A Hit And A Miss

I think I still have two, or possibly three, chapters to go in my new John Lee Quarrels book. I’m hoping to get those done today or by sometime tomorrow. Of course, then there’s still all the proofreading and editing to be done, but we’re getting there.

Terry and I are always looking for something interesting to watch on TV in the evening, and the last couple of nights we watched movies on Amazon Prime. As with so many things in life, sometimes you choose something good, and other times not so good. On Friday night, we watched a movie called East of the Mountains with Tom Skerritt. 88 years old at the time the movie was filmed in 2019, Skerritt plays a retired heart surgeon and recent widower diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not willing to die in a hospital bed connected to monitors and tubes, he goes back to his boyhood home in eastern Washington with his dog. The original plan is to end his life on his own terms, but things don’t work out that way. It wasn’t that it was a bad movie, but it was definitely slow, and the end was underwhelming.

Last night, we watched 1993’s A Home Of Our Own, starring Kathy Bates as a widowed mother of six who leaves the rat race of Los Angeles in search of a better life and a better place to raise her kids. Based upon a true story, penniless and with little hope of a windfall dropping in their lap, the family finds the skeleton of an unfinished house in a small town in Idaho. Bates negotiates with the owner, played by Soon-Tek Oh, and she and her children take on the task of finishing the home. It’s an immense project with setbacks almost every day, including one toward the end that would make viewers think all hope is lost. But sometimes real life holds surprises that make everything work out well in the end, and so it was with this movie. They were both free for Amazon Prime members, and this one is definitely worth a watch if you want a feel-good movie.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for a copy of More RV Chuckles and Chuckholes-More Confessions of Happy Campers by Darlene Miller. It’s her second book about the RV lifestyle which is full of amusing anecdotes, jokes, adventures and chuckhole experiences while traveling throughout the USA and Canada. It includes stories about the search for the white Kermodei bear in British Columbia; how to stay in touch with your grandchildren while traveling and bond with other RVers while parked in the desert around Quartzsite, Arizona. Guest contributors write about the quest for New Mexican chilies; what happens when the windshield breaks in the middle of traffic on the San Franciso Bay Bridge; or how to RV when you are born with no mechanical genes.

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 person 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 30 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

Did you know that you can find all of my books and sign up for my free author’s newsletter on my website at www.nickrussellbooks.com?

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 – Belief is the first step in the journey from possible to actual.