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Quote by verbal

Driving to Albuquerque for an eclipse in October.

Next big trip: sleeper car up the left coast to Vancouver. Cruise from there to Alaska.

Both sound fun. We saw the last eclipse at Bryce Canyon in Utah. Did not plan it that way, just worked out. And loved our Alaska cruise. We went from Seattle but there won't be much difference I imagine except you might go up the strait instead of around Vancouver Island like we did.

Damn - Dame

Probably take it easy nowadays but I did drive solo from Halifax, NS to Hamilton, ON once (3 days, roughly) so done the loon thing.

Work on the deck or work inside?

Birds, birds, everywhere birds. At least in my backyard. Where I am working today. Never dreamt my deck could double as an office. Thank you, COVID, I guess. There has to have been a better way for us to discover the value of working from home, though.

And one year ago, I was recovering from everyone's (not) favourite disease. Not fun but my case was milder than a lot of folks I know so I am thankful for that much.

Coffee is brewing, a Nicaraguan dark roast. Teas are Red Rose and Sunday Tea. Pitchers of iced tea and lemonade are washed and refilled.

Later, alligators.

Recent trailer:

Quote by gillianleeza
Jenna Ortega will be playing her daughter

Jenna seems to be becoming the go-to actor for young women in creepy stories. First Wednesday Addams and now this.

I am getting rather intrigued by Last Voyage of the Demeter. It is a Dracula movie but focusses on one part of the novel that sometimes does not even make it into other adaptations: The fate of the ship that transports Dracula and his supply of boxes (i.e. coffins) to England from Transylvania. Very creepy looking vampire and the scenario (monster stalking the crew on a storm-tossed ship) seems ripe for a locked room horror a la Alien or The Thing. And apparently the director's last movie, Trollhunter, is quite good, too.

Quote by verbal
Still working on the Grandpa’s growing tentacles stories.

Something to look forward to when Little M and his wife have kids?🤨😗😁

Find - Rind

So this week's post from Authors Publish is not a list of markets or calls for submissions, but a reading list suggesting memoirs to read. I am not really planning to write my memoirs (not much to write about, truth be told) but maybe some of you would benefit. And, really, reading a good memoir can be just a good read, too.

» 22 Memoirs that Every Aspiring Memoir Author Should Consider Reading (authorspublish.com)

Getting into a genre of music that you have largely ignored leads to interesting things, like listening to albums you largely passed over back in the day. Holy Diver by Dio came out when I was still in high school and I only vaguely knew of it until I got into metal. This morning, I had it on. Not necessarily going to be a favourite, but I can see why it is regarded as an important album in heavy metal. Here's a live performance. Lead singer, and founder, of the band was the late Ronnie James Dio, who fronted several bands over his career, including Dio, Black Sabbath and Rainbow.

Good morning!! How's things? Nice here for once. Not too hot or muggy. Only a slight chance of showers.

There's some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe in the coffee pot. Teas are English Breakfast and Russian Caravan. Iced and lemonade are refreshed.

Just reflecting on how much I have changed of late. I currently have the classic heavy metal album Holy Diver by the late Ronnie James Dio blasting through my speakers. I completely ignored this album when it came out in 1983. "Heavy metal, ewwww," was probably my reaction. Not necessarily going to be a favourite (classic metal is still not really my first choice compared to something like power or symphonic metal) but appreciate it far more than I once did.

Quote by verbal
You ate an octopus!? For breakfast!?

I have eaten octopus a few times, usually sushi. Prefer squid. Octos are a bit chewy. And, no, never for breakfast. Yet, anyhow. 😜

Quote by verbal

Great ideas. Dramatic and really visual, and now you have the details in your head.

I even have a pic from the trip picked out for a cover image 😊(actually a couple, but one is a mountain that appeared in Game of Thrones so I am leaning to the the other)

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Fens - Fins

Ape wanders in and takes an octopus to munch while he gets things going

Good morning, crew. Still wrestling with jet lag a bit but improving. Flaked out early last night so work up early this morning. I hope things get back to normal on the weekend.

I have put some Brazilian dark roast in the coffee maker. There's Assam and Red Rose in the teapots. If you need a cold beverage, as I suspect many do these days, there's freshly made unsweet iced tea and lemonade in the fridge.

Tinkering with the continuation of Spirits of Tan Maldrin right now. A journey to an icy wilderness where a demon is imprisoned in a volcano. Yeah, my trip influenced this one a lot.😉

So the world of the Tana stories is getting an Iceland analogue, I think. I plotted out a new story about the cast of Spirits of Tan Maldrin set in the frigid, volcanic north country of their world. A demon imprisoned in a volcano is involved. A journey through a lava field, a night or two living in a lava cave. It's wonderful how travel can inspire one's literary inclinations.

Our vacation included an eight day circuit of Iceland, but we didn't have to drive (guided tour in a Mercedes minibus). Forget the total length in km right now.

Just realized that Graham Yost is involved with Justified. Cool. His dad, Elwy Yost, was a journalist and film buff who hosted movie showings on TV Ontario, our provincial educational network back in the seventies and eighties. There was Saturday Night at the Movies, which usually ran a couple full-length films, and Magic Shadows, which serialized old movies. I first saw the wonderful British kaiju film Gorgo on one of his shows, along with some other classic s-f.

Bernard, especially his Dark Age and Medieval stuff, is more my taste

Ride a horse or hike/walk a trail?

Lent - Lens

Been kind of grey and wet here, not mention muggy. Supposed to cool off on the weekend, but the showers persist until Saturday. Oh well, this is fairly typical SW Ontario July weather so I can't complain too much. Better than the extreme heat in parts of the US and Europe.

Coffee is on. Went with Jamaican Blue Mountain today. Teas are Scottish Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream. Iced tea and lemonade are refreshed.

Currently working on a story for another site and might have to start over. Like the basic premise and plot, but it just isn't hanging together well, esp. towards the end. Hate stories like that, the ones where I love the story arc and characters but just can't get things to flow in a way that works.

Watched an interesting half hour video by religious studies scholar Dr. Andrew Henry (his channel is Religion for Breakfast) about the history of The Rapture in Christian belief and theology. While it is actually a feature of fairly modern Dispensationalist theology, he shows that there are much older roots of it.

Tent - Tint

Good morning! Hot and muggy here for a couple days, to the point where the weather boffins have put out a heat warning (meaning some air conditioned city facilities will be available as cooling centres for the homeless or people who lack AC).

Putting on some Fire Roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe in the coffee pot. Teas are Sunday Tea and Irish Breakfast. Fresh pitchers of unsweet iced tea and lemonade are in the fridge for others needing cooling off.

And ape was slinging pancakes this morning, so there's yummies available, too.

Quote by AnnaMayZing
Can you believe this was released 45 years ago?

Sadly, I can. I was quite fond of it. Love that opening sax riff still.

Learned about Laufey while in Iceland. Her father is Icelandic and her mother is Chinese. She is currently living in the USA, though, pursuing a career in jazz after doing a degree at the Berklee College of Music. Here she performs live with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, in which her mother played(plays?) violin.

Peaceful.

Scary story or funny story?

Quote by JamesPBear
Gonna post any particularly good photos? We don't need to see 2,000 pix, but maybe 3 or 4 would be nice!

Yeah, I was planning pick out a few nice ones and put them in a thread. Maybe on the weekend. Got medical stuff tomorrow, then back to work Thursday.

Jet lag. You know I hate it.