Mid-May Q&A

 Posted by at 1:02 am  Nick's Blog
May 162023
 

I’m back with more questions from blog readers about RVing, my writing activities, what’s happening in our lives since we hung up the keys, and all kinds of other things. While I try to answer all questions individually, I also share some here occasionally.

Q. Nick, have you done an internet search for remote-controlled lawnmowers? You can sit on your porch and mow the steepest lawn using a joystick.

A. No, but I will now. 🙂

Q. I have signed up for your free drawings for one of the RV camping journals every time but have never been lucky enough to get drawn. Can I buy one on Amazon or someplace else online?

A. Yes, you can purchase them on Amazon, or even better, Barbara House, who publishes the camping journals, has set up a special 20% discount for my blog readers on her website. It’s good for everything there, not just the RV journals. You can access it at this link.

Q. I know you are into guns, and I have a question. My husband’s birthday is coming up and he has always wanted a gun called a Kimber. It’s a handgun is all I know about them. I asked a neighbor who is a security guard and he said they are overpriced junk. Do you know anything about them?

A. Your security guard neighbor doesn’t have a clue. Kimbers are far from junk. They are top quality handguns, and their price reflects that. Between Terry and I, we have six Kimbers and they are all excellent. But you need to find out what kind of Kimber your husband wants. They make both semiautomatic pistols and revolvers in many different sizes and calibers for many different uses.

Q. Now that it’s getting so hot in Alabama, are you regretting your decision to move there?

A. No, it’s just as hot all summer long in Florida, too. Every place in the country has something negative about it, whether it be hot summers, cold winters, tornadoes or hurricanes, traffic jams or mudslides. Choose your poison.

Q. Nick, I know you joke around a lot, but I really have to ask. Does Miss Terry get upset when you talk about buying her a riding lawnmower or a rototiller or tools instead of jewelry or something romantic?

A. Terry can have anything she wants. She has a few pieces of jewelry, but she is not into things like that. She really does love tools and is quite good with them. Better than I will ever be, for sure. She also loves kitchenware and gadgets for the kitchen and has a good supply of things like that.

Q. We met a very nice man named Carey McGleish at one of your Gypsy Journal rallies in Arizona and really hit it off with him. I know that at one time he was snowbirding at a campground somewhere on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Yuma, but we have lost touch. Are you still in contact? If so, could you please give him our e-mail address and tell him Jim and Gail from Pennsylvania would like to reconnect?

A. Unfortunately, we have not heard from Carey in quite a few years. We miss him. I see he has a Facebook page, but no posts since 2017.

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’m so confused.

Thought For The Day – Laughter is like a windshield wiper. It doesn’t stop the rain, but it allows us to keep going.

Cool It!

 Posted by at 12:45 am  Nick's Blog
May 152023
 

As I said the other day, it’s already getting darned hot here in Alabama. The temperature yesterday was 91 degrees, and we have quickly discovered that the sunroom at the back of our house, which we use for our office, can get downright uncomfortable. That’s because of all of the windows and the fact that this is an addition to the house, and the single air conditioning vent doesn’t really do us much good, nor does the ceiling fan. We can walk from the office into the living room and feel at least a 10 or maybe even 20 degree difference in temperature, if not more.

It got so hot yesterday that Terry and I talked about moving our desks into our huge master bedroom, which stays nice and cool, but we really didn’t want to do that. When we first moved into our home in Florida, we purchased two Frigidaire window air conditioners. One was mounted in the garage and ran 24/7 nonstop and was still running when we sold the house. The second unit was to be used in the living room in the event of a power failure. We only did that once or twice, using one of our Honda generators to power it. It was more than enough to keep us comfortable in the living room until utility crews could get the power up and running again. We brought it with us when we moved here, and yesterday we installed it here in the back of the house to hopefully make our office more comfortable.

It was during the afternoon, and by the time I got ready to write the blog, close to midnight, it was feeling much better back here. Of course, we won’t know for sure how much good it does until sometime today when the sun is out and starts heating things up again.

One good thing about this early summer, or whatever it is that we are experiencing, is that our rose bushes are going crazy. The other day Terry picked a bouquet of rosebuds for our daughter-in-law Geli, and she’s got another bouquet of them on our kitchen breakfast counter now.

I also mentioned a while back that the ground fabric we put down in our garden was not doing any good at all. It kept pulling up and beating the plants in any kind of breeze, even though we used multiple metal staples designed for that purpose to hold it in place. Besides which, grass was growing up under it anyway. So the other day when Travis and Gila were here, we pulled it all out. That was a waste of time and money.

Being the wonderful, caring husband and all-around prince that I am, I went to Plan B and bought Terry a nice Honda FG110 gas powered rototiller to help her maintain the garden. It’s a small unit that will get between the rows of plants and between the individual plants themselves. What did you think I was going to buy her for Mother’s Day, a vacuum cleaner? I’ve got a more class than that!

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 – I love being married. It’s so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.

Happy Mother’s Day

 Posted by at 12:45 am  Nick's Blog
May 142023
 

Note: I posted this Mother’s Day blog a few years ago, and I hope you will enjoy reading it again. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Moms out there! I hope you have a wonderful day surrounded by lots of love. If you have not called your Mom to tell her you love her yet today, go do it right now. She’s waiting to hear from you.

My own dear mother has been gone many years now, and I miss her every day. She was a sweet lady who was loved by everyone who ever met her. Life didn’t always treat her kindly. She outlived five of her eight children, but she overcame her heartbreak each time, picked up the pieces, and went on with her life.

She was a typical stay-at-home mother, like many women of her generation. She took pride in having a clean house and taking care of her family. She tried to learn to drive a car once, and her only time behind the wheel, she put my dad’s DeSoto in a ditch. That was enough driving for her!

She was also as fierce as a mama bear defending her cubs. Long before I came along she had a hard birth bringing my brother Frank into the world and the doctor ordered her to stay in bed for several weeks. This was in 1931, and my dad was a young deputy sheriff. He had made some enemies among a group of local ne’er-do-wells who swore to get even. They knew where my parents lived and made it known they might show up some day when he was at work. Sure enough, they did, walking right into their bedroom. My mom was nursing the baby, but laid him beside her, pulled the .32 revolver my dad had left her from under her pillow, and fired a shot into the ceiling above their heads. As plaster rained down on them, she said the next shot would be in somebody’s head. I don’t think they heard her because they were too busy running over each other trying to get out of Dodge. In the weeks that followed, my dad sought out each of them and convinced them never to show their faces around the area again.

