(ppst. It's my birthday)

Hey all! Haven't been around much, I hope everyone is well. We drove up into the mountains with Talia/daughter/grandson/significant other. It was big fun. It was hot as f here in town, almost 100, but up in the mountains it was cool and lovely. Took a hike, looked at some giant fossilized redwoods (Florissant Fossil Beds Park). Came home tired and watched the Mets win their 7th in a row.

Going out for steak tonight, coming home for cake. I'll write and chill til then.

Coffee please!

Grand Theft Hamlet. How have I never heard of this? A documentary about trying to perform Hamlet inside a GTA game in real time.

The second book cover, WG. I like the letters a little smaller, so we are more taken by all the imagery. It seems a little lighter too. The cat on the head is key to both versions!

Broke out the grill finally! It's usually up and running my May, but it has been a BUSY summer.

Really proud of my Heaven's Gate story. I hope it gets picked up. If not I will post it here.

Roland, I've been in therapy for a decade and it really helps me on an everyday basis.

I deserve a cold beer for all my hard work today. I will settle for an ice water.

Quote by Mendalla

Oo, Bear brought goodies. All is well here. A bit fatigued for some reason. Didn't sleep the greatest last night so that's likely part of it. Heard that the contractors might be out to start on my driveway next week so there's that. I have a new idea for the comp but haven't had time to take a crack at it yet. Cats are involved (the one I have in hand involves cellos and headbanging).

Cats! Yay!

Nothing new here. Editing the novel, which is mostly boring, interrupted by periods of sheer terror at all I have to change.

Still. Coffee is hot, cats are purring, and my wife is ever-patient. And I get to walk today! Sadly, no baseball.

Coffee!

Quote by WriterGirl

Woohoo! SEVEN entries in the competition!

Come on in, Verbal and Mr Ape, the water’s warm…

Life is busy, DubyaGee. I will read the entries, but I doubt I'll enter.

My Heaven's Gate shoe story has turned into a love story, almost against my will. It's like, the characters decided to fall in love, regardless of what I wanted to write. I'm about to send it off to an anthology. Wish me luck!

Coffee!

Went to a poetry reading last night! Talia read a bunch of poems (some probably from this site). It was big fun. I read a story, but I was mostly there for Talia.

Same old day today, though without a walk - the heat is just too brutal today.

Mets had a great win last night.

A brownie and a coffee please!

Quote by WriterGirl

You have the coolest story ideas! And on top of that, your execution of your ideas is superb!

We have 2 entries so far with Meg on the way. I hope we get a lot of entries! :)

Thank you, DubyaGee! Looking forward to reading the entries!

Morning all.

Hot and sunny here. I am trying to write a story about the guy delivering Nikes to the Heavens Gate suicide cult, back in the late 90s. Anyone remember Hale-Bopp?

Things are fine here. I have some relatives in Texas hill country, but everyone seems to be fine. My prayers go out to all those families. Devastating.

Coffee would rock.

Quote by Mendalla

Thought that a different version passed the House and reconciliation would be needed? So it may not yet be over. Keep fighting. I was a bit po'd at the revocation of the Digital Service Tax. Giving Trump his way make ape grumpy. I am not a big fan of some of the regulatory moves Canada has made around digital services (like enforcing Can-con on services like YouTube), but using a tax to keep some of the profits in Canada was one I could handle.

The Senate was our last, best chance. It's a sad day.

My apologies for being political. I will attempt to be chill from now on.

Happy Canada Day!

Here in the US it’s “we stopped that nation-destroying bill from being passed” day. They voted all night long but thus far, they are unable to throw 11 million people off of health care to pay for billionaire tax cuts. Stay tuned.

Hot and sunny here. Write and walk today. I haven’t done that in awhile.

Sieze the coffee cup!

EDIT: The bill passed the Senate. The billionaires are in charge now.

The heart has returned. Sigh.

