Got to be 50 degrees today. I opened the sunroof, plugged Enigma into the CD player and cranked up Return to Innocence. Felt like spring. I am so ready for that. Am seriously worried that this it the lull before the storm. You know that March comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion thing. But it was a wonderful day anyway.

Unfortunately I have the sore throat stuffy nose junk that has been going around school. This is so not the time to be feeling under the weather. I have too much to do at work and a mini writers workshop coming up. There is just no time to be ill. So, I will be sleeping most of tomorrow and forcing fluids. I see a pot of tea  and lots of water in my future. Might even stock up on some vitamin C. I have some zinc I could take too. Don’t forget my Mona Vie.

Had a wonderful day shopping. Although it seemed like I bought less, I spent more. Not sure how that works. Lunch at Chili’s was super.  The company was great. I could not ask for a better day.

Am heading off to bed for that long nap. Will catch all of you another time. Happy reading and writing.

Don’t even know where to begin. Maybe I’ll start with today and work backward. At work we went into secure mode for the second time in two weeks. This time there was no one in danger. Could possibly have been an unscheduled drill. It makes for an interesting day whatever the reason.

Then after work, I went to the high school to help distribute food from the food truck. Let me explain. Last fall, the administration and teaching staff raised $600 to bring a food truck into the county. It was such a success that we did it again. While I was unable to work the fall food giveaway I did work for an hour tonight. People started lining up at 3:30 this afternoon. I cannot begin to tell you what it was like. People came with their boxes and were told how much of each item they could take. I was at the cracker station. Two boxes of crackers to a person. We had Wheat Thins, Triscuits, some kind of fiber cracker, Saltines, Ritz, Cheez Its, and others. The boxes were not something you or I would have even considered taking off the shelf (being battered and tattered). There were canned foods, frozen foods, peanut butter, jellies and jams, pop, juice, cereals, breads, cakes, muffins. I was glad that we were able to help so many. The sad part is that there were so many that needed the help. Some have minimum wage jobs, others work only part-time, some were retirees, others were young families, and single parents. They came from all walks of life. They were so thankful. It makes me feel blessed that I have what I do. I am thankful that I can help others.

Monday brought a new kind of interest. I did something I have never been able to do. I put on make-up before I went to work. Now that doesn’t seem like a big deal, however I have the world’s most sensitive skin. Most make-ups I have tried cause my face to break out within five minutes of applying. It was something I just gave up on. Thanks to my daughter, I have been introduced to Bare Minerals. The girls were the first to notice and wanted to know if I had a dinner date after work. Not the case. Why then was I all dressed up…I was not. New top with same old black slacks and sweater I’ve had all year. The number of people telling me that I look younger or have some kind of special glow is amazing. Hello…..I’ve been here for years. Same old me, just a year older and a lot thinner.

Then there was the week-end. I spent that with my daughter and her family. I’ve not seen them for over a month. It was wonderful watching both grandkids play basketball. I’d seen them both play a year ago and the difference is amazing. Both are much better players. Then Jamie and Megan went with me to my photo shoot. I need new photos as I am updating my website and I need a media kit. I also need photos that can go on the covers of my novels. I think the two of them clowning around helped make the photo shoot a success. Not to mention the great photography by Trista.

So, turning 56 was not a big deal….nor did I expect it would be. I have long moved beyond where my age bothers me. It’s only a number. Life is what you make of it.

I have completed the prologue and first chapter of my new novel. I am heading to a writers workshop in Muncie, IN this month. It is a one day workshop. I am also attending one in Ann Arbor in May. I have not yet determined where I will be going for summer writing. I will either be doing the Midwest Writer’s Workshop in Muncie the end of July or I’ll be spending a week at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. I also have two books being entered in a contest for self-published writers. So, there is a lot going on with my writing. I am working up a writer’s workshop program. There is a possibility of doing one in the deep south this summer, too.

Now that I’ve shared, I can only encourage you to pick up a good book and enjoy. With this being National Reading Month, be sure to take time to share a book with a child.

