Category Archives: Travel

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An unwelcome delay in the plan

The holidays are over, once again my home contains the usual two human and one feline occupants, and this was supposed to be my first day back to serious work on my next novel. However, there’s a glitch. I’ve pinched the sciatic nerve in my back again, and the pain and discomfort makes it hard to think or to sit for long.

I have a few things in the works for January, but nothing today, so I’ll give you a glimpse of a day trip we took a few days after Christmas. Three adults and three kiddos piled into a van and headed for the coast. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny, warm day with little wind, but, as usual, the water was frigid at the William Randolph Hearst Memorial Beach near San Simeon, California.

The water temperature didn’t keep the little ones from playing in the surf, though, and they had an equally good time digging holes in the sand—or making a sand angel. We had to drag their teeth-chattering little bodies to the picnic table with a promise to let them return to the water after they ate and warmed up a bit.

After lunch, we walked on the pier, and I watched the waves. And, of course, I thought about Jalal, Meredith, and Renee in The Brevity of Roses, which only increased my desire to get back to writing. As soon as my back pain eases up, I’ll be back to work.

It made me sad to leave the beach before sunset, but, on the way home, we caught a gorgeous view of the valley looking out toward Morro Bay just as the sun kissed the horizon. It’s a blessing to have these lovely scenes etched in my memory to escape to whenever I want.

(Click photos to view larger.)

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Meander through a sunken garden with me

I hope to be back to blogging as usual on Friday. Until then I thought I’d share some photos I took in the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln, Nebraska. It’s an amazing, peaceful place. Of course, these photos don’t do it justice, so use your imagination and enjoy.

Please click the photos to see larger images.

“I expect to make this spot the most beautiful place in the city, either in or out of the parks. The ground lends itself perfectly to the making of a sunken garden, and at the same time a spot rich in beauty, at a small expense.”

- E.M. Bair, Lincoln Park Superintendent, November 1930

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Welcome to the Jumble

In other words, welcome to the inside of my head. (That reads as a total non sequitur if you didn’t read the title of this post.) Anyway, I’m blogging today about a few little things rolling around in my mind.

Yesterday, I downloaded my first library book to my Kindle. It was almost as exciting as getting my first library card eons ago. The print book has been on my request list for two months and I estimated it would have taken another two months before I got to the top of the waiting list. As soon as I found out Amazon had worked things out with Overdrive to allow downloads to Kindle, I added it to my library’s eBook waiting list and five days later, I got notice it was available to download.

My youngest son and his wife bought tickets for my husband and I to fly to visit them in the exotic locale of Lincoln, Nebraska. My son warned us there isn’t a lot to do there, but we don’t mind. It will be the first time we’ve seen them at their home in Lincoln, and we’ll be happy just to sit and talk. He said we might go apple picking, and I realized later, he’s the only son I ever picked apples with and that was thirty years ago.

I don’t know what to think about the new Facebook. I don’t really understand the Subscriptions thing. The Lists, I get because it’s like Google+ circles. When I post a status update, I can choose which of my lists it goes to, but what if I reply to a friend’s status? Do all my Lists see that? People are posting all sorts of scary messages about the increased privacy invasion with the new Facebook, so I’m a little paranoid now. Some people are complaining about the new Ticker, but I don’t even see it on my Home or Wall. If all my friends and family would move to Google+, I’d just forget about Facebook. Well … I do  like to play Gardens of Time or Bejeweled Blitz when I need to veg.

All right, except for this short story I’m struggling with, those are about the most interesting marbles rolling around in my brain today. What’s in yours?

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Be it ever so humble …

First, I want to thank all who took the time to read my short story, “Perchance to Dream“. I didn’t mean to leave that post up so long. I had hoped to publish a new one this past Sunday, but during my time spent in Indiana, I had even less internet access than I thought I would. I returned to my Pacific Time home yesterday afternoon, exhausted, and went to bed still on Eastern Time. After ten hours sleep, I feel almost normal. So I’m up before dawn writing this post.

Today’s photo is of my son and his grandmother (my mother), taken after his doctoral commencement at Ball State University. That ceremony was the highlight of my trip, of course. The next day, we had a big Syrian dinner with my husband’s family where both the wine and conversation flowed like water. Most of my time away, I spent with my mother and two sisters in the home we moved into when I was fifteen.

