Something’s Coming

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Linda Andrews

It has been happening over the last several night. Lines in the road. Small white and blue lines. But now, someone has walked into gravel yards, gouged out small craters in the rock and painted the divots red.

Something is coming.

But we haven’t received anything by snail mail, email, or door notice as to what.

I did look up what the lines mean: http://www.arizona811.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Arizona-811-Color-Code-Card_2.12.16.pdf

But as of today, no word on the project.

Just another of life’s little mysteries.

Until next time.

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Spending the Weekend with the Oldies

Posted on June 24, 2019 by Linda Andrews

I had to laugh the other day. A coworker was sharing her weekend Netflix viewing and spoke about the classics she had watched. Things like The Breakfast Club, you know, movies from the 1980s.

After I finished choking on my tongue, I clarified that classics are black and white and from the Golden Age of Hollywood, like the 1920s-1940s.

So this weekend, I did spend time binging on Classic movies and marveled at the roles women played (or didn’t in the shows).

They were:

My Favorite Brunette with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.

Happy Go Lovely with David Niven and Vera Ellen

My Dear Secretary with Kirk Douglas and Laraine Day

and Saleslady with Anne Nagel and Weldon Heyburn

Some were winners and some I didn’t enjoy so much.

Until next time.

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Separate but Together

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Linda Andrews

My life is pretty compartmentalized. There is the writer me and there is the scientist me. While I am very comfortable tapping the scientist me for the writing, the scientist me, for obvious reasons, only uses the skills of the writer and pretends in public forums that the writer doesn’t exist.

It is an interesting balance.

Make no mistake it is a balancing act. There’s a schedule inside my noggin that allows each to work.

Well, usually.

That schedule has been blown to bits this week as the scientist has taken center stage to attend classes, interview, and to finish up a conference.

So the writer is on a break and is a bit cranky. I’m behind in my story-telling. Which means bad news for those characters in the green room in my mind.

Eventually, things will return to equilibrium. I just hope it is sooner rather than later.

Until next time.

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Did you notice?

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Linda Andrews

There is a facebook meme out there, that when we are old, we shall write in cursive and none of the staff will understand. I’ve seen my cursive, it’s why I print:D

But then there is the other cursive—you know the kind I mean. The stuff that shows up on Antiques Roadshow. Seriously, have you seen that cursive?

Part of me, (yes, the kinda evil part of me), thinks that was the special cursive. The kind used for special occasions, by people who were very important, or thought they were. This was not the kind of cursive people used to make grocery lists.

And then there’s the fact that they can write straight across an unlined page of stationary. That’s gotta be witchcraft.

Just saying.

Until next time!

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When it all comes back

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Linda Andrews

We were grocery shopping yesterday when I started humming to the faint music in the background. I literally stopped in the middle of the aisle as I couldn’t figure out the song but I knew it.

It brought back memories of sausage cooking on the grill. Of summer days by the pool. Of the jukebox in our garage that played old 45s.

When the chorus finally hit, I remembered the song. But it wasn’t the right singer. In my memories, it was a male singer, not a female. So I stopped and looked up the song on amazon.

The version by Joan Baez came up first, fitting given that this was the one I was hearing:

But this is the one I remembered hearing growing up.

It was amazing to hear the song again and to reminisce about so many good memories just before father’s day.

I hope you, too, had a great weekend remembering all the positive male role models in your life.

Until next time.

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Old versus New

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Linda Andrews

It’s an odd thing—This consumer economy. We live in a time when we throw things away rather than repair them. Given the obvious benefit to companies, most don’t even bother providing manuals anymore. It’s better for their bottom line.

Some would say it’s because the millennials don’t have the patience or ability. But, sorry, no.

This isn’t about age.

Not too long ago, we received a scientific refrigerator at work. The company brought it into the lab but didn’t unwrap or take it off the pallet. Now, this fridge is about 5 feet wide and over 6 feet tall before putting on the feet (no wheels). It weighed in at nearly 500 pounds.

It took 4 of us, to jockey and maneuver it off the pallet, attach the feet, then move it into place. Then we had to get the old fridge in a passenger elevator and downstairs. Folks were surprised that we had done it without the help of professionals.

