- Thanks to everyone who took advantage of the free copy of Tales of the Minivandians this week.
- I’d especially like to thank everyone who spread the word on blogs and social media. More than half of the interest came from other people’s efforts, and I couldn’t do this without you all.
- Almost 1000 free copies were ordered, one person took advantage of Kindle Unlimited to read the e-book, and two people purchased the hard copy.
- Wow!
- If the two people who purchased the hard copy will get in touch with me, I would appreciate it. You will probably get a copy with that really bone-headed, no-excuse-possible mistake in it, and I want to make things right for you.
- When you have a virus the doctor describes as “Not flu, but it has the same symptoms,” the best thing you can do is take a couple long pulls from the bottle of green death flavored cold medicine, drink a liter or two of water, and drop into unconsciousness for about 24 hours.
- If you decide to leave your bedside computer streaming “The Man in the High Castle” while you try to sleep off said virus, you will have some rather vivid, ugly dreams.
- Even worse than those dreams was this morning when Irish Woman called up to me from the basement, “Honey? Is there supposed to be standing water down here?”.
- It was a loose connection in the dishwasher, and I have thoroughly bleached everything and set up fans and a dehumidifier.
- It’s never boring, is it?
All posts in category Thought for the day
Musings
Posted by daddybear71 on November 6, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/11/06/musings-219/
Musings
- Credit where credit is due. The folks over at Twitter are making a heroic effort to keep the lights on long enough that Donald Trump can complete his mission to usher in the dark reign of Hillary Clinton.
- Southern phrase of the day – “Like a scalded squirrel in a mop bucket.”
- Irish Woman learned this week that a chocolate donut shoved into your mouth by an old friend helps a lot when you are weeping in the checkout at the grocery store.
- 2016 needs to just end, and soon.
- The good news is that I figured out why the numbers given to me by one of my applications made no sense to me.
- The bad news is that the reason the numbers didn’t make sense to me is that I didn’t understand how the application was coming up with them. Once I touched the monolith, I saw their wisdom.
- The really bad news is that this means I have to rip out a couple days worth of work and re-do it.
- Breakfast conversation the other day included the words “Trumpism,” “panspermia,” and “teets on a boar hog.” Not sure what to make of that.
- The rough, and I mean rough, draft of the second Minivandians book is complete.
- Trouble is, it’s long. As in “How in the name of all that is holy did I get so many words into one document?” long.
- Even if I take a pruning hook to it, it’s too much. The solution, of course, is to break it up.
- I’m going to cut it into three chunks. Each chunk will contain a novella and a few short stories.
- I plan to publish the first chunk as an ebook on Amazon in December. I’m giving it a read through and improvement pass now, and hope to have it out to alpha readers next week.
- After that, the other two chunks will come out every six to eight weeks, with a final “Holy crap is that thing long!” collection edition in ebook and printed versions in the spring. By then, I should have a couple new short stories to add to it.
- Research for the second Via Serica novel continues. I finally found a source that discusses the necessary time and place for more than a page and a half.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 18, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/10/18/musings-217/
Musings
- My goal for tonight was to write a battle scene in “Coming Home.” After two hours of writing, I barely got through the pre-battle “You and what army?” conversation.
- The book should be ready for beta readers by the end of next week, assuming the world doesn’t fall in.
- There’s a wonderful moment in life when you realize you’ve been making the same, basic grammatical mistake in every book you’ve written.
- I guess that’s what second editions are for.
- There’s nothing in the world like the sensation you get when the vibration from the dentist’s tool goes through your teeth, up your jawbone, through your inner ear, and right into your brain. It kind of felt like I needed to scratch my cerebellum.
- Boo has started piano lessons and is going to be trying out for the school Christmas pageant. I’m considering investing in a pair of high-end noise blocking ear buds.
- Instant cheese grits – Do yourself a favor and just don’t.
- I’d like to thank Samsung for sending me texts on my new iPhone to let me know that I need to shut off my Note 7 and return it to the store.
