Inspirations, the Stories Space Coffee House: If you're reading this it just might mean I'm back, sorta. If you're not reading this, well, congratulations.

Good morning. Sunny but cold here. Snow seems to have stopped coming, though, and we might start losing it later today. Right now, though, it looks more like January or February should have.

25 years ago today, I was hanging out in a hospital waiting for my slacker Gen Z kid to get off his ass and be born. Except he turned out to be very much not a slacker and now makes big bucks designing computer chips.

Coffee is Kicking Horse 454 Horse Power. Teas are Assam and Earl Grey Cream. Cold drink pitchers are washed and refilled with lemonade and unsweet iced tea. Hot chocolate, other teas, and various condiments all stocked up, including the much loved marshmallows.

Sorry for the rant last night, but it does kind of reflect my current feelings so it is staying up.

Long Saturday errands and laundry .

Been helping a friend get ready for hernia surgery that he had on Thursday and now just helping him with things until he heals . Cookies tomorrow I promise.

Working on the final edit of a .. get ready ....SCAMP ADVENTURE and writing the second chapter of Marti the Mink's adventures in Louisiana.

Happy Birthday to Ape Jr !!

Baseball opening day in 5 days

Quote by verbal
I saw him in concert, back in the day. Lenny Kravitz opened. GOOD concert.

My daughters turn the radio up to 11 and sing along top volume whenever American Girl comes on the radio.

You're the second person to tell me they've been lucky enough to see him in concert (the first being my PT) within the last week or so and I envy both of you so bad it's kinda ridiculous.

...also your daughters have great taste. My personal favorites are Hometown Blues and Strangered in the Night, although you really can't go wrong with him's music.

Honestly, I like listening to him more than I like most of the people I know irl.

I'll be the third, I saw him in concert as well. Silly story: I follow some artists on Amazon Music, so you get a notice when they have new music out. A while ago, Amazon announced that there was new music by Tom Petty out. Apparently when they remaster songs it counts as "new".

We had a lot of rain this weekend, and now there are some high winds. That eighty-degree day is long gone. It's going to be more seasonably cool this week with temps in the fifties. Tonight, the wind sounds both comforting and eerie. Have a good Sunday, everyone. Cheers!

Quote by Mendalla
Other than Red's story (BTW, I have read the first two chapters and it is very good. It's just not my cuppa genre-wise so the going is a bit slow

Please stick with it, Ape. You'll find that genre-wise it becomes much more horse-driven with romance taking a back seat.

Time for a Sunday hot chocolate, I believe.

Morning folks

It's a nice Sunday morning here.

I got the coffee (Cafe du monde dark roast) and tea ( lemon zinger and red rose )

I brought Beignets as a special Sunday treat and i have fresh cookies . Spring theme cookies : birds ,bees ,flowers in water can and flowers ...they are shortbread cookies with frosting

peeking in the cookie jars and find nothing but crumbs

giving the adorable critters fresh water and treats

grabbing a large hot chocolate with a mountain of mini marshmallows

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

You're the second person to tell me they've been lucky enough to see him in concert (the first being my PT) within the last week or so and I envy both of you so bad it's kinda ridiculous.

...also your daughters have great taste. My personal favorites are Hometown Blues and Strangered in the Night, although you really can't go wrong with him's music.

Honestly, I like listening to him more than I like most of the people I know irl.

Glad Gill and I can help. He really was a special talent. I remember buying Damn the Torpedoes (his first big album) and putting it on the turntable and being utterly blown away. The concert to see would have been when he was touring with Bob Dylan, and they were Dylan's BACK-UP BAND!

Lazy Sunday. We had breakfast at IHOP and are now back home, waiting for the NEXT snowstorm to appear.

Coffee and one of those delish cookies!

Quote by redwriter

Please stick with it, Ape. You'll find that genre-wise it becomes much more horse-driven with romance taking a back seat.

Time for a Sunday hot chocolate, I believe.

I agree the momentum really starts to build.

Between me and Red there's like 22,000 new-ish words to be read over here. Anyone game?

Quote by verbal
Glad Gill and I can help. He really was a special talent. I remember buying Damn the Torpedoes (his first big album) and putting it on the turntable and being utterly blown away. The concert to see would have been when he was touring with Bob Dylan, and they were Dylan's BACK-UP BAND!

