72f when I began my morning commute – 77f when I pulled into the car park. Weather guessers say it will hit 90f again today with humidity in the high 80s. After 10 years, I am sick and tired of Memphis summers.
The place I lived with the Best weather (best as in never too hot or cold) was Karori New Zealand. Just ovet the hill from Wet and Windy Wellington. We never needed heaters and no one had air conditioning. I can recall only a coupe of mornings when there was frost on the ground. I’d retire to New Zealand if I could but they have strict immigration laws, and they enforce them, that persons over 55 must have over a million $$ invested in NZ to get residency. Even a million NZ dollars is far outside my budget.
In any case, I’ll be traveling to Chicago to help my mom and siblings settle things, so posts will be short, and comments are likely to be fewer. Or I may unload here every day. I have no idea what to expect. So far it’s been a mix of practical thoughts and being overwhelmed that I’ve lost my daddy, almost like there are two people in my head.
I am back from Carrollton, TX, from visiting my father-in-law in his nursing home and my brother-in-law in his nursing home. The word surreal comes to mind. My BIL is 62, 6’4″, and was just about one of the strongest men I know. He has lost about 3o or 40 lbs since this nightmare started and looks lost in the wheelchair. However, the rehab lady came by yesterday with a walker (it is tough to get a walker for a 6’4″ guy !) and he walked 300 ft down the hallway. I followed them with the wheelchair which he collapsed into afterwards. It was great to see the progress. Hopefully he will get out of the nursing home in a month or so.
UPS has still fired my BIL for not showing up to work and having an unapproved spinal surgery. He is not getting even the pitiful $300/week short term disability checks since he is off their employment role. The union has filed a grievance and that has to go to an appeal committee. Hopefully soon. I doubt that he will ever work again with his balance issues (or even drive a car). And he cannot grip with the left hand anymore so he uses it to scoop stuff up. My SIL is just about ready to hire a lawyer. This is crazy.
Smoky here in the Peninsula (opposite Mutiny Bay, WA). Not from the CA fires, but from fires in BC and the Cascades. Started yesterday, supposed to clear out this evening due to shifting wind patterns.
Visibility down to about one mile – or less. Can only see 1/3 of way across the Puget Sound. But temps only approaching 80F, so at least it’s not hot here.
BTW, if you want to check out wind patterns anywhere, try https://www.windy.com/ . Also shows temps, waves, and lots more; has a slider to show projections for several days. Interesting to poke around.
UPS has still fired my BIL for not showing up to work and having an unapproved spinal surgery … The union has filed a grievance and that has to go to an appeal committee.
I went out to the UPS depot in Round Rock last week. That whole place is a union grievance waiting to happen, starting with the 100 degree temps inside after sunset.
I went out to the UPS depot in Round Rock last week. That whole place is a union grievance waiting to happen, starting with the 100 degree temps inside after sunset.
My BIL works in the UPS warehouse on Harry Hines in Dallas. 5,000 people work there. Ultra hot in the summer and ultra cold in the winter. He has been there for 30 years.
ADD: My BIl says that everyone there is “walking wounded”.
Yes, except everything they have there bites or stings. We would often fly accross the Tasman to visit the amusment parks and beaches at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast near Brisbane. But Australia has almost identical immigration law for elderly. They DONT WANT old folks moving there and living on the dole.
A note on food storage. Just opened up a jar of Jif smooth peanut butter that I purchased in 9/2015.’ Use by’ date on jar is June 2017. Plastic container, still sealed. So 3 years past purchase date, one year past ‘use by’ date.
No apparent difference in taste that I could see. Still creamy, no oil separation. Had been stored in the garage, where temps rarely get above 80F or below 30F.
Had some celery and peanut butter. Still good. YMMV.
Writing a fictional story. The main character needs to have an EDC. He can’t take it into his workplace, so keeps it in his car.
So, what kind of gun? How to store it safely in the car? And other relevant details? I am not familiar with weapons other than what I read about. But I think that some people here have good knowledge about weapons they used to have before they ‘lost them in a lake’.
