Lazy Summer Morning

Good morning! How is your summer going? Mine is crazy. And I'm loving it. But I'm barely keeping up with my blogs. Last week, I missed my date on Paranormal Romantics. Fortunately for me, yesterday was open and I posted about an idea I got on a road trip. 

I've also missed several Mondays here. Sorry about that. I did manage to keep up with the Weekend Writing Warriors. It's been fun sharing snippets from THE PROTECTOR (An Outer Rim Novel). Once a book is published, I don't usually read it again--since I'd probably read it a hundred times (slight exaggeration) already. So rereading it for snippets to use brings back my initial joy when writing the story. You can scroll down to see yesterday's snippet.

My Arizona family arrived just before July 4th, in time to celebrate the holiday watching fireworks from our back deck. I think our neighbors compete to see who has the best, loudest, longest displays. This year, they even obeyed the township's rule about ending by 11 pm. Amazing.

Our household has swollen from two adults to four plus a toddler, a Great Dane, and a Lab. The family will stay with us until they find a house here. Fortunately for them, their Arizona house sold and they both have jobs. Daughter in law continues her job from home and Son continues with his restaurant company. Toddler Girl plays with us. This has been a lot of fun. She's gotten so comfortable with us. She easily picks up my phone to look at pictures and play a couple of toddler-type games I loaded. I'm a sucker for learning games. I can't wait until she's old enough for the story-telling game I did with her cousins. (My StoryMaker from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh) If you have young children (or grandchildren) this is a fabulous program. I type their words, they choose the images to add. Each time, I'm amazed at their imaginations.

The dogs are not as rambunctious as we expected, but having two large dogs in a confined space is challenging. Unfortunately, we don't have a fence around our yard so they don't get a chance to run around unless Son and DIL take them to a nearby dog park. Keeping them off the furniture is a bit of an issue. Not that our furniture is that good or expensive. Sharing the couch with a 150-pound animal who doesn't need to jump up (he just sits back) can be confining.

Going to the beach, blueberry picking, visiting the farmers' market give them lots to do. And summer wouldn't be summer without a visit to Captain Sundae's.

This is an adjustment for all of us. Everybody needs/wants their own space. I'd resigned myself that my writing would go on the back burner. Who wants to write when a two-year-old wants to sit on your lap? Or wants to go outside and draw on the driveway with chalk? Even better, our other two grandchildren (7 & 10) spent Saturday night here. The toddler was so happy to see them. They indulged her a lot. The three of them even slept in the same room. And I do mean sleep. The fact that the older two had spent a week at summer camp and were exhausted might have had something to do with it.

In January, I had no idea how much my life would change. As I've learned in the past, change depends on attitude. Some people resent it, fight it. And are miserable. I like to think I can go with the flow, smiling and enjoying a new phase in my life. 

I hope you have a great summer making wonderful memories.

If you're a writer, do you know about the Best Banter Contest? My writing chapter is sponsoring a contest where you can showcase your witty dialogue. Clicking on the big yellow button on the right will take you to the contest page. Good luck.

Doctor Who and Change

On Saturday night, all Whovians in America were glued to their televisions sets. (Unless they had to do something crazy like...go to work.) For you non-Whovians, the reason was not just the first episode of the eighth season of Doctor Who. It was the introduction of the new Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi. He is the twelfth actor to portray the time-traveling alien.

When the show started in 1963 (yes, that long ago) the producers had no idea what a hit they had. What was supposed to be a kids’ show gained universal appeal. So when the actor who portrayed the Doctor became too ill to continue, the writers came up with a clever device to explain the new actor. The Doctor would die then regenerate. At the end of last season, boyish Matt Smith morphed into grizzled, gray-haired, fifty-six year old Capaldi. What a shock, especially to the Doctor’s companion Clara.

The companion has two roles on the show. Usually female, she keeps the Doctor company on his adventures through space and time. More importantly, she is us, the audience. She asks the questions we want to know. In Saturday’s episode, she reflects our disbelief and confusion at what the Doctor has changed into. Like previous companions, Clara was a little in love with her Doctor. And this new one isn’t him.

Change comes hard for Clara. Just as it does for all of us. We like the status quo. We’re comfortable with the known, the familiar. Yanking us out of where we feel like we belong is traumatic. Marilyn Baron in her book Stones describes quite accurately the feeling when her main character says her husband “yanked me out of Miami by my roots as if I were a noxious weed he was tossing out of a flower garden and carelessly transplanted us to Atlanta.”