Mom never lost her sense of humor, no matter what happened. She passed that on to me, and it has helped me deal with plenty of setbacks in my own life. As the youngest of her children, I was always her baby, even when I became a grown man with children of my own. I know I gave her fits sometimes, and though she was a short little round woman, she could hold her own.

I’ve been asked a couple of times to repost this story I told a few years back about my mom, and it’s the most hilarious memory of her I have, though it didn’t seem at that funny at the time.

When I was a young soldier, I was offered an opportunity to go to jump school and fell in love with the romantic idea of jumping out of airplanes for a living and wearing the coveted silver wings of an Airborne trooper. I called my dad to tell him that I had been accepted to jump school, and his first words were, “Why the hell would you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Only bird shit and fools fall out of the sky.” His next words were, “DO NOT tell your mother about this until you’re done! I have to live with the woman!”

So we kept it our secret until I made it through school, and then Dad brought Mom down to Fort Benning, Georgia, for my graduation. She didn’t know what I was graduating from, just some Army training school. On graduation day, we were to jump onto a drop zone where our families were waiting to see us. So bright and early on graduation morning, my parents and a hundred other people were brought out in buses to the drop zone and ensconced on bleachers.

One officer after another made his little speech and then it was time for our dog and pony show. Far above, we got the word and began our jump. Meanwhile, on the ground, my mom had gotten frustrated waiting for her son to show up, so she walked up to one of the men in uniform on the ground and said, “My son is supposed to be graduating today. Do you know where he is?”

“Right up there, ma’am,” he told her and pointed to the paratroopers floating to the ground. That’s when all hell broke loose.

My chubby little mother pushed past the soldiers assigned to keep civilians off the drop zone and shook off their restraining arms as she stormed out into the middle of the graduates as they hit the ground and did their landing rolls, yelling, “Nick, where are you? You get your butt down here right this minute! You know better than that! I didn’t raise you to break your legs doing something this stupid!” I swear I could hear her while I was still a hundred feet in the air!

And all the while, confused young paratroopers were getting to their feet and trying to collapse their chutes as she stormed up to them, demanding to know where I was. Meanwhile, my dad (and much of the audience) was rolling around on the bleachers laughing their heads off.

Needless to say, when all the confusion died down, I had a lot of explaining to do! I’m not sure which put the fear of God into me more, facing my mom or a hastily called meeting with our battalion commander. But she did calm down enough to pin on my wings, and I was the only graduate that day to get a standing ovation!

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. I love you, and I miss you.

Thought For The Day – Some mothers are kissing mothers, and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. – Pearl S. Buck

It Did Its Job

 Posted by at 12:30 am  Nick's Blog
May 132023
 

If the weather the last couple of days, since we got back from Florida, has been any indication of what’s to come, I think it is going to be a long, hot summer. We are only into May and it’s already in the upper 80s. That’s no surprise, of course, because we knew it was going to be hot and humid here in the summer, just like it was in Florida. The only difference there is that living so close to the ocean, we did get a sea breeze that kept things a little more tolerable.

But not by much. I don’t care where I am, when the temperature gets above 80, I feel it. Even in Arizona, where they always say it’s a dry heat, I find lots of reasons to stay inside when the thermometer starts to climb. As for that dry heat nonsense, fire is dry, too. That doesn’t mean I want to be in one.

I was outside checking out the garden yesterday afternoon when the wind started blowing and dark clouds rolling in. I got inside just as a storm system came through. All we got was some thunder and lightning, while other areas around us did get quite a bit of rain.

As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, our Dish TV system died while we were out of town earlier in the week. Yesterday Dish sent a service technician out, and as it turned out, it was a simple problem. There were some pretty strong thunderstorms while we were gone, and something happened to knock out the surge protector for the TV and Dish system. That’s what it’s supposed to do, and it did its job, sacrificing itself to prevent further damage. It was a simple matter of installing new surge protectors in the living room and bedroom and we were up and running again.

A few readers have asked me why there is no free drawing this week. Knowing we would be out of town and not sure when we would be back, I didn’t plan on doing one. However, I neglected to say that in the blog, and I apologize. We will have a new drawing starting next Thursday.

I’m not sure what’s on the agenda for today. Travis and Geli are coming over sometime in mid-afternoon, and we need to go into Northport and do some grocery shopping and run some other errands. Who knows? If we do that after the kids leave, and if I play my cards right, I might even convince Miss Terry that we need to go to Mr. Chen’s for some Chinese food.

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 – It’s no fun not having anything to do. The fun is having something to do and not doing it.

Ouch And Ouch Again!

 Posted by at 1:03 am  Nick's Blog
May 122023
 

After our hectic three-day trip to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and back home again, neither one of us was in a hurry to get out of bed yesterday. And when we finally did, neither of us had much gumption to do anything at all. Terry’s third Vego raised garden bed had been delivered before we woke up, so I carried it out to the back deck for her, which was about the most energetic thing I managed to accomplish all day long.

We had bagels for breakfast, then spent part of the day catching up on e-mail that got neglected during the trip. One e-mail I received was from somebody who was upset with my book Big Lake Massacre about a violent robbery at a medical marijuana dispensary that left several people dead. He wasn’t upset about the violence in the book, but because I was promoting the use of marijuana.

He said if I was going to be turning people into junkies, he was never going to read any of my books again. I wanted to write back and tell him I was sorry to hear that, then tell Terry we were going to have to sell the house and all of our possessions and live on the street because we wouldn’t get the royalties from any books that he might purchase in the future. I was also tempted to tell him that medical marijuana oil was one of the few things that gave me relief from my back pain, and as soon as I started using it, I no longer took any of the opioids that the VA had been giving me for so many years. But in the end, I just ignored it because there’s no point in trying to confuse somebody with facts when their mind is already made up.

About 3:30 I felt like I had hit a brick wall and just could not function anymore, so I parked myself in my recliner and slept until about 5. When I woke up, I couldn’t find Terry, and I figured she must have finally gotten fed up and was visiting with a divorce lawyer. Who could blame her, right? As it turned out, she was out in the garden taking up some more of the ground fabric, which had pulled loose again and was beating the plants up in the breeze.

Except for a couple loads of wash, and a light dinner of chicken quesadillas, that was our day. But our evening proved to be interesting.

Sometime while we were gone our Dish receiver died, and after having the tech from Dish talk me through several things that didn’t work, they set an appointment to come out this afternoon to fix it. In the meantime, we could still watch Amazon Prime and other things over the Internet on our television.