I have not written anything worth publishing or considering for publication since the new book came out in September. Even what I was working on did not measure up or connect with my writer’s eye. Journaling and letter writing aside, not much has been working for me in the writing world.

It seems I have broken through that barrier. My next book Rivers Edge a Cassidy McAllister Mystery is underway. As with all writing this one had to have a beginning. It started with a room description and a cold case. It will take some work to tie the two together. It has many possibilities for twists and turns before it is done. It is also the first time I have considered writing in first person. We’ll see if that works for me.

It has been an up and down week. Three people very dear to me are fighting cancer. That is always stressful. Three people I knew died this week. I learned tonight that a fourth one has died. I am seriously looking for some good news here.

It has come to the attention of the basketball league that Megan plays for that the young lady who threw her across the floor three weeks ago is 15 years old. Excuse me, why is a 15 year old playing on a league with 10-12 year olds? Better yet, why is she still in sixth grade? Something seriously wrong with that education system. Providing the 15 yr. old successfully completes the next four years she will be ineligible for team sports by the end of her sophomore year of high school.

Jason played this week-end. Unlike last week he was fully able to play. He loves playing basketball. I know he will get better each year. He was disappointed at not making the travel team. Mind you he is only third grade.

Had a wonderful, yet frightful dinner meeting last Thursday. We have got to find a way to change the tax structure in Michigan. Michigan employees, and school employees cannot give enough to balance the budget. Please tell me where fat John Engler is so I can send him a letter thanking him for stealing $400,000,000 from the school employees retirement fund before he left office. That is part of the problem right there. That tiny bit of change was to cover retiree insurance. The current governor is now saying that she wants to take dental and vision insurance from school employees. Like that will save the budget. In case she hasn’t figured it out, if she takes benefits from school employees who in the community I live in are the largest income base with the most spendable income, that income will dry up. If you think unemployment is bad now, wait until we stop spending to save to cover our retirement insurance. NO we are not asking to have Cadillac insurance, but enough to cover us would be nice. When my mom retired there was no cost for insurance. Each year since then it has gone up. Can hardly wait for that. Okay I will get off my soapbox. The wonderful part was dinner at the H in Midland and getting together with other professionals.

Saturday saw me in East Lansing for the IPD(Instructional Professional Development) Committee meeting. The recap of last year was dismal. Our conference was canceled on November 1. At that time there were 9 registrants for the conference (which in the past has run from 400-700 attendees). Of those who had registered, three of them were from the board. We are looking at creating at least 10 hours of on-line conferencing through Michigan Virtual University. These will give us SBceu’s and will count as the part of the five hours that the state is now requiring we do on-line. We are waiting to see how much the conference will be cut before we plan for this year. Once we know we will have a plan. March 1 will be the day we know if there will be a conference.

There was the fiasco with my propane. I called on Friday around noon to see about a propane delivery. I had checked the tank before leaving for work so I’d know how much was in it. I knew if I didn’t get delivery on Friday I’d be out by mid-day on Sat. So, when I stopped after work to pay the bill they informed me they’d turned off the tank. There is NO way it ran out of gas in that short a time. So, I get home with permission to turn the tank back on, and my house is 50 degrees inside. It was almost that warm outside.  While the house heated, my pilot was out on the water heater. After being up all night with leg cramps, I have to admit the cold shower did not help. Dad came up today and lit the pilot. So, all is back in order with my house.  He also took meassurements for my spare room and hallway. We will be laying wood flooring after he returns from Arizona.

That leaves me with a list of things to do. One last coat of paint on the small wall. (two doors in the wall means there is less to paint.) Clean out the closet in the spare bedroom, the linen closet floor, and the closet under the stairs. I need to relocate the cabinet at one end of the hall and figure out where to put the cabinet in the spare room. I also need to buy some brass polish and polish up the brass bed before it goes back into the house. Let’s see if I can find any more to do. Oh, yes, move the PC to my desk and figure out how to make it wireless. I think I have all the components for that now. I also have a CD shelf that needs dusting and painting. Guess I know what I am doing in March. Anyone else want to add to my list, take a number.