In other news, got a flat after running over a nail while picking up my grandson from school. THAT was quite the time suck.

Waiting on a new tire today.

Carpe caffeinius!

Inane TV in a dark room sounds fine to me Gill. It’s cool and drizzly here again. Feels nice.

The Mets have lost 10 of the last 11 games. It’s getting ugly. That is all.

Coffee?

Cool and rainy and the good kind of gloomy today. It’s been hot as a tin roof here, so the cool-off and rain are welcome.

My garbage disposal story got kind of ripped up in critique group last night. Showed me the way to fix it though, so it’s a win.

Your play was cool WG!

Started the rewrite of the novel in earnest. I’m about 20 pages in.

Coffee and a cookie please!

Quote by gillianleeza

I am glad she made it home. Air travel these days is at best inconvenient and uncomfortable.

We're going to go to Newfoundland in August this year. I haven't seen all of my husband's family in years. I didn't want to go that far away with my parents' issues. Thankfully, now that my father is being cared for, I can leave. We will drive, which is daunting, but flying is not great either. You must take two or three flights to get there, and they frequently lose our luggage. And for some reason, they now route you through Detroit. We'll take it slow and visit some sites on the way up. It's a three-day trip, two days to Nova Scotia, an eight-hour ferry ride, and five hours across the island. We'll be gone for about two weeks to make that journey worthwhile.

The heat has settled in, and it will be here for a while. It was 96 today, but it will be over 100 for several days this coming week. Above 90, it all feels the same: hazy, hot, and humid. Ugh! I'll take a lemonade and some cookies and find a cool spot to read.

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Take care. Cheers.

That sounds like a fun road trip. The 8 hour ferry ride sounds like a trip. Glad you have regained your freedom, Gill.

Still very hot here. We may brave the heat in order to go to IHOP. But then we’ll go right back home.

Coffee, please. And peace. And a cookie.

Quote by Mendalla

Well, that's a bleeping mess. I think our domestic air system sucks but that's mostly expense. I can fly to Europe for less than it costs to fly to the West Coast of my own country.

She's home. Life is slowly returning to normal.

It's a hot one here today, with no rain in sight. We're gonna go work in the yard until the sun forces us back inside. We're watching the 28 Days/Months/Years later movies. I've seen the first two, Talia has not. The first movie is SO GOOD.

Coffee please.

Quote by Mendalla

Just going from California to Colorado? Seriously? I can get a direct non-stop from Toronto to Vancouver or Calgary with no problem. Or was she not in a major city in California? I know to get anywhere from where I am, I have to connect because there's very few direct flights from our airport even domestically.

Los Angeles to Colorado Springs. The last two trips it has taken her two days to get home. Everything is broken. Welcome to democracy.

Happy Solstice!

And Talia is finally back home. That Cali-Colo flight always ends up taking a couple of days before it finally lands in the correct city. At least she got a hotel voucher this time. God I hate flying.

Okay, time to write. Coffee please!

Quote by Mendalla

Eek, yes. I have yet to encounter those in the wild and would rather not.

Trying a new writing tool. I adopted software called Obsidian as my note-taking/organizing software since OneNote isn't available on Linux unless you're able to use the web interface. It stores notes as individual files in a language called Markdown in a folder structure called a vault. And I realized that given this structure, I should be able to just write my stories, at least at the draft stage, right in Obsidian. If I'm submitting them professionally, then I can move them to LibreOffice for final formatting and saving to Word or PDF format. If I'm sharing them here, then I can just copy and paste into the story editor. Costs me US$4 a month to use their cloud to sync across devices (there is an Android version that I use on my phone) but that's manageable given it is otherwise free for personal use.

My note taking process consists of sending emails to myself. I did like Evernote, back in the day. Loved it, actually, until they started charging.

Talia is back today! Yay! I should be able to get back into the habit of writing and walking daily this week too. I’m getting my old life back!

Coffee please.

