Stormy Weather

Sitting here waiting for Irene to arrive, but feeling her presence already. She's reaching out and touching the arthritis. Hoping it feels better once she's passed.

We had a bit of a flap a week ago. Dorie went downstairs at around 3AM, and came running back up and woke me up, saying that the kitchen was flooded. The hot water line under the sink had come apart, and we had about two inches of water on the floor. It ran into the adjacent sewing room as well, and soaked the carpet there.
It ruined the carpet, all the base cabinets in the kitchen, and the linoleum has to be replaced as well. It's not quite all dry yet, and we're waiting to receive the estimate from the insurance adjuster on it.

Life is interesting!

Remember Hurricane Hazel? I do, way back in 1954. I wrote a poem about her a few years ago, and just posted it in her honor on the "Etcetera Page" of my website, www.howardtuckey.com.

 

What a pain!

New laptop, new OS (switching from XP pro to Windows7, new mail (can't run Outlook Express) but dunno which one to run. I have Outlook, Gmail, and Roadrunner mail, but they're all so different from OE that it's going to be a royal mash-up to get one of them running while saving all my old stuff.
May be mumbling for a while.

Wow!

A whole month gone by! Talk about busy! Been writing, gardening, working, sweating (a lot) etc etc.

Mattie's Place is doing okay, but not selling as fast as I had hoped. The follow-on book is almost ready to send in to the publisher, and I need one more short story for my "Loose Canon" collection. That's a "twilight zone" type bunch of strange short stories -- some scifi, some ghost stories, some flash fiction. I'm planning that one for the Kindle. Also for the Kindle is the futuristic (post-apocalyptic) trilogy I've been working on. The first one is in final edit mode, and may be placed on Kindle in August. I figure if I get that one out there it will give incentive to get the next one done. Especially if it sells well!  :-)

Re : Loose Canon, that's a working title. Will probably change it for pub. I woke up a couple of weeks ago with a story on my mind, and had to get up (at 3AM) and write it. That makes two in that collection that hit me that way. It's an eerie feeling -- sort of like just being a channel form wherever the story originated. No, I'm not into "channeling" -- just a figure of speech!

The garden is out there. Not doing well, but it's out there. We're getting a few tomatoes and cucumbers, but no squash yet. Garlic is nearly ready to harvest. I planted beets, more peas, and more cukes and beans. Getting ready to start the broccoli, and will put in some kale for winter harvest, and some tunips as well. .

Watch for the August/September issue of Backwoods Home Magazine -- my garlic article should be in there.

Re-Kindled!

Dorie got me another Kindle -- thank you, Honey! I promise I won't soak this one in coffee!

Reading several books right now, Laurence Leamer's King of the Night, the Life of Johnny Carson is one, along with a Dean Koontz novel, A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, Decision Points, and Demonic, by Ann Coulter. I switch between them, depending on the mood. 

Garden is spotty, at best. There are some peas ready to pick, and it's time to plant follow-on crops of beans and potatoes. The tomatoes look good, and the cukes are starting to come on strong. Weather has still been weird, but things are shaping up. Cherries were a bust again -- too much rain at the wrong time, ditto the strawberries. 

The doc wants me to take some time off my job -- says that standing at the register all day is hurting my back and legs. Can't really afford it, but will talk to mgmt about it next week. 

Storms again!

Rain, thunder, lightning. Wind. More lightning and thunder, more rain. It's really getting strange. All the rain has put the kibosh on my (and everyone else's) strawberries and cherries too. Green Brothers normally has a 7-10 day picking season, but they were done in six hours this year! My plants look great, sending out runners all over the place, but what few berries showed up rotted before they ripened. Same with the two cherry trees -- turned brown and dropped, and the few ripening ones have  big brown spot on them. Too much rain.

The peas are filling out, may pick some early next week! Yum! Still have more peas to plant, and more beans, potatoes, corn, cukes, beets, and squash. The tomatoes are coming along nicely, as are the peppers. I planted several varieties, ranging from mild to temporary insanity. Hoping they do well.

Going to try Tattler reusable canning jar lids this year. I ordered some, and they look good. They're supposed to be good for at least 20 cycles, so if they work well it will cut down considerably on our canning costs. Check http://www.reusablecanninglids.com/ for more info and to purchase them.

Still getting good responses on my book! See www.howardtuckey.com for more on that.

Hoping it will be dry enough to get out into the garden tomorrow!

World Without End

Almost forgot -- was going to say a few words about Ken Follett's new book World Without End -- the sequel to The Pillars Of The Earth. Excellent book! I enjoyed it very much, even through some of the slower-paced spots. Set 200 years after Pillars (14th century) it give a great picture of life uder the thumb of feudal lords, the church, and the guilds. I saw much of today's New York State in it  I'd recommend it to anyone interested in that period!

Ain't technology wonderful!

Sitting here in the Kia dealer's shop, waiting for some service on my Sedona, and still bemoaning the loss of my coffee-soaked Kindle. I've had it sitting in rice (took the back off it first) but I think it's DOA. Bummer! Was in the middle of several books too -- currently reading a collection of Flannery O'connor short stories, as well as Midsummer Night's Dream, editing my new book, and reviewing a copy of a new book written by my son-in-law'a pastor. Now all I need is a new Kindle!
:-(

So I had to bring my laptop with me (they have a hotspot here) and might as well catch up on some writing while I wait. I've been tweaking the web page my son-in-law Aaron set up for me at www.howardtuckey.com, and it's looking good! Thanks, Aaron! Now looking at setting up an RSS feed on it. Looks fairly straightforward to do with Joomla -- that's what he used to set up the page, and they make it look easy to include some other bells and whistles too. I'm increasingly impressed with Joomla as a webpage builder!

Also working on Mattie's Place Two -- How Bump Really Got His Nickname! So far that's the working title, and folks who read the first one will draw the connection with little effort.

I wish I had started all this a long time ago! I still don't have a sense of time being short, but feel driven to write, to complete a few projects I've started and not finished. The extra $$ from my part time job at the supermarket do help, but the work, as much as I enjoy it, really cuts into my writing time! Not sure how much longer that will last.

Garden is going well -- actually had to water it again! The asparagus is done until next spring, but there are strawberries ripening, blossoms on the peas, even some little tomatoes on the plants! I count time in the garden as writing time too, as I write in my mind while working on weeding, etc, and I've actually sold an article to Backwoods Home Magazine on how I grow garlic. Won't get rich doing that, but it did pay for a month's internet provider service. Now working on another article for them.

On that note, gotta get busy!
'bye!