Still time to curl up with a good book.

Wow! It was great to learn that the blog problems belonged to Word Press and not me. I hated not being able to put my thoughts onto my blog. I hadn’t realized how much I was using it and how much response I was getting until it wasn’t there to use.

We have been getting light snow all day. There was about two inches when I got home. I doubt there will be much more than that. (Although one could hope). Not been many snow days this year. Don’t look to see any more at the rate things are going.

I’m plotting my spring break getaway. I’m looking once again at spending some time in Mt. Airy, NC. I’ve sent a message to the library there in the hopes that I can connect with someone in the writing group that meets there. I’ve also e-mailed a friend who lives in NC to see what kind of trouble we can get into this time.  I’ve had a chat with a retired friend who has spent this winter down there. She is encouraging me to look for a place now. I also hope to spend a day or two in Cherokee. I am working on a question my 8th graders came up with in social studies. I told them I’d try to have an answer when I came back. They will hold me to it. So, there is much to look forward to.

I’ve hit on a writing idea and am going to try and develop it to see where it goes. I’m working on a police detective and hope it will go some place. Possibly to a series. I need her to be memorable character, one that my fans will love. They are quick to let me know if I miss the mark with my characters.  So, far I’ve managed to stay away from too much criticism in that area.

Had my birthday dessert at Big Boy tonight. My wonderful waitress managed to get my my dessert without all the singing and general attention. Have a huge note saying Happy Birthday to you from Big Boy. For those of you who know me well, you know that my birthday is not until the end of the month. I am spending that week-end out of town, so took my dessert early.

Went into major panic tonight. Thought I’d lost a ring. Not just any ring, the one that had belonged to my mother’s mother. It cannot be replaced. While it is gold and has a high value as gold, it has immeasurable value as a keepsake. The good news is that the ring is not lost. Some fool forgot to put it on this morning. Since I wear it daily, that was odd. Once again my guardian angel was sitting on my shoulder.

So, that was Tuesday, not as terriffic as I had hoped. Maybe next week.

Looking for a good book to curl up with.

4 a.m. and I’m wide awake. I don’t need this tonight of all nights, not with Alex’s funeral tomorrow. I think I did sleep between midnight and one. But not since then. Have tried reading. Tossed and turned. Now have a cup of cocoa and I’m at the computer for a bit. Must not have gotten enough exercise today.

I’d write but have not been in writer mode for a couple of months. Maybe because somehow I lost part of a novel from my flash drive. Not sure how that happened. The other novel I’m working on seems to have hit a dead end. NO I do not outline the entire novel before writing. I do have an idea of where the novel is going.

Moon must be close to full. Very bright out tonight. That could be part of the problem. I do not sleep well when there is too much light. Which is probably why I am not a city dweller. Too much light and too much noise for sleeping well. I much prefer the country.

For those of you also finding yourself up tonight what’s on your mind? Mine is just tired. Probably more stressed than I care to think about.

Happy sleeping all

Most mornings I don’t mind getting up. This morning I thought about crawling back into bed and pulling the covers over my head. Then I decided that wasn’t going to work. Death stalks us all.

Alex Sapp a delightful 14 year old was killed last night in a snowmobile accident. He was with his friend, John Kovach. Alex is in a better place, but the world has lost a shining star. John will find himself in a bad place for a while and I can only pray he will learn that this was not his fault.

How do you deal with teens and death? It’s been a question I have spent many hours agonizing over. It started when my daughter was a ninth grader. The first death at school did not affect her much. She knew who Kim Brindley was, but she was older and they were not close friends. However, death stalked my daughter through high school. Memorial week-end her first year of high school she lost a dear friend, Kendra Lucas. A month later she lost her friend, Vada Jarrell to an auto accident. In September of her sophomore year she lost Jason Whitfield, who had been a gymnast when Jamie had been a gymnast. Followed two weeks later with the lost of Chris Jones, to encephalitis. December brought a plan crash that killed her friend, Sarah. By this time, she did not want to answer the phone for fear it would be bad news. I became her social secretary. By her junior year, her friend, Leesa Neubecker was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Would it never end? Leesa, fighter to the end, managed to make it to March, 1995. So they were out of school by then. I still have trouble explaining why to my daughter. Her dear friend, Melissa, and the mother of Jamie’s step-son, died in September of a rare form of cervical cancer. While she was unable to say good-bye she did make the drive to Texas to be with her step-son and pay her respects.

