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Category Archives: Other Strangeness

Summer’s Coming

28 May

Two weekends ago, my ‘crew’ went to the cabin to put the dock and boat lift in the lake. This annual ritual took place several weeks later than in previous years due to the hard winter and late ice out. It usually takes a few hours to get everything in the water and leveled up. This is followed by general back-slapping and high-fives indicating that no one drowned in the process. Cold drinks and hearty meal celebrate the coming of summer as the boats are now in the water and fishing can begin in earnest.

 

Putting new section on the dock.

Putting new section on the dock.

There were several twists to this year’s event. We added a new section to the dock. The expansion was necessary because the CEO bought me a new toy (i.e. boat – not pictured).

Dock and lift in their new locations. Time to go fishing!!

Dock and lift in their new locations. Time to go fishing!!

And, we put it in a new location to provide the clearest view of the lake. In addition to the view, the change of location made for easier set up. The water is more shallow in the new location, which means I don’t have water splashing over the tops of my chest waders. Water temperature of 48 degrees F can make for a chilly experience if it gets inside.

Now that the work is done, fishing, writing, and general R&R become the priorities! Yes, in that order!

 

 
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Posted by on May 28, 2014 in Other Strangeness

 

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Ice out

14 May
Ice out (Image Public Domain)

Ice out (Image Public Domain)

Gone are the sub-zero air temperatures. The remains of the last spring snow storm disappear into small runoffs and ditches along the road. Mountains of snow piles dwindle down to small lumps as the warm winds from the south, carve away at them. Lake ice turns black and rotten. Even the bravest fishermen, stop tempting fate and no longer venture beyond the shoreline.

A murder of crows wing by overhead carrying with them the guarantee that spring has returned. Bunnies are fat and playful. They seem to forget for a moment that they are a prime food source for the predators that lurk nearby. But somehow, there is peace, as the sun brings joy to the landscape.

Soon, the loons will gather looking for food and mates. Their strange laughing calls will echo across the lake. To soon, they will disperse to find nesting sites and good fishing.

As darkness falls a single beaver cruises the shallows between the ice edge and the shore. He looks for a young sapling to use for a tasty meal. He disappears around the point as the coming darkness swallows him.

The weatherman forecasts that tomorrow, a warm rain will fall and continue so for several days. When the rain ceases, the ice will be gone and spring will come to the lake.

 
8 Comments

Posted by on May 14, 2014 in Other Strangeness

 

Where did March go?

11 Apr

I am sorry for being delinquent in my postings. Somehow three weeks have disappeared from my life. Once in a while my other life takes control of my writing life. So, it’s time to wrestle control back and get to the important things in life.

There was some good news since I last visited with you. I have started going to a different writer’s group. It’s very well established with serious writers in my genre. I’m still getting comfortable with the new surroundings so I have made no submissions for critique yet. Though, I will be interested to hear what this group has to say. The other writer’s submissions have been keeping me busy with reading. I’ve also been reading some books by local authors.

With stabilization returning to my world, more fun posts will be forthcoming. We’ll start with something on back stories and there will most likely be a MAVEN update. Another post will discuss game apps and the time sink (Distraction) they provide the unwitting writer.

The snow is melting and the temps are balmy (40 degrees). Spring is in the air. Whoo Hoo!

 

 
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Posted by on April 11, 2014 in Other Strangeness

 

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Surprise!

17 Mar

I am a big fan of the picture puzzles where two seemingly identical pictures are shown side by side and the reader is asked to list the things that are different. It might be a color of the scarf, a position of a hand, a missing hat, etc. So here is my feeble attempt at this game.

First what is missing from the picture?

Something seems to be missing!

Something seems to be missing!

A clue would be to ask yourself, “What am I looking at?

Do you give up?

Huh?

Well, do you?

There in the back right corner.

There in the back right corner.

Do you see it now?

If you guessed David Winter’s Woodcutter’s hut, you would be correct!!

My newest addition to my collection of little houses! I’m so proud. Thank you Linda M.

Details front left.

Details front left.

Details front right

Details front right

Almost as soon as my Little Houses post was published, I got a Facebook message from a friend telling me about a new posting on eBay. Needles to say I jumped all over it. And, lucky for me, I still have both arms and legs as the price was very reasonable. The collector I purchased from shipped it the same day. It was like Christmas when the box showed up on my doorstep. After thirty years of waiting. It is special to have this piece in my collection.

Now, about that Crofter’s Cottage? 🙂

 
20 Comments

Posted by on March 17, 2014 in Other Strangeness

 

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Little houses

10 Mar

30 years ago I walked into a little nick knack shop in Littleton, Colorado. There in a case was the most amazing little house. Only a few inches tall and made from some type of ceramic, it depicted a woodcutter’s hut built around a tree. The hut included so much detail for being so little. I was captivated. I don’t recall the price they asked back then. However, at the time, newly married and one minimum wage income, there was no way I could afford it. Time passed and I moved on to other things, but I never forgot the woodcutters hut.

A few years ago while walking through a local thrift store, I noticed a cute little house with a thatched roof and a waterwheel. For a couple of dollars I picked it up as an inspiration piece for my study. It was created by Lilliput Lane and was titled the Watermill. Over the next couple years I picked up several more pieces to add to my collection.