I didn't get arrested. It was fun! Hot af though, and I am exhausted. Protesting is hard work.

Mets game is about to start, and I'm I search of a cold beer.

Congrats on the omnium WG! That’s pretty cool! If I may throw in my two cents, you are at your absolute best when writing about human interaction and emotion. You get those emotional details perfect. And I share your frustration at trying to write a play. I have tried several times and I just can’t crack it.

Ape, I think you have a similar ability to write real humans, with real interactions and emotions. Naturalistic fiction is your wheelhouse.

My two cents. Daughter continues to do well, and I am getting so of my freedom back. I actually started editing the novel yesterday (gasp!).

Anyone interested in bailing me out of jail on Saturday?

Coffee please.

Congrats on the paper, Mr. Bear.

Congrats on NOT being AI, Ape.

Everyone's sick over at my daughter's place, so I am staying away from there. Calm day today. I'll probably send out my haunted garbage disposal story today. Still procrastinating on a second draft of the novel.

Warm and sunny! Chance of thunderstorms. My perfect day! And I haven't walked in forever, so it looks like I can get in a walk today.

For now? Coffee!

Stomach is way better. Mets lost. They are in town THIS WEEKEND, but there is just too much going on for me to attend. I'll watch though!

My daughter is doing quite well. Her coming out party will be the protests on June 14. Yay!

Nothing much new here. After nearly a full week of being out of it, I am back to writing today.

Coffee please!

Me. I am eating your basil. It's me.

I have a stomach bug, and so am laying low, but there's a game on at 2, the Mets have been kicking the dodger's ass, and I have nothing to attend to. So I am going to lie back and watch baseball and try not to puke.

No coffee (!!!). I'll have some toast and tea.

Cookies! Cookies!

Not much new here. Sunny mornings and afternoon showers. My kinda day.

Avoiding editing the novel today. It's such a long slog, and I don't want to even begin!

Daughter is doing very well.

Coffee and one of those aforementioned cookies please!

Good luck with the book James.

WG, your thriller is top notch. Looking forward to the play.

I started writing again! I took like three weeks off to take care of my daughter, but started a promising story yesterday (the garbage disposal).

Talia is off to see her Mom this week, as I stay here to take care of my daughter. Wah! I'll just have to drown my sorrows with baseball.

Coffee please!

Quote by Mendalla
And a haunted garbage disposal? Sounds more horror comedy than straight horror. Unless it got that way by someone being fed down it in pieces. 😲

Gonna try to play it straight. It's from the POV of two little kids. Little kids are TERRIFIED of garbage disposals.

Looking forward to the play and the thriller, WG.

I’m no longer taking care of my daughter all day. She is going to try to get through mornings and early afternoons on her own, and I will pick up her kid and bring him home and hang out for a couple hours. Hope it works out. She s doing well.

So, with actual free time before me, I am going to write a story about a haunted garbage disposal.

Coffee please.

I'm sorry for your loss, Gill. Some seasons of life, the hammer just keeps coming down. You are among friends here, feel free to vent. We've all been there.

I just got dropped by my neurologist, for reasons that are unclear, but probably involve clearing Medicare patients off the rolls so they can make more money. I got another one, so they won't interrupt my care. But, at least here in the US, it's clear the billionaires have taken over. Sigh.

Coffee please.

Starting to get back to normal. I'm actually spending the morning at home, before heading over to my daughter's place in the afternoon. A complication has reared its head, but things should be fine.

I probably should be writing, but right now I'm just soaking in the peace of a free morning with no obligations.

A much-needed therapy session in a couple hours! Coffee please!

I'm glad you are getting over your pneumonia, Gill, and that your dad is happy. That's important!

Things are going pretty well with my daughter's recovery. One complication reared its head this week, but nothing we can't deal with. I'm getting used to all the animals in her house. Only three of them, but that darned bird is annoying.

About halfway through Moby Dick. It's a good book.

Thanks for the treats Ape.