The hurrieder I go ...

the behinder I get as the old Pennsylvania Dutch saying goes.

Finally after losing a major part of two months with seriously impaired vision I am close to back to normal. My eye doctor insists it is just my dry eye issues but I question that somewhat. I was on the verge of throwing in the towel and all at once it got better. I am now mostly back to near normal. Thanks be given with much praise to the Powers That Be.

I stumbled through July and August with a number of days I did not dare drive lest I hazard myself and others. Computer time was very limited --like no more than 15 to 30 minutes twice a day. I managed to meet a couple of writing deadlines and proof some galleys but it was not easy. No glasses and my nose about six inches from the screen. A crash of my main old computer near the end of that period added to my distress. But life goes on.

Summer is winding down in the high desert. I'm ready. Fall was always my favorite season--except when I was in Colorado and dreading the inevitable fall of winter with too much snow, ice, cold and not enough sunshine. Here even winter is hardly a threat. July was very wet; August was very dry. Climate is what you expect but weather is what you get and we get it. We hope for a good 'bright blue' sort of fall!

I think I mentioned before the project at the Senior Center with the "Older Writer's League" and our planned book of stories and essays about our past. That is coming along and I am fired up enough to be thinking about a book of my own, in addition to my tentatively titled memoir: Shoving Smoke and Herding Cats. This collection will be some of the stories from the "OWL" anthology and many that did not get into it and most will have illustrations.

I figured what the heck, why don't I share some of them here as well. And I will in the coming weeks starting in the next day or two. Also, in lieu of the much anticipated fall trip to Alaska which had to be postponed, I'll be going to Arizona for a week or so in late October. A friend and I are going to take the tourist train trip from Williams on I-40 or old Route 66 out to the canyon and back. There will also be a swing down through the Verde Valley and perhaps some other spots as well. Photos promised and a travelogue report!!

And after

Before...

I got a haircut--very short--about a month ago and I love it. No trouble at all and at this stage of life, no trouble trumps 'glamour' any day. Here is a before and after shot just for spits and giggles. Hasta la manana!