Really?

I am a repairer by nature and nurture. My mom trained me to fix everything. The hubbinator has the same inclination. People at work are often amazed that we fix our evaporative cooler, or install wiring for a new fixture. Apparently, it’s easier to hire someone else to do it or just replace things.

But then there is a great sense of satisfaction in doing things myself, of fixing things, and of being environmentally friendly. Which is why I’m happy to share the link to this great site that offers an alternative to googling youtube videos: iFixit

Try it. You might like it. And, yes, there are other things on there than Apple products.

Until next time

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Yes, We Did

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Linda Andrews

On our Amazon prime subscription, a movie was suggested to us. One that the algo gods thought we might enjoy. It was Bad Ben, part of the Steelman Road movies.

The hubbinator who usually tries to take over the world via Axis and Allies online while I binge watch horror movies actually sat down and watched with me.

In the movie, Tom Riley purchases a house at a sheriff’s auction only to find out that it is haunted. I absolutely love the man’s reaction to all the stuff that goes on, especially when he finds out that someone died in the house. Priceless.

There are a slew of movies in the series. I think we’re up to six. And yes, some of them are better than others, but they all bring something unique and funny to the genre.

Until next time.

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Losing a Day

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Linda Andrews

There’s this thing that causes people to lose time. It’s called a migraine. Migraines are fun times. That’s sarcastic, folks. I had plans for this weekend. Fun plans. They started with the stuff below.

But then Sunday morning I woke up and things were just wonky. My vision was blurred and the pounding in my head was enough to shatter any thought that entered.

Gone was the ability to write and nearly to stay upright.

So, I drank a soda for the medicinal effects of the caffeine and took some aspirin, then went to bed. And repeated it until bedtime.

Where I couldn’t sleep.

Fun times. Now, I’m groggy but at least the headache is gone.

Ah, well, there’s always another weekend.

Until next time.

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Did you ever play the game…

Posted on June 7, 2019 by Linda Andrews

Did you ever play the game, what’s that smell?

I’m not talking the foodie one that starts with does this smell bad to you, and it’s curdled milk or something worse that engages the gag reflex.

No, I’m talking about the cloud of scent that makes you go, um.

We have an evaporative cooler on our roof, which draws in 100 air from outside. And so, we know when our neighbor is barbequing something we want to eat and something that has gone horribly awry. We know when our neighbors are using their fireplace, too. We also know when the neighbor up the street who carves totems has finished one and is now sealing the wood.

But the latest incident I’m talking about came from work. I walked through a cloud of what smelled like weak ammonia. Given that I work in a lab, this could be a bad thing. So I enlisted the nose of a colleague. He smelled it, too. Then another coworker walked up the steps and she didn’t. We spent about 10 minutes trying to find the source, only to have it disappear on us.

A bit like when you take your car to the mechanic because it is making that funny noise, only it doesn’t make that noise when you are there.

Yeah, like that.

Ah well, it’s just one of those things.

Until next week!

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Going Short

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Linda Andrews

There is a trend for cross-promotion in writing for authors to share a world. On one hand, by having a common framework in stories, authors can showcase their individual talents. The most common of these would be books written around established characters such as the Star Wars or Star Trek books.

Most author groups and publishers create another world. There are established characters and a fixed location involved. Recently one of my writing groups decided to embark on such a project. I was intrigued but then I saw the word count: under 5,000 words.

Yeah, that so doesn’t fit my cranium.

The shortest story I’ve been able to write was 7K. And then I received reviews for it being too short. Apparently, I open up the possibility of too many ideas, leaving that vaguely unfinished feeling at the end of a book. Which as a reader, I hate, so I’m not surprised others feel the same way.

The irony is the story I’m currently writing was meant to be short as in 30K (or 120 manuscript pages). Instead, it’s growing like mushrooms after weeks of rain. But it is telling the story as it needs to be told. Which is the whole point about writing, isn’t it?

Ah, well. There are some really gifted short story writers out there. I just don’t happen to be one of them.

Until next time.

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