I don’t like change, as I mentioned here back in 2011. I’m a new convert to Doctor Who, having discovered him not quite a year ago. In one way I was lucky to find him just before the show’s fiftieth anniversary. I got to watch the show’s progression and many retrospectives. Since then, I’ve watched all the episodes since its reboot in 2005, following its sixteen year “hiatus.” Prior to Saturday’s show, BBC America ran a marathon of episodes and a series of half hour show where the audience could “meet” all the Doctors.

In watching those episodes, I became “attached” to each Doctor and was disappointed when he regenerated—only to discover I really liked the next. I wasn’t prepared to like Capaldi in that role. I thought he was too old, which is kind of ironic since he’s younger than me. I thought he couldn’t be as funny as the previous two. The writers didn’t disappoint. Before the first commercial, I was hooked. The Doctor was hilarious as he discovered his new body. No spoiler here, but Clara was a lot slower to accept him than I was. He had me with his comment about his eyebrows.

While change is difficult, it can lead to new things, fun things. Whether it’s a move across country, our children leaving the nest, or an actor in a TV show, it’s our attitude toward change that makes all the difference.

Highs and Lows

Last week was one of highs and lows. My family lost another uncle. He was my dad’s brother, the one closest to him in age, the quiet one. Because he was quiet and unassuming, I didn’t know much about him until after I was married. Hubs is a listener. At family gatherings (that could be overwhelming) he would quietly engage my uncle in conversation. From Hubs, I learned more about all my uncles and especially about the one who just passed. It seems appropriate on this Veterans’ Day to mention my uncle’s military service during WWII. He served in the Aleutians, Marshall Islands, and the Southern Philippines and received two Bronze Stars. Four years ago, his daughter gathered family members for his ninetieth birthday. How great it was to see the five (of seven) siblings together. Now only two are left. I know it’s to be expected considering their age. Still, it’s difficult to lose a family member.

In contrast, on Saturday our family gained three new members. My cousin’s son married a woman with two children. I was so impressed with the way the minister included the children in the ceremony. Along with witnessing a happy event, I got to connect with cousins I’ve only seen at funerals lately. Sure, some of us connect through Facebook, but not all. So we caught up with what we’re doing now, sharing stories of our children and grandchildren. And, for a change, we were together for a very happy event.

Isn’t life like that—full of highs and lows? Maybe not in the same week, though. Usually, our lives are pretty mundane. Whether we’re still working or retired, each day is pretty much like the one before. We get complacent until Life smacks us up the side of the head. Sometimes it’s for a happy event, like a wedding or a birth (btw, two weeks ago, my nephew and his wife welcomed a son into their family), a promotion, or a retirement. And other times Life pulls us up short with a disappointment, a job loss, or a death. We celebrate the highs and ride out the lows.

In honor of my uncle, my dad, and all who have served our country, I'd like to express my thanks for your service.

 

Reboot

Have you ever wished you could reboot your life? Get a do-over? A mulligan?

One of the benefits of moving to a new location is you get to start over. Change your life or lifestyle. If you want. That is the kicker. You are who you are. However, if you don’t like a part of your life—for me, at one time it was too much volunteering—you can be more selective at your new location. You can even change your name, as our daughter did when we moved during her sixth grade.

We moved into our new house last week and I feel like a different person. Re-energized. The new house is bright and airy, has a lot of light. Of course the last might be because we don’t have the drapes up yet. LOL I’ve found that I do better in light, which makes choosing to live in Michigan with its gray winter skies a little strange. If it wasn’t for the grandkids.

Speaking of the grandkids (I never miss an opportunity ) they are so excited that Nana and Papa live nearby. The 3 ½ year-old wants to stay overnight. His 6-year-old sister likes the “new” toys I found while packing, especially the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls Hubs’ grandmother made. I like the fact that we’re less than 20 minutes away instead of 2 hours.

When starting over in a new town, everything takes time. Time to find the post office, stores, doctors, dentists, everything. In a way, the one year search for a house followed by the seven months after we made the decision to build helped us know the area. We drove over often to look at areas, houses, then to watch the progress as our house was being built. Thanks to the Garmin, we learned our way around our new town. With family here, we already have recommendations for doctors and a dentist.

The only thing left is unpacking boxes and finding the right space for everything from our old life. Rebooting one’s life doesn’t mean leaving everything behind. Now if money were no object… Nah. I wouldn’t totally change our old life. Well, maybe some new furniture.