Back At It

Thank you to everyone who sent e-mails and messages after reading yesterday’s blog, hoping I was feeling better and more like myself. When I woke up yesterday morning I was still pretty out of it, and I actually fell asleep at the kitchen table after eating a late breakfast.

But I decided that that wasn’t going to get anything accomplished so I threw some cold water on my face and got back at it. Roberta, my third proofreader, had sent back the first eight chapters of my new John Lee Quarrels book and I made her corrections, then I managed to crank out another chapter of close to 3,000 words. So while it wasn’t a stellar day, at least I got something done.

And my day was definitely better than Terry’s. We hadn’t done any grocery shopping since before we took our trip out west, so while I was working on the new book, Terry went to Publix to restock. We knew it was going to be busy, being the Friday of a holiday weekend, but Terry said she could cram her credit card and driver’s license in her pocket and ignore the crowds and do her thing and get it done without much hassle.

Well, that was until she got to the checkout line with a huge basket full of groceries and had half of them on the conveyor belt. That’s when a store employee told her that their credit card system was down, so they could only take cash or debit cards. Why not announce that to all customers over the PA system instead of leaving them scrambling once they are done shopping and ready to check out?’

Terry didn’t have that much cash with her because we usually pay for everything with a credit card and then pay it off at the end of the month to get bonus points. She called me and said she needed help, and I told her I would grab either some cash or my debit card and be out the door in just a moment or two. Fortunately, just about the time I was getting in the truck she called me back to say that the checkout clerk told her to try her credit card and see what happened, and sure enough, the darn thing worked!

Even so, she was more than a little frazzled by the time she got home. So once we had the groceries unloaded and put away, I told her that she sure didn’t need to be cooking after doing all of that. Instead, we went to Beef O’Brady’s for dinner. The place was packed, but even so, we were seated right away and had a nice meal. By the time we got back home, Terry was feeling better about things.

I hope to get another couple of chapters knocked out today, so wish me luck!

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.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Buck Fever, the first book in my friend Ben Rehder’s immensely popular Blanco County mystery series. If you haven’t read any of Ben’s books, you have no idea what you are missing out on. Wacky characters, great humor, and superb writing. Give them a try. You won’t be disappointed.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) 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. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with U.S. addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – If we threw all of our problems in a pile and then saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.