In real life, I’d ask what he sees as the threat model — the casual carjacker who will be deterred by a .38 snub-nose pointed at him? Zombie apocalypse? Pick the gun for the threat.
For the story, are you a pantser or a plotter? If you’re pantsing, go with whatever advise you get here and see where that takes you. If you’re a plotter, what troubles do you have slated for Mr Prepper? Do you intend for him to have enough gun that he can shoot his way out of trouble? Enough gun but not enough ammo? Enough gun for an encounter early on but not enough for something later so he has to smart his way through it?
Drop me an email if you want. One of the things that I do as a freelance editor is developmental edit, helping authors think through some of these humps. (Ideally before they’ve written 20,000 words that will need to be discarded, because they never want to.) As a token of appreciation for your work on the site, I’ll even do it gratis. Cheap at twice the price! (Though note that I’m moving 850 miles this weekend, so I’ll be sporadically busy for a couple days then out of touch for a couple days.)
The next awards season will be ugly with a capital ‘ug’.
Fixed that for you.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that the Academy creates an award for “Black Panther” and, in the same week, the Amarosa woman starts spreading stories about Trump using the ‘n’ word on tape.
@SteveF : the “threat model” is generalized. No specific threat, just preparedness. So, maybe a ‘general purpose’ weapon.
There are no zombies in the book. The story starts out sort of “TEOTHAWKI”, but the threats are generalized, sort of a ‘things are not quite right around here’.
It develops into sort of a ‘fantasy’, although that term is not really accurate. It gets into a sort of ‘alternate world’ type of thing. Maybe approaching “Quantum Leap”-ish. Whatever literary category that is.
As for my writing style, I am mostly a ‘pantser‘ (which I had to look up). I just started with a premise, aiming towards a ‘end of world’ type of thing, but then it went in a different direction. I’ve written about 110K words, and it’s not done yet. So there is a Part 1 that will be about 100K words. Then a Part 2, which is not finished….this ‘pantser’ hasn’t figured out the next part of the story.
Been working on it off/on for a couple of years. Interesting to work on it. Even built a web site and got a domain name for the story. Right now, making another pass through Book 1 for continuity/character checks, in preparation for an ebook release.
@Lynn … thanks for the references. Although there is a weapon that the main character has, there hasn’t been any use of it yet, other pointing it at a possible threat that wasn’t really a threat. I just wanted to use a weapon that would be reasonably expected to be used by the main character – a day-to-day carry that is only needed ‘just in case’.
Rick, if you’re a pantser and this is going to be a couple books published with a time separation, I suggest either getting more than 10k words into the second story before you publish the first or else put together a few ideas on major plot points or character backstory reveals or whatever you think will be important to hit. Otherwise you’re likely to find that something in Book 1 keeps you from going in a direction you really really like for Book 2, but Book 1 has already been published and pretty well locked in stone. Or you’ll find a plot hole which could have been covered in three words if you hadn’t already put Book 1 out there.
Pantsing and plotting are both perfectly fine ways to come up with your first draft — use either or a combination, whatever gets your words on the page. However, that’s only the first draft. Once you’re no longer faced with the dread Whitepageitis, you need to go back and edit and fill in plot holes and have cameo appearances of characters who will later become major players and set Chekov’s gun on the wall so you can use it later. For pantsers in particular this works fine if it’s one book and the drafts are kept to you and a couple readers and you can go back and change whatever you need to. If you’ve already published half of the full story, banging on the second half to fit the set-in-stone first half can be a real challenge.
This can hit plotters, too, but it’s less likely to be severe. The plotter will know he wants to have his character just miss Pearl Harbor because he’s testifying in a trial, which means he’ll have the idea to show in Chapter 1 his Annapolis roommate as a greedy sleeze who’s liable to sell secrets for money. Or, as above, the plotter knows there’s going to be a shooting at the end of the book, so he shows Chekov’s gun on the wall right up front.
If you’re itchy to get published so you can get reader impressions, why not put a couple chapters up on your site and steer people here toward it?
@SteveF – Actually, the total words written is closer to 130K. At that point, I figured it was time to split into 2 books. So got the first book at about 90K, with the second book currently at 20K. So I think I am good at continuity of the 2nd book. The first book ended at a ‘reasonable’ spot in the story, with enough unknowns to get people to get Book 2.