We very much enjoyed an excellent documentary on author Judy Blume and her career on Amazon Prime. If you’re one of the seven people in America who doesn’t know who this prolific author is, her books for preteens and young teenagers have helped several generations of America’s youth understand themselves and the changes in their bodies, emotions, and lives as they were growing up. If you think book banning is something new in America, you will be surprised to hear about what was going on in the 1980s, when Ms. Blume’s books were considered pornography aimed at children. Talk about déjà vu! I was also surprised to find out that she and her husband own a bookstore in Key West, Florida. I wish I had known that when we were down there. We would not have missed it.

While we were watching television Terry spotted something crawling on one of the window blinds, so I got a Kleenex to grab it, thinking it was some kind of harmless little bug. As it turned out it was a wasp, and the darn thing stung me on my right thumb. That hurt like hell, and I dropped the Kleenex and the wasp inside of it on the floor. Then, like a fool, I tried to pick it up with my other hand, and it stung me on that thumb, too! I’m glad I didn’t step on it because I wasn’t wearing shoes! I have enough trouble walking around as it is.

Miss Terry, AKA Superwoman, came to my rescue and dispatched the ugly critter while I put some ice on my thumbs and did a little bit of sniveling. Okay, maybe it was a LOT of sniveling! And for those of you who think that Terry is this wholesome girl next door, turned excellent cook and weaver and all-around amazing human being, I want you to know she’s got a mean streak in her. Instead of kissing my thumbs and making them feel better, she asked why I was dumb enough to try and pick it up a second time and laughed at my feeble attempt at an explanation. I guess that’s what happens when you’re married to the court jester, right?

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 – I’m in big trouble if people find out I really don’t have Tourette’s.

Bonsai And Beef

 Posted by at 1:05 am  Nick's Blog
May 112023
 

One of the odd things we have found living in Alabama is that while the local Publix grocery stores stock several different varieties of their Greenwise bagels, which are the house brand, they don’t stock the Greenwise egg bagels, which are my favorite. Many times all I want for breakfast is a bagel or half a bagel and glass of milk. When we’ve asked at the Publix stores here, they say they have never heard of them. But every Publix I was ever in in Florida has them. So the first order of business after we checked out of the Hampton Inn in Jacksonville yesterday was to hit the nearest Publix and buy seven packages of their egg bagels. Terry will put them in the freezer and I’ll be good to go for a while.

We left Jacksonville somewhere around 10:30, made our way to Interstate 10, and headed west. If I had a nickel for every mile we’ve ever traveled on Interstate 10 over the years I would have to buy a bank vault to hold all of them. We stopped at the Busy Bee near Live Oak, Florida for gas and a quick snack, and then we were back on the road.

Eventually we made it to US Highway 231 and took it north. A few miles up the road there is a place that sells bonsai trees, and every time we’ve driven by we keep saying we’re going to stop, but we never do. So yesterday we did.

I knew it was my kind of place when I saw this sign out front.

Bonsai is a Japanese term for “tray planting,” the Asian art of growing and training miniature trees in containers. This little mom and pop business has been featured in Southern Living magazine, and they had all kinds of bonsai trees, from very small to huge. Terry has always wanted a bonsai tree, and she found a nice one to come home with us.

In another 15 miles or so, we crossed into Alabama and were soon in Dothan, where we stopped at an antique mall and spent an hour or so looking at all the goodies on display. It always tickles us to go into these places and see things that we grew up with, now called antiques. Then again, at age 70, I guess we’re antiques, too.

We enjoy browsing at antique shops, and a couple of times I’ve seen the little town of Brundidge listed as the Antique Capital of Alabama. Brundidge is just a few miles south of Troy, where we had planned to spend the night, so we took a detour through town. I don’t know who came up the idea of it being the antique capital of the state, but all we saw was a bunch of vacant stores in the downtown area. One had been an antique mall at one time, but that was quite a while ago.

Back on US 231, we stopped at the Santa Fe Cattle Company for dinner. There was a time in my life when I could happily eat red meat seven days a week, but now I seldom have it once a week. But sometimes a guy just needs some beef. I had a rib eye steak and Terry had steak tips with sauteed onions and peppers, and both were very good.

Usually when we go from Florida to Alabama or back we stop at the Hampton Inn in Troy for the night. This breaks the trip up nicely. That’s what the plan was, and then we thought we might visit a couple of antique malls in Montgomery and another one in Prattville on our way home today. But as it turns out, they were booked solid except for one handicapped room, which was going for a premium price. So we decided to heck with it, we would just drive the extra three hours home.

When we were a little over 100 miles from Tuscaloosa, it was starting to get dark, and my night vision is bad, so we switched drivers and Terry drove the rest of the way. By the time we got home we were both worn out and more than ready to wrap this trip up.

I don’t think we’re going to do much of anything today except catch our breath and enjoy being home. After driving over 1,000 miles in three days, and Terry’s long day at the Mayo Clinic, we need it.

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 –Everyone has the right to be stupid; it’s just that some people abuse the privilege.

A Long Day for Terry

 Posted by at 12:13 am  Nick's Blog
May 102023
 

Yesterday was a long day for Terry. She had a checkup at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida as part of the continuing follow-up for radiation enteritis caused by the treatment needed to save her life when she was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer in 2000.

Back then, her first oncologist gave her six weeks to live, but he had no clue how stubborn my wife is. She fired his butt on the spot and we found a new doctor that said he could save her with radical treatment but warned her it would be very rough and that there would be a price to pay down the road. She has been paying that price for many years now, but she is alive and extremely grateful for every day. And the good folks at Mayo have helped her deal with the issues caused by her treatment.

She started the day yesterday with a CT scan. The worst part of that was the barium oral contrast she had to drink along with the barium oral contras right before the procedure. If you have ever had these, you know they can give you a huge internal warm flush and can also really mess up your stomach. Terry had both reactions. The good news is that the scan did not find any new or unusual changes to be concerned about.

The next appointment was to check on the status of the Interstim device that was implanted back in 2019. Terry received one of the last models that were not MRI compatible, and eventually the battery will age out and they will have to replace it with one that is. It looks like that will happen in the next year or so.

After that she had an invasive physical examination and Heidi, the specialized nurse practitioner, went over the results of the CT scan and talked about her symptoms, medications, and such. We can’t say enough good about the wonderful folks at Mayo. Not only are they 100% professionals, they care about their patients on a personal level, never talking down to patients or their families and answering any and all questions in detail.

