Calendars

Gary and I have a dry ink calendar on the refrigerator.  We are supposed to write down all our appointments and plans for the week on it. Because we weren't home for most of the summer and were almost always together, we stopped using it. Now that we're home, I dusted it off, erased old messages and started to set up our new schedule. There's only one problem with that. Neither of us have a schedule for the next week or so since we were planning on camping until October 14.

A blank calendar for over a week!  Now what should I do with that?

For one thing, I should get back to the aquatic center to do some knee exercises. Of course, that is good only if none of the lifeguards have read my story at Black Coffee Fiction. It's about an old woman who talks too much ... and that's based on me. It's a two part story, so readers will have to wait to see if I wind up killing myself.  (Not literally, you understand. It's fiction.) Still, one doesn't like to give those lifeguards ideas.

I did mark down a book talk at the Manawa library on the evening of October 16.

I finally picked up my 2014 notepad calendar, the one with the Sudoku puzzles. I am disappointed though because the last three years, the calendars had plenty of space for writing down notes, appointments, and lists of projects. Half of the 2014 calendar is taken up with the date, printed in blue.  I can't understand why that would be.  The date was clear enough before, plus it is also on the computer. I'll probably look for a new calendar come 2015 or even learn to use the calendar on my cellphone.

It is nice to mark some fun things for the new year on a new calendar. I have the trip to Hawaii on it already. The national forests open about May 15. When Ranger Rick had to shut down Laura Lake campground, he gave us national forest coupons for five nights of camping.   Because we tend to misplace such things, I carefully put them in a safe place but noted the place on May 5 on the calendar. There's the sturgeon guard and the crane count, too, come April.

The theme for the 2014 summer reading program is a nationwide theme and it has to do with science. It sounds like a fun theme for the kids but it doesn't scream, "Get me a storyteller."  I don't expect to do tour so the summer looks wide open, unless I decide to go to one of the southern states. At the moment, the summer is wide open. We will be looking for a new house then. If we are successful, we'll be moving into new quarters and clearing this house to put it up for sale.

I plan on writing at least two more books in 2015, too.

The calendars will fill up soon enough.

How I Write

I don't know anyone who writes exactly the way I do, which is mostly not writing at all.

First of all, I need an idea. Next I need a deadline. Nothing happens until both of those are in place. Our Black Coffee Fiction blog http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  provides me with a deadline.  On average, I must have a short story written every three weeks. It must be done. So it is.

As for the ideas, I never seem to be short of them. I have a little book where I jot story ideas down. If there is nothing there, I open up my scrapbooks and wander through 69 years of living. That's enough stories for anyone and probably too many. I have five books, fiction and non-fiction that I want to write before the end of my life.  They need to be done, so I will do them.

Some of my work requires me sitting in front of this monitor and typing away on a keyboard. But most of the work happens when I go for long walks. More happens in the wee hours of the morning waiting for the sunrise. Those are the hours I snuggle beneath a quilt and think. My stories are mostly composed in my mind. When the time comes to write them, they gush right out.

That was the way it was this morning.

First the idea. I used to spend a lot of time at Seymour's Aquatic Center doing arthritis exercises. The exercises were boring so I talked to the lifeguards. I used them as characters but I also told my stories and gossiped with them.  One day I asked if they found my chatter annoying. They were too polite to say so and I had no intention of stopping but I began to think about an old woman who would leave the guards alone. Then I started asking the kids how they would murder someone in the pool. Or if someone nasty began to drown, would they save him or her?

I wrote the idea in my idea book.Then I put the story on the back burner and let it stew there for two years.

Most of the last three weeks we three writers at Black Coffee Fiction have been thinking about our next collection which will be out as an e-book next week and perhaps two weeks later as a paperback. In the past weeks, Gary and I have been moving from campsite to campsite then getting kicked out of the last one by the government shutdown. Until this morning, I really didn't have time to sit down and write.

However, it was no problem because I had been walking, blanket snuggling and thinking for the past few days. I sat down here at 7:00 a.m.  By 10:00 a.m. I had my story done, or Part One. We try not to have more than 3,000 words and in three hours of writing, I had a story that was way too long.  I had to leave poor Gladys lying on the floor in a shower room at the aquatic center.  Readers will have to wait to find out what happens next.

The Next Book

Today, Wade sent Betty and me the proof for our next e-book, a joint project using the stories we've published on our Black Coffee Fiction blog.  http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  The name of the book will be Black Coffee Fiction, Volume 2, 33% More Caffeine. It should be ready to order by next week.

By the end of the month, we'll have a paperback as well.

Wade is our editor and organizer. Betty and I selected and sent him our stories. Each of us has a section of the book. Wade writes science fantasy. Betty writes stories about a sad sack called Porpoise McAllister. My section is about a fictional dysfunctional Midwestern town.

Wade bought the image for our Volume I from an online photo service. Now he found out we still have credit that will pay for our next cover.  Therefore our e-book will cost nothing to publish.  When it comes to the paperback, we will be charged only for our proof copies and after that for any books we order.  Now we will need readers.

And don't forget our blog! Wade's latest story is there, a story about a woman who sculpts figures out of clouds. I love the idea!

By tomorrow, I have to have a story ready. It's only in rough draft form tonight, so it's best I get back to work on it.

Setting Up and Taking Down

On Sunday, Gary began to take down our Lake Ottawa campsite by packing up the cook tent.

On Monday morning, he took down anything in the camper that might move around in transit. By noon, we had left Lake Ottawa and about an hour and a half later we were at Laura Lake on site 38.  There, he set up the camper on blocks to level it.  Friends from Illinois stopped by for a chat.

