Sunday, August 28, 2011

Grayquill Scaring Little Childern

I read Frank Baron’s blog about turning sixty and it scared me. That number will be looking me right in the eye in just a few short years. Convicting me to get some exercise, my day started out as a banner day. I rode my bicycle to work. It is 12 miles and it takes me about an hour. It is a good work out. All was going, so well, until my front tire got caught in a crack between the pavement and the cement sidewalk. I took a sideways landing lifting more sand out of the area with my face than a street sweeper. I can attest there is a reason God allows youngsters to take those bicycle spills instead of us almost 60 year old fellas. I have a black eye, like no fight ever gave me. You would think if I needed to get a black eye, it could at least have a good story attached to it. Instead I have to say I fell off of my bicycle (how embarrassing). A lady stopped to see if I was okay, with blood dripping down my face I said only what a real man would say, “Of course I am all right would you go away now and leave me alone with my shame but thank you!.”
I have told a few brave folks who asked me what happened and I see that look in their eye that says, ‘Why is that old guy riding a bicycle in the first place?’ Ho Hmmm..... Well, I got my full fill of sympathy from all the female types at work. The male co-workers just laughed and I could swear I heard them call me an idiot under their breath. I came home that night and upon heading to bed hoped for dreams that had me doing something hero-ish (is that a word?). Sadly, that did not happen.
A full week has now passed and my eye has improved greatly. I find now, that only small children shy away in horror; whereas the first few days after my fall, even adults would avoid eye contact. During those first few days I found a great game. I would walk past a group of people being very careful to NOT look directly at them. I would either look straight ahead or away from the group, then at the last minute I would really fast look directly at them. The shame of being caught staring was priceless.  I know, I know, that was kind of mean of me, but heck, how often does this kind of opportunity come along?
A lot has happened since my last post. My son is now engaged to be married – I guess that’s the biggest and the bestest news (I know not a word but I like it).  My book sales made it into the double digits a few days ago.  My wife fell down our stairs and bruised herself real good and I am not being a very good nurse. Behind my house in the green belt area someone has set five brush fires over the past two weeks and Grayquill is out to catch an arsonist. I went fishing and caught only one very small, too embarrassing, to really talk about fish – Yes, I released the poor little fella. And lastly, I have a new office at work – Yahoo!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Goals and You

I have heard it said that the actual attaining of a goal is not the big thrill. But, the big thrill comes from the individual steps taken along the way.

Today I get to say, ‘I wrote a book and it’s in print.’ Now granted, I admit that feels pretty gosh darn good. I can also say the steps of completing each story had its own yahoo moments. There were those times I would later read one of my short stories and I would have this conversation with myself, “You wrote that? Really?  Really?” and I would be surprised. There were also more times than I can count where you my fellow blog buddies commented that one of my stories touched you or made you laugh or struck a memory or even motivated you to change something about your life – WOW! Those were grandslam type comments to read. There were times after reading one of your comments I would be like a little kid, grabbing up my lap top and rushing over to my wife, “Look, read this” and, she would comply and read one of your comments. She would smile and say, “well isn’t that nice.”

Fred Smith says, “If you cannot write it you don’t really know it.” That quote doesn’t exactly line up with my writing these stories but it has some close cousins that walked along beside that idea in the writing of these stories. During the writing of some of the stories I found deep feelings come up that made it hard to type because of the tears that flowed blurring my vision. Some of the stories touched my funny bone and I know I laughed the hardest at my foolish humanness. All in all it was more fun than I thought it would ever be and it never felt like work. But, then came the editing – that process just sucks and it for sure is a hateful process.

The book is now complete. It is a compilation of 81 stories all taken from this blog. The regular feedback supplied by your comments was always the encouragement that I needed to keep writing the next story. I guess it would be fair to say that you all were the fuel that kept the engine going and for that I thank you!

The book will be available at Amazon in a week or so. It is presently available at https://www.createspace.com/3623253
Here is a 25% discount code - 5GJTYCN9
Kindest Regards, Grayquill