Between the 8½ hour, 500-mile drive from our house in Alabama to here on Monday and the long day at the hospital yesterday, by the time we got back to our hotel we were both pretty tuckered out. We rested for a while and then, since we had not eaten all day, went to dinner at a place called the Seafood Kitchen. It was recommended as a small restaurant where the local people go for good seafood, and not at all touristy like so many places near the beach.

We sure made the right choice, because our waitress Lanie was a delight, and the food was awesome. Terry had the special of the day, blackened triggerfish, along with a baked sweet potato and okra. She shared some of her fish with me and it was delicious. I opted for blackened shrimp, French fries, and applesauce, and would order it again if triggerfish was not on the menu.

With Terry’s Mayo appointments out of the way for the next three months, both of us are looking forward to getting back home, where we still have a lot to do, and our own comfy bed to sleep in. Thank you everybody who posted Facebook comments or sent messages wishing Terry well. We appreciate all of you.

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 – How something winds up is never dependent on how much you worry about it.

Paying The Price

 Posted by at 12:05 am  Nick's Blog
May 082023
 

I have been around long enough to know that there’s no free lunch. Everything in life comes with a price tag, and yesterday Terry and I were paying the price for all of the work we did in the garden the day before.

We were feeling some aches and pains when we went to bed Saturday night, and when we woke up yesterday morning, we both were so stiff and sore we could hardly move. The weather had turned much warmer, with the high up into the mid-80s, which made it a good day for taking arthritis-strength acetaminophen, using my cane, and spending my time at the computer working on my Tinder Street book.

Miss Terry is not a sniveler like me, but I know she was uncomfortable, too. But that didn’t stop her from giving me a back rub first thing in the morning to help me loosen up enough to get out of bed. She spent the rest of the day doing laundry, bookkeeping, and baking her delicious oatmeal raisin pecan chocolate chip cookies. Then she topped it all off with meatball sandwiches for dinner. They say karma comes around and gives you what you deserve, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what I ever did to deserve someone as precious and wonderful as her.

It’s going to be a very busy week for us and I don’t know how much time I will have to get online. So if you don’t see a blog tomorrow or the next day, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you or fallen off the edge of the Flat Earth.

Congratulations Liz Rademacher, winner of our drawing for a six e-book box set of my friend, USA TODAY bestselling author Claude Bouchard’s Vigilante series. Doesn’t everyone fantasize a bit about vigilante justice? Haven’t you ever read or heard of some despicable act of violence and secretly wished you could have the opportunity to make the predator pay? Welcome to the Vigilante series, a growing collection of suspense bestsellers best described as thrillers and mysteries which will have you cheering for the assassin as justice is delivered in a clandestine fashion. But remember, this is fiction, so it’s not a crime.

We had 65 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. 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.

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 – If you didn’t see it with your own eyes, or hear it with your own ears, don’t invent it with your small mind and share it with your big mouth.

Up Early And Worked Late

 Posted by at 1:20 am  Nick's Blog
May 072023
 

We were up early yesterday morning because we had a lot to get done. Our son Travis helped me put up another deer fence, this time around the garden and Terry’s raised planter beds. We appreciate Travis and his wife Geli very much because whatever we need, they are always here for us.

The fence is seven feet high and made out of a mesh material. It’s the same thing we used around the fruit trees, and so far it’s done a great job of keeping the deer away from them. We used some of the steel fence poles we took out earlier in the week and then attached eight-foot-tall fiberglass poles to them.

Once that job was done, Travis hopped on the Husqvarna riding lawn mower and did the hill next to the garage and out along the drainage ditch in front of the house, getting everything looking good again.

When  Travis was here on Tuesday, we had tried to attach the mid-mount mower to my Kubota tractor, and we could not get the darn PTO shafts to line up. Once Travis was done with the mowing yesterday, we decided to give that another shot. But first, we watched a couple of videos on YouTube about how to do it. They always make things look so easy. It sure wasn’t for us. It took several attempts before Travis finally got the PTO shaft hooked up, but then we couldn’t get the mounting pins to line up on the mower. Everything was off by about an inch and no matter what we adjusted, it didn’t help. We finally gave up in frustration. Brad, the salesman who I bought my tractor and implements from at Tuscaloosa Tractor, told us to come in someday and he will give us a lesson on how to do it. We definitely need it!

As it turned out, we were short just one of the fiberglass poles we needed for the fence project, so after dropping Travis off at home Terry and I drove in to Northport and I picked one up at Tractor Supply. Then we went to Pastor’s Mexican restaurant for an early dinner. Or in this case linner, because it was mid-afternoon and neither one of us had eaten all day.

Back at home, Terry and I set up a second the Orbit 62100 Yard Enforcer motion-activated sprinkler I had ordered from Amazon to help keep deer and other critters away from the garden. I know all of this probably sounds like overkill, but as soon as it gets dark every night, we have anywhere from six to a dozen, and sometimes more, deer hanging out in the back pasture. I don’t mind them being, there I just want to keep them away from the garden and the fruit trees. Since the pasture looks like this during the daytime, who can blame them? It sure is a pretty sight.

We worked in the garden, using her Garden Weasel to break up the hard clay soil and planted some sweet potatoes and curly kale plants before we finally called it a day about 8 p.m., and we were both tired and sweaty.

While the deer have been pretty good about keeping their distance, we are having a lot of problems with another kind of critter, Carpenter bees. They look like oversized bumblebees, and they get their name because they burrow into wood to create a nest. One of them recently decided this old rocking chair on our front porch would be its new home. One day the chair looked fine, and the next day it had this hole in one of the bottom rungs and a neat pile of sawdust underneath. A couple more have been getting into our back deck. We’re going to have to put a stop to that real quick. I think they do as much or more damage than termites would.

Today is your last chance to enter our  Free Drawing for a six e-book box set of my friend, USA TODAY bestselling author Claude Bouchard’s Vigilante series. Doesn’t everyone fantasize a bit about vigilante justice? Haven’t you ever read or heard of some despicable act of violence and secretly wished you could have the opportunity to make the predator pay? Welcome to the Vigilante series, a growing collection of suspense bestsellers best described as thrillers and mysteries which will have you cheering for the assassin as justice is delivered in a clandestine fashion. But remember, this is fiction, so it’s not a crime.

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

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. Seriously? They had to put a sign up telling people not to do this? We’re not going to make it as a species, are we?

Thought For The Day – Choices made in anger cannot be undone.

