I love what I do for a living. I wanted to be an author and a newspaperman ever since I was a kid, and I managed to accomplish both goals. It’s cool to make a living sitting on my butt talking into a microphone, telling stories that end up as books that people want to […]
I said in a blog post the other day that my Mustang is a garage queen that doesn’t get out much, and that’s just fine with me. Now let me tell you about our new kitchen queen. Now don’t go getting all excited, I didn’t replace Miss Terry. We all know she’s irreplaceable. But we […]
We live in a friendly little subdivision called Terra Mar Village on the Intracoastal Waterway, halfway between Daytona Beach and Cape Canaveral. While it’s not a 55+ community like so many here in Florida, and there are some families with children, most of the neighbors we’ve met are in the 50+ age range. Besides two […]
From the time I was a kid I always wanted to be a writer, and especially a newspaperman. I consider myself very lucky that for most of my life I’ve made my living with the written word and been able to own and publish quite a few small town newspapers. Over the years I’ve seen […]
No, it’s not a secret code, just one that doesn’t really say much. A couple of readers have asked me what I found out about the problem we had with our 2005 Ford Explorer that I wrote about in Friday’s blog post Well, That’s Not Good. As I wrote in that post, Thursday afternoon we […]
I’ve been dealing with some cabin fever after all these months of staying home self-isolating. We leave the house to go to medical appointments or the grocery store when necessary, and that’s been about it. Yesterday Terry had a dental appointment, so we thought we would kill two birds with one stone and go to […]
Looking at the things that are happening in Minneapolis, and other places around the country makes my heart sick. While I have always been a strong supporter of law enforcement, that does not mean I turn a blind eye to injustice. There can be no question in anybody’s mind that George Floyd was murdered. At […]
What do you think is the most powerful word in the English language? At one time, I thought it was “love.” But, of course, back then I was a starry-eyed kid head over heels in something for the pretty long-haired blonde girl that sat next to me in biology class. But over time, I’ve come to […]
The long-awaited and much-anticipated rocket launch from Cape Canaveral carrying two astronauts to the International Space Station was scheduled to lift off at 4:33 yesterday afternoon. But as it turns out, that bird didn’t fly. About twenty minutes before its scheduled liftoff, the launch was scrubbed. That didn’t surprise us since we had been having […]
No, I’m not talking about my prostate. Though at my age, maybe I should be. The piddling I’m talking about are chores around the house, and we seem to be knocking them out on a daily basis in preparation for my kids getting here on Friday. Yesterday it was screen doors. We have two of […]
Before I do anything today, I want to wish my buddy Greg White a very happy birthday. Why do I think this picture of myself and Greg should be captioned, “What, me worry?” I wish we could be there to spend the day with you, buddy. We are sure looking forward to you and Jan […]
When she doesn’t have any big project to do and is just catching up on little chores around the house, researching things on the Internet, or whatever, Miss Terry calls it piddling. I’m never sure if I should stand back and let her do her thing, or go to the drugstore and buy some Depends, […]
Yesterday afternoon my second proofreader finished Dead Romeos, and this morning I will make her corrections, then send it on to my last proofreader. With any luck at all, the book should be out by the end of this coming week. I know many writers who seem to agonize over every page of a manuscript […]
Except for vegetables. I hate those darn things. Oh, and scuba diving. I won’t do that. I saw Jaws. Or craft beer. I don’t drink any kind of alcohol, but if I did, it would not be some kind of snooty craft beer. Nope, it would have to be Budweiser or Coors. A working man’s […]
Our reasons for being in the Cincinnati area were threefold, to do some book promotion, to meet with my author friend Carol Ann Newsome for a discussion on books and publishing projects, and to do some genealogy research. We started the day we were scheduled to meet Carol Ann by visiting a place called Monmouth Street […]
In yesterday’s blog I told you about my plan to sink some lengths of 4-inch diameter thick-walled PVC into the ground at the edge of a ditch that borders our property to help form a rough seawall to stop erosion and to give us something against which to put in some fill dirt to reclaim […]
The other day I told you about getting a twofer when I crossed two things off of my bucket list; catching a fish from a kayak, and catching a redfish. Now, today, I want to tell you about a different kind of twofer. Today our dear friend Jim Lewis has a birthday. I had two […]
If you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident age 62 or over, time is running out to get a National Parks Senior Pass for just $10. On August 28 the price of the pass, officially named the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Senior Pass will increase to $80. A page on the National […]
You can tell it’s mid-March in Florida because the crickets are chirping and the snowbirds are starting to make their migration back up north. Low fuel prices and cold weather in other parts of the country have made for full campgrounds here in the Sunbelt all winter. But in the last few days we’ve seen […]
A lot of readers are asking me when my next Big Lake book will be out. I learned a long time ago to never give a definite date, because when I do, something always seems to get in the way and throw me off schedule. But I got another 3,500 words or so in yesterday […]