Southern Living Yankee

No change on my computer status. Still haven't updated my saved files. So I suppose I could lose it all, but I may as well just use it. Use it or lose it , or use it AND lose it , it's a gamble either way. That's my writing update. For family news, Brooke and Chris will be with us for Thanksgiving. It doesn't look like Lisa and Joe will be moving back to Ohio by the end of the year. And Miss Hiss, my elderly boarder is back for a visit and living up to her name. Top of my list of things I'm grateful for this year is simply the ability to be grateful. I hope I will always have that ability. I think it makes people and life much more enjoyable. And I come to that thought by comparing it to the extremes: what if I were insane? I'd rather be insane and grateful than just plain old insane. Or Alzheimers? I'd rather have that with a good dose of gratitude than without. Gratitude and thanksgiving release us from the stranglehold of self-centeredness and introversio...

. . . and I could give you a hundred excuses, but I'll just give you one: d e a t h . My computer doesn't have long for this life. All the little glitches this past month (frustrating my blogging attempts--yes, I did try!) were more serious than I realized. Tom made the diagnoses last night. He's a wizard at making cars and computers and paper machines run far longer than their life span so I believe him. It could crash at any moment. Will my book and other writing be saved in time? When will I be able to afford a new computer? What kind will I get? Will I finally get a writing space outside of the card table set up in the guest bedroom? Stay tuned! Thanks for checking in on me, and thanks for praying!

It's true. Instead of diligently writing stuff like I should, I monkey around and show off my 2 accomplishments this summer. Scroll down to the next 2 posts for the amazing footage. Be glad that I did NOT include my video adventure shot in Michigan entitled "Chicken Love." Oh, here's another accomplishment: I kept Miss Hiss alive long enough for her far-more responsible owner to come get her. Aside from flea poop she must have picked up from you-know-who (Fudd, not me), she's thriving and happy to be back in her royal domain. This is Mimzie and Miss Hiss the cat, just to prove that she didn't die on me as I feared she would. WRITING UPDATE: I sent a little email to each editor that requested my book proposal in 2006. Guess what? (drum roll . . .) They're all not editors anymore! I'm laughing my head off, thump thump. It bounces! And I do, too. I'll keep at it. Please be praying about a change in my work schedule that will better maximize my writi...

Another accomplishment.

Ever since 4th grade when I envied my girlfriend Carla with her black plastic frame glasses, I have wanted glasses. Now I've got them! An accomplishment brought on simply by staying alive long enough to get old. Wow. So, How do you like them?

Do I sound like a Democrat? But I'm not talking about votes, I want the days in August recounted. Where have they gone? The whole summer is over and somehow I missed it! Enough whining. Thanks, Patti and Sharon, for the comments and your friendship. Everyone should meet these great women, or have such people in their lives. I could write a book on them both! Sharon asked about the writers seminar I went to, so here goes. (Sharon, it was nothing like the little writers seminar we went to in Pennsylvania that one Saturday so long ago). I learned a lot! Holly Miller, editor of the Saturday Evening Post magazine was the teacher for the day. She was fantastic. I came away with pages of ideas and practical, applicable equipping. I also had a personal consultation with her. I gave her a summary of what I'm working on and where I'm at with it. She said--"Get it out there. Send out the proposals." To which all of you are saying, "Duh!" But I was at a point I didn...

You remember that phrase--"Can't see the forest for the trees"--used to describe the frustration of details getting in the way of the big picture? (That's the way I always understood it--correct me if I'm wrong). I guess that's how I'm feeling, or try "Can't see the dandelions for the spiders." I'm at a low point. Spiders are problems, and weeds are the outcome. It's a metaphor for writing my book on Ruth. The spiders are many: Lack of competence leads to lack of confidence; no lack of confusion leads to no lack of distraction; unclear thinking leads to thick, dull writing; is it worth the time and effort when the outcome is just going to be a dandelion? But I'm not ready to quit yet. Last week was the writers conference I attended the past two years. I didn't go this year, but when I sent out a simple little "How was it?" sort of email to the friends I met there--Wow! They replied! They looked for me, they missed me...