Playing Tourist

 Posted by at 12:30 am  Nick's Blog
May 062023
 

Note: Since I don’t have anything new to talk about today, I am reposting a blog about an interesting place we visited years ago in New Mexico that is still popular with visitors.

After spending yesterday morning checking and answering e-mail, we spent the afternoon playing tourist. We took a ride to the Tinkertown Museum, which is billed as New Mexico’s premiere folk art museum. Several readers had suggested we go there and I’m glad they did. This place was amazing!

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The lifework of artist Ross Ward, who spent over 40 years carving, collecting, and building Tinkertown, it will delight the child inside of everyone who visits, no matter their age. Ward used over 50,000 glass bottles to build a maze-like 22-room attraction that houses a fascinating collection of antiques and memorabilia, including old coin operated sideshow machines like Otto the One-Man-Band and Esmerelda the Fortune Teller. Drop a quarter in the coin slot and they come to life.

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Most fascinating are the thousands of animated miniature wood carved figures arranged in hilarious scenes. One diorama is an Old West town, another is a circus complete with trained tigers and acrobats, yet another is a spooky Boot Hill, complete with dancing skeletons. The figures were originally part of a traveling exhibit that appeared at county fairs and carnivals across the country in the 1960s and 1970s.

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There are also collections of antique tools, wedding cake figurines, old toys and dolls. Even a neat old 35 foot long wooden sailboat that Ward’s brother-in-law spent ten years sailing around the world in!

Outside there are Old West storefronts, metal sculptures from trash and castoff farm machinery and more. One of the many signs in the museum pretty much sums it all up with a quote by Thomas Edison, “Invention consists of imagination and a scrap heap.”

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Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is six e-book box set of my friend, USA TODAY bestselling author Claude Bouchard’s Vigilante series. Doesn’t everyone fantasize a bit about vigilante justice? Haven’t you ever read or heard of some despicable act of violence and secretly wished you could have the opportunity to make the predator pay? Welcome to the Vigilante series, a growing collection of suspense bestsellers best described as thrillers and mysteries which will have you cheering for the assassin as justice is delivered in a clandestine fashion. But remember, this is fiction, so it’s not a crime.

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 – I know the voices in my head aren’t real, but they do come up with some really cool ideas!

Some Adjustment Required

 Posted by at 12:30 am  Nick's Blog
May 052023
 

We knew when we moved out into the country that some adjustments to our lifestyle would be required. For example, when we lived in Florida, we were only about four miles from a shopping center with a Publix grocery store, and a mile or two more from several different restaurants. At our home in Alabama, it is about eight miles to a very small Piggly Wiggly in Gordo, but if we want Publix or a Walmart supercenter, it’s a half hour drive or more to Northport. So needless to say, we have to plan ahead because it’s not convenient to run to the store when we need a gallon of milk or a pound of butter.

It’s the same with restaurants. Pickings in the small town of Gordo are slim. There’s a burger joint and a Subway sandwich shop that we have been to a couple of times, a BBQ place that we have never found open, and maybe another eatery or two we have yet to discover.

Except for an excellent small family run Mexican place, we have not found many good restaurants in Northport yet. If we want Chinese food we go to Mr. Chen’s in Tuscaloosa, and the closest thing we have found to decent seafood is the Shrimp Basket, also in Tuscaloosa. For either of those, add another fifteen minutes or more to the trip.

Fortunately we don’t have to go anywhere for delicious pizza, because Miss Terry makes the best pizza from scratch that I’ve ever eaten, right here at home. If you don’t believe me, look at last night’s dinner. She made a pepperoni pizza for me and a fully loaded one for herself. That’s a trip to town we didn’t have to make, even if we knew of a good pizza place in Northport or Tuscaloosa, which we have not found yet.

But when we get up in the morning and open the drapes on the sliding glass door in our bedroom to look out on our pasture, or sit out on our back deck in the evening looking at our little piece of paradise, occasional inconveniences like that don’t compare to all we have here.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is six e-book box set of my friend, USA TODAY bestselling author Claude Bouchard’s Vigilante series. Doesn’t everyone fantasize a bit about vigilante justice? Haven’t you ever read or heard of some despicable act of violence and secretly wished you could have the opportunity to make the predator pay? Welcome to the Vigilante series, a growing collection of suspense bestsellers best described as thrillers and mysteries which will have you cheering for the assassin as justice is delivered in a clandestine fashion. But remember, this is fiction, so it’s not a crime.

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.

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 – You have permission to rest. You don’t have to be responsible for fixing everything and everyone that is broken.

I’m Not A Kid Anymore

 Posted by at 1:08 am  Nick's Blog
May 042023
 

I think all of us remember back when we were kids and couldn’t wait to grow up because we could do all the cool things that grownups got to do, and we didn’t have to do any of that kid stuff we didn’t like. Boy, were we dumb back then!

I hit 70 a few months ago, and I’m not ashamed to tell you that I’m pretty well done with a lot of this grown-up stuff. I don’t mind working because I work from home on my own schedule and I love writing books. It allows me to make up my own little worlds and control them, and all the people in them. Well, at least until the characters take over, those mutinous little SOBs!

But some of that other grown-up stuff kind of sucks. Things like paying taxes. We paid more in taxes last year than I made for many years of my life. Or how about taking out the garbage? What fun is that? And guess what guys? When you get to be my age the doctor has a special treat for you as he puts on a latex glove and tells you that you’re going to feel a little bit of pressure. Or was that the guy from the IRS? It could have been. Yeah, being a grown-up is real fun. Not!

When I was a kid, my biggest concerns were things like would that little red-haired girl that sat in front of me ever going to realize that I was her own personal Romeo? Or hoping Mom bought the cereal with the free surprise inside. Did any of you have that little submarine that you filled with baking soda and put in the bathtub? I don’t remember what kind of cereal it came in, but I sure remember that submarine.

Remember up above when I said kids were dumb? A good example of that is naps. Who wanted to take a nap when we were kids? There were way too many things I needed to be doing instead of taking a nap. Boy, were we wrong! One of the greatest things about being not just a grown-up but an old fart is that I get to take naps in the afternoon. And because I’m an author, I’ve got Terry convinced that I’m not really being lazy, I’m just working out a scene in my next chapter.

That’s what I was doing yesterday afternoon for about an hour or two, after making all the corrections that Judy and Roberta sent for the latest chapters of my new book. And while Miss Terry told me I was snoring, that was actually one of the characters making that noise. I like to get into my books with them and feel what they’re feeling. When I woke up, I mean when I stopped working on that problem, I felt as rested as that character did!

