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My blog from the land of humidity |
Size: 7 Entries
Created: September 16th, 2008 at 6:48pm
Modified: November 20th, 2008 at 9:43am
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No Restrictions November 20, 2008 at 9:43am
November 20, 2008 at 9:43am
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| I hate it when I allow life's little inconveniences to get in the way of writing. It's why I stopped writing a few years ago and didn't come back to it until recently, and it happened again a few days ago. We live in a busy world, there are distractions and necessary chores that need to be addressed. And work. Work is such a major inconvenience. Oh to be wealthy enough to stay home and write all day. Problem is, if I had all day and every day free to write, I'd probably find something else to do. The thing is, I love to write. I really enjoy sitting in front of the keyboard and seeing where a story goes. It's fun. I just need to make the time. |
October 25, 2008 at 3:23pm
October 25, 2008 at 3:23pm
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| In the land of humidity you must always be cognizent of the wildlife sharing your environment. When kayaking there are alligators, crocs and jellyfish. When jogging there are gnats and mosquitos and iguanas. And when you get ready to take your dog for a walk, you'd better check your shoes before you put them on. This last lesson I learned the night before last when I clipped the leash on our Springer Spaniel and started out the door. I hadn't gone ten steps before I felt what I thought at the time was a pebble in the heel of my shoe. It wasn't a sharp sting, more of an uncofortable pressure. I kicked my shoe off and looked for a stone. Not seeing anything I put the shoe back on and continued our walk. By two o'clock the following afternoon my ankle was the size of a softball and my heel had an angry red welt across it. I realized that the pressure I had felt when I put on my shoe must have been a spider hiding out in it. The lesson of the day : always check your shoes before putting them on! Anyway, the drive to work was excruciating, as my heel was constantly being pressed to the floor of the car. I tried to make it through the shift, but by six o'clock I knew I had to go to the emergency room and get my ankle looked at. The doctor ruled out a couple of things that I thought were unlikely - a foreign object lodged beneath the skin, gout, etc. - and then agreed that it had been the work of a spider, species indeterminate but more than likely a brown recluse. I was given some strong antibiotics and a baker's dozen Percocet for pain. I took the antibiotics this morning and tried to hold off on the painkillers to see if the heel was improving at all. By one o'clock this afternoon I had given up on the pain going away on its own and took one of the Percocet. I have to say that I see why people get addicted to these things. The pain in my ankle is a distant memory and I just feel, well, EXQUISITE. Looking forward to my next dosage, I must admit. |
October 23, 2008 at 4:50pm
October 23, 2008 at 4:50pm
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| Rainy the past two days in the land of humidity. I bought a new fishing pole yesterday morning and of course, any time you buy a new toy you want to use it right away, right? So I loaded my gear into the car, slid the kayak onto the roof rack and drove down to Islamorada, a fishing/tourist town in the Middle Keys. The weather report called it a forty percent chance of rain, which in the Keys usually equates to spotty, off and on showers. When I got to the small beach where I put the kayak in, it was sprinkling just a little. No problem, it wasn't a thunderstorm and the wind was calm, I can paddle out to Indian Key and fish in a little rain. Besides, the weather made it all but certain that I'd have the island all to myself. I paddled for half an hour before pulling into the gap in the mangroves that hides a sandy beach on the south side of Indian Key. I unloaded my gear and started walking towards the coral shelf where I planned to set up my camp chair and cast into the ocean. As I walked a steady rain started. By the time I reached the clearing near my fishing site it was pouring. "Well at least there's still no wind," I thought as I set up the chair. Not three minutes went by before the gale hit. At least thirty miles an hour, blowing the hard rain sideways right into my face. I hadn't been on the island more than twenty minutes and I began to think it would be best if I left now, before things got worse. I walked back to the kayak and loaded up and started paddling back towards the small beach where I had parked the car. Unfortunately the wind was blowing hard in my face and there was a strong current moving against me. The half hour paddle was going to take at least twice that long in deteriorating conditions. As I crossed one of the deeper channels I felt an increased drag on my normally fast moving touring kayak. I looked behind me to see that the camp chair that I'd placed on the deck behind me had been knocked almost clear of the bungee strap that I'd tucked it under and was dragging through the water. I reached back and tried to replace it on the deck, but it was waterlogged and felt like it weighed at least fifty pounds. I was in the center of a deep channel, rough whitecaps breaking over my cockpit and pouring water into the boat, and I was wrestling with a waterlogged camp chair. Just as I was debating how exactly I could muscle the chair back up unto the deck behind me without capsizing and going for a swim in the turbulent ocean, the bungee cord tenuously holding the leg against the side of the kayak snapped under the chair's weight and it slipped from my grasp and quickly sank into the channel. All the time I had been working on the chair I hadn't been paddling, of course, and the current had carried me back towards the bridge that carries cars on US1 north and south through the Keys. I grabbed the paddle and furiously worked my way out of the current to avoid being swept under the bridge. I hugged the shoreline and made my way back the landing where I'd parked my car. After exiting my kayak I was carrying some gear through knee high water when I slipped on a slimy rock and sat down hard in the water, I was already wet from all the rain, so that didn't matter, but the gear I was carrying got soaked too - my wallet, car keys and cell phone all had a nice salt water bath. After loading everything back into and onto the car I started home, I'd gone about ten miles when I looked at where my new fishing pole should be and.........nothing there. I had left the pole back at the beach. The pole that I'd just bought that very morning and had yet to even cast into the water. So I turned around and went back. Luckily it was still there, right where I'd left it. All in all, what had started out as an easy paddle to do a little fishing turned into one of my least favorite experiences on the water. Some days, when things start to go wrong there's just no stopping the oncoming train of shit that's headed your way. |
