![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Y2/D304...
Jan. 14th, 2022 10:09 pmSupposed to get really cold tonight and dip into the single digits tomorrow with a high of 25 degrees. Sounds like a day to stay in and binge-watch television, vacuum the apartment, clean, change filters, drink hot coco, and bake gluten free bread and make soup. Or pizza.
This has been a week. They did not paint the apartment. Tried out the gray paint on the wall and thought better of it. The gray pain is too dark and looks like mud. So no. They will wait until more of the off-white cream color comes into stock. I'll be fine, it looks better than it did before - and I'd rather they did it in the spring, when I can air out the apartment, and I'm back to working full time in the office.
Finished my Dad's book "Beach Walk" and it kind of haunts me. It's not your typical romance, it's more well realistic, and a kind of slice of life what if tale? None of the characters are my father - but his voice and presence is definitely there. Which is true of all writers, I suspect. My book isn't about me either, although there is a lot of me in it. I write about things I know and throw them in there, as did he. Writing what you know isn't a guarantee of success, any more than writing about what you don't know is a guarantee that you won't succeed. I know people who wrote books about things they knew nothing about that became best-selling writers. Well, everyone does. Write what is inside you - what energizes you. Otherwise it's a chore, and trust me on this, the reader can tell.
My father loved writing and telling stories. He was driven to do it, and driven to share them with others. So after striking out with the fickle traditional publishing route, he independently published six books through Author.House, starting in the 1990s and pretty much up until 2008. He got involved in World Affairs shortly there after, and then he got ill, and the Alzheimer's hit.
The book is about a man whose turned 60, with an alcoholic wife, struggling with the concept of retirement, and the loss of a son - that crippled his marriage. He goes to Hilton Head Island on Business, and runs into a woman he'd dated for a few years in college and lost touch with. They reconnect. She's also married, but dissatisfied with her life, and still harboring a torch for the boy she'd dated in college, only to disappear when she took off to take care of a family member. It's told in both points of view. It doesn't have a happily ever after. They don't end up together, and it's kind of a bitter-sweet ending. Also, my father in his writing - subtly hints at things, but doesn't necessarily tell you. In other words, it's haunting because of all the things left unsaid but hinted at. I like books like that - that don't tell you everything, and leave things unsaid.
I wish I could discuss it with him. He wanted my take when I visited him last, but with the Alzheimer's - he may well have forgotten.
**
Niece has managed to wrangle a ride to the airport from Penn Station. Or rather her mother wrangled one for her. Because the prospect of her seventeen year old daughter journey by herself from Penn Station to Jamaica to JFK was a bit worrisome. I'd given instructions on how to get to the Air Train, and taken photos. That's how I found out. But mother filled in the details.
I'm relieved. I'd rather a friend drove her from Penn Station that she did the whole thing on her own.
I hope she makes her flight, and it takes off without any problems. Apparently she gets another month off in April, and school finishes in June. She'll come home for two weeks in April. And use the other two weeks to play about. I wish I could visit her - but I just can't. COVID and work - my two projects are likely to take off by then, and I don't see myself slipping away easily. At least I hope they take off.
**
Wales got bored and decided to angry text about current events. This went on for almost two days, until I got annoyed and started to mock. I get very patronizing/condescending when I get annoyed, or I begin to make fun of people and mock things. It's a family trait - my entire family does this. I realized it today - that I sounded just like my brother, sisterinlaw, father and mother. We mock and poke fun when we get annoyed or irritated.
As you probably know all to well - because I also do that online.
Outside of sisinlaw and niece, I'm the only one who really texts, tweets, or posts on the internet. Or is on it much.
**
The Governor of NY has informed people that we're turning a corner again or cases are going down. We went from an infection rate of 23% to 16%. Which means that the surge is winding down and we may be able to lift various mandates and go back to what we were doing in September. I hope they keep the precautions in place until March at least.
If I ran things - I'd keep everything in place until March 31. I'd also move towards semi-lockdowns in the fall and winter months. Start school in April and have it run until September. Have folks work en mass April - September, hybrid or remote September through March. Easy.
