7-31-05

Aw, the quiet of a Sunday morning. The other occupants of the house are still sleeping. The only sound is the noise of my fingers tapping on the keyboard.

Yes, life is good. I have just posted a special weekend edition of The Old Man's Request because I thought up a good storyline. For those of you who have been reading it, you probably know that I usually just write a chapter on Monday through Friday.

Maybe somebody will appreiciate it.

Yesterday, was a good day. No work! We hung around the old household all morning. The wife and I decided to visit Fort Smith yesterday afternoon. The boys decided to stay home! Yes! There are many disadvantages to having teenagers, but this is one good advantage. I like being around them, but sometimes they are, in fact, teenagers.

We ate at some new restauraunt between Phoenix Avenue and Rogers Avenue. It was called Firehouse Grill, or something like that. Buffet, baby! All you could throw! I threw too much down the old mouth, but didn't pig out. I'm trying to lose some excess poundage and also get my blood sugar down, so that slowed me down a little.

Excellent buffet. Lots of different choices at different islands, so you aren't stuffed together in one place like some other buffets. Noticed there were a lot of other chubbos there, not that I was surprised. It's a perfect place for those who like to eat: lots of food and a decent price.

The food was even good! Always a plus at an eating establishment.

After that, we had some time to kill so we went by some bath place that the wife had been wanting to visit. You could buy a bar of soap for $10! We passed.

We skiddooled out and headed to the theater. The choices were Must Love Dogs and Fantastic Four. I knew the wife wanted to see the first one, so we went to see it. It was not a wretched movie or as bad as The Pacifier, but still nothing great. I figured with John Cusack, it wouldn't suck nearly as bad as some of the critics suggested.

It was semi-sort of a chick movie that tried to work in some humor. There were some funny moments, but something was lacking. It bothered me that Diane Lane should be too old to be dating Cusack, but I might be wrong. Also, I couldn't figure out how Cusack afforded his house, car and dates when apparently he had just gotten taken in a divorce and all he did was work on his wooden boat.

After the movie ended, we returned home. It was a boring night, not that I minded. Well, it is time to get the clan awake to go to church. Until next time.

7-30-05

This is the first blog of the rest of my life.

Huh?

Never mind. Anyway, I have been writing a blog/book over the last couple of months called The Old Man's Request. For those of you who have read about this book, skip on down a few paragraphs. For the rest of you, this is what the book is all about and how it came about.

Around the first of June, I read something about people using blogs to write books online. I thought about that for about ten minutes and decided that would be kind of fun.

So the next morning, I started off just winging a story about a man named Michael Hunt, about my age. He was a newspaper reporter in Tulsa, happily going about his normal life and routines.

A phone call early one morning from his mother changes everything for Michael. He has to return to the fictional town of Langford, Ok., to a life he spent many years trying to leave and forget. From that point, I moved forward with him coming back to Langford to a dying father and the circumstances that change his life forever.

There are a lot of chapters in the book, but they aren't that long. From day to day, I seldom know what I am going to write until I sit my fanny in the chair sometimes around 5 a.m.

It was good to get me writing again. Last year, I thought I had finished a book called One for the Ages, it was the first in a sport's series. I sent the book out to an agent, who quickly returned it as unworthy of being published.

I had spent around two years on the project and decided that was a waste of time. But over time, I came to realize that I was the one who messed up, not the agent. I was writing because I enjoyed it, in many ways it is my soul enema. The time I spend writing down my thoughts and observations, I forgot about life's trials and tribulations. I was alive.

I also decided that if nobody wants to publish any of my books, that I will do it myself online. I might never make any money from my writing, but that's okay. People can read it and comment back to me, telling me if it stinks or they like it, a comment that means as much and maybe more than money.

That was how that project got started. But since the start of my blog, many people have mentioned how much they like the book, but want to know more about my fascinating life and requested that I document my daily thoughts and deeds.

Okay, nobody has actually asked that or said it, but it sounded good, I guess.

So I will try to update this daily, telling what is happening in my life and some comments and observations that I have.

This is a Saturday, the one day I like more than any. I don't have anything planned, for a change, and look forward to relaxing a little. The other occupants of my house are still snoozing and it is nice and quiet.

We got out of work yesterday afternoon to play in a golf tournament for the Masons. Our team consisted of Ralph, Dusty, Van and myself. It was a little warm, but still better than being at work. We would up shooting 7 under in the scramble. Not a great score, but since nobody but Ralph golfs regularly, it wasn't bad.

After golfing, we had a dinner for the employees and spouses or friends of our little branch at Warehouse Willie's. All of our people showed up and seemed to have a good time.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.