Death, there is no easy answer. There is no rhyme or reason for who or why. I’m sure someone has a plan, we just never know what it is.

Alex, my favorite woodland sprite, I will miss you. Rest in Peace, go with the Angels.

For those of you in the market for a new laptop, notebook or whatever the politcally correct word is these days, I recommend you avoid DELL like the plague. I have a wonderful Dell PC. I’ve had it for about five years. It has Microsoft Office suite 2003. I use many of it’s features regularly. So, two years and seven months ago I went back to Dell. I wanted a laptop to take to a writer’s conference. BIG MISTAKE!!!

I specifically told them what I needed. It had to be compatible with my current PC as I wanted to use them interchangeably. I ended up with a notebook that has window Vista. I will not go into how I hate that program. What I did not get that I use almost monthly is Publisher. I have created my own on-line bills. I also got some stupid program called One Note….great if you are a college student or working on a thesis. I am not. I am a WRITER! I write novels. fiction, mystery, with a smattering of romance. Where is the program I need? Missing, of course.

The first major setback was Dec. 29, 2009. The hard drive on my laptop quit. It was done. I took it to the Geek Squad, who gave me my money back and told me to call Dell it was under warranty. So, I did. Took me four Sahibs later to actually get them to say that it was under warranty and they would send me a hard drive. They sent a rebuilt hard drive….like this would last? But a computer friend of mine put it in and I was good to go.

In the meantime I had lost a completely finished novel. All edits had been done and it was ready for the publisher. Took me until August to  find all the parts and put it back together again. My daughter has now read it twice for edits. It officially went on sale Sept. 8, 2009. But there is six months of lost income.

Now here we are ten months later and low and behold, my hard drive is going. Do you think Dell will replace it again? Well, let’s see first I have to call their 800 number in India. Then I get to speak with Jim, not his real name. He will ask me for an express code. Once he has that he will pull up my file and hmmm and hmmmm and transfer me to the next Jim on the food chain who will ask the same questions. This will go on for over an hour. Most of my time will be spent on hold while they check things out. Finally four Jim’s down the road I will get someone who tells me his name is Sa’hib and he will take care of the problem, which he does.

I wait for the arrival of a rebuilt hard drive and I’m good to go for another 10 monoths. This is not the best way to have a laptop. I use it to communicate with my family when I’m travelling…something I do frequently. I use it for my writing. Makes those long nights in motels go faster when you have something to do. I use it daily.

The whole jist of this blog is to tell you to be careful when buying a laptop. Make sure it’s what you really want. Make sure it can be fixed without spending hours on the phone. Make sure it is compatible with what you are using.

I”m open for suggestions for my next one. Anybody got any?

Merry Christmas, happy reading and writing.

I went shopping today to see if I could make my list dwindle. I was very successful. Not much more to pick up.  That is a good feeling. I love seeing how excited the kids get. I’d hate to let them down.  Of course, I couldn’t resist treating myself to a sparkly hat. Found one covered with silver sequins. Just made my day. Very little to pick up. Now just the wrapping to do.

Had a slight altercation with my car today. Turned on the windshield wipers and the driver’s side one flew halfway off. Saturn was great, got me right in, took less than the 25 minutes they told me it would take, the cost was minimal and they washed it too. How cool is that? Got a look at my next car. It’s the same size as my Aura. The difference is that it says Cadillac on it. Dream on.

Mouth is still hacked up. It’s getting old. Wondering if my taste buds will even work after this. Seems my allergies get worse with age…gee what next? Never mind, I don’t want to know. It’s sad because right now I am the healthiest I have been in ten years. How exactly does that work?