On Tuesday morning, he set up the cook tent.  Again, it meant putting up a walk in tent over a picnic table he moved to the optimal part of the site.  I helped a bit by holding up poles, but then I took off to the bog to enjoy the fall colors while he put out the cook stove, got water, and set up two dishwashing tubs. One is for washing and a second for rinsing with a few drops of bleach as disinfectant.

When I got back we sat in our chairs admiring the lake and soaking in the sun ... for two hours. That is when Ranger Rick arrived to tell us that because of the government shut down, we would have to leave the next day.

Gary got up immediately and started taking down the cook tent he had just erected.  While I went to get takeout, he put away cooking gear, removed clotheslines, and began to store away food and clothes we had just taken out.

First thing this morning, he finished by packing everything else up. We left Laura Lake at 10:30 a.m.

In four days, Gary had put our campsite up twice, taken it down twice. During those four days, he had little chance to enjoy the fall colors.

I asked him if he was getting sick of so much stuff. He said maybe he just had to get faster at setting up and taking down, but doesn't admit he is a packrat.  I expect this winter he will be buying even more gadgets. Me, I am a minimalist camper who uses only a tent, a sleeping bag and mat, and enough cooking gear for one person. I have only a spoon and a knife. I avoid getting involved in his busy equipment moving.

Tonight, he is taking it easy.  Tomorrow, he takes the gear to the storage units. Then it is just reading camping magazines to find figure out what he wants to buy for next season.

Damn the Tea Party

Of all the campgrounds I've been to, I love Laura Lake the most. Of all the times to camp at Laura Lake, autumn is the best. In a summer that was so-so, I always knew I had the two weeks here to look forward to. This morning, I took a walk to the bog.  The fall colors are almost at peak, but I figured we would be here for a while so I knew I would be there at that exact moment of perfection. Even today, there were colors set against the blue lake and sky.Our sandy little private beach was waiting for us to have that final plunge.The water is still warm enough.

Another hiker wondered if the national forest campgrounds would close.  Surely not, I thought. Unlike the national parks, the forest campgrounds are not visited more than a couple of times a week by rangers. How much could the nation save by closing down?

I walked on.

The eagle flew overhead. A pileated woodpecker was at work. I kept an eye out for cougars and bears, both of which we know are out there.

I came back to find Gary had finished setting up.  We sat facing the water, wallowing in that glorious Laura Lake light. We talked about other plans for our two weeks.

Then Rick, the ranger stopped by to tell us because of the shut down forced by the House of Representatives, the National Park Service was closing the gates tomorrow afternoon.  We had to move. Gary got up and started putting away all the things he had set up.  There will be no final swim.  No more walks around the lake.  This is the end of our camping season.

I don't know who will be running against Congressman Ribble in the next election, but I will be working on the campaign of anyone who is against him.  It's time to put an end to the Tea Party nonsense. This nation cannot take any more of it.

I know that I was not ready to say good-bye to Laura Lake.

A Reason to Celebrate

Gary bought me the 2013 Subaru Outback on May 14, 2013. A sparkling new car with not a scratch on it and therein was the problem.  Who would put the first dent or scratch on it?  It was nerve wracking for both us.

I drove the Subaru all around Lake Superior in July but never marred the car other than  getting the filter dirty and that was replaceable.  Gary drove the car through July, August and September and still it was pristine. We both had narrow escapes when deer crossed the road, but still the car shined, especially when Gary took it for weekly visits to the car wash. Each of us hoped the other would put that first scratch in. The tension mounted.

This morning, we left the Lake Ottawa campground on our last day of hosting. I came first to get and reserve our favorite site, no. 38.  I parked the car and got out lawn chairs. There was a strong breeze but I sat at the picnic table reading while I waited for Gary to join me. The fall colors haven't reached peak here, so autumn still goes on.

Another set of campers came by and asked if we were sure we were going to camp in our prized spot. Indeed we were.They left for another part of the campground, leaving me alone in section three. Not ten minutes after, Gary arrived pulling the camper with his van.  He looked the site over and directed me to move the car to another spot. I did so.

Not five minutes later a dead branch fell off a tree and landed with a loud kerplunk on the Subaru. When we ran over to look there was a dent on the hood the size of a dime.

Huzzahs!  The first dent has been done. Gary is at fault for telling me to move the car.  I am at fault for actually moving it. Mother Nature is at fault for letting that branch fall.  Shared responsibility. Could there be any better way to take that car from new to used?

Now we can relax and enjoy our rides.

Farewell to Lake Ottawa

I walked down to the boat landing tonight to watch the sun go down. There was a young photographer in hip boots wading around in the water with his camera and tripod, looking for the perfect picture. "It's not easy," I said and he agreed.

I tried, too, though a northwoods autumn in full dress can never be adequately captured no matter how hard we mortals try. We do our best.

I walked up a trail a little way, but still....

So we say good bye to Lake Ottawa. One other campsite is occupied, by Leanne and Paul, who plan on leaving for Lost Lake tomorrow morning.  Gary is packing his gear, taking down the cook tent and putting away everything he brought. Since I don't know where all that stuff goes and at any rate, I'm not the packrat that brought it, I wander around the campground saying good bye.  One last check of the toilets to see that they are clean though at this point it doesn't make much difference. Checking to see if any of the campers left slips on the post the way they are supposed to:  they didn't.

Tomorrow we wait for the service to come collect the bin of toilet paper and the blue instruction booklet we were supposed to study.  We didn't and now it makes no difference. Then we'll roll out of here but even then we won't go home.  It's on to Laura Lake to meet friends and camp for another two weeks before we return home. Even then, we'll only be in Seymour for a week and then go on to Dixon, Illinois and the farmhouse. Gary has estate matters to work on. Me, I never can get enough of autumn, so I'll follow it for a while.