Tag: writing

The Sounds of Silence

~ JodiLea

Stacked firewood

Well… I’m still waiting.

At first I was patiently waiting. Then I was impatiently waiting. Now, I wear earplugs and curse a lot.

When you live where people have cabins, weekends are noisy. I don’t mind that. But it’s the Monday through Friday noise that’s disrupting my mind and soul. If it’s not chain-saws, it’s hammering, men talking (or yelling), cement pumpers, power tools and large trucks.  And that’s just today.

Some days (like today), when it gets really loud and goes on for an hour or more, I let Big Yellow loose. Might as well do housework, if I can’t think well enough to work on my novel. I swap out earplugs for iPod ear-buds and play soothing music to myself. Or hard-assed rock and roll, depending. Even with my ears full of music I can’t take a nap. Along with the headache, no nap makes me, shall we say “grumpy”?

And I hate it when the phone rings and it’s for hubby. This means I have to get my grubby shoes on, go out to the yard, or wherever he is, and wait for a pause in the saw, so I can get his attention and give him the handset.  You won’t hear any feminine voices singing out the window – “honey, the phone’s for you”.  He has very high quality earplugs that can block out everything, including wifely hollering.

There is a chance the autumn firewood cutting will stop this week. Then we should have enough stacked for the winter (please God, let 8 cords be enough!), and maybe, get some quiet around here. Until hubby and friend continue building shelves for the shop. Or whatever noise-making project they think up next.

Thank goodness NaNoWriMo does not begin until November.  I want to finish the draft of the dusty novel I started in 1991, before I get involved with another one.  Wish me luck on that idea  – Ha!
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photo credit: premasagar via photopin cc

It’s Starting To Look a Lot Like Retirement

~ JodiLea

I have 8 more working days left at my day-job. I packed up some stuff from my office and brought it home today (where I had to pack it again …). I try to bring something home everyday, so moving out won’t be such a big deal the last couple days.

My employee badge was exchanged for a temporary one, that says: “EXPIRES 19-JUL-2012” – this is if I don’t  turn the thing in (badge) when I exit the place on the 19th. If I want to sneak past the guard at the gate and get in illegally. Like that will occur to me. I have gone through that gate for 28+ years now, and I’m ready to stop.

I want to do my own things. Like write a novel (or two), and at least one screenplay. I sometimes fantasize about Best Seller lists and the Oscars. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?   But my number one thrill is getting so involved in the story that I am there, and it unfolds right before my eyes as I write it down.

Old Notebooks

I have a drawer full of old notebooks with handwritten stories, beginnings of novels & poems. I wrote them before people had computers with Microsoft on them. Before spell check.

I also want to finish up other kinds of projects started long ago:  quilts, rugs, a family cookbook. And who knows what new bees are yet to fly up my bonnet! I think all these changes at once are going to be an adventure… 😉

photo credit: aepoc via photo pin cc

A Death in the Family

~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

Normally I write about frivolous things with smart-ass humor, or climb up on my soap box and rant good and loud. This post is different.

My sister Melanie and I said good-bye to our terminally ill mother last spring. We leaned on one another during the months we took care of her, and then as we carried out her last wishes. We had lost our father in 1993 and now it was just the two of us. Being “the writer” of the family it fell to me to write mom’s obituary. It had to be perfect. I struggled for 3 days on the thing until I couldn’t find anything more to re-write. That and I had the thing memorized.

If you have ever had the misfortune to write one, I’m sure you know exactly what I mean.  How do you sum up somebody’s entire life? Especially someone you have known and loved your whole life. Writing a stranger’s obituary would be so much easier. Just the facts. No memories. No emotions.

Last month I got a phone call – Melanie died. WTF??  How could she just die in her sleep like that? She’s my younger sister. The second shock was the cause of her death. The coroner explained to me that Mel was healthy – except she had advanced stages of coronary artery disease. Her arteries were so blocked that her poor heart simply gave out. I can almost hear my mom holler, “Well, SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!”.  Mom always did get to the point.

So, here I sit sweating over another obituary. Mel’s memorial will be on the 16th, and tonight is my self-inflicted deadline. At 10:08 PM (PDT) I stopped fussing with the copy, closed my eyes and sent my sister’s obit and photo to our local newspaper, and a Bay Area newspaper. Maybe some of her former classmates/co-workers/buddies will see it and drop by.

I hope so – Mel deserves that.