Category Archives: Daily Update
Daily Update: Something a little different today
First, if you’ve read this, keep reading. If you haven’t read this, go check out Mur’s letter to her daughter.
http://www.murverse.com/2012/04/15/dear-daughter/
I’m not going to cry or complain about my childhood here, I’m just going to explain how it was for me growing up.
Growing up as a kid in the backwoods of Minnesota, it was expected for you to ‘be a man’ even when you were an 8 year old weakling. I wasn’t ever that strong, or at least I didn’t think I was. I never really liked all the things that other boys liked. I’d rather play jump rope with the girls instead of hitting a baseball. Sports were boring and I wasn’t big on pain. This earned me a lot of ridicule and I was called gay/girlie boy/fairy/fag you name a term, they gave it to me. Girls started to shun me because they didn’t want to be associated with me.
My step-father was a man’s man. He was a roofer, hunter, baseball coach, self-employed, all those things that made a man a man. My brother and I spent a great deal of time in the woods cutting down trees, loading them into a truck, and splitting the wood to be stacked for our own use or to be sold. It was hard, backbreaking work, but it made us stronger.
Because I was so shunned by boys and girls alike, I grew up very self conscious and hating my very existence. The girls were less mean than the boys, so when I had the choice between shop (all boys take shop) and Home Ec. (All girls take home ec) I took Home Ec. I had already learned how to sew from my mom and how to cook, clean, iron, all those things. So the class was easy for me. I even taught some of the girls in the class how to thread a needle because they just couldn’t get it. Being the only in class got me a lot of harassment from the boys in shop class.
What happened because of this? Teachers saw that I was the only boy and how well I did and a new policy got passed. All children had to take shop and home ec. Sex no longer matters, all girls would take one semester of shop and all boys had to take one semester of home ec. This earned me even more hatred from the boys who had no desire to do girlie things.
Back to my Step-dad for a moment. In his eyes, it wasn’t alright for a boy to cry. I’d get a smack upside the head if I did. It didn’t matter if I had stepped on a nail and could see it protruding through the top of my foot or if I had dropped a log on my foot. I was a clumsy kid and hurt myself often. His ‘tough love’ was to hit me to make me stop crying. Brilliant.
What did happen is I grew stronger during my youth and during an arm wrestling competition with the other boys in 9th grade I bested all of them except one. The only one I didn’t beat was a kid who had flunked twice and was 3 years older than I was. I was also the youngest kid in the class. Even some of the kids from the class behind me were older than I was. But being strong gave the other kids a little respect for me even if I was a dork/geek/insert bad name here.
I also wasn’t smart. I grew up and had a sever lisp, I wore glasses (the only kid in the class to wear glasses), I was overweight, slow, shy, and I had dyslexia. It wasn’t until 6th grade that my lisp got help from a speech therapist, and my dyslexia got diagnosed and I also got help for that. Getting the right strength glasses also helped me seeing the blackboard better. Gee, I wasn’t stupid, I was just having other problems.
I still didn’t like sports .Fortunately it was at that time that my mother divorced my step-dad and I moved in with my father. It wasn’t fortunate that I moved away from my mother, I missed her a lot. But I was now away from any stigmas that I had grown up with. I moved to a land where I wasn’t judged by which sports I played, or how strong I was, or anything like that. I made friends and life moved on for me.
Reading Mur’s letter sparked a lot of memories for me. One thing I’ve always tried to instill in my favorite daughter is to be proud of who she is and what she does. She plays volleyball for herself. Some boys had teased her that volleyball is easy. During gym class she spiked a ball into more than one of those boy’s faces. Not to be mean, but because that’s what she’s learned to do playing volleyball and the boys who said ‘it was easy’ couldn’t return the ball coming at him that fast. They’ll learn quickly enough that my kid isn’t one to be messed with.
She also took kickboxing lessons for a short time. In the Navy, I was taught how to take a hit and how to deliver a punch. I taught my favorite daughter how to hit. I did this so well that she bruised both my arms. I wish I had bought a punching bag. I also taught her what to do it someone tries to grab her, assault her, kidnap her. Yes, she can be a shy, delicate little flower, but she can also defend herself. I had the bruises to prove that.
