Well, none of my friends or relatives called to tell me they had won the big Powerball drawing and wanted to split the money with me, so I spent yesterday working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal. Yeah, I know, you heard that before. That’s pretty much all we’ve been doing this week. I write and print out stuff, Miss Terry proofs it, I make the corrections, and lay out the paper. But we’re getting there, and we should be able to wrap it up pretty easily in the next couple of days and get it uploaded to our printer sometime Sunday.
I’ll be glad when the job is done. I love the traveling and finding the stories to share with you and writing them, but the actual process of laying out the paper is just tedious work. And my arthritic hands are paying the price for so much time at the keyboard and using the trackpad.
Please don’t get me wrong, we love what we do and I wouldn’t trade this gig for any job in the world. I’m just not very good at the precision work needed to lay out everything on the computer’s screen and make it fit.
The good news is that with all of the traveling we’ve done in the last few months, from the Midwest to New England and south to Florida, we have a surplus of stories that will carry us through several issues of the paper. Sometimes when we’re sitting still for a while we have to scramble to find things to include in an issue. But if we didn’t go to one more museum or historic site or oddball attraction the rest of the winter we still have more than enough for three more issues after this one is printed.
While I’ve been working at the computer Miss Terry has been busy proofing everything as I print it out, as well as proofing my new Highway History book at the same time. She also managed to get a little bit of crocheting done, and cook an absolutely spectacular meal of shrimp scampi with Parmesan linguine for dinner. Yes, I know, I’ve got it made! And you’re right, I don’t deserve her. You’re not telling me anything her mother and I don’t both already know very well. After almost 15 years I still have to pinch myself every day to realize I’m not dreaming.
Thought For The Day – If you want your dreams to come true, wake up, roll up your sleeves, and get to work!
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
nick, sorry you feel a little not excited about the writing and setting ou for the next gupsy journal, but don’t give up, I enjoy it. Roger Scott
Nick, Don’t give up, I enjoy your writing and the Gypsy Journal. Roger Scott
Please, please do not stop writing the Journal, I would be totally lost without knowing about all you neat travels and articles in the blog, the paper etc.
If you ever do decide you do want to switch lives, give me a call 🙂 I am heading to my camper tonight to do a little writing myself. I love the winter when the campgrounds in Georgia clear out and there isn’t another RV to be seen. Hopefully most here have winterized and taken the yappy dogs home. I seem to get my best writing done when it’s cold and I stay inside. Have a great weekend!
I have no intention to stop publishing the paper, I’m sorry some of you interpreted my comments that way. That’s not going to happen. I was just saying that the actual process laying out of the paper is tedious and that I don’t enjoy that part of the job. No matter what we do, there is always some part of most jobs we all like less than others.
But compared to most jobs in the world, I’ve got it made.
I’m confused. Where did any of you read that Nick was not going to continue writing the paper? He said he loves the traveling and writing, just not the laying of it out. My wife loves to cook but doesn’t like doing the dishes afterward. I like maintaining my RV, but hate washing and waxing it. I love driving my RV and don’t like parking it in tight RV sites. Doesn’t mean we’ll stop cooking or RVing.
God people, take a chill pill! Nick didn’t say anything at all about stopping. Where did you read that? Do you also post and forward every stupid e-mail Round Robin letter you get? I bet you were fun during the election!!!!
I suspect the idea that Nick was going to stop with the paper came from not only this blog entry, but previous ones. Remember when he stopped the rallys, first a hint about the amount of work involved, next a complaint about cost involved and finally the decision. The precedent was set. You forget he has to have a source of income. Fulltime travel is not cheap. 18 years and counting.
I think some of us feel really let down when Nick and Terri stopped doing the rally with no warning and don’t know what to expect next. We never made it to one but were hoping to this year in Arizona.
Nancy, I’m sorry you feel “let down,” but no business can continue to do something that is not profitable. The rallies were a part of our business that required a tremendous amount of work by not only Terry and myself, but also an army of volunteers. They also were not profitable. We loved holding rallies, and may do something in the future on a smaller scale, but we made a decision to concentrate on the things that are profitable to us, and that also allow us to have some much needed free time now and then.
I have always thought of the blog as a conversation with our friends, where I could share no only what we are up to on a daily basis, but also our feelings about life in general. Please people, stop reading things into my comments that are not real. We are NOT going to stop publishing the Gypsy Journal and we are NOT getting off the road. We are always evaluating what works for us and what doesn’t, and making changes that will allow us to continue doing what we love for a long time, which is to travel and publish the paper.
We are not retired, this is our job, and we love it. We’re not going away!
I still feel let down. We always wanted to go to one of your rally events.
Hey Nick, Wouldn’t be great if you could please all the people all the time?
You ‘da man!
(I mean that collectively)
Gene
Why don’t you put on a rally just for Nancy ?