For Early Risers Who Wish That It Could Be Morning All Day
A Craftsman “designer” duffel bag full of summer clothes, beach chairs, an iPod, sandals, Ray-Bans, sunscreen, Thomas McGuane’s The Longest Silence: A Life In Fishing, and a bottle of “bottom shelf” rum (just in case the book is no good). Fully accessorized.
Turning off the lights and heading south.
Merry Christmas to all!
3:45 in the afternoon—one day shy of winter solstice—and it almost looks like sunset.
This is a capture from the webcam of The Raven Bar across the lake.
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Since I have recently reclassified myself as semi-retired (from my painting day-job anyway), I have devoted most of the newly “freed up” time to writing. This helps keep me out of the poolhalls and saloons and, frankly, I do not see true retirement in the cards anyway. As Warren Zevon stated in song, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” But in truth, I have been fortunate to have had my hobbies and vocations as one-in-the-same, so I really have nothing to retire from anyway.
Besides, my momma didn’t raise no slacker. My first book, Searching for Alpha Centauri in a ’64 Chevy, has already been published. The second, Sometimes It Feels Like Far, is well underway with its rough draft recently completed. I hope to have it available by December 2019. And I have just created the outline for my third book, The Improbable Sea Dogs of St. Croix North. I consider this a personal milestone of sorts since this is akin to having poured the concrete footings from which I will build. So I have “broke ground” on book #3, so to speak.
I have always suspected that my wife, Marlene, is part Italian. And, as it turns out, she is a mountain girl that likes apples. Now it all makes sense in this cool ad.
For me, this is what going all out for Christmas looks like. I may be raising the bar too high for the neighbors, though.
Actually, we have no snow. This is last year’s photo. I guess that you could say I am using “fake snow” to fit the seasonal narrative I am trying to peddle.
Not that the two are related, but it is looking like a fine day to land on Mars.
UPDATE: It sounds like NASA pulled off the impossible again — a successful Mars landing that necessitated a whole lot of things going right. Despite the onslaught of daily negative news, these are exciting times to be alive, IMHO.