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is a six e-book box set of my friend, USA TODAY bestselling author Claude Bouchard’s Vigilante series. Doesn’t everyone fantasize a bit about vigilante justice? Haven’t you ever read or heard of some despicable act of violence and secretly wished you could have the opportunity to make the predator pay? Welcome to the Vigilante series, a growing collection of suspense bestsellers best described as thrillers and mysteries which will have you cheering for the assassin as justice is delivered in a clandestine fashion. But remember, this is fiction, so it’s not a crime.

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.

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. When they say recycled, do they mean… EWWW!

Thought For The Day – Givers have to set limits because takers seldom do.

 

Mule To The Rescue

 Posted by at 1:02 am  Nick's Blog
May 032023
 

Once again we spent the day yesterday working outside. Our son Travis helped me pull out the fence posts on the north side of our property and roll up the wire. Using a chain and the bucket on the Kubota tractor, some of them came out very easily, while others really made us work for them. We actually bent up two or three of the thick metal posts trying to get them out. One was in so hard that no matter what we did, the darn thing would not budge! Even so, by the time we were done we had a lot of posts in the bed of the Kawasaki Mule.

The grass and weeds have really grown up along that side of the property, and it being warm enough for snakes to be out, we made sure to make a lot of noise every time we moved to the next post so we wouldn’t have any unpleasant surprises. Just in case we came across a surly copperhead or rattler, I had a .357 magnum revolver loaded with snake shot on my belt.

After we had all the fence posts out, we wanted to put the mid-mount mower attachment on the Kubota so I could attack some of those high weeds. But try as we might, we could not get it set up. Connecting the PTO shaft is always a problem, and since Travis was running short on time, we decided that we would have to attempt that another day.

While we were doing all that, Terry was busy working in the garden. She rolled up one length of the ground fabric and put more metal pins in to hold down what was left. Then she weeded most of a row of plants, using her Garden Weasel to loosen the soil and a handheld garden claw to get the weeds out.

We had not eaten all day so after we dropped Travis off at home Terry and I stopped at Subway in Gordo about 3 o’clock for linner, which is the meal you eat that serves as both lunch and dinner. Then it was back to the house for more work. While Terry went back to what she had been doing in the garden, I decided to use the Husqvarna riding lawnmower to see if it would do any good against the weeds, since we couldn’t get the mower attachment on the Kubota.

I managed to get some of them down, but the perimeter dirt road is rough and not very level, and a couple of times I thought I was going to roll the mower trying to get into the worst of it. No, thanks. I decided that wasn’t going to happen. However I did get quite a bit cleared off behind the barn. Our poor old barn has seen better days, especially on the back end, but I really don’t want to tear it down. On the other hand, I’m not sure it’s worth fixing up, though it does have concrete floors inside and does not leak, making it a good place to store equipment.

Once I was done with that, I decided to keep on mowing, which turned out to be a bad decision. I managed to get the mower stuck in the mud alongside a run off ditch that runs through the property next to the pasture. I had Terry stop what she was doing and try to drive the mower while I pushed it out by hand, but that wasn’t happening.

So it was the Mule to the rescue. Using the Mule’s electric winch, it was easy-peasy to pull her out onto the firm surface of the barn road.

But of course, then I had to answer to her for getting her mower stuck. She drove away in it, giving me a look that said that’s what happens when she lets me play with her toys. She then proceeded to mow the front and side yards. I guess she wanted to play, too.

Both Judy and Roberta returned chapters from my new Tinder Street book that I had sent them to proofread, so today I will be busy making their corrections, and then hopefully I can knock out another chapter or two when I’m finished.

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 need this sign at my place. My legs are still covered with the bites I got from my last encounter with those nasty little critters.

Thought For The Day – The bonds of matrimony are only a good investment when the interest is kept up.

I Said It Would Be Busy

 Posted by at 12:40 am  Nick's Blog
May 022023
 

In yesterday’s blog, I said we were going to have a busy day, and I was right. We were on the go nonstop from the time we left the house until we got back after 8 PM.

Our first stop was at the post office in Gordo to send off a couple of things, including Angry Nurse, the mystery/thriller book from last week’s blog drawing, to the lucky winner. I love small town post offices where you’re in and out in a hurry. In the few weeks that we’ve been here the lady already knows that I am “that author guy.” The first time I went in to send a book out at the media mail rate I gave her one of my cards, and she remembers me.

Then we drove about 10 miles west on US Highway 82 to the small town of Reform, where we spent quite a bit of time filling out new patient paperwork at a doctor’s office. We have been looking for a doctor since we moved here, and Doctor Julia Boothe at Pickens County Primary Care came very highly recommended from a number of people. For a small town facility, they seem to have a lot to offer, including a cardiologist, X-rays, lab, and ultrasound.

When we completed all of the paperwork and handed it in, the receptionist said they would call us to schedule our first appointments. With that done, we drove another few miles to Sam Plant Farm, a small nursery on a back road. They had several greenhouses with both garden plants and flowers.

The owners are a very nice couple, and we got to meet one of their cats and two dogs. Grace, their golden retriever, is an absolute sweetheart who loves pets and ear rubs and attention, so I was able to get my puppy fix.

Terry needed some stuff from Lowe’s, and since at that point we were actually closer to Columbus, Mississippi than we were to the Lowe’s in Northport, Alabama where we usually go, we continued west to Columbus. As it turned out, that was a waste of time because they didn’t have the things she needed. Well darn it, anyway.

We retraced our route east and went into Northport, where we easily found everything she wanted. When we were loading the truck someone came up and asked if we needed a hand. This happens every time we go there because people around here are so friendly. This gentleman looked familiar, and it was the driver’s license examiner who had handled transferring our licenses from Florida to Alabama a couple of weeks ago. He recognized us and asked how we were doing as he helped load several bags of Black Kow fertilizer and soil into the back of our truck.

Our next stop was at Walgreens to see about getting a couple more prescriptions from Florida transferred here and renewed. They said it would take a couple of hours, and since we had not eaten all day and it was pushing 6 o’clock we drove a few miles into Tuscaloosa and had dinner at the Shrimp Basket. We first found this small chain of restaurants years ago when were down on the Alabama Gulf Coast during our fulltime RVing days, and the location here is just as good as others we have been to.

About the time we finished eating, Terry got a message from Walgreens that her prescription was ready, so on the way back we stopped, and by the time we got there mine was ready, too. That was good because now we don’t have to run back into town.