Watermill

Watermill

More detail on the Watermill

More detail on the Watermill

Fast forward until a few months ago. I was looking at my little Watermill and thought about the woodcutter’s hut. Hmm. I wonder if I could find one online? So. I went searching for The Woodcutter’s Hut. I did not know the manufacturer, so I started with Lilliput Lane. No hits. It took a while but I finally found what I was looking for. The Woodcutter’s Cottage was created by David Winter back in 1983. The production was retired in 1988.

The Woodcutter's Cottage Image courtesy of David Winter. info

The Woodcutter’s Cottage Image courtesy of David Winter. info

Now for the bad news. The asking price on Amazon is $200 USD. Now some of you would say, “Go for it. You’ve waited a long time. You can afford it now.” And, you would probably be right. However, compared to the $3.99 USD, I paid for my last David Winter piece, this would cost more than my whole collection combined. Not a bargain.

So, unless one of you, my dearest friends in the whole wide world, have a copy you would be willing to part with for something less than my right arm, I will wait and see what comes up on eBay and the thrift stores. You never know what you’ll find and as my Domestic CEO keeps telling me, “It’s the thrill of the hunt!”

 
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Posted by on March 10, 2014 in Other Strangeness

 

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Just Weird!

14 Feb

Have you every sat down to do something and the next thing you know a whole day has gone by? It’s been eleven days since my last post and for the life of me, I have no idea where the time went. It’s not like when I was unemployed for five months and would play Harpoon on my IBM Model 50z from 9:00 PM until 3:00 AM. I knew what I was doing then. I was a conscious choice. I was trying to escape the fact that 250 resumes were sent out to 250 companies and only two interviews were generated. If you have to take off your shoes to figure out the numbers, that’s 248 reject letters!!! But I digress.

I got a flash update on MAVEN ans the next thing I know it’s Friday morning a week later and I don’t know where the time went. There is some good news. Wherever the time went, at least some of it went towards the WIP. Progress is being made and the writing habit I set out to create this year seems to be working. As you’ll see later even that had huge amounts of weirdness. Now that I know I lost time, I’ve been trying to find it. It’s strange there are just blank spots that I can’t account for. All of the important stuff got done like paying bills loving on the cats, and going to work. So, I was at least functioning physically. Quite strange.

Have you ever gone back to review your writing progress and determined that your word count for the last week has been EXACTLY the same everyday? I kid you, not! Every day since the 3rd the number of words spilling out of my head and into the laptop as been EXACTLY the same!!! The time spent writing varies from day-to-day by anywhere from five to twenty minutes.

So, what gives? Any ideas? Today is the full moon so that can’t be it. The waxing moon is my high energy period of the month. Maybe that plays into it? But, why do I write the same number of words? The scenes have been different in nature and feel. The one constant, which has been so for well beyond the period in question, has been writing have been fun. I like what’s coming out and it seems to be working. The muse is not fussing and the internal editor has gone south to get out of the extreme cold we’ve been dealing with.

Maybe this weirdness is a good thing? Oh, oh. i got an idea for the beaded moccasin scene, gotta go. See you later.

 
14 Comments

Posted by on February 14, 2014 in Other Strangeness

 

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Lost – Writing partner

20 Jan
Nabu, Where are you?

Nabu, Where are you?

I walked into my writing room and suddenly realized there was a void in the dust on the dust atop the book-case. The space where my writing partner sat was bare. (You remember him from an earlier post. He took over my blog to get a new name. The name he chose was, Nabu, the Babylonian god of wisdom and writing which was suggested by Eagle-eyed Editor.)

What seemed most odd was that there was a trace of dust in the void. My uncanny powers of deduction indicated that my partner had been missing for some time. Now guilt struck me because I had not noticed his absence sooner. The excuse I have settled on is that I was so engrossed in writing that I simply overlooked his absence. I know, weak but passable.

I searched high and low, starting in the obvious places. As the god of wisdom and writing, it would make sense Nabu would go somewhere like my office or the other bookshelves in the house. However, I could not find him. I restrained from calling out to him for fear of what my two cats and the domestic CEO might say. My having a skull as a writing partner is still new to them. For several days I scoured the homestead. I even traveled to the cabin in search of my cohort.

One evening, the domestic CEO entered my office to find me desperately digging through a file cabinet. She calmly closed the file drawer, gently reached up and took a hold of my face, and screamed at me, “What the hell are you doing?”

I explained my plight, that I searched for my writing partner and that I felt guilty for not noticing his departure. The domestic CEO patted my cheek and smiled at me.

“Oh, that,” she said. “I put it in the garage with the other Halloween decorations.”

She turned and walked away leaving me staring aghast after her.

Relief washed over me as I realized Nabu was safe. However, the task of finding him among the myriad of decoration boxes would not be easy. Uh oh! He had been missing for months. My feeble excuse would not fly. Ah, a new idea came to me. The domestic CEO had aged another year, taking her into the realm of geezerhood. She had placed him in the decoration boxes. I would tell Nabu that her mind is going and she had forgotten what she did and where she had placed him. Yes, yes, that just might work.

I will head to the garage this weekend to release my partner. I hope he buys my story.

 
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Posted by on January 20, 2014 in Other Strangeness

 

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