The web site will have an excerpt of the first few chapters of book 1. I want to get farther into Book 2 before I release Book 1, so that the story has continuity. The web site will have the excerpt, there is already a FB page, and I’ve got the cover done. And there’s a newsletter signup thing on the web site.
I just need to finish a pass through Book 1, tightening things up a bit (there are a few spots that might be redundant story elements). And making sure the character names are consistent. Then some additional ‘flashbacks’ in the beginning of Book 2 to help readers catch up with the story.
I’m hoping that getting back into the story will help me figure out how Book 2 continues. And maybe get to a hopefully exciting finish. And making sure there is some hooks (my author friend John D Brown calls them ‘zings’) in the chapters to make sure that the reader wants to continue with the next chapter.
Appreciate your thoughts. I will probably share the web site links here when I get a bit closer to finishing Book 1 and continuing with Book 2.
Made it to Chi-town. Lots of accumulated paper to go thru here. There is a will somewhere in this house, and it needs to be found. Pulled over $3k out of various places so far. Mom seems to be dealing well. I had a bad moment. They seem to be the worst when long held future plans hit the reality of no more time. Lot of projects that will never get finished. Lot of stuff that was done that won’t get a chance to be properly enjoyed. Simple things, like realizing that the 12 pack we brought over last week will never be drunk now, have a disproportionate impact.
As Stu likes to point out, he’s blackmail proof. His biggest problem is that the voters can’t decide whether they want to limit growth (Stu’s position) or see their property values appreciate like in neighboring towns.
There is a will somewhere in this house, and it needs to be found
Check the county as they may have a copy. Most wills are supposed to be registered with the county in which they were produced. In addition the attorney who created the will should have a copy.
Back in 2008, I had doubts about President Obama’s election. I had thought that the country had not yet progressed to the point that a black man could be elected. I was wrong. (Not sorry to be wrong, but very sorry it wasn’t Colin Powell or Condi).
So this time around I have no prediction. If transgender is its biggest selling point, I don’t really appreciate the value. If there’s some policy position, it could happen.
The preparer has a copy, and will read it to us, but not give us a printed version, and it’s not the valid legal copy (which is probably why they won’t give it to us.)
Will still need the valid one for stuff. (we sibs know what his wishes were for us.)
Vermont Democrats made history Tuesday by nominating Christine Hallquist as the first transgender individual to be a major party candidate for governor.
No doubt OFD’s reaction to this would be … memorable.
You know, a friend of mine used to say that beauty is skin deep but ugly goes clear to the bone. And that … person … is ugly. The Drudge Report is showing a picture. https://drudgereport.com/
72f when I began my morning commute – 77f when I pulled into the car park. Weather guessers say it will hit 90f again today with humidity in the high 80s. After 10 years, I am sick and tired of Memphis summers.
The place I lived with the Best weather (best as in never too hot or cold) was Karori New Zealand. Just ovet the hill from Wet and Windy Wellington. We never needed heaters and no one had air conditioning. I can recall only a coupe of mornings when there was frost on the ground. I’d retire to New Zealand if I could but they have strict immigration laws, and they enforce them, that persons over 55 must have over a million $$ invested in NZ to get residency. Even a million NZ dollars is far outside my budget.
Grrr, I put the wrong day on all my draft posts, and now I can’t find the drafts.
Headed to airport in 1/2 hour. Getting the wife and kids ready for their day.
Stressed.
n
@Nick, Fair Winds and Following Seas in your travels.
Peace, Patience, Love
“I’d retire to New Zealand if I could but they have strict immigration laws…”
Australia’s pretty nice.
In any case, I’ll be traveling to Chicago to help my mom and siblings settle things, so posts will be short, and comments are likely to be fewer. Or I may unload here every day. I have no idea what to expect. So far it’s been a mix of practical thoughts and being overwhelmed that I’ve lost my daddy, almost like there are two people in my head.
Dude, feel free to unload. Grieving takes time.
