Appreciated

In the not too distant future I hope to improve substantially in the general area of keeping you posted on important random topics. To both my faithful followers, thank you for your patience. It's much appreciated!

Glad I checked the stats prior to signing off. Unless the gal at blogger who's responsible for stats is letting down on the job, exactly 100 folks tuned in yesterday to see what was up on Old and Ridiculous. That's a little more pressure than I had been expecting. Now, I feel like I should come up with something respectable, if not down right compelling. If compelling is the new expectation, then I might have to go learn some new stuff. Which reminds me of a friend who used to say he thought he knew a lot of stuff when he was in his 30's. Then, after turning 40, he realized he didn't know squat. Now that he's in his 60's, I'm betting he actually does know some stuff, but wouldn't admit it openly. Funny how that works.  

First Things First

If you woke up this morning and found a raccoon in your kitchen, you might ought to take a look around to try and find out how he got in. I have an old friend named Nick who would call that a "perimeter check".

As I become aware of other important home security measures, I'll keep you posted...

Vacation Invention

There are at least several million regular folks around the world who are at work right now and dreaming about being someplace more like this. It's my guess that in an effort to offset the affects of lost productivity that eventually result from being at work all the time, the person who invented the fist job is likely the same person who, about one year later, invented the first vacation. That's only a guess, but I'd lay down at least enough cash to purchase a fish sandwich at McDonald's that I'm pretty close to being right regarding how vacations originated.

When you think about it, if people didn't spend so much of their personal time working, why in the snot would they need a vacation to get away from it? As my Granddad would have said, "Now that's somethin' to think about!"

I'll keep you posted in the event I come up with any other work related epiphanies.

Edit Update

These darn things are everywhere and come in all sizes, shapes and colors. Just like the people I used to work with!

Thanks to anyone who has continued tuning in to Old and Ridiculous to receive much needed updates on the world of randomness and related topics. Although I, and regular folks like me, learned how to read when we were in the 1st grade, I'm just now learning how to write. There's more to it than meets the eye. Previous to this 1st book writing experience, which I'm still going through, I would have guessed that most of the stuff I've read would have taken only a few days to throw together-2 weeks tops. But, now I know differently.

The first stage of the edit process will be complete sometime later today and back in the hands of "The World's Best Editor", who is none other than,-soon to be-famous, Ron Lee, from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

I better get back to work before Ron logs on and finds out I'm writing another random blog. Dang: Ron runs a tight ship in the book department!

As things progress, I'll keep you posted....

Failure To Keep You Posted!

Well, I've been doing a terrible job of keeping you posted. I just received an email from a good old friend from my home town, Steve "Franks", as coach Molzen used to call him during Jr. High football practice. You could spot Steve all the way across the field, almost with your eyes closed, because of his very recognizable football helmet. The coaches called it a "monkey eared helmet", and Steve was one of the few guys who had one. I don't recall for sure, but I'm guessing the monkey eared helmets were the last of an assortment of football equipment held over from the days way back before our coaches even played football. Steve's helmet probably first saw action shortly after that one guy invented the football helmet face bar. I wonder how many poor kids had to get their nose driven through the back of their heads before someone decided some kind of protection for the face might be a good idea?

I may be somewhat sporadic over the next few weeks in the area of keeping you posted, although keeping you posted is in fact the plan. I'll also include more book details, as soon as a few specific items are buttoned up. Then Kady bar the door baby: I'm in the book writing business!

• NOTE: In truth, and although I certainly didn't spend 6 months of my life planning to bomb out with my first official book effort, I'm not naive about the likelihood of becoming a best selling author on my first book: it could take as long as the second book! 

So He Thinks He's a Writer

Since January 5, 2015, I've been somewhat inconsistent with "keeping you posted". There's a reason for that and for the most part I've kept quiet regarding the reason, until recently. That reason is, I've been writing what I hope will eventually become known as my "1st book". The manuscript is currently in the hands of a highly experienced and purportedly very good editor who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado and goes by the name Ron Lee. He goes by that name because, when he was born, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, thought Ron was a nice name and decided to give it to their new son. Thus, Ron Lee.

Anyway, after Ron and I both did a fare amount of vetting one another, I told 

Ron that if he was agreeable, I'd like to start referring to him as "my editor". Ron agreed, and I assume he now refers to me as his newest "future best selling author". That would be fun, but more likely, he refers to me as some guy from Arkansas who thinks he's a book writer and is paying me to edit and publish his book". But that's OK: first things first! 

For now I'll share that the planned "release" date is September 1. I say "release" because the book is being self-published as apposed to going through a full-line book publisher, so Ron and I have control of when the book actually becomes available, and can change the date at the last minute, should we decide to for any reason.

Since the book is not being marketed through a full-line publisher, the responsibility for getting the word out (that's what marketing is) falls 100% in my lap. My thought is, if the content of the book is in fact worthy of being read by more folks than my Mom, "Ain't" Monie and "Ain't" Dee Dee, then word will eventually spread and book sales will ultimately be inline with the quality of the material, and that's the way it should be in my view. If it turns out that a bunch of people who I don't personally know, want to read the book because they heard through the grapevine that it might be worth a couple hours of their time, then that will be something to celebrate! But, all this remains to be seen.

One thing that doesn't remain to be seen, however, is that on June 1 when I felt the manuscript was complete and ready for professional editing, tears streamed down my face as I realized the personal significance of the moment. The sense of accomplishment and satisfaction I felt after having spent 6 full months of my life, thinking and writing about something that I'd spent nearly 3 decades of my life learning, was overwhelming! Throughout this entire experience, I learned a number of things, one of them being: if you want to find out how you really feel about something, put it in writing and send it out in a form that can't be taken back. When you prepare to do that, it causes you to really think things through, before hitting "save as..." for the last time. 

If Granddad would have lived until the day my book actually shows up, I'm guessing he would have picked up a copy, jumped in his old truck and headed down to the "The Bobber Cafe". He would have probably sat down at his favorite table with a cup of extra hot and extra black coffee, and strategically placed his copy of my book in front of his coffee cup, and waited for someone to notice it. When the first person did notice it and asked about it, he would have probably tugged at his belt, looked over his left then right shoulder, sniffed, cocked his head to the right, and proudly said something very close to, "My grandson wrote that book: he's a writer!" And that's something to think about....  

Note: As it gets closer to September 1st, I'll share all the book related details. In the meantime, thanks for reading "Old and Ridiculous"!