I would have done the same thing if I had a boy. I’ve never tried to put limits on my kid’s imagination, inspiration, or focus. I’ve let her wander into any topic of her choosing. She grew up with Barbies and Dinosaurs. Unicorns and trucks. She was the only kid in her group during science class that wanted to cut open the cow’s eye while the boys cringed and squealed as she did this. I always let her pick up bugs, crabs, tiny fish, anything she wanted that I knew wouldn’t hurt her, but I would explain the dangers of other things like spiny sand crabs that pinch hard.
Just like my mom let me be me, I’ve let her be her. Her choices in music and television shows may bother me to no end, I still accept her choices. If something it inappropriate I will intervene, but if she wants to watch Pretty Little Liars with her mom and Mythbusters with me, I’m good with that. She’s not a girlie girl, she’s not a tomboy. She’s her own person and I couldn’t be happier with the person she’s become.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: A little nothing.
I just wasn’t feeling in the blogging mood today. We drove up to Huntington Beach last night. Stayed in an awesome hotel. We upgraded to a suite with a bay view for an extra $20. Had a great view, had a great dinner. Relaxed. I slept great. I woke up very refreshed.
Then my favorite daughter’s team had some volleyball to play. Her games take everything out of me. They’re draining. I cheer. I whistle. I scream. She tells me they can’t hear anything on the court, but it makes me happy.
I also celebrate from the sidelines for every great play and my heart breaks on every bad play or missed point. I really get into the games. I’ve watched other sports, but Volleyball is all action. I would compare it with games like Lacrosse and Field Hockey, but with Volleyball there are a lot of points scored.
So they lost their first two marches, taking each to three games. And they took the third match to three also. The team was the 4th seed in their group. What they didn’t know going in was that group had beat the other two teams and had moved up from a lower division because they were so good. That was frustrating for me to hear also BECAUSE THEY WON!
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m very happy they won. What’s frustrating is they should have won all their matches. It’s like sputtery truck not firing on all cylinders. Once something starts to go wrong, it all falls apart. As a parent you don’t want to see your child lose, but my favorite daughter had an incredible day. She had many awesome digs, and every spike went over the net. She only missed one serve, but that happened after a timeout. Her rhythm had been throw off.
So it was a super proud dad moment to day to see how well she played and how many points she scored. It’s just hard to come back down to reality and write this post.
So speaking of sputtery truck, we took it up this weekend. I hadn’t taken it on a long road trip since getting new guts. It ran great. I even got it up to XX miles per hour and it ran like a champ. Even though I drove up there and back at XX miles per hour, I still got passed by many cars. Simply shocking.
I got through some reading while in our suite. It was nice for all three of us to be crammed into the same spot. I will post a review of what I read soon enough. I’ve got a couple of reviews to write in fact.
I had an idea of what I want to do with my daily word count. I don’t seem to be increasing my fiction writing as quickly as I would like. So for the next month I’m going to try and hit my daily word goal with fiction only. I’m still going to write the daily blog posts, but not count them against my daily word goal. The blog posts will count to the annual goal though. I want to get a number of projects finished and if I’m hitting my word goal with blog posts, I’m not so anxious to write fiction. I need to put a little pressure on myself and get a little push in the right direction.
I’m about two thirds done with the next episode of Golden West and about three fifths done with My Teacher is a Werewolf. I am going to try and do a section of Golden West each month and a ‘My Teacher is’ each month. Then I’m going to finish off To Fall from the Sky and get cranking on Of Gnomes and Dwarves.
I’ve got lofty goals. It’s not easy staying on track, but I am. I surprise myself some days with how many words I’ve written so far this year. Not only surprised, but happy with how they’ve turned out. I’m not writing a lot of garbage like I used to. That may change, I don’t know, but I’m happy with how the words are flowing at some points.
