Writing for Real! - Thurs., Mar. 10, 2016

Today was devoted to writing an article for Escapees magazine (an RV club magazine) on Volksmarching. The deadline for the May/June issue is today. Nothing like a deadline to motivate a writer!

The reason this article is time sensitive to the May/June issue is that June 2016 is the 40th anniversary of Volksmarching in the United States. The very first U.S. Volksmarch was in June 1976 in Fredericksburg, Texas. In honor of that anniversary, a Volksmarching weekend will be held in Fredericksburg this June 10-12. The original U.S. Volksmarch will be replicated as one of the walks that weekend.

I skipped all family festivities today. It took me until three minutes to midnight to finish the article and choose the photos, but I submitted it on time!

[Update: Editorial assistant Kelly from Escapees magazine emailed me to say my article is in the mix for consideration in the May/June issue. Then today, I received another email that they need me to sign the licensing agreement and email it back to them because they don't accept digital signatures. Keeping my fingers crossed that my article will be published in full!]

In addition to that, I received an unexpected email from a gentleman who asked permission to use one of my photos in a book he's writing. It will be published next year. The book is about the history of helium production in the U.S. I will receive photo credit and a free copy of the book.

Wow! Feeling really good about all this!

Of course many writers would be lost without their cat companions. Here are mine...

Sunnie and Bowie

A-to-Z, Adventurer, Appreciation, April Fools, Anniversary

Step right up ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it's time for the annual A-to-Z Challenge; this year marks my third go at this month-long writing exercise. I don't know why the challenge starts on April Fool's Day. Maybe the joke is on us. I am the 2,196th person to sign up for the challenge. You can still sign up join us until April 2, 2014, 9:59 am, United States - Eastern Standard Time.

Here's a brief recap of what the challenge entails: Each day of the month is assigned one letter of the alphabet in numeric order, i.e., 4/1 = A, 4/2 = B, 4/3 = C, 4/4 = D, 4/5 = E, 4/6 = free day (no alphabet challenge on Sundays so you can rest -- or not), and so on. On the day of each letter, the challenge is to write about something that starts with that letter of the day.

On my writing challenge, I bold major words starting with the letter of the day the first time I use them in a challenge blog (not required). Here we go.

Adventurer (from a fortune cookie, but so apropos!)

"You are an adventurer traveling on the highway of life."

It's not often you get a fortune cookie that tells it like it is. While it's not REALLY a fortune, we love excitement and actively seek adventure in our lives.

Appreciation

Kudos to Bob. Yesterday, he went up on the roof and re-sealed the roofing on the front edge of our bedroom. The seal had dried and we had been told by our RV repairman that it needed to be re-done. After 25+ years in the roofing industry, industrious Bob took care of the issue. He still needs to do the edges around the vents and AC units, but I'm sure he'll be up there this weekend finishing up. Thanks, studmuffin!

April Fools

Sigh. I hit Walmart early this morning to stock up on much-needed supplies, especially  toilet paper. As I was cruising the store, the Bee Gees lyrics, "The joke was on me," was running through my head, probably because of April Fool's Day. When I was looking for the RV/marine rapidly dissolving toilet paper, it had been moved and I didn't find it where it used to be located. As I'm searching, U2's song, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," was playing in the store. Sure, Walmart, move everything around on April Fool's Day, then play "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." I got a good laugh out of that before I asked the stocking clerk where they moved the RV T.P. The joke really was on me. Well played, Walmart, well played.

Anniversary 

Today was supposed to be my day off at the insurance office; however, the staff was having a surprise 10th Anniversary Party for the agent. They wanted me to answer phones so they could decorate and then meet with customers and other agents who came in. I worked from 11:30 am to 5:00 p.m. What a touching surprise for her. Free food was involved. Nice.

SafeLite Rep, LeAnn (Account Manager), John B. (District Manager)

Mary Ellen (Agent)

The cake

All in all, a great day.

Travel Bug out.

4/2/2014 9:59 AM North America - Eastern Standard Time - See more at: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-to-z-challenge-sign-uplist-2014.html#sthash.nNI4l9FO.dpuf

4/2/2014 9:59 AM North America - Eastern Standard Time - See more at: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-to-z-challenge-sign-uplist-2014.html#sthash.nNI4l9FO.dpuf

4/2/2014 9:59 AM North America - Eastern Standard Time - See more at: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-to-z-challenge-sign-uplist-2014.html#sthash.nNI4l9FO.dpuf

Writing and Thinking -- Fri., Jan. 25

Artist: Alex Grey

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."  ~Albert Einstein

Writing and photography compose my creativity. My mom paints, does calligraphy and beadwork, makes necklaces and bracelets, and draws. Other people compose music, quilt, woodwork, make rugs, and myriad other right brain activities. (You can read more about Left Brain vs Right Brain here.)