I am back from Carrollton, TX, from visiting my father-in-law in his nursing home and my brother-in-law in his nursing home. The word surreal comes to mind. My BIL is 62, 6’4″, and was just about one of the strongest men I know. He has lost about 3o or 40 lbs since this nightmare started and looks lost in the wheelchair. However, the rehab lady came by yesterday with a walker (it is tough to get a walker for a 6’4″ guy !) and he walked 300 ft down the hallway. I followed them with the wheelchair which he collapsed into afterwards. It was great to see the progress. Hopefully he will get out of the nursing home in a month or so.
UPS has still fired my BIL for not showing up to work and having an unapproved spinal surgery. He is not getting even the pitiful $300/week short term disability checks since he is off their employment role. The union has filed a grievance and that has to go to an appeal committee. Hopefully soon. I doubt that he will ever work again with his balance issues (or even drive a car). And he cannot grip with the left hand anymore so he uses it to scoop stuff up. My SIL is just about ready to hire a lawyer. This is crazy.
Long read in four parts. Interesting.
https://www.ecosophia.net/the-kek-wars-part-one-aristocracy-and-its-discontents/
I haven’t read the comments, too many.
Smoky here in the Peninsula (opposite Mutiny Bay, WA). Not from the CA fires, but from fires in BC and the Cascades. Started yesterday, supposed to clear out this evening due to shifting wind patterns.
Visibility down to about one mile – or less. Can only see 1/3 of way across the Puget Sound. But temps only approaching 80F, so at least it’s not hot here.
BTW, if you want to check out wind patterns anywhere, try https://www.windy.com/ . Also shows temps, waves, and lots more; has a slider to show projections for several days. Interesting to poke around.
UPS has still fired my BIL for not showing up to work and having an unapproved spinal surgery … The union has filed a grievance and that has to go to an appeal committee.
I went out to the UPS depot in Round Rock last week. That whole place is a union grievance waiting to happen, starting with the 100 degree temps inside after sunset.
I went out to the UPS depot in Round Rock last week. That whole place is a union grievance waiting to happen, starting with the 100 degree temps inside after sunset.
My BIL works in the UPS warehouse on Harry Hines in Dallas. 5,000 people work there. Ultra hot in the summer and ultra cold in the winter. He has been there for 30 years.
ADD: My BIl says that everyone there is “walking wounded”.
Australia’s pretty nice
Yes, except everything they have there bites or stings. We would often fly accross the Tasman to visit the amusment parks and beaches at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast near Brisbane. But Australia has almost identical immigration law for elderly. They DONT WANT old folks moving there and living on the dole.
I don’t think I’ve seen a snake outside of a zoo.
I guess it would be too obvious if the Academy created an award for “Best ‘Black Panther’ Movie”.
https://variety.com/2018/film/news/oscars-popular-film-category-academy-members-react-1202900278/amp/
If the “blue wave” fails to materialize and place Trump in jeopardy of impeachment, the next awards season will be ugly with a capital ‘ug’.
“Intel’s first ‘ruler’ SSD holds 32TB”
https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/10/intels-first-ruler-ssd-holds-32tb/
Good night !
I note that the cost is not stated.
For those of you that are bored here is a link to a video of today’s excursion on the lake. The video will download and then you can view the video.
Boating on the TN River
A note on food storage. Just opened up a jar of Jif smooth peanut butter that I purchased in 9/2015.’ Use by’ date on jar is June 2017. Plastic container, still sealed. So 3 years past purchase date, one year past ‘use by’ date.
No apparent difference in taste that I could see. Still creamy, no oil separation. Had been stored in the garage, where temps rarely get above 80F or below 30F.
Had some celery and peanut butter. Still good. YMMV.
If the “blue wave” fails to materialize and place Trump in jeopardy of impeachment, the next awards season will be ugly with a capital ‘ug’.
The next awards season will be ugly with a capital ‘ug’.
Fixed that for you.
Question for the ‘hive mind’ here.
Writing a fictional story. The main character needs to have an EDC. He can’t take it into his workplace, so keeps it in his car.
So, what kind of gun? How to store it safely in the car? And other relevant details? I am not familiar with weapons other than what I read about. But I think that some people here have good knowledge about weapons they used to have before they ‘lost them in a lake’.