Speaking of words flowing, I should get on that.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: A little rain, a little hail, a little sunshine
The weather has decided to be a little nuts. I think the weather man is nuts as he said it would start raining around 2PM and IT DID! Right on time! I had to look at my watch to make sure I was seeing things right. I had a flash back to the movie Back to the Future. You know the scene. If you don’t, go watch Back to the Future II. Even if you do, go watch the movie anyway, it’s a great movie. Heck, all three are great movies.
Speaking of movies, we (the wife, my favorite daughter, and I) went over to the Millican’s house last night. I’ll get to the movie in a moment. We had dinner, and we started talking about ice cream. I love me some ice cream. I told them about Pistachios, my favorite daughter’s eyes lit up. And off we went to get ice cream and other goodies. Oh my oh my. I could eat that stuff every day, but I shouldn’t.
So anyway, we got back to their house and decided to watch a movie. We joked about some, watched previews for others that pretty much showed the entire movie and/or what we assumed would be the only funny parts of the movie. We finally settled on The Hunter being that we all like William Defoe and it looked like it would be a good movie.
Is it a good movie? To be fair, it was alright. It was very slow in spots, but I sometimes like a slower movie. I think the best part was the cryptozoology. The main character was off to hunt and kill a Tasmanian Tiger. The last one seen in the wild was in the 1930s. Or maybe that was in captivity. I forget. Either way, the movie, although slow and very predictable (I’ve become cynical in my old age) was a decent watch. I wouldn’t have seen it in the theaters, but was a good enough rental.
I bought a couple of ebooks recently. With all the free books I’ve picked up, I decided to buy a couple. I got the Hunger Games trilogy and Mike Stackpole’s Of Limited Loyalty: the Second Book of the Crown Colonies out through Nightshade books. I’m really looking forward to reading both of these. I had had gotten the first Crown Colonies signed by Mike Stackpole at WFC2011. I still need to write up a review for that one. I’ll probably wait and do both.
On the writing front, I hit my word goal yesterday. I’ll hit my word goal today. I’ll hit my word goal tomorrow. At least that’s the plan. Tonight we’re heading up to Huntington Beach. My favorite daughter has a tournament tomorrow so we’ll be heading up there tonight versus driving up at 5am.
If I’m going to hit that goal, I’d better get on it. So…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: How long?
I still feel a little bad about the little bird. I know it had gotten knocked out of its nest or tried its first flight during the rain and on the ground would likely have died without my knowing about it. That’s just how nature works. But in that short time of taking care of the little guy I grew attached. It didn’t take long at all.
This is part of what made working at the Humane Society in Durango so difficult. I grew attached to the animals very quickly. It made me happy to see one adopted, but when we became over crowded, euthanasia was our only resort. It didn’t matter if the animal had been there a day or a week, it was never an easy task. Dogs were more difficult as they didn’t fit into the gas chamber and they would look at you with those needy, trusting eyes that would just tear your heart out time and again.
All this got me to thinking. How long does it take until you feel that something it yours. Be it your property or your responsibility? How long does it take when you pick up something, say a pen, and decide that it’s now your pen. Or borrow a shirt or a blanket and forget to return it and decide its been too long and now it’s yours? Or adopt an animal. How long does it take until something truly becomes yours? Does the age of the items or animal in question come into play?
I have a sweater I bought at a second hand store about four years ago. It’s been washed and worn many times, but in my mind even though I wash it, fold it, put it away, and wear it again, I’ve never really thought of it as mine. I’d always wondered why the original owner had donated it. Each time I wear it (It’s from Minnesota) if perhaps I somehow knew the person. A lot of things pop into my head, but I’ve never really considered the sweater mine. It’s weird.
But when it comes to that little bird, I felt an almost immediate connection that this little guy was mine and my responsibility. I felt like I should have done something more to ensure that it could have survived the day and been released back outside a little stronger and better prepared for the elements. I find it difficult to explain, but that little life had been in my hands (literally) and I failed to help it thrive. I did look up instructions, but it seems I wasn’t in time.
