I”m not gifted. I’m not talented. Not today. Probably not tomorrow.

Then again, I could be wrong.

The family’s been around due to the MLK holiday. The normal peace and quiet didn’t enter into my day until late.

I feel a little less in control on those days.

But as I bantered back in forth between the running book of blues dialogues in my head while my sister and I watched Book of Eli, I started to wonder if I was simply overwhelmed by all the projects I’ve bombarded my plate with.

And I realized that I stopped feeling lethargic when I got in the car and got on the highway.

So I came to this conclusion:  I’m one of those people that doesn’t get moving til I feel the day moving forward.

And once I get perspective on my day, I get a proper view of my projects and what I’m able to do on them that day.

And the day gets a little better.

Now if I can only get them going sooner…

Anybody else have little tricks that help them start their day?

(photo credit:  Jammy via Flickr)

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It’s Sunday night in Ft. Myers, Margaritaville. The heater is on and I’ve closed the doors to the porches. I can’t complain because it’s still 45 degrees warmer than The Region.

Stay warm, y’all! I’ll be back in the mess soon enough.

Today is an anniversary of sorts, and for it, I going to work on the dream instead of the dream job. But I shouldn’t even be making excuses for it.

I go for the dream job so I can work on the dream.

And that dream – finishing the book of blues.

Max Power tells me that chapter 2 is bad. I warned him it was horrible and the worst thing ever. A chapter so bad it has had more rewrites than many other chapters combined. So, tonight I fix chapter 2. After 3 years of dealing with the worst chapter ever, I spent the last 4 days figuring out how I want to do it. And I think I finally have a plan for it that I like.

We’ll see what Max says.

Fingers crossed.

(photo credit: sean_hickin via Flickr)

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I’ve still got three things to do before I can actually write a chapter in Book of Blues Prequel. But once those things are done, then its just me and those Book of Blues.

A watching the final season of Royal Pains should do the trick.

For me, writer’s block seems to be a forced condition. My subconscious seems to keep me a safe distance from my fears. Overbearing really.

Luckily there’s only a half-hour of it to go.

Now, will my writer’s block let me get to working out?

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(“Never Been to Spain” by Three Dog Night. Video by?????)

Talk of Aaron’s Sorkin’s SportsNight at work lead to a talk to about how Season 1, Episode 19, Eli’s Coming, featured not one but two Three Dog Night songs. Yes, very good. The other being Never Been to Spain.

Never have quited figured out the point of Never Been to Spain, but I think that’s the point. So the song blues’, “What Does it Matter?” (more…)

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a bird's footprints in the snow - image by Lize Rixt

Much like New Yorkers, Those from The Region flock as fast as they can down to the shady palm trees of Florida. Especially the Gulf side. We in The Region call them snow birds.

At the time of this posting, there will be five days til I get on a plane that is, hopefully, headed for a sweet, soft landing on a smooth runway at Southwest Florida International Airport. And once that plane touches down, my sister, mother, grandfather and I will be doing the sprint to The Mucky Ducky on Captiva Island in hopes of getting to the Gulf shores in time to watch the Green Flash wink off the horizon at sundown.

This gulf shore sprint is among my family’s more recent holiday traditions:  trimming palm trees, dressing up golf carts for parades and swimming and sunning after Christmas breakfast.

The simple, sad truth is that I didn’t always partake in these family holiday traditions. My family didn’t start to all meet in Ft. Myers for the holidays til around the time I was attending Denominational University. They didn’t do this simply because I was at Denom U. I certainly didn’t take it personally, but I first avoided the family holiday trips to Ft. Myers, Margaritaville. The reasons for my absence were not because I was holy-rolling and they were hip-deep in vices or anything. I come from a dry family – aside from an infrequent Holiday toast. I even had a father whose life we learned from in spite of his actions. His life reaffirmed our family’s sobriety. (more…)

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