- It’s good to know they care.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 13, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/10/13/musings-216/
Musings
- I finished watching “The Tudors” the other night, and decided I’d like to watch something where the characters are good people, where there isn’t much gruesome bloodshed, and where the bed-hopping was implied rather than annotated.
- So, I’ve watched half of the first season of “Borgias“.
- George R.R. Martin ain’t got nothing on actual human history.
- My circadian rhythm needs to stop drinking and go to church more often.
- There are few things more frustrating than having to go back three chapters and rewrite something that you specifically told yourself not to write in the first place.
- This is that wonderful time of year in Kentucky where you still sweat like a whore in church, but you have to decide how long you can wait before raking leaves.
- Our new neighbor has a dog named “Frisbee.” He’s a sweet hound, and he seems to get along with our dogs. Crash, the Siamese psychopath, looks at him like he’s wondering what a saddle and some spurs would cost.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 19, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/09/19/musings-213/
Musings
- Boo’s cross country has started again. The first day was kind of shaky for him, but by day two, he seemed to be enjoying himself. And by enjoying himself, I mean he wasn’t collapsing to lay on the ground and moan after finishing a mile.
- Girlie Bear is settling into college quite nicely. I was informed today that ramen noodles cooked in canned french onion soup are quite tasty.
- We are already planning on making a lot of her favorite meals when she comes home for a weekend.
- Tried my hand at smoking a ham today. Next time, I either need to give it more time or more heat, or both. The smoke ring on the open, flat side, was quite good and yummy, though.
- Of course the air conditioning broke at my office on Friday. I mean, it was just in the 90’s for both temperature and humidity, and we can’t open windows or have fans.
- Honestly, it reminded me a lot of working in a field SCIF in Louisiana.
- Garden update –
- Tomatoes are winding down. Once we get the garden done this year, we’re going to have to douse the tomato section with herbicide and reapply if necessary. Crab grass and creepers have been terrible this year.
- I foresee construction of another blackberry patch in my future. The canes we have now are starting to take over vegetable beds and the neighbor’s yard.
- Peppers, bell and otherwise, are making a comeback after something ate them up a couple months ago.
- The last of the onions are out of the dirt and in the freezer.
- The second crop of green beans is doing well, with the first gallon bucket coming in tonight. Coincidentally, I have 3/4 of a ham in the refrigerator and a bunch of fresh onions from the garden.
- We harvested about 1/3 of the almonds from the tree this year, but left the rest for the squirrels. The washed nuts are in the freezer now. We are researching the best way to roast and use them. Next year, the squirrels are going to be out of luck if our small-batch experiments work out.
- We have several volunteer blueberry bushes growing in the planters next to their parents. Once they go dormant, I’ll get planters for them.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 28, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/08/28/musings-211/
Musings
- We took Girlie Bear to her university and moved her into the ROTC dorm today.
- She got an early and fitting introduction in the manner in which the military works, in that after we had helped her empty her luggage so we could take it home, she was told that she will be moving to a different floor in the next couple of days.
- A small college town is not unlike the towns around military bases. There are lots of wonderful, supportive people, as well as a lot of tattoo parlors, crappy apartments, and fast food restaurants. All that was missing were a few scuzzy military surplus and payday loan shops.
- In trying to explain what fraternities and sororities are to Boo, we got through to him by saying that PoundSign-Ampersand-CurlyBrace was like being in Gryffindor and QuestionMark-Tilde-MyagkiZnak was like being in Slytherin.
- Irish Woman was aghast to see the ruins of her first dormitory at the university, which is being torn down and replaced.
- She did, however, have to admit that it was a pit even something-something years ago when she lived there.
- Every time I see Piers Morgan get smacked around on Twitter, I’m reminded that I owe Jeremy Clarkson a bottle of whisky, should I ever meet the gentleman.
- Governor Walker has called up the National Guard to assist Milwaukee deal with rioting, which was ostensibly started over the shooting of a black man shooting at police. I’m hoping that everything calms down, but a cynical part of me wonders how the Obama administration and the campaigns of both major parties will react if the National Guard doesn’t let rioters treat them the way the Milwaukee police did, and a bunch of rioters end up shot.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 14, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/08/14/musings-210/
Musings
- I am so glad for that little voice in my head this morning, which whispered, “Go make a pot of coffee. You’re gonna need it.”
