An Update

There’s been a lot going on in a short time, so today I thought I would give you an update. First, the formatting of the print edition of Pucker Factor is not finished yet. The person who does my formatting ran into a couple of issues and hasn’t been able to get to it yet. But she does great work, and I know she will have it to me as soon as possible so I can get it uploaded to Amazon and make it available for purchase. Speaking of Pucker Factor, thanks to your wonderful support, it’s still doing very well in sales and rankings, with 4.3 stars out of a possible 5, and 100 worldwide ratings.

I have been busy working on Big Lake Drunk, the 22^nd book in my Big Lake series, doing about 6500 words yesterday. Somebody asked me if I work from an outline or anything like that or if I just sit down and see what comes out. I have never been able to work with an outline. I just fly by the seat of my pants.

In other news, Wednesday we went down to Titusville for a follow-up exam on Terry’s right eye, which had cataract surgery ten ago. Her doctor was very pleased. He said that the day after surgery, the eye was at 20/80, and this week it was at 20/40 and will continue to improve. Surgery for her left eye is scheduled for next Tuesday, the 6^th. Terry said she will be glad to get that out of the way because the two eyes are different enough now that she is struggling to see, and wearing her glasses only makes it worse because one eye is so different from the other.

When we got done at the eye doctor’s, we drove 77 miles north to Palm Coast to have our friend, Doctor Melony Thomas at Coastal Integrative Healthcare, give us chiropractic adjustments. Yes, there are other chiropractors a lot closer to home, even some other offices of the same company. But Melony has been taking care of us for so long she can just look at us and know what we need.

Driving back down south, we ran into heavy rain about 20 miles before we got to Daytona Beach. We decided to stop at Hibachi Grill and Supreme Buffet for dinner, but when we got there it was raining so hard that we decided to sit in the parking lot and wait for it to ease up a bit. Thirty minutes later it was still raining hard, and the weather maps on our phones said there was more coming.

So we left and drove to Port Orange to have dinner at Salsas Cocina, Terry’s favorite Mexican restaurant in the area. We both had their delicious shrimp chimichangas. They had a sign on the door saying they were hiring wait staff, and I hope they get some new people because the service was poor. Even though they weren’t terribly busy, given the weather, our waitress seemed to disappear for long periods at a time. But we’ve never had a bad meal there, so we’ll chalk it up to being a one-time thing.

The storm had caught up with us, and it had started raining again by the time we were done eating, and we drove in the rain most of the way home. But as happens so often, the storm split and went right around our neighborhood, and not a drop had fallen at home.

Speaking of good food, when we haven’t been running around taking care of things, Terry has been working her magic in the kitchen. A few days ago, she made me delicious chicken Alfredo for dinner and a grilled chicken salad for hers.

As if that wasn’t enough, she topped it off with a delicious lemon pound cake, which we had for dessert for the next three or four days.

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 autographed copy of Big Lake Quarterback, the 17^th book in my Big Lake mystery series. Big Lake High School’s star quarterback seems to have it all. Handsome, popular with the girls, adored by the fans, and a talent that his coach is convinced will take him to the big time in professional football. So when Gary Gunkel goes missing a week before the homecoming game, some people in town believe he’s just a typical young man sowing his wild oats. But when the missing boy’s mother shows Sheriff Weber a series of gruesome threatening letters he has received, the sheriff agrees that there might be something more sinister happening. Even more startling, his investigation soon discovers another side to Gary Gunkel, a side that makes Weber question how much he really knows about the young people in his small mountain town.

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 and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.