In today's blog I will concentrate on writing. Writing begins with ideas. The ideas come at the craziest times. The idea for this blog came to me while I was scrubbing the floors. Thoughts of all kinds came pouring out of my brain while I was on my hands and knees doing housework. The muse strikes at inopportune times.

Other ideas nibble at my mind when I'm falling asleep. Sometimes I catch them, sometimes they get lost in the nether regions of my psyche.

In high school, poetry would come pouring out of me at any given time. One poem in particular came to me at the end of a class. I stayed there to write it down before I left my desk. It took me about three minutes to write a two-page poem. Another time in high school, I was waiting for mom to pick me up from school and I wrote a poem in five minutes. Thankfully pen and paper were handy.

I have written business articles for a weekly community newspaper, an article about dance for a Portland, Oregon dance club magazine, newspaper letters to the editor, TripTips (a weekly two-page travel tip sheet for AAA Oregon/Idaho Travel Counselors) and many creative writing projects over the years.

Now my writing consists mostly of blog posts. I love writing them; the reasons are many:

• Enjoyable
• Use fun vocabulary
• Keeps my brain sharp
• Think of new topics
• Write to an audience
• Outlet for thoughts
• A journal/diary to have for re-reading in later years
• To help me remember when and where we were and what I was thinking
• Relax and let my mind wander
• A place to use my photography
• Tell stories
• Share philosophy and quotes
• Work things out in my head and transfer it to paper where I can analyze and refine my thoughts
• Throw ideas out for discussion
• Make other people think
• Grammar, punctuation, spelling: use it or lose it
• Maybe someone will "discover" me 

Writing a travel blog is enjoyable, but I especially like spicing it up with hints of other vagaries going on inside my head. I like to mix it up, keep you on your toes, and keep you guessing as to what's next from this crazy chick.

Stay tuned.

Travel Bug out.

A few cat photos...

Baby Bowie Houdini

Sunnie

Where do the people sit?

This new box fits perfectly.

Susan with Bowie and Sunnie.

Lap warmers.

 

 

Freedom and the Open Road -- Mon., June 18

Cotulla, Texas:

"To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else." 
~Bernadette Devlin

This is so true. Both of us lost our jobs in Hawaii in June 2011. In order to go on the road and travel we gave up (sold) our "sticks and bricks" house and almost all our possessions.

Did we have fear? You bet!! Could we find work on the road to support ourselves? How would we pay for everything?

Fast forward one year...We've been "on the road" in our 5th wheel trailer for eight months and have worked six months. We've been from Hawaii (where we lived, owned a house and worked) to Oregon (our home state for over 30 years), bought our 5th wheel and trailer in Oregon, drove to Fallon, Nevada and worked for Amazon.com in Fernley for two months during the holiday season.

Bob got a job as a commercial roofing service manager in Sparks, Nevada for three months. We took off in April to travel to Texas with stops in Las Vegas and Phoenix to see family and friends.

We spent two days hiking in Big Bend National Park and a few days exploring the Texas Hill Country before landing in Kerrville, Texas to attend the RV-Dreams Rally.

For the past six weeks we have been working as security gate guards at an oil field in south Texas. In July, we will take two weeks to drive to Yellowstone N.P., spend two weeks camping and hiking; go to the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore in Sept. We will then head over to the North Dakota/Minnesota border where Bob will work the sugar beet harvest for three weeks.

From there, we will drive back to Oregon, park our rig, and board our cats to take a month-long trip to Australia. It was not possible to do all these things when we were tied to high-stress, low-vacation-time jobs, our house and all our belongings.

So while we lost our house and most of our possessions, we gained freedom to go where we want, when we want. Make no mistake about it, though, we also need to work!

Gate guarding update:

We received our Security pocket ID cards and name badges today. Thank you, LOMA Gate Guard Services!

Our gate has slowed to a crawl so Bob asked our supervisor today if we'll be moved. The supervisor said as long as the oil company wants us here, we will be on this job site. So, it looks like we'll be here for a while and it's going to be slow. Gives me more time to write and do photography.

After the cats' bag trashing incident last night, we moved all the plastic bags into a nice cloth bag. No more shredding the paper bags. Bowie came to terms with the new arrangement right away.

"Oh, look, Mom and Dad gave us a new, cushy bed!"

Time for my nap. Just a little yawn.

And now for my siesta. Wake me in a few hours, will you?

Roadrunner reappeared in front of our dining room window, bug in mouth. Isn't  he gorgeous?

Did a little dance, fluffed his tail and wings.

Then did what roadrunners do best...ran away.

"If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good." ~Thornton Wilder, writer (1897-1975)

Travel Bug out.