Seventeen Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty Words.

Here it is the last day of November and I am only 1/3 of the way towards the 50,000-word goal. I’ll continue to write a little most days. I’ll finish when I finish.

I set up some Christmas decorations on the roof today – lights and the angel we got last year. I was going to mow the lawn and put up the Nativity figures we have but I couldn’t start the lawnmower. I’m using gas that is probably a year old. With the cold weather it just isn’t volatile enough to crank the engine. At least that’s my theory. I’ll get some fresh gas tomorrow and try again.

Otherwise it wasn’t a very productive day. I’m still trying to shake this cold.

I missed a beautiful sunset today. I had considered a beach walk but for one reason or another didn’t do it. The sunset was a brilliant scarlet one with nice wispy clouds. That’s another thing to consider for tomorrow. We may be going to church tomorrow at sunset time. We still haven’t decided what we are going to do about the Mass change at Hurlburt.

Tune in to my next blog for the answer to this and other burning questions.

A "B'n"Day

No, not a Birthday, just a lot of B’s in today’s activities. I’ve still got a cold from Thanksgiving. I thought it was almost gone on Monday night But it came Back and has stayed with me.


My Breakfast was raisin Bran. Penny suggested I take it easy today because of the cold, so I took a Break from any real work or chores. We relaxed and watched last weeks Grey’s Anatomy. It was a Beautiful day today so I suggested we go see what Rocky Bayou State Park looked like. We graBBed our cameras an apple and a Bottle of water each and headed out to hike the park’s trails. We haven’t Been to the park since the hurricanes and we knew that it sustained a lot of damage 2 years ago. It was evident when we walked the trails. There were Broken and dead trees everywhere. Fortunately the park is recovering nicely and we enjoyed our hike. In keeping with my take-it-easy day we kept a leisurely pace on the trails. We hiked for aBout 1-½ hours. It’s a small park But the trails were nice and it has a good-sized picnic area right along Rocky Bayou. We also checked out the Boat ramp for potential future kayak launchings. We Both ate our apples at aBout the half way point But we were hungry for lunch when we left the park.

We stopped at Hungry Howie’s and had Baked suBs for lunch. Penny kept the little pizza Boxes for possiBle use as mailing Boxes for some of her handiwork. Since we were in the shopping center we couldn’t not go to Bayou Books, one of Penny’s favorite places to Browse. We also hit the supermarket there to Buy some Butter (well, margarine actually But Butter starts with a “B”). Then we went Back home to Be greeted By Brie when we came in the door.


I relaxed in the Bedroom for aBout a half-hour with Brie napping at my feet. Then I went Back to writing on my Book. I just checked my word count and I am at 16,500. The plot is now Beginning to thicken. I’m inventing the story as I go. I know where I want to go and I’m figuring out how to get there.

At 4:30 all 5 cats were outside so I spent some time petting them and then fed them their ration of canned food for the day.

Now I’m sitting here Blogging as Penny whips up a Batch of her luscious Beef stew.

So that’s my B’n day. Tomorrow is Friday. I hope it’s not an F’n day don’t you?

Recovery Day

I haven’t blogged in a week. It’s not that nothing is happening, which is my normal excuse. It’s just the opposite – lots of things happening. My “novel” which also kept me from blogging is not going to be finished within the November goal. That was known a long time ago. I ended up stalling about half-way through the month with only 12,000 words. Thanksgiving got in the way. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week with Karen and Tim and a sick little Sophia. If you read Karen’s blogs you know that story. From there it was off to Christy and Christians (C&C) to have Thanksgiving dinner and “meet the family” – Christian’s family.

Penny and I had a great time there. C&C put a lot of hard work into making everything enjoyable and their work paid off. I like seeing Christy when she smiles the way she did this weekend.

Christian’s family was fun too. They are all intelligent, technically savvy and Type “A” personalities with a great sense of humor. His Dad was extremely interested in my work with NASA and the Air Force and we both commiserated about the way jobs are accomplished in a big bureaucracy.

C&C had a 20 lb turkey and everybody provided some food. Christy made apple salad and sweet potato muggin that was as good as Penny’s. Penny helped make gravy. Christian’s family brought mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and a delicious apple pie. Christian carved the bird.

We went to Oleno State Park and hiked with 3 dogs(2 huskies and Finn). I promptly got caught up in taking pictures and went 1 mile down the wrong path. Penny rescued me with a cell phone call. I’m surprised she didn’t take my head off when I finally rejoined the group. Penny was surprisingly relaxed throughout the weekend. I think this retirement thing is good for her. Here it is Monday and I’m still alive, so I guess I’m OK.