So what about you? How long does it take for you to become attached to something? Does it take less time to become attached to an inanimate object over a living being? Do you find it difficult when you lose something and wonder where it’s gotten off to? I lost a pocket knife once and always wondered what had happened to it. I’ve had animals run away when I was a kid and I still remember the day they got lost. Anything you’ve found that you still remember finding that you consider yours or something you lost that you still miss?
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: A little birdie
My neighbor brought over a little bird this morning. It had fallen from a tree (or the sky) into her back yard. I’ve never raised a little bird, but she had to go to work and said she’d found a place that took in stray wildlife. Being the good neighbor I am I said I’d keep on eye on the little guy while she went to work. She was going to take it when she got back.
The little did well. Posed for a couple pictures. Drank drops of water from my finger tips. Declined any bread and being that I didn’t have any bugs I didn’t know what else to offer the little guy.
He spent the better part of the day either in a shoebox with a towel mat, or in my hand as it’s a little chilly and I wanted to keep him warm. By the time my neighbor arrived back home the little guy was having trouble keeping its head up and its cheep had gotten noticeably weaker. In the time it too the neighbor to get ready to drive it over to the place she’d called, the little guy gave up.
I barely knew you.
It’s now got a full time place in my back yard where I’m sure I’ll be either the victim of zombie birds later in the year, or I’ll be growing birdie flowers. Either way I did what I could. I feel bad I couldn’t do more for the little guy.
On the happier side, I didn’t write last night. Wait, that’s not happy. Crushing sinus pressure had me taking my good medicine last night. I think I got out maybe a dozen words and the pain had grown so much that it hurt just to sit up.
Why did my head hurt? It’s raining today and is supposed to rain through to the weekend. I don’t mind the rain. As a kid I loved the rain. The rain meant (and still means) release from sinus pressure and pain. The rains coming means that the low pressure system that brought it is moving on. There’s a little bit of sun right now, but I’m sure it’ll go away and we’ll have more rain later today.
As a kid I would play in the rain, swim in mud puddles, it didn’t matter. I would be outside and having a great time. My mom attributed this to me being a Cancer (a water sign). Now that I’m older I know better. It meant a clear(er) head and happier times. I celebrated the rain and enjoyed every part of it. I still do. It drives the wife and my favorite daughter when I’m wearing sandals in the rain and walk through puddles, but I love the feel of cold water on my feet. Always have, always will. As for cold water on the rest of my body, that’s a different story.
I don’t think there is anything going on tonight. At least I hope not. My favorite daughter had volleyball practice last night so between that and an achy head, well, you get the picture. Tonight should be different. At least that’s what I’m hoping.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Some days it’s never easy.
I almost let yesterday’s writing slip by. I sat, wrote two words, would get distracted, didn’t get back to it for a couple hours. Sat again, wrote a couple words, got distracted again. You get the picture.
We went and got the wife the new iPhone. She needed a new phone as hers had gone through the wash. Twice. It still worked, but the cracked screen cut her fingers more than once and who knows when it’ll finally give up the ghost. So rather than wait for the inevitable, we did the needful.
Siri is nice and I had to teach the wife to speak slowly to Siri. It wasn’t her accent that Siri didn’t understand, it was too many words in rapid succession. It’ll take getting used to, but she’ll get the hang of it I know. The wife is smart and adaptive.
I did not get a new phone. I still love my Atrix. It does all I need and more and I push it to its limits some times. I did a couple daily updates with it and I’m sorry for the number of typos that likely slipped past me. It autocorrects and odds are I missed something. I have a ‘voice command’ feature on it that I’ve never used. Seems like it’d be similar to Siri without the talking back part. I think. I’ll have to check it out as I’ve never used it.
Then there was gas, dinner, a visit, all distractions. It wasn’t until after 9PM that I actually got to writing and I burned through 45 minutes and got out just over 1000 words. I hit around 1700 on the day. Not too shabby, but I always feel like I could write so much more than I do.
In case you missed it, Unorthodox Writing Tips volume 1 is available all over the place. Here’s the smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/150171. It’s also over on Kindle and Nook. It covers the first 25 blog posts from this site as well as 6 unpublished episodes that were recorded as audio versions at Get Published. It’s around 25,000 words of advice goodness without telling you how to write words, but more how to inspire yourself to write words.
