It’s Been One of These Days for 4 Years
Thinking about everything since my last blog post, March 3,
2019, a massive writer’s block, this stared me in the face.
Almost 4 years to the day, I blogged about one of my
favorite pet peeves: daylight savings. I went without this changeover for forty
years until my kids persuaded me to move to Missouri. I went through the
ritual. I could never remember if was it spring back/spring forward, fall
back/fall forward. The ditty confused me. I am very short 5’2”, so I would have
to drag out a ladder and fix the analog clocks. The digital clocks were not much
problem because of electrical storms in the mountains the electricity was constantly
disrupted. After Congress passed a bill leaving DST in the dust, the House has
yet to pass it, then it goes to be signed by the President. At the current
state of chaos in the House it is doubtful they will agree on anything.
The other blog concerned a snow day in Northern Arizona,
which exactly mirrors the schools in Northern Arizona closed today. The main
highway I-40 closed to travel. 4 major snowstorms have slammed Northern Arizona
in the past month. When you live in the mountains of Northern Arizona, you pay
attention to snow levels. If it’s 10,000 feet, most roads are open. If, however, it’s 4,000 feet, no one is going anywhere and major highways and schools shut
down. My family teases me about my fascination with weather, but for 40 years, I
drove all over the mountains of Northern Arizona, crisscrossing the Mogollon
Rim from the lower Salt River and the White Mountains to the Grand Canyon. I
checked the weather, stuffed emergency supplies, and always knew it could
change for the worse in a minute.
Therefore, in the passing years, I have written 3 rough
drafts: Book 3 Dance, Book 4 Mailbox, and Book 5 Church. I have found an excellent
cover artist and formatter. My wonderful editor died a week after editing Book
2 Salon. I miss her so very much. Other friends died during the pandemic. It cut me off from human contact. No author signings, no meetings to share ideas, no
libraries, no bookstores, isolated from family, no trips, no flying, closures,
arguments, etc. as we all lived through. This fall 2022 was my
first book signing. Wonderful! I’ve been debating whether to cover the pandemic in my book
3, but after much thinking, I wrote about the aftermath, and how it
affected small towns and people. My little group of people in Black Mesa
survived, as did most people. However, restrictions were finally lifted and we
face many challenges.
