons giggle, so they brought up the song. There were other songs with similar titles heard in the mental music stream for a bit but this one won the morning portion.
Stay pos and test neg. Enjoy your Fried-day as much as I enjoy this cuppa coffee which is about to meet my lips. Gotta go read a book, a highly entertaining tome called “Network Effect” by Martha Wells. Due back at the library tomorrow. Here’s the tune. Stay chilled.
Cheers
Thanks-day’s Theme Music
This is it, the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving in the U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed a Congressional proclamation declaring this is what we were going to do as a nation going forward. Before that, Thanksgiving was all over the place, sort of like Elon Musk and Twitter, an agent of chaos and close to unpredictable.
It’s November 24, 2022. Feels like spring is visiting autumn outside. Recognizing sunshine, the cats wanted out immediately. Their eagerness was rewarded by calm air hovering around 56 F on its way to a 65 F high. Gadzooks, what a treat. Sunshine invaded at a little before the 7:12 AM sunrise. Sunshine will hang out until 4:43 PM.
Thanksgiving is a day of deep planning for many families. Traditions are observed, new ones established. Martyrs are born as people go to extremes to satisfy their Thanksgiving commitments. Warnings are a newer Thanksgiving tradition as people point out which foods are vegan, gluten-free, vegetarian, or contains eggs, dairy, or nuts. Mom and my sisters do Thanksgiving up, going over-the-top with their food. There’s turkey with stuffing and all the American food staples associated with that through the years of Thanksgiving, but also pasta dishes to honor the Italian side. Dessert and treats? My god, yes. Apple pie, and pumpkin, along with cookies, pretzels and chips, cheese trays with crackers and bread, relish trays, and, yes, cake and cheesecake. Leftovers are eaten for a week. Some things are frozen and eaten later in the year.
My wife and I celebrate Friendsgiving with a group. We’ve been doing this for a while and it’s become our Ashland tradition. I’m looking forward to it, as friends that I’ve not seen in months will be there. I enjoy their company and catching up with their news.
A friend of ours is breaking her tradition this year. She loves Thanksgiving and plays hostess to her extended family every year. This year, though, her newly married son invited her and hubby to his in-laws’ Thanksgiving celebration, an enthusiastically accepted invitation, with just one hitch: part of his new family’s Thanksgiving tradition is a visit to the family spa in the nude. About that, she is not enthusiastic. She is seventy years old and a radical mastectomy survivor. She’s not excited about others viewing her nakedness, age and mastectomy or not. She’s just not one to share her nakedness. We understand. As my wife said to, “Hell to the no. Nobody outside of you is seeing my body.” That’s a position she’s held since she was a little girl.
Today’s music comes out of a car ride yesterday. The song is called “Classic” by Cam and came out in 2020. There are lines in it which we enjoy: “Johnny and June, Chevy light blue (They don’t make ’em like this anymore), Bette Davis, Yellow pages (They don’t make ’em like this anymore).” When we first heard it after its release, we laughed, went home and confirmed that we heard right.
Well, if you’re read this post before, you know that The Neurons liked that and have kept it going in the morning mental music stream this morning.
This is a late post. I’ve had my coffee, as I spent the first hours cleaning up and doing dishes after my wife did her cooking last night. Stay positive and test negative. Hope you have a day with an outcome worthy of giving thanks. Here’s Cam with “Classic”.
Cheers
The Writing Moment
The best part of writing is when he’s so deeply involved with the work in progress that he goes to sleep thinking about it and awakens with it in his mind. Details inundate him in a joyous way. Reading anything, but especially fiction, is challenging. It feels like everything that he reads drives new insights about what to write.
This is also the worst thing about the writing life because all his energy and attention is directed toward his writing. Others find him unable to engage with them, making him appear absent-minded and anti-social. The truth can’t be explained. Only those wholly absorbed by what they do will understand.
Wednesday’s Wandering Thought
He did another little DIY project, replacing the diverter on a bathtub spout. Not difficult, and yet it solved a minor problem, and that felt satisfying.
After that, he wandered around the house, searching for other things to fix. Finding nothing (although some caulking could be in order), he instead culled their financial files, taking out and shredding years of information. It, too, was satisfying, but in a different way.
What next, he wondered. What next?
