A Quick Welcome

Before I start, there are a couple of new subscribers to the blog, and I want to say—Welcome. I would love to say you’ll find world-shattering content here, but that would be fake news. I write about what I’m doing and what’s on my mind, or sometimes I just shout out into the void. You’re joining a small but loyal group, and I’m happy you’re here.

It’s been an interesting week. It almost feels like I might actually get the hang of being retired. Not holding my breath just yet, though. Still feeling antsy about the money, or rather, the lack of knowing when I’ll get paid again. But many of my wise friends have reminded me that you manifest what you focus on, so I’m trying not to worry about that.

Instead, I’ve been working with my wife out in the garden and focusing on my writing.

The garden will likely be a work in progress for several weeks. We’ve managed to get all the tomato plants and most of the herbs planted. We have a lot more work to do, but it’s been good to be out there with my wife. Between my bum knee and Tennessee’s bad back, it’s been slow going, but we are feeling positive that the fruits of our labor will pay off. Can’t wait to taste those first tomatoes off the vine.

My writing hasn’t been very productive, but I’ve been fairly consistent in showing up for my morning writing sprints, so that’s something. I finished a poem and submitted it to a magazine for a poetry contest.

I’ve been following along with a journaling prompt calendar for May. It’s been fun, though my consistency has been more miss than hit.

I’ve also picked up my novel again. As I’ve been rereading it for the first time in a while, I once again realize that there will have to be some major rewrites, but they don’t feel quite as daunting as they did when I was working full-time.

I’m making a few tweaks before I send it to a friend for feedback. I will be alpha reading her next novel, and she has kindly agreed to do that for me. As for my friend, I’m not going to lie. I’m more than a little envious. I read her first published novel and a fan fiction piece she wrote, which I’m hoping she’ll convert to a novel, and they were both so good! It’s a bit intimidating to have her read my stuff, but if I want to get published, I’m going to need all the help I can get.

The next big leave-the-house event is going to be the local Democratic Party reorganization convention next week. I’m about to get fully involved in partisan politics, and I’m super stoked. It cracks me up, though, that they are calling it a reorganization. There hasn’t been an organized Democratic party of any sort in this county for years. The State Party has decided to try and get one into each county instead of only focusing on the big cities. Better late than never, I guess. So far, only twelve people have said they are going to attend, and two of those are me and Tennessee. We’ll see what happens.

Time to get back out into the garden. Hope you all have an excellent weekend.

Take care, my friends.