Keeping Busy

After our day in town on Friday, we stayed busy at home yesterday. After a light breakfast of mixed berries and a half bagel each, I spent an hour or so answering emails. One was from an old friend who lives in Minnesota, telling me that she was not ready for their long, cold winter to begin. Our winters here in Alabama are not nearly as severe, but I’m not ready for it to begin either.

It was actually pretty nice during the day yesterday, and I spent some time out in the barn unboxing and setting up the Forklift Safety Cage Work Platform I recently purchased from Vevor products. Then I did some measuring and thinking about some renovations I plan to do out in the barn this winter.

One of the first steps will be to get electric power hooked up again back there. There is power to the building, but the meter was taken out at some point in the past. Before I can get it connected again, I have to update the main breaker box.

I also want to pull off the old warped and weathered wood lap siding on the front side and replace it, then cover the other three sides that are pretty much bare. There are also two freestanding rooms in the barn that I’m going to tear out with the help of our son Travis. I also want to enlarge the door on one end of the barn so I can drive in one end and out the other if I want to. I probably won’t get around to any of that until sometime after Christmas.

But for now, I’m busy playing author. In the last few days I’ve written another three chapters in my new John Lee Quarrels book. Today I will proofread them and then print them out for Terry to edit before sending them on to my other proofreaders.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Pirate Trials: Dastardly Deeds & Last Words by my friend Ken Rossignol. These are tales of real pirates, not Hollywood in the Caribbean, but actual bloodthirsty pirates, who, when captured and put on trial, confessed to their brutality in shocking detail to the horror of all those in the courtroom. These accounts of real crime on the high seas committed by pirates who were brought to justice in England, Scotland, Canada and the United States are true and provide precise narratives of their actions in the courtroom, including the drama of the high seas barbarism and the death march to the gibbet and gallows.

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 this evening. 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. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

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.

Thought For The Day – Look at all the things you own but never use and think, “This used to be money.”