Happy Independence Day...
has more than one meaning for me. Don't say it too loud but I actually have the house to myself this morning. Brian is visiting his mother. Becky is gone for two weeks at what she calls fish camp but is actually a marine biology research course. And the newest addition to the family, a friend of Becky's whose parents gave him the boot with very little provocation, is at work. (We call him Other Son.) Since Brian retired last year, being home alone is a rare luxury.
What shall I do with this (temporary) freedom? Well, obviously, I blog. There are chores to be done but I'm about chored out. We de-junked the basement and garage this week. I'll probably take my cup of coffee and a book out to the front porch where there are a cushioned rocking chair and a cool breeze with my name on them.
I still have a couple of big chores to finish before I can settle into any sustained writing this summer. I'm done with the school job until the middle of August and my practice has slowed to a dribble. I think I'll start writing in the office on the third floor for privacy. I'm one of those writers who needs silence when I write. No music. Don't talk to me. Don't come into the room to get something. Sh.
I have a couple of trips to the Ferrenz family beach house planned. The first is the annual Girls Week At The Beach with Becky. We've been doing this since she was three. (She's almost eighteen now.) The second is a mini writers retreat with
tina_jens. Last April, she and I went to my family's house in the mountains for a mini retreat. It was really cold and we ran out of firewood and the water heater wasn't heating water. Troopers that we are, we went outside and collected firewood and we heated water on the stove for washing up. I wanted to go out and kill a squirrel with my bare hands for dinner but we found a nice Mexican restaurant in town instead. The really good news is that I was able to determine why my novel was spinning its wheels and going nowhere. I got out of the ditch and took off down the highway. I stepped on the gas and didn't touch the brakes on the curves. I turned on the radio and sang loud and offkey. I opened the windows and accidently swallowed a bug. I ... okay, I'll stop.
Happy Fourth of July, everybody! May all Americans (especially the politicians) embrace the democracy that we celebrate today.
What shall I do with this (temporary) freedom? Well, obviously, I blog. There are chores to be done but I'm about chored out. We de-junked the basement and garage this week. I'll probably take my cup of coffee and a book out to the front porch where there are a cushioned rocking chair and a cool breeze with my name on them.
I still have a couple of big chores to finish before I can settle into any sustained writing this summer. I'm done with the school job until the middle of August and my practice has slowed to a dribble. I think I'll start writing in the office on the third floor for privacy. I'm one of those writers who needs silence when I write. No music. Don't talk to me. Don't come into the room to get something. Sh.
I have a couple of trips to the Ferrenz family beach house planned. The first is the annual Girls Week At The Beach with Becky. We've been doing this since she was three. (She's almost eighteen now.) The second is a mini writers retreat with
tina_jens. Last April, she and I went to my family's house in the mountains for a mini retreat. It was really cold and we ran out of firewood and the water heater wasn't heating water. Troopers that we are, we went outside and collected firewood and we heated water on the stove for washing up. I wanted to go out and kill a squirrel with my bare hands for dinner but we found a nice Mexican restaurant in town instead. The really good news is that I was able to determine why my novel was spinning its wheels and going nowhere. I got out of the ditch and took off down the highway. I stepped on the gas and didn't touch the brakes on the curves. I turned on the radio and sang loud and offkey. I opened the windows and accidently swallowed a bug. I ... okay, I'll stop.
Happy Fourth of July, everybody! May all Americans (especially the politicians) embrace the democracy that we celebrate today.