We took our usual recovery day when we returned home. We do very little and used the day to rest. I slept in until 8:30. We drove up to Crestview to get Penny’s sewing machine. It was in the shop for preventive maintenance. We took that opportunity to eat lunch at Cracker Barrel. Tomorrow we will worry about unpacking, laundry and all that stuff.

The cat feeder worked properly while we were gone. It has enough food in it for another few days. I’ll let it run out and see how many days it feeds at this setting. All 5 of the cats showed up today. We had 5 inches of rain overnight and into the morning. It’s not unusual for cats to not show up on rainy days. They all showed their little hungry faces, however.

12000 Words

Here it is the 15th of November, halfway through the month and I have only 12000 of the 50000-word goal. I guess I could say the glass is half-full – I have written 12000 words, but that only makes about a quarter-full glass.

Beyond the writing and working in the shed there is not a lot going on - the lull before the holidays. The cat feeder has been working well. There are still 5 cats.

My left hand is still swollen and hurting. I’m going to see my old friend Dr Silberberg on Monday. If she finds a problem I may be in a cast for Thanksgiving. Keep you fingers crossed – ouch – I cant cross mine without them hurting so you cross yours.

By the way my “novel” is titled “Such Stuff as Dreams” and is a sort of science fiction / mystery/thriller. It’s about an astronaut who is the Lance Armstrong of dreamers. It involves him in a study for long endurance space missions, hibernation, mind control and an evil Chinese plot. It will be ready to read in ? At the rate I’m going I should finish the sloppy 1st draft about the end of the year. Then I need to clean it up and edit it. So maybe by groundhog day it will be ready.

Getting Back on Track.

This week was a start at getting back to normal. I’ve begun my training for the Gate River run. The soreness in my ankle, knees and hips that I had after my trip in Texas has gone away. The hands still hurt and are weaker and more painful than they should be after 5 ½ weeks. I was looking at my left hand in church today and it is still swollen on the heel and the thumb and 1st and 2nd fingers. It hurts to type with it right now. The thumb and first finger on the right hand hurt but I can use my right hand for most task with no problem. So I’m back to getting some exercise but not with the hands.

The other item I’m getting on track with is the shed and shop. I went through the storage area and cleaned it up significantly. I actually opened up the storage area to where I can finally move some stuff we currently have in the garage out to the shed. That was the intent all along but you know how things get in the way of what you intend to do. I’m in the process of reorganizing the shop to make it more usable and efficient. I’ve made good progress toward that goal this week. I’m going to try to finish the shop this week – there’s one of those intention things again. We will see how I do.

Today I was working in the shop. I had the door open because it was a beautiful fall day. I looked up and 3 of the cats, Velcro, Meredith, and Bianca (white) were all in the shed cautiously exploring the area around the doorway. I let them look for a while and then shushed them away before they got too comfortable. They spend a lot of time under the shed but when they saw all that new territory to explore inside the shed the really looked excited.

We found out at church today that next Sunday will be the last one with a 7:15 mass. We knew this was coming. Now we have to decide if we still go there to one of the other masses or whether we go to ST Mary’s or St Peter’s.


I’m at a little over 7000 words on my novel. That’s about one third as many as I should have if I’m to finish in November. It’s not going to be easier to write at the end of the month with travel and the holiday so I need to put more time in it. Maybe I don’t need to finish the shop this week.

Laundry, Repairs and Cats

I spent the morning today fixing things. First in line was the cat feeder. It didn’t dispense any food this morning. When I checked it out (I now have to open a panel to look inside – it keeps critters out and me too) everything was working OK. It wouldn’t dispense because a piece of duct tape that acted as a flexible seal between the food bin and the feeding wheel had come unstuck and was preventing food from flowing. The simple fix was to just remove the piece of tape.

Next I had to fix the generator. It has a “low oil” sensor that cuts off the engine after 10 seconds if it senses low oil. This is an unreliable sensor. 2 or 3 years ago it went bad and I replaced it. Now this one has gone bad. I recognized the symptoms. It stops the engine after 10 seconds even when it has sufficient oil. I decided no sensor was better than an unreliable one. I check the oil every month anyway. I disconnected the sensor and jumped the wire connection around it. It runs fine again.

After the generator I did some repairs on the enclosure I have it in. The roof/ door had come loose. Then I re-hung the Kayaks against the house. They had been down on the ground most of the summer.

In between these tasks I finished up the laundry. We are all caught up after the weekend trip – at least laundry-wise.

Penny made a batch of her pasta fagioli today and that made for a nice lunch.


After lunch I did some shed clean up and made a warm place for the kitties outside. It may get into the 30’s tonight. While I was doing that I looked over at the basil plant and saw Buzz living up to his name. I named him Buzz because he was always chasing flies. He was now sitting by the plant stalking a bee that was looking for some basil flowers.