We got home just in time to watch a little bit of television and the evening news, write the blog, and then call it a day. I wish we would have gotten back sooner because when we got up yesterday morning, we noticed that the garden fabric we put down has pulled up even though we used the large metal staples that were recommended to keep it in place. I think we’re probably going to just take it out completely. It seems to be more trouble than it’s worth.

Today our son Travis is going to help me pull some more fence posts. I like working with him because he does all of the hard work, and all I have to do is sit on the tractor. I guess age does have its privileges, doesn’t it?

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 – Confuse your doctor by putting on latex gloves at the same time he does.

It Will Be A Busy Day

 Posted by at 12:25 am  Nick's Blog
May 012023
 

It looks like today is going to be a busy day for us. We have been trying to find a primary care doctor in this area and have not had any luck so far. We got quite a few recommendations for different ones, but some aren’t taking new patients, and one that was taking new patients is not taking senior citizens on Medicare. That surprised me because it seems like most doctors’ offices love Medicare.

One physician that came highly recommended was Doctor Julia Boothe in Reform, about twelve miles west of us. I talked to her office last week and she is accepting new patients, so today we have to go to her office and fill out a bunch of new patient paperwork. The receptionist said they are scheduling new patients about two weeks out, but Terry is going to take a list of all of our prescriptions and a previous lab order with her because we are low or out on some of them. That way the doctor will hopefully know our needs when we do go in for the appointment.

On our way to the doctor’s office we have to stop at the post office in Gordo to mail off a couple of things.

Then, when we are done with the doctor, we have to run to Lowe’s (it seems like we live at Lowe’s sometimes) to pick up a few things. From there we may want to stop at the grocery store since we’ll be by one and we don’t go to town very often.

It will be nice to get away from the house for a little bit, because for the last few days all we’ve done is work in the garden or here in the house. I wrote another 3,400 words yesterday, then Terry edited and proofread six more chapters in my new Tinder Street book. When she was done with that, I made her corrections, then sent them off to Roberta and Judy for a second and third round of proofreading.

Since the weather looks good this week, Tuesday Travis will probably come over and help me get those fence posts out of the ground and the wire wound up. Then later in the week we plan to get the deer fence put up around the garden.

Congratulations Darhl Stultz, winner of our drawing for an autographed copy of Angry Nurse by the late Karl Bort and Thekla Madsen. When a wealthy Cleveland businessman is admitted to St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Unit, he insists that his wife, lawyer, and the hospital administrator are plotting to have him permanently committed and begs Nurse Joshua Ramsey to help him. Are these the ravings of an insane man or is something more sinister at work? When the man’s wife and lawyer are found dead, Detective Nicholas Silvano gets the case. It’s a tale with psychological twists that will have you believing that if you weren’t crazy when you checked in, you will be before long.

We had 62 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. 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.

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 – Even if I could visit my past, I know I wouldn’t belong there anymore.

Sprouts Are Sprouting

 Posted by at 1:09 am  Nick's Blog
Apr 302023
 

After reading through the last five chapters I wrote in my new Tinder Street book, I printed them out for Terry to edit and proofread yesterday. After I did that, she cut my hair and trimmed my beard, both of which really needed it because I was beginning to look like what you’d get if Cousin Itt from the Adams Family and someone from ZZ Top had a lovechild.

With all of that out of the way, we spent some time working outside. Travis and I plan to take down the fence and pull the fence posts on the north side of our property since we don’t have any livestock we need to keep contained, so I was checking to see if the ground was too soft to get in there with my Kubota tractor. The grass on the north perimeter road is getting way out of control. It was taller than the hood of my Kawasaki Mule, so I definitely need to put the mower attachment on the tractor and get it cut down.

While I was doing that, Terry was putting plants in her second raised planter bed. She said not to post this picture because she didn’t have makeup on and looked goofy. I don’t think she needs makeup to be beautiful, and that’s not a goofy smile, it’s a lady having a good time doing something she loves. What do you think?

A lot of the seeds that Travis and Geli planted a couple of weeks ago are starting to sprout and poke themselves above the ground fabric we laid down over the garden.

 

And Terry’s potatoes are really taking off.

The other day I told you about the Orbit 62100 Yard Enforcer motion-activated sprinkler I ordered from Amazon to keep deer and other critters away from the garden. We set it up yesterday, and we both managed to get ourselves soaking wet in the process. Note to self: Next time don’t turn the water on until I’m sure I have everything where it needs to be. It does a good job, and I am so impressed I am ordering a second one for greater coverage. And I won’t turn the water on until I am sure it’s set up where I want it!

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an autographed copy of Angry Nurse by the late Karl Bort and Thekla Madsen. When a wealthy Cleveland businessman is admitted to St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Unit, he insists that his wife, lawyer, and the hospital administrator are plotting to have him permanently committed and begs Nurse Joshua Ramsey to help him. Are these the ravings of an insane man or is something more sinister at work? When the man’s wife and lawyer are found dead, Detective Nicholas Silvano gets the case. It’s a tale with psychological twists that will have you believing that if you weren’t crazy when you checked in, you will be before long.

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

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 – It’s a good thing that farting isn’t contagious like yawning is.

Ditto

 Posted by at 12:28 am  Nick's Blog
Apr 292023
 

Ditto –  verb – dittoed; dittoing; dittos – 1) to repeat or imitate something 2) to copy (something, such as printed matter) on a duplicator.

The title of today’s blog pretty much says it all, because yesterday was basically a repeat of the day before, but without the rain. The ground was still sloppy wet from all the rain on Wednesday night and again on Thursday night, so there wasn’t much we could do outside. Instead, I stayed inside and got a lot of writing done, another 4,000+ words in my new Tinder Street book.

This book is a little different than the preceding four books in the series in that they all cover a five year time span. This one will cover six years, from 1935 through 1940, because the next book in the series will be during World War II and I want to cover it all in one book, not break part way through for the next one in the series. There is a lot going on with this one, including the rise of the Nazis in Germany, some deaths of characters we’ve come to know well, a new career for at least one person, somebody else following their long held dream and making it a reality, and a whole bunch of babies being born. I guess when you don’t have late night television, or any television for that matter, you’ve got to have something to do once it gets dark, right?

