A Tense Night

A series of severe thunderstorms came through Central Florida Saturday night, with tornado warnings in several counties, including ours. As usual, the brunt of it went north or south of us, leaving us with periods of heavy rain off and on, but that was about it. But it was still a tense night around here.

It has been dry for the last several days, and I told Terry on Saturday that I really needed to water our citrus trees and perennial peanut plants, but she advised me to wait and see what the storm did. I’m glad she did because they definitely got plenty of rain!

In response to yesterday’s blog, Stupid Bowl Sunday, someone sent me an e-mail saying that if I would just take the time to watch two or three professional football games, I would be hooked. Why would I want to do that? It’s like beer. I don’t drink and haven’t since I was a young man in the Army, but even then, I never could stand the taste of beer. People tell me that it’s an acquired taste. Why would I want to acquire a taste for something that I don’t like in the first place? What would I gain by that?

Terry has spent the last two days doing one final readthrough of my new book Fresh Out Of Mojo, and as happens so often, even though it’s been through three excellent proofreaders, she’s still picked up on some things that need to be changed. Most of them are small things like misplaced commas, but in two places, I have people’s names wrong, and in another, I just left a blank space where there should be a name. I’m absolutely convinced that sometimes gremlins go in and change things in the middle of the night.

While Terry has been doing that, I’ve been making corrections as she gives them to me, working on my author’s newsletter, and writing the first chapter of the next John Lee Quarrels book, which will go in at the end of this one as a teaser. People keep asking me when the next book in my Tinder Street historical saga will be out. I will start writing it as soon as this new John Lee book goes live sometime later this week.

Today makes two weeks since we had our first round of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccinations, and in another two weeks, we will get the second injections. We know that’s not going to change the world, but it will make us feel much more comfortable. We will still wear masks and social distance because even though we are protected, it doesn’t mean we couldn’t spread the virus to somebody else. We are not out of the woods with this thing yet, folks, but we are seeing more and more shots going into more and more arms, and that’s the first step.

Of course, it would help a lot if we didn’t see crowds of fools getting together in bars celebrating sporting events with no concern at all about the danger they’re placing themselves and other people in. A friend of mine said the other day that maybe COVID is Mother Nature’s way of thinning the herd to get rid of the idiots, and while I don’t totally disagree, sadly a lot of innocent people have died and will continue to die before this is over.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I thought it appropriate since tax time is coming.

Congratulations Darhl Stultz, winner of our drawing for an autographed copy of Cops and Writers Crime Scenes and Investigations, the second book in my friend Patrick O’Donnell’s Cops and Writers series. We had 46 entries this week. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – Cooking tip: If you mix a little coconut oil with your kale, it makes it easier to scrape into the trash.