I can’t seem to get my self back on schedule.  Sleeping on a strange pillow is hard.  Nothing like your own bed and your own pillow.  I haven’t even got all of the crossword puzzles done yet. And can’t seem to get anything else done until I have finished the puzzles.

Regimen.  It keeps me in line.  But Jeanette brought me some lemon curd...so I eat a bite every little bit to keep me going.

“The Macau Mavrick” about my brother will be out in the fall.  And then on to the next book: “The Corsair Pilot.” which is about Ken. And as soon as that one is out, then “The Jersey Cow,” about my grandmother. I’m on a roll.  As long as I have characters, I can make a story.  But I’m running out of characters.  I tried to start one about my dad, but he was such a quiet man...there’s always my mom.  She was a character.  It all gets me up in the morning!!!

I still can’t talk, I have a frog.   I said so many words at the book-signing event on Saturday, I ran out of steam.  And those of you who know me well--that’s hard for me to do.

It was an humbling experience to say the least.  I have no idea  how many people, but at times they were backed up to the door--and I was at the back of the building.  Then when it was over, Chris---the owner of the bookstore, brought a huge stack of books that were pre paid and ordered for me to sign--and I thought I was through, and then he brought a case of books to sign for those who couldn’t make it.

My right arm is numb.  But what an  exciting event.  I got to see almost every one I knew--even Sally from Mississippi and her two girls.  To all of you--you really made my day. Let’s do it again in the fall when “The Macau Mavrick” comes out.

My friend Suzanne (Rucker) is coming up from Lubbock Texas today.  It’s a long drive.  She will stay all night and tomorrow we will drive the rest of the way to Pryor together.  We did that two years ago. She told all the people on her list (the to-call-list to remind them that we eat together on Friday before the reunion on Saturday) and told them that if she can get to Pryor from Lubbock that surely they could make the effort to come.  

The two of us have done this for years because we like to see the people we went to high school with.  But for some of them, it doesn’t seem to mean as much.  Some of them I don’t even remember if I had a class with them.  But the thing is, all of us lived through the 40’s and remember the same things.  The town, the food and gas stamps, the shortages of everything, the war in Europe, the people who were our teachers.  The ones we liked, the ones we didn’t.  The high school building that burned down.  All of those things are gone now--and unless you are in your 80’s you would have no idea what that felt like.

Memories are strange things. Some of us like them. Some of us don’t.

Becky Bacon said that she bought three books on Tuesday, someone else was there and bought four and another person  came in and bought more before she even got checked out.  I hope the book store ordered enough for everyone who wants one can get one.  People seem to be buying them for birthday gifts, etc.  I hope they don’t run out. 

But whoever was running the store said they only ordered 48.  They assured me there would be one hundred.  I don’t think I have it in my physically to drive to Pryor twice!! to sign books.  But if that happens, I’ll try.  The publisher said they would be available on the general market like Amazon in the fall.  Seems like the publisher wants to give my home town first go at it.

This is strange for me.  To write a book, have it published, and have people want to read it.  Flattering to be sure, but strange.  I am having to readjust to all of this.

Yesterday the wind blew so hard in the night that there were leaves all over the yards on our block.  I have reached the age that I sleep through it all.  It is a wonderful age.  Unless the whistle blows.  Then I walk across the street in the rain to Jeanine’s house and watch the news with her.  She has a cellar if we need it.

It’s not like the good old days when everyone was in a panic every time a suspicious cloud appeared. Now we can watch its path  on TV as it approaches and don’t have to  get in the fraidy hole with the spiders and wait until its over.  Remember how dark and wet those cellars were.  Slimey.  You never knew what would crawl by you.

Carolyn has a stray duck.  She has always had the town’s stray cats because she feeds them every morning.  But this stupid duck sits on an electrical wire in her back yard.  It doesn’t seem to know that it doesn’t have the kind of feet to do that.  It’s feet are flat.  They don’t curl around the wire.  She sent me a picture of it.  A duck sitting on a wire.  The question is “Why?”  Why not a pond, or on the ground.

I woke up at six, came into my recliner and woke up again at nine!!!  That’s what old people do.  So I guess I’m there.  Last night when I went to bed, I told Carolyn not to text me before 7:30 in the morning because the buzz wakes me up, but I guess I’ll have to change the time now.  She gets up early.  I used to do that, but I don’t seem to have a rhythm anymore.

We are studying relationships on Sundays.  Moses and his father in law.  Moses and Joshua.  And this coming Sunday, Eli and Samuel.  Relationships are the whipping cream on our lives.  People ask what Carolyn and I talk about every day.  I have no idea.  Nothing ever happens here.  She sees people every day at the dinner that the city throws for retired people.

I don’t see anyone during the week very often. I’ll see all you Pryorites on Saturday.  I’m afraid someone will say “Do you remember me?”  I beg you, don’t ask me that.  I barely remember my own name!

Okay...I’m late in the day, but here I am. I joined the Rusty Keys group today, and it is so interesting.  There is one lady who plays a fantastic fiddle hoe-down, then switches to classical violin.  She also plays the harp.  The talent in the group is amazing.  They sing, they play classical piano, and there are some who are just beginning to renew their instruments after many, many years.  It’s interesting.