Speaking of it getting dark, I’ve been wanting a good spotlight to be able to reach out across the pasture and to the barn at night so I could easily see deer or other nocturnal critters that might be wandering around out there. The other day I ordered this Rechargeable Handheld LED Spotlight from Amazon, and though they said it wouldn’t be here until Monday, it actually arrived yesterday.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot for under 30 bucks, but I’m impressed! The waterproof light has a rechargeable battery that you can either charge by plugging into a USB port or by the light’s built in solar panel on the back of it. It has six modes, from a spotlight to a flashing strobe light, comes with three extra lenses in yellow, blue, and red, and it’s very lightweight. It’s rated at 200,000 lumens, and though I don’t know if that is absolutely correct, it sure is bright. Standing at our back door, I can shine it across the pasture and light up the barn like it was daylight. Whether you are an RVer, a boater, a camper, or just someone who wants to be able to see what’s out there in the dark of night, this thing is worth every penny.

Yesterday was another ditto day for Miss Terry also. She did some more bookwork, got all of our bills paid for next month, made me a delicious dinner of pork chops and wild rice, and topped it off with some amazing banana bread. She also kept me from playing with matches and sharp things, so I get to keep all my fingers and toes for at least another day. Trust me, that’s her hardest job.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of Angry Nurse by the late Karl Bort and Thekla Madsen. When a wealthy Cleveland businessman is admitted to St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Unit, he insists that his wife, lawyer, and the hospital administrator are plotting to have him permanently committed and begs Nurse Joshua Ramsey to help him. Are these the ravings of an insane man or is something more sinister at work? When the man’s wife and lawyer are found dead, Detective Nicholas Silvano gets the case. It’s a tale with psychological twists that will have you believing that if you weren’t crazy when you checked in, you will be before long.

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.

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 – Don’t give up what you want most for what you want right now.

4,700 Words And A Gazillion Raindrops

 Posted by at 12:26 am  Nick's Blog
Apr 282023
 

It rained hard Wednesday night, but we didn’t get the strong thunderstorms that were predicted for yesterday. I guess that was just as well because the ground was already saturated from the night before. Then, a little after dark last night, it started raining again, off and on. Our son Travis was going to come over today to help me pull some more fence posts with the tractor, but the ground is too wet, so we’ll put that off for a day or two.

In spite of the rain, or maybe because of it since it kept me indoors, I managed to crank out two more chapters, which came out to another 4,700 words in my new Tinder Street book. I was stuck on what to do with one of my regular characters because I thought I had written myself into a corner with him. But then when I was researching something else for the story the other day, I came across something I hadn’t known about before, and it opened up a whole new line not only for that character, but at least one other. I love it when that happens!

I’m not sure what’s on the schedule for today. Hopefully more writing, because I really need to get this book finished and move on to the next one on my To Do list. I think this is the longest I’ve ever gone between books. Life in the country may be relaxing, but it also keeps us very busy. Now that we’ve pretty much got Terry’s garden set up, I have a couple other projects I need to start on, including getting our driveway in shape with a big pile of gravel that’s been sitting out there waiting for me, and getting my shooting backstop built before it gets too hot.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of Angry Nurse by the late Karl Bort and Thekla Madsen. When a wealthy Cleveland businessman is admitted to St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Unit, he insists that his wife, lawyer, and the hospital administrator are plotting to have him permanently committed and begs Nurse Joshua Ramsey to help him. Are these the ravings of an insane man or is something more sinister at work? When the man’s wife and lawyer are found dead, Detective Nicholas Silvano gets the case. It’s a tale with psychological twists that will have you believing that if you weren’t crazy when you checked in, you will be before long.

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.

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 – Never say “That could never happen to me,” because life has a funny way of proving us wrong.

Working Together

 Posted by at 12:57 am  Nick's Blog
Apr 272023
 

How about we start the day off with a rose? This beauty was what I saw when I went out on the porch first thing yesterday morning. The rose bushes along the front of the house are really starting to look nice.

I love working together with my wife. Whether it’s a new book, a project around the house, or something outside, Miss Terry and I make a very good team. We each recognize the other’s strengths and weaknesses, and neither of us is too proud to say, “I need help with this” or hesitates to pitch in to help carry the load for the other person.

We spent quite a bit of time yesterday afternoon getting Terry’s second raised garden bed ready to plant. After carrying it out to the garden area and putting it where she wanted it, the first step was to gather a bunch of old, semi-rotten logs and tree limbs to go into the bottom. These will eventually break down and provide additional compost. Fortunately for us, there are lots of raw materials on our acreage, so we took the Kawasaki Mule and gathered two loads of it from around the perimeter road. Then we gathered two loads of dead leaves and dumped those in on top of the wood. Next was four bags of Black Kow fertilizer, followed by four bags of garden soil.

I am so glad we went with the side-by-side Mule instead of the typical three or four-wheel ATV I was thinking about when we first bought our place. This thing comes in handy for so many jobs around here.

While we were working out in the garden yesterday we noticed that some of the seeds that Travis and Geli planted a week or so ago are starting to sprout, including some cucumbers, zucchini, and radishes. Terry also spotted a couple of flowers on the pepper plants in her first raised garden bed.

Another recent garden purchase from Amazon was an Orbit 62100 Yard Enforcer motion-activated sprinkler to keep deer and other critters away from the garden. It can be set to activate during day, the night, or around the clock when you need it. Triggered by both heat and motion, it sends out a burst of water to scare away anything that gets too close to the garden. We put it together yesterday morning but ran out of time to set it up. Since it started thundering and lightning about 11 o’clock last night, and it is supposed to continue that way through the day today, I guess we’ll wait until Friday to put it to work.

If you like dogs and mystery stories, have I got a deal for you! Well, actually, my dear friend Carol Ann Newsome is the one with the deal. Now through Saturday, Carol Ann is offering Muddy Mouth, the 5th book in her popular Lia Anderson Dog Park mystery series, for just 99¢. Click this link to get your copy and find out why Carol Ann is such a popular author.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of Angry Nurse by the late Karl Bort and Thekla Madsen. When a wealthy Cleveland businessman is admitted to St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Unit, he insists that his wife, lawyer, and the hospital administrator are plotting to have him permanently committed and begs Nurse Joshua Ramsey to help him. Are these the ravings of an insane man or is something more sinister at work? When the man’s wife and lawyer are found dead, Detective Nicholas Silvano gets the case. It’s a tale with psychological twists that will have you believe that if you weren’t crazy when you checked in, you will be before long.

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.

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. It’s amazing what a bit of common courtesy can do for you!

Thought For The Day – Friendship in marriage is the spark that lights an everlasting flame.

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