Oh, I believe you. Today I'm listening live (aka without earbuds) cause I apparently killed them listening to him yesterday.

...and yall have no idea how close I am to ditching 'Tom' and calling him Tommy like I already do in my head.

Good morning all.

Nothing much going on here. The expected snowstorm didn't materialize, so it's merely cold.

But...baseball on THURSDAY! (Sorry Red.) (Sorry for saying I'm sorry Red.) And too many words to write between now and then.

A free donut for anyone who can name: In what Canadian city did I ask a girl out and get shot down? You'll have to read Continental Drift to find out!

I'll have a coffee and an Easter cookie!

Four-day work week! Yay!

OTOH, this long weekend sees the biggest upgrade of our core corporate system that we've done in probably the last 6 or so years. I'm not the guy doing it anymore and the guy who is makes miracles happen (kind of the IT version of Scotty but without the accent) but still, a lot is riding on this project.

"She canna take it, boss. Any more and she'll blow!" is not what I want to hear on Easter Sunday, let's put it that way.

It's evening here so I'll put on some camomile and Canadian blueberry herbal teas. Suitable for bedtime drinking.

Quote by verbal
In what Canadian city did I ask a girl out and get shot down?

Somewhere in Quebec and your French pickup lines didn't pass muster? 🤣

I've woken up with Tommy's songs stuck in my head for the past few days. Today it's 'The Waiting.'

Also my PT says him has a whiskey sounding voice but I'm not sure what that means.

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

I've woken up with Tommy's songs stuck in my head for the past few days. Today it's 'The Waiting.'

Also my PT says him has a whiskey sounding voice but I'm not sure what that means.

There's a fine quiet acoustic version of that song on a live album somewhere.

Not much up today. Warmer and sunnier. Writing memoirs.

Answer to my trivia: I was shot down in Sudbury when I asked the museum tour guide out. But she was really nice about it!

MORE VERBAL TRIVIA: What lake was I at where the family added weed to their cigarette tobacco the entire time?

Coffee and cookies please!

Good day! Hi, Elyse. The world needs more Petty, even if he was a ... bad dum ... Heartbreaker.

Coffee is brewing. Went with Tobermory Grotto for today. Teas are Assam and Russian Caravan. Everything else seems well-stocked and ready.

Here's an interesting performance of "The Waiting". Grunge meets 70s rock. Eddie is my second favourite of the Seattle grunge crowd after the late Chris Cornell.

Quote by verbal
I was shot down in Sudbury when I asked the museum tour guide out. But she was really nice about it!

Yeah, those Northern Ontarians can be pretty nice folks, actually. Never been there myself but my employer has an office there (a company we acquired pre-pandemic) so maybe I can come up with an excuse someday.

Quote by Mendalla

Good day! Hi, Elyse. The world needs more Petty, even if he was a ... bad dum ... Heartbreaker.

Him's the only true heartbreaker, so why was it Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers?

Also Drew and Tommy were both in my dreams last night, kinda just watching over me like, 'That's our baby and we love xem.'

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

Him's the only true heartbreaker, so why was it Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers?

He wanted company on the tour bus? 😊

Quote by Mendalla

He wanted company on the tour bus? 😊

Well yeah...I guess that's true.

Oh god. My mom basically described him as 'okie music' today after I tried to explain heartland rock to her.

Coffee time!!!

Oh the hey, it's always coffee time in a cafe, eh.

Got some Deathwish Dark roast in the coffee pot. Teas du jour are Earl Grey and Scottish Breakfast. Fresh lemonade and iced tea are in the fridge. Stocks of hot chocolate and other teas are looking good, as are the marshmallows and sundry condiments.

Getting a chance to write during the week is tricky so not much progress on my new stories. One needs some serious changes to make my planned direction make sense. Just not sure what exactly those changes need to be. It's mostly about avoiding the problem of the "big revelation" being a total deus ex machina. The other is just chugging along and I kind of have the direction worked out, though some tweaking might be in order since I've changed the future direction of things.

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

Well yeah...I guess that's true.

Oh god. My mom basically described him as 'okie music' today after I tried to explain heartland rock to her.

Ha! Okie music made me laugh (both my parents are native Okies).