Thanks.
So, what kind of gun? How to store it safely in the car? And other relevant details?
Ruger LCP .380 semi-automatic in a small carrier.
https://ruger.com/products/lcp/models.html
Or a S&W Bodyguard .38 special in a small carrier.
https://www.smith-wesson.com/firearms/mp-bodyguard-38-crimson-trace
I might keep my Charter Bulldog .44 special in my truck console.
In real life, I’d ask what he sees as the threat model — the casual carjacker who will be deterred by a .38 snub-nose pointed at him? Zombie apocalypse? Pick the gun for the threat.
For the story, are you a pantser or a plotter? If you’re pantsing, go with whatever advise you get here and see where that takes you. If you’re a plotter, what troubles do you have slated for Mr Prepper? Do you intend for him to have enough gun that he can shoot his way out of trouble? Enough gun but not enough ammo? Enough gun for an encounter early on but not enough for something later so he has to smart his way through it?
Drop me an email if you want. One of the things that I do as a freelance editor is developmental edit, helping authors think through some of these humps. (Ideally before they’ve written 20,000 words that will need to be discarded, because they never want to.) As a token of appreciation for your work on the site, I’ll even do it gratis. Cheap at twice the price! (Though note that I’m moving 850 miles this weekend, so I’ll be sporadically busy for a couple days then out of touch for a couple days.)
The next awards season will be ugly with a capital ‘ug’.
Fixed that for you.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that the Academy creates an award for “Black Panther” and, in the same week, the Amarosa woman starts spreading stories about Trump using the ‘n’ word on tape.
The Oscars will be more of a circus than usual.
This one’s for you, Lynn:
Lyme Disease Is Spreading Fast. Why Isn’t There a Vaccine?
Added: See the longish comment by S Stark in re doxycycline.
@SteveF : the “threat model” is generalized. No specific threat, just preparedness. So, maybe a ‘general purpose’ weapon.
There are no zombies in the book. The story starts out sort of “TEOTHAWKI”, but the threats are generalized, sort of a ‘things are not quite right around here’.
It develops into sort of a ‘fantasy’, although that term is not really accurate. It gets into a sort of ‘alternate world’ type of thing. Maybe approaching “Quantum Leap”-ish. Whatever literary category that is.
As for my writing style, I am mostly a ‘pantser‘ (which I had to look up). I just started with a premise, aiming towards a ‘end of world’ type of thing, but then it went in a different direction. I’ve written about 110K words, and it’s not done yet. So there is a Part 1 that will be about 100K words. Then a Part 2, which is not finished….this ‘pantser’ hasn’t figured out the next part of the story.
Been working on it off/on for a couple of years. Interesting to work on it. Even built a web site and got a domain name for the story. Right now, making another pass through Book 1 for continuity/character checks, in preparation for an ebook release.
@Lynn … thanks for the references. Although there is a weapon that the main character has, there hasn’t been any use of it yet, other pointing it at a possible threat that wasn’t really a threat. I just wanted to use a weapon that would be reasonably expected to be used by the main character – a day-to-day carry that is only needed ‘just in case’.
Kek wars. LOL.
Rick, if you’re a pantser and this is going to be a couple books published with a time separation, I suggest either getting more than 10k words into the second story before you publish the first or else put together a few ideas on major plot points or character backstory reveals or whatever you think will be important to hit. Otherwise you’re likely to find that something in Book 1 keeps you from going in a direction you really really like for Book 2, but Book 1 has already been published and pretty well locked in stone. Or you’ll find a plot hole which could have been covered in three words if you hadn’t already put Book 1 out there.
Pantsing and plotting are both perfectly fine ways to come up with your first draft — use either or a combination, whatever gets your words on the page. However, that’s only the first draft. Once you’re no longer faced with the dread Whitepageitis, you need to go back and edit and fill in plot holes and have cameo appearances of characters who will later become major players and set Chekov’s gun on the wall so you can use it later. For pantsers in particular this works fine if it’s one book and the drafts are kept to you and a couple readers and you can go back and change whatever you need to. If you’ve already published half of the full story, banging on the second half to fit the set-in-stone first half can be a real challenge.
