Personal

September 11

On September 11, 2011, the ten year anniversary of that dreadful, heartbreaking day, I spent most that day on a website dedicated to online memorials for those that perished in the two towers. It was emotionally draining and crippling, but something, on that day, I needed to do.

I can hardly believe it has been another eight years since then.

On this day in 2001, I will never forget watching the buildings collapse on television. It was…mind boggling. The television was on at work and we were all glued to the coverage. I can still hear Peter Jennings in my head.

The night before, my friends and I had been at the mall shopping for a European trip we were taking in October. We never imagined what the next day would bring. If there was any innocence left on September 10th, it was definitely gone forever on the 11th

I had taken the bus that morning and being on the West Coast the news was already coming in. Eventually, my job at the time, dismissed us for the day, knowing there was no work getting done, and those in charge there just as stunned as we were. A friend drove me home. I watched the news nonstop the rest of the day, emotionally wrecked and distraught.

There are things you never forget if you lived through them. The Riots here after the Rodney King thing, OJ Simpson’s being exonerated even though we knew he was guilty, stuff like that. But it all pales in my mind and memories to September 11, 2001.

September 11, 2019

Thursday Rambles and Updates

I’m working on other updates (getting my Fall Spirk’s flashes done through November, I got next Wednesday’s flash done, and there are some other things I’d like to get taken care of writing-wise) so this basically means a short wait for the next AO3 update, which will be The Space in My Bed, before another update for Stranded 3. Those might be pushed to Sunday and beyond into next week. But you can expect the first song flash tomorrow.

Saturday afternoon and evening I will be at the sister’s. She’s having wood floors put into her house next week so we’re going there Saturday to help her pack some stuff up as a result. We’ll have dinner and sit out on her patio afterward. We will consider it the last hurrah of Summer even though we can expect it to remain quite warm here.

Still working on the garage door stuff. We had the last estimate yesterday of four estimates. We’ve submitted everything to insurance and are just waiting. All these places have to order a door which can take additional weeks until we can get it done so we are hoping we can get that ordered soon. Nothing is ever simple, is it?

So I’m going to be slowing down a bit on AO3 updates so I can get all the stuff done on here too. So please bear with me. I have just two chapters left of Didn’t We Almost Have it All (And I absolutely know how I want to end it) and though I could write on them forever, on the other hand, it’s not fair to those who want their firm happy ending. So look for that soonish as well as the ending of The Ties That Bind and possibly Nine Lives. All good things must come to an end, don’t you think? So while I work on millions of other things, look for those too. Hopefully I can keep my sanity!

September 5, 2019

Beginning of September Walk With Me 09/02/2019

It’s Labor Day and what better time for the first Walk With Me in September? These pictures are still from my neighborhood, just a bit of a different route than I generally take.

Clouds on the horizon means humid today, ugh

Just Approaching a house on the way to one of the two “main drags” in the city

Purple and white flowers in front of said house

More pretty bush flowers (flowering bushes?)

One of the two main drags in the city I live in! (it IS Labor Day, so not much traffic)

More of the main drag (further down on either side are stores you can’t see from this part! This is all residential

This tree has black leaves, not sure what kind he is that has black leaves, a Halloween tree? LOL

Close up of the leaves, they aren’t dead, they are in good shape but you can see they are very dark leaves

View from a side street all the way to the mountains (Santa Monica Mountains)

This guy’s house is rather stark, all gray with no life around the yard

Check out that tree in the background. He’s got a flattop. The City put a power pole right through him with lines going through him too, which you can probably see, so this old guy adjusted the way he grew to accommodate the fact his branches couldn’t get through the lines.

This is that same tree’s trunk but I don’t think you can see the power lines that pass through his branches. He’s very old and big so I guess I should be glad they didn’t chop him down.

These yellow flowering bushes are everywhere. They are obviously very tolerant of drought prone Southern California. I see them all over the place, fortunately they are pretty!

September 2, 2019

In an Effort to Keep You Informed

Tomorrow, the next chapter of The Vulcan Who Fell to the Earth (Stranded 3) will be going up.

Friday is one of my absolute favorite flashes I have written lately (maybe ever). Had so much fun with it.

Then comes up the long weekend. Hollywood Bowl is Saturday and family stuff and chilling and dealing with all the garage stuff. I am going to be working on getting November Friday Flashes settled. So don’t expect much in the way of updates over the weekend.

Next up in updates for next week are Didn’t We Almost Have it All and The Space in My Bed. Friday, September 06th begins the start of September’s Song Flashes. Wednesday will also have the continuation of the Wednesday flashes.

I had thoughts of taking a different walk around for my Walk With Me post for August, but I just didn’t get the chance. Life got in the way. I did do a post earlier in the month, so we’ll see what I can do with the walks in September.

Also in the month of September I will be experimenting with cheesecake recipes. (Plain New York Style this time)

In general what do I have to do writing-wise, I still need to finish my OMS story (don’t expect anything long folks) so it’s ready for November, and get cracking on that Christmas Jim/Prime story. I still haven’t decided if there will be other Christmas/Holiday related fare other than a few flashes. We’ll see if inspiration strikes. There may be a sequel in there somewhere for How to Survive the Winter Break With a Vulcan Instructor.

PS. My Devotion was updated

August 28, 2019

Ramblings August 25, 2019

As some of you know, our garage was broken into on Friday while we were at work. The garage is separate from our townhome, fortunately, but they did take a few things, including an unopened portable AC, as well as breaking our garage door opener mechanism. We’d been delaying getting one of those new sliding metal garage doors and openers that most of our complex had, with us having the original wooden door, but looks like we are no longer able to delay that. It was a cost thing, but God or the burglar, made that decision for us. So this week we are dealing with getting estimates, HOA approval etc. We had a very nice police officer out Friday night, but he admitted there was little they could really do since there are no cameras and all that. I suspect that someone targeted the AC because nothing else of value was really taken. It was a break in, grab and go kind of thing. But definitely makes you disappointed in your fellow human beings.

In other news, we are still celebrating M’s birthday. We had a get together at a friend’s on Saturday and Sunday night it’s a dinner with the family at a nice restaurant. M’s birthday is actually Tuesday but it’s easier to celebrate on a weekend. Plus when we get home from work Tuesday, one of the garage door people will be by to give us an estimate on everything.

Coming up for updates this week should be The Fling, Stranded 3 and The Mysterious One. I love the flash coming on Friday very much. And I have a new flash series coming on Wednesday too.

This coming weekend in front of us is Labor Day, of course. We are going to the Hollywood Bowl Saturday the 31st for the John Williams Music thing. Should be fun. Then is the three day weekend! And September. Busy times, my friends.

Tomorrow is Chris Pine’s birthday, so I am including a fan video someone made a few years back. Fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEGGqI9ky8k

August 25, 2019