They Have A Mind Of Their Own!

Check out my new ride! It’s roomy, stable, and only costs a few thousand dollars an hour to operate. Anybody want to take a cruise with me?

On Thursday Terry had an appointment with her eye doctor in Titusville, and once we were done with that we decided to take a little ride. We wound up at Port Canaveral, where a lot of cruise ships are based out of. I’m not sure which ship this was, but I bet it could take us someplace fun. Taking a cruise is high on my bucket list, though I don’t think Terry is all that pumped up about it. But Beverly is, so maybe between the two of us we can convince her.

We have been so busy with doctor appointments, both our own and getting Beverly set up with her new doctors here, that it’s been a challenge to find time to write. But yesterday, while Terry and Bev were going to yet another appointment and then doing some shopping, I stayed home and started pounding the keyboard. Well, actually I started talking a lot into my headset microphone and let Dragon Premium do all the work.

And it was a good writing day. I managed to get another 6,200 words done in my new John Lee Quarrels book. And as happens so many times, the story took off in a new direction I did not see coming. My characters have a mind of their own and sometimes I am amazed at what they come up with that I never expected. I’m over two thirds of the way done now, and I’m kind of excited to see where this is going.

While the ladies were gone the mailman delivered several packages from Amazon with a bunch of books I had ordered. When I’m reading mysteries or other novels for pleasure, I use my Kindle Paperwhite, but for books I am going to use for reference for future work, I prefer printed books.

In the same shipment, I also received a pair of 1800 lumen Ultra-Bright LED Flashlights. Never in my life have I purchased a flashlight that came with its own legs, but they seem to grow them once they show up. You wouldn’t know it to look at my desktop, and certainly not if you saw inside any of the drawers, but I’m really an organized person. Well, maybe not organized, but I do put things in the same place all the time and can usually find when I need them.

Except for flashlights. I like flashlights and I try to keep one in a drawer in our headboard, one in my desk drawer, one in each car, a couple in the garage, one in the junk drawer in the kitchen, and at least one on my pontoon boat. No, I probably don’t need all of them, but flashlights are like guns and fire extinguishers. You may never need one, but when you do need it, you really, really need it.

I can’t tell you how many flashlights I have owned over the years that just disappeared one day. Miss Terry tells me I’m crazy, but I’m convinced that there is a huge black market in used flashlights, and a very sophisticated ring of flashlight thieves have followed me around the country stealing them every chance they get. There’s never any evidence of their crime because they’re really sneaky. I think they’re in cahoots with the gremlins who slip into my closet at night and steal all my clothes and replace them with the exact same thing, only in a smaller size.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Point Taken, the tenth book in my friend Ben Rehder’s excellent Blanco County mystery series. I’ve read just about all of Ben’s books, and I don’t think he could write a bad story if he tried. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

Thought For The Day – If you are ever alone and lost in the wilderness or adrift on a life raft at sea all by yourself, just start talking about politics. Somebody will show up to argue with you before you know it.