I am looking forward to finishing some projects. I am tired of seeing them laying where I left them. I also want to start some more. Going to the spare room when I finish this post to see about starting the wall mural. Not sure if my projector is large enough or if I will have to paint it free hand. Could be interesting.

I’m going to put on some carols and listen to them while I paint. I have a small tree thanks to a colleague. It’s about a foot tall, but will grow to be between 8 and 15 feet before it is done.  So, I am totally lacking in decoration.  I’m actually thinking about making a fruitcake for the first time in more years than I care to remember. That and some peanutbutter fudge should make things perfect.

Merry Christmas to all.

Happy reading and writing.

Okay for those who missed my recent posts. I started the week before Thanksgiving with bronchitis. Thought I was doing well, as I usually get it once in October and once in March. I’d missed October. So, much for that idea. Things went from bad to worse. The Wed. before Thanksgiving saw me at the doctors complaining of a sore throat and ears. Doc decided it was either viral or an allergy. Since I hadn’t had a decent allergy med since they made Zyrtec over the counter we tried a new one called Xyzal. By Saturday, I was in trouble having an allergic reaction to the allergy med. The result was a swollen and blistered mouth. Makes for difficult if not impossible eating. So, I was back at the doctor’s again the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Know that I cancelled my plans for Thanksgiving and stayed home. No turkey, no dressing, no family time. I was too miserable to care. Eating was impossible. Was doing good to get Jell-o water down.

Doc gave me some Lidocaine Viscous and a med for thrush along with some Fiorinal #3. By Wed, I was worse. Go figure. Called and talked to the secretary at the doctor’s office then made arrangements to leave work. Picked up a Medrol Dosepak and a different brand of Lidocaine Viscous. Then went home to collapse. By Thurs. I had stopped the thrush meds and the Fiorinal. I was taking aspirin every 4 hours and using the Lidocaine in between. I discovered that ice cream worked the best.

By Saturday I ventured out to do some Christmas shopping. While I got a lot done, by the middle of the afternoon, talking was a chore and my mouth was again on fire. Skipped lunch with my friend and headed home. With a stop at my cousin’s to deliver cookie dough and a stop at Mom and Dad’s to deliver a book and say “Hi.” I knew that when I got home there was ice cream waiting for me along with a couple of aspirin.

Today I am back to sinus drainage causing coughing, sore throat and stuffed ears, and I foresee a trip to the doctor again this week. That will result in a referral to my allergist for more allergy testing. I am not sure I will ever be able to eat again and right now I’d kill for a juicy bar burger. Not going to happen. My taste buds are a mess. The left side of my tongue is still blistered and I’m doing well if I get noodles down.

On the up side, I do plan to visit Santa in the next few weeks. I am sure that he will not be able to fullfill my wish, but it’s worth a try. Yes, I will document the event with pictures. I also have the irresistable urge to have photos take in one of those mall photo booths. I worry when I find myself comtemplating shopping for myself at Frederick’s of Hollywood….but life is supposed to be spicy.

Happy reading and writing all.

At least temporarily I am leaving the human race. I promise to let you know when I return. The something else I had was a viral ear infection. However, the result of new meds has been a blooming disaster. I had an allergic reaction to the new allergy medicine…I’m sure you can see the be irony in that. As a result I am on a liquid diet…providing I can stand the liquids. My mouth feels like it’s on fire and when I do manage to eat (drink) something it feels like rubbing rough sand paper over my tongue. It is very painful and talking is no fun either.

The doctor has given me some pain medication that under normal circumstances would render a person senseless. I could not get that lucky. It barely deadens the pain and I take Motrin in between times. I also have an antibiotic solution that should help clear it up and some Lidocaine Viscous to numb it. One would think this would help, but so far pain is all I feel. I just cannot seem to win this month.

I cannot eat the turkey that I have been given as I cannot eat anything. I did get some cranberry sauce, however the tomato soup tonight caused horrible pain. The acid in the tomato did not help matters at all. I am about to take some of the pain killer and numb the mouth. I wish there was something else I could do.

So, until this is cleared up, I am dropping out. I promise to let you all know when I return. Happy reading and writing.