I am still working on getting something up for Friday but it might be short. I am trying though.
I know there is so much that needs to be updated. My so-called Holiday story for this year, now last year, A Cup of Cheer is still not finished and I want to finish it and get back to my other works.
The depression is hitting me hard right now. I miss my cat. I want another cat or two or three (ha ha) but we had decided to wait until after a short trip we are taking in April but now I don’t know if that was the right decision. I don’t know. I sometimes think I won’t ever have a pet again and then I get super depressed.
All this to say that yes I know I’m a loser or a slacker or whatever right now. I acknowledge that. I never thought I’d be the one abandoning stories for months at a time. That’s me now. I think I’ve just been at this too long. I don’t know.
Anyway, I’m gone for the weekend so I really need to get something up for Friday and then I guess we will go from there. At least I mostly know where this blog story needs to go next so that’s a good thing.
You can expect two posts a week while this is going on. One will always be Friday but the others will vary. Here is number 2
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“First we need to go to Cedar Rapids,” his mother explained as they left Riverside in her hover car. “The commercial shuttles in Riverside don’t go to San Francisco but the ones there do. From San Francisco we can get one to Orion.”
“Right.”
“But first we have to make a stop in Iowa City.”
Jim glanced her way. “What for?”
“To see Warren.”
His mind blanked. “Warren?”
She sighed. “My brother. At his assisted facility.”
Jim sank lower into the seat and looked out the window. “Sorry, Mom. I know I keep saying that…but…I should have paid more attention to our family.”
“No,” she said softly. “It’s my fault. When your dad was killed I gave up on life. For far too long I lived in my own head.”
“I sure know what that’s like.”
She patted his leg. “I made a lot of mistakes, honey. I distanced myself from my family so no wonder you don’t remember any of them. And I lost Sam because of my foolishness.”
Jim smiled wistfully. “He’s out there somewhere, Mom.”
“And don’t get my started on my very much ex-husband. I put up with his shit for too long. And we all lived to regret it.”
“We can’t change the past, Mom. But we can work on a better future.”
She smiled and nodded. “Yes. And part of that is telling Warren we’re getting his grandkids. Look, I know he probably won’t even know we’re there but I have to try and tell him. I owe him. You know my brother and his wife, Caroline, offered to take you and Sammy when I couldn’t handle things.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I stupidly said no. Instead I saddled you with Frank.”
“May he rest in peace,” Jim muttered.
She looked at him quickly. “He’s not dead.” She paused. “Is he?”
He shrugged. “One can hope.”
“So Iowa City is up first. We should be there in no time.”
“Weren’t they living in Nebraska or something?”
She laughed. “That’s right. So you remember something. But after Caroline passed and Melanie left to Orion, I wanted my brother in a place closer to me.”
“Gotcha.” Jim sighed and closed his eyes. “I don’t do well with kids.”
“You do fine.”
“No. I feel…lost. Like I have no idea what to do with them. How old are Melanie’s kids anyway?”
“Brick is nine and Isabella is seven.”
“Brick?”
His mother shrugged.
“Why did she kill her husband?”
“I really don’t know. I haven’t heard from Melanie in years. Well, I hadn’t until she contacted me after she got arrested and asked me to come for the kids.”
The sign for Iowa City came up and after a couple of more signs, she got off the highway. Eventually she pulled up in front of a huge facility that resembled a Gothic mansion.
“Fancy,” Jim commented as he got out of the hover car.
“I wanted some place nice. The gardens are amazing.” She hesitated. “You don’t have to come in to see him. You can wait out in the lobby or something.”
Jim frowned as he opened the door for her to enter. “Why would I do that?’
“In case…considering what happened on that last mission with—”
“It’s okay, Mom. I can handle this,” Jim assured her gently.
“If you’re sure. I wouldn’t want to upset you. Make you think of…” She trailed off and bit her lip. “I won’t. Let’s go see your brother.”
I am so behind on everything. I manage to get flashes done for here but that’s it.
The truth is I am in a bit of a funk. Have been for several weeks. I have had little interest in writing anything. I haven’t been this bad in a while.
Someone posted a comment on A Cup of Cheer today that hoped I would update soon. I hope so too and I appreciated the show of interest. I had so hoped to have it done by the end of December but this “funk” has been crippling me.
I hope to slog through it soon but I wanted to make everyone aware I know I need to get stuff updated. I do. And I am so glad any of you even care to see it. With so much darkness going on, we need escapism. Even if Paramount has no interest in supporting the gang from AOS at all. I still like to keep them alive by writing about them.
Well this AI generated photo looks like for a birthday but whatever. AI sucks. Yes, yes, it’s become a huge part of our lives. Still sucks.
Anyway, we always say we hope for a better year, so I will say it here again. 2025 was pretty bad, I have to say. So yes, let’s hope for a better 2026.
Well…this has been an…interesting holiday season for me.
As you know, my cat died. My HOA is being sued by another owner and to make up for that, they doubled our HOA fees which were already astronomical. All the endless horrible news that we keep dealing with as a world. I unfortunately charged most of Christmas. You’d think that when you get this old you’d catch a break…nope!
I hope to end this little story right before Christmas. I know it hasn’t amounted to as much as stories in the past but time and mood has gotten away from me.
I will return to regular Friday flashes in January.
It’s December now so you can expect a continuing holiday story to appear here for the month sometimes soon. I haven’t started it yet but it’s coming. It’s likely to appear more often than Fridays, too. And since it’ll be on the blog it’s going to be PG13.
Luna is still hanging in there. She still loves us and us her. Still not in any acute distress so we’re keeping her happy and comfortable.
We decorated for Christmas this past weekend. Had a nice Thanksgiving. That’s about it. You can expect the first installment of the holiday story later this week.
I’m super behind on everything and I’m sorry. I was on a four day cruise when obviously I couldn’t write and since returning home I haven’t gotten my mojo back. I’m going to try to catch up in the next week or so. Because it’s late in the year I’ll mostly be concentrating on holiday related stories because that’s just the way it is. I’m a little freaked out about the whole thing honestly but I’ll do the best I can do.
Spirk (with a small dose of Pinto) 