Buddy Guy

So What If Not Everyone Likes You?

In a fit of whimsy, I donned a safety orange knit hat and made my way up the hill on the moss strewn steps to talk to the trees and stare at the moon. It was a “I can’t believe the idiot started World War three, but here we go,” morning and I needed some grounding.

We went to a place and found out Springville will be having its own No Kings Day visibility protest on March 28 from 1-3 – which is so smart, as the one in Buffalo is from 11-1, so technically a person could attend both. Afterwards, we ran errands and then dined locally before heading home.

What irritates me is that the same place is endorsing Alison Duwe for office. Someone said they heard the opposition to her last time was that if she won, every roof in town would have a garden on it or some such. That would imply she cared about anything but herself.

People are forgetting how she cost this school district at least an extra 30 thousand dollars for the extra elections that she had to have, trying to push through a gigantic sports complex. She hired an architect and had blueprints made before doing the necessary population study – which showed then a child population decline and still does. She was urged multiple times by me and others in the committee to at least give the voters – WHO FRONT THE BILL FOR THESE PROJECTS – the option of a smaller renovation on the first ballot, but no.

When the vote failed in historic proportions, she changed the voting location from the ground level entry high school library and moved it to a space in the school with constant student traffic, steep stairs to climb, and the wheel chair ramp that I noticed four people struggling to get up in the time it took for me to vote.

When I brought that obstruction to voting to the attention of the board, Allison dismissed it. She didn’t care. She lost and she wanted to punish the people who didn’t vote for her “vision.” She has shown herself to be myopic, petty, and mean. God help the village if you give her any local government control.

I get it, all women are supposed to stick up for each other, She and her husband(?) are of the “do it now, ask forgiveness” later mentality. The system they put in at the Arts Center is pulling water out of the aquifer and dumping it, instead of being a closed-water system that they had nudge nudge wink winked the town into approving.

If we’re all going to possibly die soon because a sick pedophile is intent on distracting the world from his crimes against children, and I have had to listen twice now to a person describe Duwe as some sort of good option, I get to speak my truth because all politics is local and all elections are consequential. I wish I could hold my nose and say, go ahead, put blue leaning women in power everywhere, but not her.

I’ll be looking into the candidacy of Aaron Gies, but if I don’t think he’s strong enough, I will be running myself for that office and in my own way. So…if it gets that far and my campaign is hit with her mob of minions telling everyone what an opinionated beetch I am, always caring too much about cost overruns and handicap people having access and taxing the rich over the poors and equality for all – as well as truth and justice, well, at least I’ll learn if she hate-reads my page looking for her name, so that will be a fun little nugget to admire, won’t it?

And with that out of my system, how are you? Are you in need of grounding, too? What about reading? Have you found it hard to follow books? It took far longer than I anticipated, but I finished one, so hurray, one down for the year. I’m nearly done with another so the bare minimum of a book a month goal is still within reach. Not that I haven’t been reading.

The Writing Club is going as they do. Two of the women are stitching together such amazing work, both of them through historical events, one linear, one with a braid. I can’t wait for them to be books. I have more reading and critiquing to do before the next one, so those are my Sunday plans. My friend Rina is struggling through the last chapters of her father’s book which I’ve also been reading here and there so that’s three books that I can add to tally – when they finish them so I can finish them. Hint, hint, to all of you if you’re reading!

Glee is being binged. I didn’t see it when it ran, or if I did, it was too much. It still is, but in small doses, it’s fine. Knowing what happened though, the first season has lines coming out of Finn’s mouth that make me go “oof.” I watched Sinners for the first of many times. As a film, it is superb. Lighting, casting, costumes, all of it is stunning. I am more selective about screen time in general, but eh, sometimes staring at a screen is all I can do, especially in winter. We’ve had some melt which has improved my mood some knowing spring might arrive any month now.    

I hope you are coping. I send you light and love and honesty. From what I’ve seen of the Epstein files, my heart breaks and I have to walk outside and climb the moss strewn steps and ask the trees what’s going on. What a friggin time to be alive.   