There are times I sit down to write these posts and I have a lot of negative thoughts. I think about money problems, bad drivers, people that make me angry, political rants, or just random negative thoughts. One thing I’ve tried to do is keep all that away from here. I want to project a positive light on what I’m doing with these daily posts. Hopefully you don’t think I poop sunshine every day. There are times when I just get worn down like everyone else. Some days I need a pick-me-up. Today feels like one of ‘those’ day. I think I need a shopping trip to Fry’s J
There’s a lot to do and I’d better get to doing it.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Home Again
Yesterday was another fun-fill day in Lemoore. I didn’t know how I could top seeing a giant of a horse, but it was still a great day.
My nephew (my wife’s niece’s husband) took the guys on a tour of the ‘other’ side of the base where he works. I was within touching distance of an F-14 Tomcat. When I say working, I’ve been next to F-14s before, but not one in full working order. I’ve been on the Midway museum and those were sterile, locked-down planes. This one was a working model. I so wanted to take a picture of it, the base, the weapons, the bunkers, etc, etc, but I had to contain myself and realize that pictures are not permitted.
Even though I spent time in the military, I had decided it wasn’t a lifestyle fit for me. Even though I chose to leave the military, I still have a great respect for those that serve. It’s an outstanding tradition and these men and women put their lives on the line each day. It’s no small feat and each person is a small part of a much larger whole. Take some time to thank a military person whenever you have a chance. Even if you don’t agree with U.S. policy or position, these men and women are doing what is asked of them and getting little in return for risking their lives.
That being said, the Lemoore NAS is awesome! It’s nice to see a base that does it right. I spent time on several bases and during my time these bases were old, run down, and in much needed repair. I don’t know if that’s even happened, but the buildings I stayed in were from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. So the newest building I had set foot in during my time was at least 20 years old. Lemoore NAS is a up-to-date, in great shape, and has a lot of nice perks for military families.
We left the base for a service. I had thought we were going to the base chapel, but we went off base. We went on a drive to the church and sat through a service. I could say a number of things I didn’t like about the service, but I won’t. The kids had a great time looking for eggs, breaking a piñata, and socializing. That’s what it was about for me; the kids.
We went back and had a Sunday ham. Oh, I like me some ham you’d better believe it. It was during the time the food was being prepared that my nephew needed to go to the store and get some rolls. This was when all the guys piled into the car and got our tour of the ‘other’ side of the base. We were gone for about an hour (maybe a little longer) getting rolls, but we had a good time looking at all the big toys.
After eating it was the long good-byes. We finally got on the road around 2:30PM or 3PM and started on our way. Three stops and a lot of light traffic and we were home. Well, we dropped off my in-laws anyway. Then we headed over to see The Millicans and have another thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat. Oh, wait. No. We got to hear of their Julian adventures, be envious about the apple pies and apple dumplings, and apple this and apple that. My favorite daughter received a very nice Easter Basket with lots of candy and a bottle of homemade root beer. We will have to make a trip so I can fill my fridge with some homemade root beer one day soon. Oh, and an apple pie or two.
Perhaps you don’t know about Julian. It’s a small town (very small) that’s know for its apples. So if you can make it with apples, they make it. For the size of the town, they get a lot of traffic, but if you time it right, you can get in, do walk from end to end, and be eating pie, lunch, buy some goodies, and be on your way back home before the masses arrive for dinner (or supper). If you live in the area and have never been, you owe it to yourself to head on up there. During the winter, they even have snow J
I need to get back into the work groove. So far no strike has been called. That’s a good thing. If a strike does occur, it’ll impact my life in many ways even though I’m not a Union member. Let’s hope a resolution can be achieved.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Zombie wife and the world’s largest horse.
One of the things I forgot to mention yesterday was an interesting dream I had. It made the wife and my favorite daughter laugh. I have those really odd dreams that defy explanation.
