It’s been too long between posts, and as I apparently have nothing else to do–waiting for the water-softener folks, who were supposed to be here this morning but have been delayed, causing me to miss my afternoon writers group meeting (which I am not happy about)–I will take a few minutes to catch you, my faithful readers, up with what’s been going on.
Back on the trail.
My last post talked about my late-June hospitalization for treatment of a pulmonary embolism and a lung infection known as coccidioimycosis, or valley fever. I’m happy to report that those issues have been dealt with, apparently. I add that last word because I’m still on medication for the latter and have an upcoming appointment with my pulmunologist to discuss a CT scan I had done this week, which should tell him what, if anything, remains in my lungs from the original infection.
My right foot, surgically repaired back on April 11 to fix a snapped tendon, has been slower than I’d like to respond to treatment, thanks to the nerve block applied just before the surgery and which didn’t fully wear off within 72 hours, as advertised. I’d say the foot, overall, is back to 80-85% functionality. That’s been enough for me to walk without support, ride a bicycle, swim, lift weights and go hiking. Further progress is anticipated, as I continue with physical therapy from Optimum Therapies, acupuncture from Point of Renewal and reflexology from La La Land. Sue and I have been hiking as much as we can; over the final weekend of July, we spent a couple days in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, hiking the trails of the Porcupine Mountains.
A time to write, and a time to…well, not write.
With near-full mobility having returned, I was able to rejoin my local writer’s group, which meets twice monthly in Chetek, Sue’s hometown. Our membership is currently at three, and we exchange chapters from our respective works-in-progress and critique each other’s work, a process I’ve found to be very helpful. They’ve just reviewed the prologue for my next book, The Silver Falcon, the fourth entry in the White Vixen thriller series. I’d hoped to have the book ready to launch at Birchwood’s Christmas Fest on December 7, but my illness and foot rehab caused me to delay that until sometime early in 2025. This will be the first year since 2020 that I will not have a book coming out. It’s certainly no crime to go a year or more without writing a book, but if you’re a writer…well, that’s what you do, you write books, and you generally don’t like to take too much time to do it.
But you do want to do it right, and that’s why Jo Ann Geary, the White Vixen, will be coming to bookshelves a little bit later than we might want, because I want to do this one right, putting in the same amount of effort, if not more so, than her earlier adventures. I’m sending her to the Yukon this time, and while I won’t be making a scouting trip up there (partly because it’s way up there), I do want to get everything as right–and as thrilling–as possible.
My convalescence from the hospital stay has required me to take some down time, and to force myself away from the computer, I turned to another faithful electronic device: the television. Regular readers know that Sue and I are both fans of Milwaukee Brewers baseball, and this season the lads are riding high, leading their division by a comfortable ten games with barely four weeks to go in the regular season. Division titles are nothing new for the Brewers, but when the playoffs start, the team has tended to go south, and rather quickly. They’ve won only one of their past ten postseason games, dating back to Game 7 of the 2018 National League Championship Series, which they lost to the Dodgers. Will this year’s team break through for a deep October run? Perhaps–dare we say it–even to the World Series itself? We both hope so, because we’ll be gone most of October on our Africa adventure, returning home for what would be the climactic games of the World Series. Conceivably, Games 6 and 7 could be played in Milwaukee on November 1-2, giving us a chance to get to one of them in person.
I wrote last time about my discovery of the classic TV sitcom, Frasier. Sue has also become a fan, so there will be two or three evenings a week when we have dinner in front of the TV and watch a couple episodes. I’ve also discovered another resident of the Hulu streaming service, the legal drama LA Law, which originally aired from 1986-94. I enjoyed the ensemble cast and the stories of McKenzie, Brackman back then, especially the suave divorce attorney, Arnie Becker.
It’s been fun to see the mid-80s hairstyles and fashions, to see street scenes filled with cars and nary an SUV in sight. Becker, played by Corbin Bernsen, seemed to have it all: the money, the suits, the car, the glamorous job, and most especially, the women. When I first started watching the show in ’86, it seemed that he had everything I didn’t. I was married, but even then, storm clouds were gathering on the horizon; that storm would eventually break six years later. Now, in my mid-60s (the same age as Bernsen, pretty much), I see Arnie through different eyes. While Arnie had things back then I could only dream of, I now have things he could only imagine, but never achieve: a loving wife, a home in the country, two grown children who have given me much to be proud of, and a grandson to cherish. Now, I find myself saying, “Grow up, Arnie.” Against all odds, though, I still root for him. When the show’s reunion movie aired in 2002, he hadn’t changed much, except that this time he was on the receiving end of infidelity from a person he thought he loved. I recently read where there were plans to revive the series, with Bernsen returning as Arnie, now the senior partner of the firm, but it appears Hollywood’s labor troubles of 2022-23 shelved those plans. Too bad, it would’ve been nice to see if Arnie, in his sixties, had changed.
One other character in the show, attorney Ann Kelsey, was a pleasant re-discovery for me. As played by Jill Eikenberry, Kelsey begins the series as an associate but soon accepts a partnership, and also reluctantly begins a romance with a colleague, Stuart Markowitz (played by Eikenberry’s real-life husband, Michael Tucker). Ann Kelsey is 36 years old at the time of the first season, never married, childless, and something about her eyes, her smile, even her hairstyles resonated with me. Then, about halfway through the two-hour first episode, I had it: she reminded me of Sue.
Like Michael Tucker, I am a lucky man indeed.
It’s starting to get real.
September arrives in a few days. I’ll be working the next two weekends, selling books at Voyager Village in Danbury this coming Saturday and Sunday, then heading down to Platteville for Dairy Days the following Friday and Saturday. There will be one other big author event in the month, Fall Fest in Hayward on Saturday the 21st. I’ve never sold books at the Danbury event before, and it’s one of the biggest craft fairs in this part of the state, so I’m looking forward to it. My trip to Platteville will be my first in a couple years, a chance to not only sell some books, but catch up with relatives and old friends. And the Hayward festival should be, as usual, one of my biggest days of the year.
The month will also be filled with training: the gym, the pool, the trails, as we prepare for our trip to Africa, now only 36 days away. Sue has an 11-day trip to Europe before that, cruising the coast of Norway with a colleague. I’ll be staying home for that one, keeping the home fires burning, so to speak, spending time with the dog and the cat, and getting ready for Kilimanjaro. I’m confident the foot will be ready and it will truly be the trip of a lifetime for us. It’ll be challenging, to be sure, but failure, as they say, will not be an option.
A Strenuous Writer's Life 