- Ladies and gentlemen, always remember that when you hear hooves approaching you from behind, you might be dealing with horses, you might be dealing with zebras, and you might be dealing with blood-thirsty carnotaurs who want nothing more than to watch you suffer for hours before devouring your soul.
- You’d think that if you left the office later than usual, you’d have less traffic to deal with, but you’d be wrong.
- We’re in full canning season here at Casa de Oso. So far, I’ve put up 23 quarts of spaghetti sauce, have another batch in the cooker for canning tomorrow night, and another bushel of tomatoes waiting to be processed.
- That should give us between 45 and 50 quarts, which is enough to get us through most of the next year.
- I also need to make chili base, but we don’t need quite so much of that.
- I’m <<THIS>> close to being done with the middle third of the second Minivandian’s book. In the next couple of days, I’ll start writing the part of the book I wanted to write when I started.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 10, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/08/10/musings-209/
Musings
- Dear phone center drone: I don’t care how inconvenient it is for you to do your job. When I’m paying your company as much as I do, if I want my medicine delivered via singing telegram, she better be cute and in a good mood when she gets here.
- The Olympics will begin tomorrow evening. I’m torn between watching the coverage on NBC or just subscribing to the hourly updates from the Centers for Disease Control.
- Bob Costas and his botox are interviewing a guy in khakis and a sports coat about the conditions in Rio. I’m guessing they’ll be somewhere between “Zombie Apocalypse” and “Blackhawk Down.”
- Man hath no love like a labrador retriever watching someone eat an ice cream cone.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 4, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/08/04/musings-208/
Musings
- I took Girlie Bear to the Apple store today to pick up her graduation present. As we walked out of the mall, I was told by my sweet little girl that my presence with her was inhibiting the willingness of the opposite sex to look at her for longer than it took to notice the hulking, fuzzy, fat guy walking next to her with a scowl on his face.
- I have no idea what she’s talking about. I’m a big teddy bear, who rarely smiles in public.
- We passed one of those mall stores that sells frilly unmentionables, and my sweet little girl expressed the opinion that she would never pay $50 for something that touches her butt.
- I’m so proud.
- Gee, Mister Pizza Place Counter Worker Who Complained The Entire Five Minutes I Stood At Your Counter Waiting While Staring At My Order In The Warmer, I can’t imagine why people aren’t tipping well today.
- I think my boss occasionally goes away for a few days just so the rest of us can be thankful he’s around to do the crap we don’t want to do.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 2, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/08/02/musings-207/
Musings
- I was worried, when Boo got dressed up in a Harry Potter robe and a pair of black, round glasses, that he’d look like a dork when we went to a gathering of all things Hogwarts at the Louisville library. I mean, a young boy could be damaged by sticking out in such a manner.
- Silly me. I can’t imagine what I was thinking. I was the weird one in the crowd for wearing a tee-shirt which had nothing to do with the young Mr. Potter.
- I noticed that the vast majority of people were there in support of Gryffendor. There was a sizable minority wearing the colors and coat of arms for Slytherin. There were even a few Ravenclaws, but not a single Hufflepuff.
- For some reason, I did not find this odd.
- I was never so proud of Boo when he found out that the “Potions Room” was making custom colored sugar mixes and said, “Let’s get out of here!”
- A fun time was had by all, and I think Boo liked giving his sister her ‘howler‘ letter the next morning as much as he did making it.
- We got our copy of the new Harry Potter book today, and I was a little disappointed to find that it’s not a novelization of a script. It is, rather, the script to the new stage play itself.
- I’ll probably be able to muddle (muggle?) through it, but I don’t see Boo being able to make much out of it at his reading level.
- If it’s as dark and bloody-minded as the last couple of novels, then we have a few years for him to grow into it.
- It’s not often that I can use the same book as a source for the next Romans book and the World War I blog project, but this one does the trick quite well.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 1, 2016
https://daddybearsden.com/2016/08/01/musings-206/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 