So I am in some weird house. I’m not even sure where or why I was in this strange house. But my wife had been turned into a zombie and wanted to eat my brains. She chased me through the house and trapped me in a closet. I decided that the best thing to do was buy my way out of the situation. I had $300 in my pocket (which is odd cuz I never carry money.) So I gave her $100 to leave me alone.
She decided that $100 was enough to not eat my brains. I felt a little more relaxed except there were a lot more zombies out there. I took her to a restaurant where zombies get cured. My favorite daughter had the same idea for her friend, the Millican’s younger daughter. We ate, they got cured…
Then the wife woke me up. She had a kink in her neck so her head was cocked to one side. It took me a moment to realize that I had been woken up and not talking to my zombie wife.
We had driven 6 hours from San Diego to Lemoore NAS. It wasn’t a difficult trip and we got lucky to escape any major traffic.
Day 2 or our Easter Adventure and we had Carne asada. Oh yeah. I love me some Carne asada. No one told ne the salsa was habanero salsa until I was turning red from my first taco. Woo! Tasty but man o man was it hot.
Later in the day we took a walk down to see the horses. I’m not normally intimidated by horses but when you see a sign that says World’s Largest Horse it’s hard not to be intimidated.
The horse stood taller at the shoulder than I am. I posted a pic to facebook and Twitter. He was kind, gentle, and old. A great horse that didn’t smell too bad and very well cared for. The owner said the horse, I wish i’d gotten the horses name, used to be one of the buddweiser horses and did a stint at seaworld.
After getting my picture taken it was off to see the younger clydesdales. The ponies, both also taller than I am, were in a pen with a white tape instead of a normal fence. I had seen so.e kids touch the fencing, but I didn’t touch the tape while petting the massive horses.
Until one walked away and I coaxed him back so I could pet him some more. I had the tape in ny armpit and could just reach to scratch the horse’s nose. The some one slapped my in the arm out and I got a shock from the horse’s nose on my fingertips. Needless to say the horse didn’t like that and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
My brothers in law laughed at me as I came to the realization that the tape was a new kind of electrical fence. My shoes didn’t allow me to be grounded and get a shock, but touching the fence and a horse did. YEOUCH!
Later on that day we played spoons, but…
Until Tomorrow!
Woo Woo!
Daily Update:In Lemoore
Greeting from Lemoore NAS. We left home yesterday at around 5am. Stopped off at the in-laws and picked them up and we were on the road around 5:45. Luckily we didn’t hit any traffic and before you know it we were stopping for breakfast just north of six flags magic mountain.
When the wife and I were dating we used to get season passes to Magic Mountain and go any weekend we could. We’d get a hotel room and go for two or three days. Heck, we would be some or the first in line before they would let cars in and we would be there until they started shutting thing down and asked us to leave. I remember one time we convinced the Viper ride operators to send us four time in a row with out getting off the ride.
But I ‘m getting sidetracked.
So before you know it we were stopping once again because I forgot to get gas when we stopped for breakfast. Whoops. And all in all it took us just under 6 hours to arrive in bright and sunny Lemoore. Now when I say bright and sunny I did not say warm. Good grief was it cold. I brought shorts and short sleeve shirts cuz it was supposed to be warm. Ah well.
We came to Lemoore NAS because the wife’s niece’s husband is stationed here. They’ve got four kids and weren’t able to come down for Easter. It’d been a while sine we have seen them so a bunch of us packed up to come see them. I think 13 of us in all so just a small contingent of the family.
It was great to see the kids. I love tossing them into the air and they lo e being tossed in the air. So far I have a perfect track record without dropping one child or bumping on into the ceiling. Hopefully I wont break that streak.
We had a strange snack that had some grain that I never had before with lots if veggies in it. Good stuff. I think it was a vegan dish. We had pizza for dinner. Oh yeah.
We are staying on base in what used to be old Navy barracks and is now a Navy Hotel. It is really nice and I can tell the y used to be barracks. Nice barracks though. Not as much concrete as I remember from my days. Very comfortable and great accommodations.
I will lost more about our adventures and my encounter with the world’s largest horse tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
Woo Woo!
J.R. Murdock 