This can hit plotters, too, but it’s less likely to be severe. The plotter will know he wants to have his character just miss Pearl Harbor because he’s testifying in a trial, which means he’ll have the idea to show in Chapter 1 his Annapolis roommate as a greedy sleeze who’s liable to sell secrets for money. Or, as above, the plotter knows there’s going to be a shooting at the end of the book, so he shows Chekov’s gun on the wall right up front.
If you’re itchy to get published so you can get reader impressions, why not put a couple chapters up on your site and steer people here toward it?
@SteveF – Actually, the total words written is closer to 130K. At that point, I figured it was time to split into 2 books. So got the first book at about 90K, with the second book currently at 20K. So I think I am good at continuity of the 2nd book. The first book ended at a ‘reasonable’ spot in the story, with enough unknowns to get people to get Book 2.
The web site will have an excerpt of the first few chapters of book 1. I want to get farther into Book 2 before I release Book 1, so that the story has continuity. The web site will have the excerpt, there is already a FB page, and I’ve got the cover done. And there’s a newsletter signup thing on the web site.
I just need to finish a pass through Book 1, tightening things up a bit (there are a few spots that might be redundant story elements). And making sure the character names are consistent. Then some additional ‘flashbacks’ in the beginning of Book 2 to help readers catch up with the story.
I’m hoping that getting back into the story will help me figure out how Book 2 continues. And maybe get to a hopefully exciting finish. And making sure there is some hooks (my author friend John D Brown calls them ‘zings’) in the chapters to make sure that the reader wants to continue with the next chapter.
Appreciate your thoughts. I will probably share the web site links here when I get a bit closer to finishing Book 1 and continuing with Book 2.
Rick:
A flintlock revolver !
Vermont Democrats made history Tuesday by nominating Christine Hallquist as the first transgender individual to be a major party candidate for governor.
No doubt OFD’s reaction to this would be … memorable. 🙂
Made it to Chi-town. Lots of accumulated paper to go thru here. There is a will somewhere in this house, and it needs to be found. Pulled over $3k out of various places so far. Mom seems to be dealing well. I had a bad moment. They seem to be the worst when long held future plans hit the reality of no more time. Lot of projects that will never get finished. Lot of stuff that was done that won’t get a chance to be properly enjoyed. Simple things, like realizing that the 12 pack we brought over last week will never be drunk now, have a disproportionate impact.
I’ve got some long days ahead.
n
No doubt OFD’s reaction to this would be … memorable.
When we lived outside Portland, one of the small towns on the other side of the metro had an openly transgender mayor, Stu Rasmussen.
http://sturasmussen.com/
As Stu likes to point out, he’s blackmail proof. His biggest problem is that the voters can’t decide whether they want to limit growth (Stu’s position) or see their property values appreciate like in neighboring towns.
Check the county as they may have a copy. Most wills are supposed to be registered with the county in which they were produced. In addition the attorney who created the will should have a copy.
Re: the transgender candidate for Governor.
Back in 2008, I had doubts about President Obama’s election. I had thought that the country had not yet progressed to the point that a black man could be elected. I was wrong. (Not sorry to be wrong, but very sorry it wasn’t Colin Powell or Condi).
So this time around I have no prediction. If transgender is its biggest selling point, I don’t really appreciate the value. If there’s some policy position, it could happen.
The preparer has a copy, and will read it to us, but not give us a printed version, and it’s not the valid legal copy (which is probably why they won’t give it to us.)
Will still need the valid one for stuff. (we sibs know what his wishes were for us.)
n
Vermont Democrats made history Tuesday by nominating Christine Hallquist as the first transgender individual to be a major party candidate for governor.
No doubt OFD’s reaction to this would be … memorable.
You know, a friend of mine used to say that beauty is skin deep but ugly goes clear to the bone. And that … person … is ugly. The Drudge Report is showing a picture.
https://drudgereport.com/
I wonder if it shaves twice a day.
I have many thoughts! Amazing thoughts! It’s a shame only a few make it past the self-censorship filter!