They seem to like my marimba music, but getting it out of the trunk (in seven pieces) and getting it set up is daunting.  I told them I would play again when we meet at my house.  I have a full size marimba there.  The one in that I keep in the trunk of my car is smaller--and over 70 years old.  My folks bought it for me when I was 13.

I had been playing every month before the pandemic...so I left the marimba in pieces in the car.  But with the pandemic, we quit going to gatherings and I just never got it out of the car trunk.  I guess it is as good a place for it as any.

 I think I’ve turned over a new leaf and am going to start blogging first thing in the morning again...we’ll see if I can get back in the groove.

This Sunday, the lesson on relationships is about Eli and Samuel.  Carolyn asked me why Eli’s sons turned out to be so evil when Eli was an exemplary father figure to Samuel.  All I could think of is that sometimes, when we have our first child, we have no idea what we are doing.  Sometimes, children just don’t end up being the people we intend for them to be. 

When I had my first, I was in the boonies at Camp Pendleton, California.  I had never held a baby or anything else to do with babies.  I had no friends, no family, and Ken was somewhere in the air showing ground troops how to call in air support when they were in combat.  A neighbor got me to the hospital. I was nineteen.  

I brought a little piece of humanity home and did my best.  She turned out just fine, but I was a nervous wreck.  It’s a God given miracle we both survived.  She cried with colic--no one warned me about that.  I sat up night after night jiggling her--what do you do with colic? Ken couldn’t take off work to help.  I don’t know how that young girl did it.  I guess when we don’t know what we are doing, we just do our best.

 My friend Carolyn has a number of police, sheriff, etc. members in her family.   The other day, she was walking her dog--who controls everything in her life (much like Squig controlled mine) including when he wants his leash on or off.  He escaped, ran down the block, exercising his civil rights to do whatever he wanted. 

A neighbor a ways down the street saw the dog in his yard at the very moment a police car drove up, nabbed the critter, and put the dog in his car.  “First time I ever saw a patrolman arrest a dog,” the man commented.

Most of the time, Pablo, the dog, only eats if Carolyn hand feeds him.  There is no end to what we will do for our dogs that we would NEVER have done for out children.  But after raising four children myself, I can assure you that raising Squig was ten times easier than raising any of my four.  Or Carolyn’s three.

 

Okay, already!!  I am a delinquent blogger.  Somewhere in the last few months of being so sick, I lost my taw--as my mom would say.  Which for those of you who have never had a taw, it is your shooting marble.

Nobody plays marbles anymore.  Or hide and seek after sundown.  Or hopscotch.  Kids are glued to their phones.  They interact without seeing each other!!

So after over 2500 blogs, I am slowing down.  I hope you put up with me.

I plan the next day when I go to bed each night.  Yesterday I went to an appointment, had the carpets cleaned and wrote Carolyn a letter.  But today....nothing.  I have nothing written on my calendar.  It is lovely.  I am going to do the puzzles in the paper, the crossword, and work on a book I have started about my dad.

I love nothing days.  Kinda.  For an hour or two and then they get boring.  I’ll try to do better about blogging.

I’m rather excited.  I made the Oklahoma best seller list again for the third week in a row.  They have run out of books at the bookstore and the second edition will come out soon with revisions.  

The publisher and I finalized the revisions last night.  For the first time in over three years, I’m done.  No more editing.  I have now let go of it.  It isn’t mine anymore.  It’s out there and is public now.  Those of you who read it, the name Jacks has been restored to replace a substitute name.  Publishers are hesitant to use real names...but they finally agreed.

I went to a new dentist yesterday.  Hard to do.  But ending up in the hospital with and infection in my jaw bone was traumatic.  I don’t like change and other than moving, I don’t remember ever changing a doctor before.  It takes a while to get to know each other and I find that difficult.  Oh well, I have to adjust from time to time.  I don’t like adjusting.  I’m basically a hermit.

Carolyn called this morning mad at a bottle cap. “Why do they seal theses things so that we can’t open them?!!” She asked me.  I had just tried to open something myself and was more than ready to yell about it.

“They put a plastic wrap around the bottle that you have to use a knife on to get started peeling it off.  Then, when you get the exterior plastic seal off,  it takes a vise grip to turn the lid.  And when you get the lid off, there is a paper seal-cap glued to the bottle that the only way you can get it started is to stab it with a knife.”

I agreed with her and told her that this morning I couldn’t get the seal broken to open the lid of a cranberry juice bottle and had to lay it down and beat on the lid with a hammer.  Turning the bottle and hammering the lid on every side.  Of course when it came loose, it leaked.  Who are we protecting anyway?

What happened to May???  It’s always been such a wonderful month and this year I feel like I missed it.

I have slowed down on posting...I know.  Once or twice a week seems to be all I can manage rather than five days a week.  I’ve posted over 2500 times.

I’ve been reading the Psalms every night when I crawl into bed.  They are such a comfort.  At least some of them are.  I need to start skipping the war and rebellion of some of the Old Testament books.   I told someone the other day that once you reach my age, you need to concentrate on the happy books and the application books of the New Testament.  What we want is peace and there doesn’t seem to be much of that in the world anymore.  I’ve lived through too many wars...starting with World War two. Enough already.  Greed...money (or land).  The root of all evil.