Scott, maybe try posting what you have here and asking for suggestions. I've improved stories by posting them here first for reactions. Anyway, just a thought.

BASEBALL SEASON STARTS TOMORROW!

Same old thang here. Talia seems to be taking to retirement well. She's taken up painting! Okay, paint by numbers, but the results are spectacular. Paint by numbers has come a long way.

A coffee ad a cookie and I am out of here!

Quote by verbal

Ha! Okie music made me laugh (both my parents are native Okies).

...well, she understood after I said it was basically working man's rock. I think she must've confused it with, like, rockabilly or something.

And then she said Bob Dylan's voice sounds like Burgess Meredith as the Penguin in Batman (cause I was telling her about The Traveling Wilburys).

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic
And then she said Bob Dylan's voice sounds like Burgess Meredith as the Penguin in Batman

You realize that I will now not be able to unhear this, right? 😜

And I think she might be right for some periods of Bob's career. His voice has changed with time, though.

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic
...well, she understood after I said it was basically working man's rock.

Describes Mr. Petty perfectly.

Hey guys, I hope I haven't missed too much. I enjoy SS and have fun here so it's something I gave up for Lent. Unfortunately the idea came to me a few days once Lent began so I didn't come back to tell you. Lent isn't officially over till this Easter Sunday, but you've all been on my mind every so often so I finally decided to say a quick, "hey," and let you know of my absence. It's currently Holy Week, more specifically Spy Wednesday, reminding us of when Jesus was betrayed by Judas. I'm excited to come back in a short while.

I sincerely thank those of you who have kept my music thread going. Tomorrow is Holy Thursday. I feel very blessed in my life. I love you all. I hope everyone has been well. I'm looking forward to conversing with you soon. Thank you for making me smile and laugh so very often. I'm glad we're friends. ❤️

Quote by verbal

Describes Mr. Petty perfectly.

I would hope so cause I'd feel bad if I insulted him in some way.

Also maybe this is weird but I don't like to listen to him if him's doing a duet with someone cause when I say I want to listen to Tommy, I really, really mean it.

Backups are okay though - as long as they're not too involved.

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic
Also maybe this is weird but I don't like to listen to him if him's doing a duet with someone cause when I say I want to listen to Tommy, I really, really mean it.

But "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" with Stevie Nicks is soooooooooooooooo good. Probably the first Petty I liked back in the day.

I loved Tom Petty when he did a stint with The Traveling Willburys.

Rain again here, at least it washes away the beginning pollen. It's going to be a long allergy season.

Have a good Thursday, everyone. Cheers.

Gosh, Cora, it was such a pleasant surprise seeing you back on-line. And a relief, because in your last message you recorded that you had been forced to take it your bed. I fear it was a health problem that took you away. So glad it was something Holy!! It will be good to read your cheery messages once more. Welcome back.

Good morning, good morning! ape shuffles in

And hello Cora! Never heard of giving up a website for Lent but if it fills the bill for you, good on you. Looking forward to having you back next week, I guess.

Quote by gillianleeza
I loved Tom Petty when he did a stint with The Traveling Willburys.

Funnily enough, when they came along, he was probably my number four of the group (with Orbison, Dylan, and Harrison ahead of him). But his work from that era really got me into him a lot more. I mean, I had known of him going back to the release of Damn the Torpedoes (1979) but my general disdain for rock in that era kind of kept me at a distance (don't worry, I got better soon after). I would still, though, say that my favourite Wilbury's track was Orbison's magnificent solo on "You're Not Alone Anymore". One of his last recordings and what a note to go out on. And anything with Harrison on lead, who ranks as my favourite Beatle.

For the coffee set, I've put on some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Fire Roasted. In the tea pots there's Red Rose and Sunday Tea (black tea blend with vanilla).

See you 'round, folks.

So nice to see a little action here. Hi everyone! Welcome back Cora!

Petty was my fave Willbury. I once saw him AND George Harrison AND Roger McGuinn play Dylan's songs - Mr. Tamborine Man gave me chills.

It's not even baseball season yet and the Mets game is already canceled. Wah! Still, I'll watch a few games. But I'm bummed.

We're off to Denver tomorrow to see Mike Burbiglia. You should check him out on Netflix. Half comedian, half one man show, but he's VERY funny.

Seize the carp everyone!