May the drones stay away from you and the collective howls of pain be loud enough to shake the morons in charge into not being such horrible human beings. Thank you for stopping by and for the read. Cheers!

My problem with travel

I love going places. It relaxes me to go to other realms, walk around, and see how other people live. It thrills me to hear about other people’s way of live, see the sights they’ve grown accustomed to, and buy things from their local stores.

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Being a tourist, I love that.

My problem is that I live in those moments fully. That means that I remember it, but not in the way others might.

Husband and I recently went slightly west. This year, we had planned to travel east and attend the huge summer party in Binghamton as a guest of Jefferson Rose, but that party was cancelled so our (and when I say “our” I mean Husband’s) vacation time was up for grabs. A “Hey I was remembering when we were there” email to my ex sister-in-law led to a “Buddy Guy is giving a concert in October, why don’t you come then” response and we had rudimentary travel plans.

Much was discussed, things were ruled out, but what we ended up with was a beautiful reenactment with variations of our first slightly west journey when the cat was a kitten. I think.

Anyway, when we went to Cleveland, we saw Michael Burke again. This time, it was calmer and less hurried. I got a tour of Berea, saw the house where Husband grew up in, walked around the town, bought a hat and explored this amazing riverside walk by myself.

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I met a woman who I may-or may not-have previously encountered in my dreams. (Coming out of the Berea Historical Building as we were walking by, she arbitrarily started talking to us. Come to find out, she’d been big in Berea Theater scene and knew my mother-in law. Fine, right? Except I had a dream a few months earlier about running into one of Carol’s friends who asked me how she was doing and I thought, ‘well, you’re not such a great friend if you didn’t know she died almost a decade earlier.’)

The Barking Spider was frequented, as was The Cleveland Museum of Art.

 

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(Yes, that is a falling angel giving the finger) In the Cleveland Museum of Art, I did not heed Michael’s advice to take in a small amount of work, instead I ran from picture to portrait to sculpture and immersed myself with the almighty depth, breadth and longevity of the pieces and bought a lot of postcards. It is an amazing place, inside and out.

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I wasn’t aware of the chandelier (bad picture, I know) or that Cleveland had the largest bank lobby–The Huntington Bank. Cleveland’s nightlife is far more “happening” that I would have thought.

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From there, it off to Indiana. We saw Buddy Guy in Elkhart’s Lerner Theatre. Great music and a beautiful space. (When I find the right cord, I’ll get the pictures off the camera.)

 

In Plymouth, we spent time visiting with Sue and Kevin. I got to see my niece and her family, my ex mother-in-law and the brilliant nurse, Nancy Coney. Husband and Kevin got the glass doors on the bookcases while Sue and I toured downtown. We got to listen to albums up in the sunroom and because life is just too funny, their neighbor’s Ford Galaxy 500 convertible started up and I got to take a ride in it to the Dairy Queen, which sadly, I’d forgotten about until I saw the picture of the car.

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On our way home, we stopped in Fort Wayne to see Chyo’s new place, then headed east. Cat was not impressed with our leaving, but I think she’s finally forgiven us–at least she isn’t as loud.

So, that’s the problem, I start to lose the details and nuisances that made the trip so interesting. *Sigh* I know, I’ll recall them when I write (I’m only down a day on NaNo) but the story I’m writing this time–the one that I plotted out, well, the characters have decided that the people I saw them ending up with don’t want anything to do with those people and there’s very little from my trip that relates to this new novel.

In my absence, the last round of edits from my editor arrived, so now I’m feeling out XO man to see if he and Girlfriend will have time to read it before they take off on a trip of their own.

Ah well, that is a sad little glimpse into the gorgeous problems (ones she loves) that this writer has gladly endured recently.

 

*These are my Creekside Reflections. Your experiences may vary.

 

 

 

 

Critiques, Praise, and Preparing for the Next Phase

Good morning! The Buddy Guy concert is coming up quickly and Husband is looking forward to taking a vacation and traveling to see a Blues great while stopping by to visit great friends on the way there and back. I’m worrying over the details and making lists so we don’t forget the charger for the cell phone.

