What a Day!

It was my turn to post a short story at Black Coffee Fiction and after all of yesterday's interruptions all I had was the roughest of rough drafts without a satisfactory ending. 

I was up at 5:30 to write.  By 9:00 I had the story done and e-mailed it to Betty for critiquing. 

Gary's nephew Angelo arrived to give the bathroom a second coat of paint. I chatted with him for a while, getting all the latest family gossip. I keep better track of Gary's family than he does.  Then I was off to the bank to do some re-financing. I put gas in the car to prepare for the day's adventures.  

At home I found  Betty's very useful notes but there was no time to do the revisions.  I soon was on the road again to go to Shawano to tell stories at the Birch Hill Nursing Home, one of my regular customers.  I told them "The Dogs Election", a Native American story that I only tell every four years during the Presidential campaigns.  

When I got home, I revised the short story and posted it at Black Coffee Fiction http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com   It's a prequel to the Love in the Decades series. It's a depressing tale of high school during the 1950s. It was the sad memories that kept me from approaching the story before.

I was just finishing when Chris called to tell me they were bringing my grandson to look at the hot air balloon rally which is held at the school grounds just two blocks from my house.  I looked at the clock and found out I had time for a nap so I hit the bed, wiped out. 

An hour later, I was ready to greet my family.  We went over to see the balloons but a brisk wind had kicked up and it looked like the balloons wouldn't fly.  We went to Gallaghers in Green Bay.  The pizza had just arrived at our table when Gary called.  The balloon lifted up after all and he was watching them float over the house. 

It couldn't be helped, so we ate leisurely.  It was sunset when we returned to Seymour and one glance at the school grounds told us the balloons were once more being inflated.  We had come back in time for the glow. 

Evan is now old enough to appreciate the giants above us and was disappointed that we could not go on the grounds for a closer look.  There was still too much wind.  

Still, the sight of those giants is always awesome.  We stayed until the last balloon was deflated. 

Tonight, this blog and then bed.  I am so, so ready for it.