October 14, 2008 at 12:23pm
October 14, 2008 at 12:23pm
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| Every week I work looking forward to Friday and most of the time when it gets here I don't know what to do with myself. So often I find that, unless I have specific plans, the entire weekend slips away and I haven't really done any of the things that I was looking forward to doing during the week. Sometimes, as is the case this week, it has to do with an unplanned inconvenience. I had anticipated going kayaking either today or tomorrow but the car with the kayak rack is in the shop. It was supposed to be finished by this morning, but the garage called a couple of hours ago and said it's going to take a few more days - and of course a few hundred more dollars. (I should probably note that my work week runs from Friday to Tuesday, so my "weekend" is from Tuesday afternoon to Thursday night.) So now the plan to kayak is no longer viable. I'll only have a rental car through tonight, so starting tomorrow, unless I want to drive Sheila back and forth to work, I won't have a car at all. So this week, on my "Saturday" and "Sunday" I may not even have a car at all. That sort of limits the outdoor activities that are available. Maybe I'll take my bike to the Bay and go fishing. Or I could always walk to the golf course. Of course, I could always stay inside and work on my writing.... Another Friday, slipping away. |
October 7, 2008 at 1:53pm
October 7, 2008 at 1:53pm
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| I used to be able to write humor. I can't seem to anymore. Have I become such a cynical bastard that I've lost my ability to find the humor in situations? I know I'm not as easygoing as I used to be. Things bother me that never used to bother me before. Does this increased angst make me less able to write something humorous? I made a challenge to myself that the next thing I wrote would be something lighthearted, something funny. All that has done is precipitated a period of almost ten days where I haven't written anything at all. I need to recharge my creative battery. I need a prompt, something to jumpstart me. Guess I'll search the sight in hopes of finding some inspiration. |
September 18, 2008 at 6:16pm
September 18, 2008 at 6:16pm
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Well, it's my Sunday evening. Tomorrow it's back to the grind. I spent a great percentage of my past two days off writing, most of it creating and revising a short story for the Bard's Hall monthly contest. I finished and submitted it this afternoon, now it's time for a celebratory gin and tonic and to write here in the blog. One thing that really frosts my nads is that I'm too new to this web site to take advantage of the subtleties of the site. For instance I started my short story as a draft, I wrote a ton in my first sitting, most of it not very good, I knew it wasn't very good but I had every intention of revising it and making it better as I went along. Well, I saved it and didn't restrict access to it. So naturally somebody rated it. It sucked, I knew it sucked and I should have not allowed anyone to see it until I was done with it. Now I have a completed story that I think is pretty good and it's already tagged with a crappy 3 star rating. The worst part is that they didn't provide a review along with the rating so I could e-mail them and explain that it was just a friggin' draft for cryin' out loud, give me a break. Note to self, and to anyone else out there who cares to hear me : if you're going to rate somebodies work, take the time to review it and tell them what you did or didn't like. Nothing is worse than telling someone that what they did is not very good without telling them why you feel that way. It's chicken shit and it's unfair. From now on I won't allow access to my drafts until they are ready. I guess I'll chalk it up to not utilizing the features of the web site as best I could.
It's still soggy here in the land of humidity, but we're over the worst of it. Another month and we'll get our first real cold front and then the beautiful weather will be upon us until next April, when the cycle starts anew. It rained today, but not much relief came with it. The dog is lazy like the rest of us, except when she spots the baby ghecko on the back porch. Then she springs into huntress mode and chases the thing from screen to screen, trying to prove to us that she deserves to be here. Which reminds me, time to take the mighty huntress for her nightly walk. Then I must start dinner - linguini with clam sauce tonight, hell yeah. |
September 16, 2008 at 7:08pm
September 16, 2008 at 7:08pm
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This is my blog from the land of humidity. I live in Homestead, Fl., a town south of Miami. It is a poor, depressed town, as are so many across this country, but it has its share of positive things. I guess I am one of the more fortunate here, I have a good paying job in Miami and I live in a nice neighborhood. It doesn't take a lot of driving around, though, to see that many who live here are struggling. So much need in such a prosperous nation.
I do love the location of the town though, just a short drive down the causeway to Key Largo and the rest of the beautiful Florida Keys, away from the craziness of Metro Miami. The Keys have a unique feel to them. If you've ever been there perhaps you've felt it. I know it sounds like an advertising slogan, but it's true. And the farther down the chain of islands you go, the more pervasive the relaxed atmosphere becomes. Until, of course, you reach Key West, the Conch Republic, where life seems to take on a rhythm unlike anywhere else. Again, all very cliche', and yet true nonetheless. I'll try to incorporate all of it into a story before too long.
Well, I must go. I started this blog because I need to write every day and I find that I just haven't developed my imagination to where I am able to generate new fiction on a daily basis. This is meant to keep me writing, even if it's just mindless, ordinary boring life that I'm writing about, at least I'm still writing. It's what I need to do. |
© Copyright 2008 Clrd2Land (UN: keyskayak at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/1474485-Tropical-Blog
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