I’m also looking forward time spent Internet free. I’ll have my cell, but I’m leaving all of my passwords at home. I’m the neurotic who changes them constantly to bizzaro combinations, so no, I don’t have them memorized and really will not be able to check my email, Facebook, Twitter or Ello for a week. And as I type that, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have my email password at least, but am telling myself no. Whatever happens–good or bad news–can wait. Besides wanting time away from the screens to focus on the people and the experiences of the trip, I want time to think about new characters. National Novel Writing Month is soon here and I’m excited!

If you’re not familiar with Tarl Kudrick’s On the Premises, you should be and I’m not just saying that because I made it to the top 25 in the last contest. He and Bethany Granger are close readers with great taste. I have made it to the Top Ten before–which comes with a free critique of your story. Being close this time, I went ahead and got one. Worth it! Mine was fair and honest, and included a few suggestions on how to improve the piece. Granted, reading criticism the first time through (good or bad) makes me cringe, but writing as long as I have, I know to shrug it off, look at what is being said, and if it’s valid, rewrite with that in mind. I did rewrite it and if something good happens to it, I’ll let you know.

Two good things happened to L&C: I participated in #AdPit on Twitter and got a favorite from someone at a Harlequin Imprint and so much more importantly, Jim and Julie started reading it and their initial impression is favorable. One comment from them was that the MC was compelling. Can I be happy with that and let it go? No! I panicked and started a letter apologizing for the end being a disappointment to them.

I swear to Pete and Peter my next book has got to have a MC who is NOT neurotic…

The Dark Arts Group Show at Van Over Fine Arts is fabulous and if you have a chance, you really should go see it.

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The Colden Arts Festival was chilly and wet, but it was great to see JT and The Law.

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Otherwise, I hope you’re enjoying the sweater weather; I know I am. Thanks for checking in!

(*Everything in this blog is based on my creekside reflections. Your reality maybe skewed–or better remembered.)

South of Buffalo Summer Thoughts

While r.kv.r.y. is closed to submissions over the summer, I continue to read for Literary Orphans and enjoy the hell out of that. I want to extend a super big lovely congratulations to Nellie Aberdeen–whoever you are. I pressed the awesome Mike Joyce to accept her story “Inoculate .” The best part–which I read in the cover letter after falling in love with her story–was that it will be her first published story. The B. B. King issue is looking to be one of the best issues ever!

A friend is going over “L&C” and while I wait on his suggestions, I’ve been working on short stories. I have a new one sent out; it’s in a form I haven’t tried often but I think it turned out well. I have another story in that form, but I can’t grab its throat and make it work so I’ve set it aside. The last story I wrote, I set in Texas which doesn’t happen often. I finished tweaking it yesterday and now it’s sitting in a folder waiting a week for another look. The story between those two doesn’t have a title yet. I think I might be working on more short stories today since it’s too wet to do much outside.

At least there are flowers.

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And when I can’t get outside to enjoy those, I find it’s hard to be sad about that when there are pink mini carnations in a cobalt blue vase nearby.

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We’ve had enough rain to make mowing impossible. Wind took down a box elder which fell into the yard instead of the ditch. The two dead pines were taken down. My watching Downton Abbey earned me props from Husband; he’d never before considered pulling out the stumps. With the winch and chains, they each came out rather easily–and the chainsaw blade didn’t get trashed, so thank you Lady Edith for your time on the farm.

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Firewood delivery is being arranged; we’re over halfway done with the woodshed extension cleanup and new floor. We have a trip in October forming–we’ll be traveling to Elkhart, Indiana to see Buddy Guy with my fantastic ex sister-in-law and her husband. Stopping to visit friends in Fort Wayne and Cleveland along the way–or on the way home–are options being considered. Just another case of summer in western New York going too fast, but I am enjoying it as best I can–plus I’ll have tomatoes soon. I can’t wait!

 

(*These are my Creekside reflections. Your experiences may vary.)