I’m currently reading an old James Bond novel that my dentist loaned me. She said they were pretty good and she was right. The book is Moonraker. It was written in 1955 during the cold war. It is interesting to see how commonplace Bond’s high-tech gadgets are by today’s standards. The book is well written and technically accurate, at least so far.

Finally, tonight Buzz joined the group of cats that will let me pet them. Velcro comes for petting with no hesitation. Meredith hesitates and then relaxes. Buzz stood still for the first time today and let me scratch his ear. That leaves the white cat, who seems to have no interest in being pet and Marmalade who will never trust enough to be pet.

I inadvertently closed Brie in our clothes chest today. I lifted her onto the shelf in the chest when I got out a pair of jeans this morning around 9 AM. She nestled all the way in the back with just her head showing. I got dressed and went outside to do the stuff I wrote about here. I forgot she was in there and closed the door on her. It was 4 or 5 hours later that I opened the door and there was Brie. She didn’t seem the least bit upset. As far as we could tell she wasn’t meowing to get out. I sure felt bad when I realized what I had done.

When I’m 59

I turned 59 last Friday - 2 days before daughter Karen reached that milestone age of 30. If one Googles “59 years old” one finds stories about a 59-year-old playing college football or of a 59-year-old woman giving birth to twins.

I was born in 1948, a leap year, on the election day, Nov 2nd,where Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey and Strom Thurmond.

Some famous people also born in 1948 are, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Ozbourne, James Taylor, Billy Crystal, Steven Tyler, Al Gore, Jerry Mathers, Richard Simmons, Gary Trudeau, Olivia Newton-John, Cat Stevens, Peggy Flemming, Phil Hartman, Howard Dean, John Ritter, Bryant Gumbel, Samuel L. Jackson and Maurizio Gucci. 3 of this group are already dead!

Born on Nov 2nd like me-
James K Polke, Daniel Boone, Marie Antoinette, Warren G Harding, Burt Lancaster, K D Lang and rapper Nelly.

The fact that 2 presidents were born on Nov 2nd is used quite often as an example of the high probability of finding 2 people with the same birthday in a group of 30 random people.

I spent a good portion of my birthday at Jacksonville Beach watching the rehearsal for the air show to be held on the 3rd. It was a terrible day for an air show. Strong constant cold wind, overcast skies and 5-7 ft surf. I had to wear a hooded sweatshirt to keep warm. I had to wipe my glasses every half-hour because they were fogged with salt spray.

Fortunately the overcast was high enough for the small propeller planes to do their complete show. I haven’t watched an air show in quite a while and it was fun to see. The pilots were high-caliber. Knowing something from my formal education about flight mechanics, propulsion, aerodynamics and human factors I could more fully appreciate what I was seeing. It looked so easy but you know it isn’t. The Blue Angels ended the rehearsal with their low-altitude performance which was nice but not as impressive as their full show.

Karen and Tim treated me to a birthday dinner at Hamms. I had fish tacos. Sophi was an angel through the whole experience. Thanks Tim and Karen for the birthday meal.

We spent the weekend in Jacksonville. The air show was one reason, Karen and Christy’s birthdays the other. We offered to watch Sophia so Karen and Tim could have a night out by themselves. It worked out well . Karen wrote about it http://daysleeperkaren.blogspot.com/2007/11/thirty.html in her blog about turning 30.

Sunday Tim surprised Karen with a birthday party at Dave and Buster’s. It was a nice party. There were 3 babies with the group and it was interesting watching the parents try to be part of the conversation or simply eat in between taking care of the babies. It reminded me a little of the plate balancers on the Ed Sullivan show. Just when you think all is well one of those babies gets restless and needs to be tended to like the wobbly suspended plate. Then when that’s taken care of another one would act up. Oh the memories!

We also unloaded a trunk full of stuff that we had accumulated for Christy and Christian. Our original plan for the weekend had us spending Saturday with Karen for her birthday and Sunday with Christy for hers. The surprise party on Sunday threw that plan out so we didn’t celebrate Christy’s birthday properly. We feel bad about that. I know Christy understands but I’m still disappointed.
On Monday we went over to Kerry’s to drop off stuff we had for my sister Kathy to sell at Egmont Key. It is always fun to visit Kerry.

Since November 1st I’ve been spending my writing time working on my 50,000 word novel. So far – Nov 6th – I have written 2,600 words. That’s where I should have been on day #2. I may start using my writing as my blog with some updates about what is happening included.

Kitty Update – The cat feeder did its job. All 5 of our regular customers were eating out there today. I can now pet Velcro, Meredith, and Buzz a little. Tonight it will drop into the 30’s so the kitties may get a little chilly.