COVID thrives in the cold - when folks are stuck inside.
But most people appear to have skipped basic logic in school.
**
Random Photo of the Evening, because I want to go to bed...and this is the best way to end this..
This has been a week. They did not paint the apartment. Tried out the gray paint on the wall and thought better of it. The gray pain is too dark and looks like mud. So no. They will wait until more of the off-white cream color comes into stock. I'll be fine, it looks better than it did before - and I'd rather they did it in the spring, when I can air out the apartment, and I'm back to working full time in the office.
Finished my Dad's book "Beach Walk" and it kind of haunts me. It's not your typical romance, it's more well realistic, and a kind of slice of life what if tale? None of the characters are my father - but his voice and presence is definitely there. Which is true of all writers, I suspect. My book isn't about me either, although there is a lot of me in it. I write about things I know and throw them in there, as did he. Writing what you know isn't a guarantee of success, any more than writing about what you don't know is a guarantee that you won't succeed. I know people who wrote books about things they knew nothing about that became best-selling writers. Well, everyone does. Write what is inside you - what energizes you. Otherwise it's a chore, and trust me on this, the reader can tell.
My father loved writing and telling stories. He was driven to do it, and driven to share them with others. So after striking out with the fickle traditional publishing route, he independently published six books through Author.House, starting in the 1990s and pretty much up until 2008. He got involved in World Affairs shortly there after, and then he got ill, and the Alzheimer's hit.
The book is about a man whose turned 60, with an alcoholic wife, struggling with the concept of retirement, and the loss of a son - that crippled his marriage. He goes to Hilton Head Island on Business, and runs into a woman he'd dated for a few years in college and lost touch with. They reconnect. She's also married, but dissatisfied with her life, and still harboring a torch for the boy she'd dated in college, only to disappear when she took off to take care of a family member. It's told in both points of view. It doesn't have a happily ever after. They don't end up together, and it's kind of a bitter-sweet ending. Also, my father in his writing - subtly hints at things, but doesn't necessarily tell you. In other words, it's haunting because of all the things left unsaid but hinted at. I like books like that - that don't tell you everything, and leave things unsaid.
I wish I could discuss it with him. He wanted my take when I visited him last, but with the Alzheimer's - he may well have forgotten.
**
Niece has managed to wrangle a ride to the airport from Penn Station. Or rather her mother wrangled one for her. Because the prospect of her seventeen year old daughter journey by herself from Penn Station to Jamaica to JFK was a bit worrisome. I'd given instructions on how to get to the Air Train, and taken photos. That's how I found out. But mother filled in the details.
I'm relieved. I'd rather a friend drove her from Penn Station that she did the whole thing on her own.
I hope she makes her flight, and it takes off without any problems. Apparently she gets another month off in April, and school finishes in June. She'll come home for two weeks in April. And use the other two weeks to play about. I wish I could visit her - but I just can't. COVID and work - my two projects are likely to take off by then, and I don't see myself slipping away easily. At least I hope they take off.
**
Wales got bored and decided to angry text about current events. This went on for almost two days, until I got annoyed and started to mock. I get very patronizing/condescending when I get annoyed, or I begin to make fun of people and mock things. It's a family trait - my entire family does this. I realized it today - that I sounded just like my brother, sisterinlaw, father and mother. We mock and poke fun when we get annoyed or irritated.
As you probably know all to well - because I also do that online.
Outside of sisinlaw and niece, I'm the only one who really texts, tweets, or posts on the internet. Or is on it much.
**
The Governor of NY has informed people that we're turning a corner again or cases are going down. We went from an infection rate of 23% to 16%. Which means that the surge is winding down and we may be able to lift various mandates and go back to what we were doing in September. I hope they keep the precautions in place until March at least.
If I ran things - I'd keep everything in place until March 31. I'd also move towards semi-lockdowns in the fall and winter months. Start school in April and have it run until September. Have folks work en mass April - September, hybrid or remote September through March. Easy.
COVID thrives in the cold - when folks are stuck inside.
But most people appear to have skipped basic logic in school.
**
Random Photo of the Evening, because I want to go to bed...and this is the best way to end this..