It’s always a weird experience when you return to a place that never changes. No, my mother hasn’t kept everything the same since the late 60’s, but the décor in La Maison de Cassidy, for the most part, has not changed since the 80’s. Every mirror where I checked my hair, makeup, and clothes on high school mornings and before weekend dates still hangs where it did then. Unfortunately, I look completely different in them now.

Okay, it’s now over three hours later and I still haven’t finished this post. Life intervened. But what’s life without life? I do have a few writing-related things on my mind, so expect a bit more meat next time.

… there’s no place like home.

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I missed the party!

Like you, I balance two lives: real and virtual. I discovered how hard it is to mix the two this past week. When I left on vacation to visit some real life family, I thought I could also keep up with my virtual crowd. The first day on the road, I posted to my Facebook Page and my profile, with photos, even. That night I responded to blog comments and a few emails.

The second day, in Utah, I kept up with my blog and email. No time to read your blogs.The next day, I published a new blog post and responded in batches to comments for a day or two. My next appearance was a re-post from a year earlier. After that, I gave up. Sorry, friends, you just can’t measure up to family.

I expected to get caught up a bit on the way home, but the hotel’s WiFi didn’t like my laptop, so I couldn’t get online. It was just as well because I was feeling the effects of a virus. I slept most of the way on the second leg of our trip and went straight to bed when I arrived home.

What did I find when I woke this morning? The party went on without me. So many emails and blog posts—and Cathryn’s podcast—to catch up on. While I get caught up, I’ll share a few more photos from the road for you to enjoy.

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Try to remember …

Memory, like many things, is often taken for granted—until it’s lost. My mother is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. She realizes it, but most of the time pretends it’s not happening. “Everyone forgets things,” she’ll say, but I can tell by her voice she knows what she’s forgotten is more serious than where she set her purse or what she walked into the kitchen for.

I fear losing my memory—or precisely, losing my memories. The other day, someone mentioned an event I felt I should have remembered, and it shook me a bit that I didn’t. I thought of many wonderful events in my life I would hate to forget, but someday due to Alzheimer’s or ordinary senility, I will begin to lose those memories. My recent loss of valued Christmas ornaments and decorations reinforced my fear. Yes, I still have the memories association with each item—but for how long?

Sad to say, I’m not a writer who kept journals all her life. I wish someone had taught me about journaling when I was young. I would have had my life in written form. Ah-h, if wishes were horses … Still, it’s not too late. I could record all the precious memories I’ve retained. I’m a writer; I could do that.

New plan: whenever something from my past comes to mind, I’ll write it down. I will have my memory in written form. A memoir in its purest form. And if, when I’m ninety, I forget these things happened to me, they should still be good reading.

The Mojave Desert at 75mph

 

Note: I included this photo for those of you who didn’t see my road photos and witty repartee on my Facebook page. (Just kidding, it was the first time I tried updating my status from my iPhone, so I was too befuddled to be witty. At least that’s my excuse.)


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Utah bound, road trip!

Today, my husband and I leave for Utah. The photo above shows our destination. One of our sons, his wife, and two children live outside Salt Lake City, and they can’t travel home for Christmas, so we’re going to visit them. We’ll drive for thirteen hours, over a day and a half. My biggest regret with car travel is that I can’t read to pass the time. I get motion sickness if I try to read more than a few words. Such a waste of time.

I usually take notes of things I see or songs I hear, and the thoughts they inspire. In the past, those notes have sometimes been indecipherable because I couldn’t look at the paper as I wrote, but this time I’ve decided to type them directly into my laptop. I type by touch, and though I can only glance at the screen for seconds at a time, I’ll have better luck deciphering my typos than my blind-handwriting.

I’ll also write some blog posts along the way, so you’re not getting a break. Sorry. Right now, blog posts are about the only thing I’m writing, so I have to keep that up. A couple of days after as we return home, our son who lives in Nebraska will arrive for Christmas. I don’t anticipate getting back to the business of writing fiction until January, and by then, I’ll have a long to-do list compiled.

In any case, know that I will be reading any comments you leave on my blog, and I’ll be reading your blogs, but commenting on my end will be slower than usual while I’m away from home. Of course, you know me, I’ll probably be checking for an available internet connection a thousand times a day. If nothing else, I’ll respond via iPhone. Don’t expect verbosity.