Hello!

 The last time I posted here, little did we know the Covid 19 virus would be so devastating. This week JB and I got our first vaccine shot and as I knew it would, it's given me some hope that this can be the beginning of the end of this world-wide tragedy; meaning it will hopefully be easier to move life in the direction of 'more normal.'

I've been pretty much holed up at home, but I live in such a beautiful place, with an empty winter beach one block from home. It's mostly been okay, except I miss my daughter and son-in-law and my four grandkids. But soon.... 

My cooking skills have increased significantly. It's about time! These days I'm also  shopping my completed family saga novel, hoping an agent will pick me up. I'm not sure if that will happen, but I'm motivated to stick with the no-fun process of sending out queries and sample chapters. 

I am forever said that blogging has flickered out. I will always miss so many past blogging friends. Heck, we shared our lives almost daily. I wish those of us who remain, even periodically like me, everything good. I'll keep writing, and if and when my book get's picked up, I'll be shouting from the rooftops right here!

love kj

 

JB's succulent garden 

Hello! I've been holed up in Provincetown with few personal inconveniences but plenty of anger and push back against our current U.S. President and the shocking (uninformed?) people who continue support  him.

The Corona Virus here in Provincetown has been at zero. I feel like I'm in a bubble, able to see my neighbors and friends safely, with masks, at a distance, but with the benefit of ocean breezes and mostly compliant residents. This may all change now that the tourist season is in full swing, but I live in a state with an intelligent governor so at least I can feel I'm in competent hands.

Unlike Florida, Arizona, Texas, and a shameful Federal response.

These days I am finishing up a travel memoir on our road trip across America and querying agents about my family saga, now renamed Saints of the Little Things. It's a gift to have writing as a life companion. I normally don't reach the outer ends of boredom or anxiety because I can write.

And I can garden. Our plot of land is small but it's so refreshing to plant something, tend to it, and watch it grow. These days I mostly write, garden, cook a little, volunteer a bit of counseling and resource help, and look for ways to be kind. JB and I have been surprising people with Saturday morning orgasmic sticky buns for the last few months. We order ten a week and just decide who's on the delivery list each week. It's been a great feeling to do this silly delivery, and it makes a sweet difference to the receivers and to us the givers.

I think there is a blanket of anxiety and unease among most of us these days. How could it be otherwise? Wearing masks in a real or imagined way separates us from other people. I may greet people with a smile but it's often not seen or understood. And for many, isolation starts to hurt. I am not seeing my beloved Jessica and my beloved grandkids in any way close to normal: that's probably my biggest loss. But in another way, I'm staying put in a way I'm not used to, and I like it. My big time prayers are aimed toward the Presidential Election in November. My country needs to heal. I find that Trump upsets me even more than fear and sadness about the virus.

 I hope you are all well. I know I've not been reliable here on Blogger, but if you happen to be on Facebook or Instagram, I'm there and I'd love to follow you.

Meanwhile, stay safe and don't lose hope in humanity or the planet. Big shifts are happening, that's for sure. I hope when we land, we're the better for it.

He. Will. Not. Win.

Love kj

Snippets from a Road Trip

 This post is in no order. Since we hightailed it back to Massachusetts from California, the Corona Virus has taken over day-to-day life. But our 8 week road trip was too magical and too awesome not to write about it, not to share. So I'm going to randomly post snippets.

For starts, here is our loosey-goosey itinerary. Nothing after Blythe California was as planned because we were instead racing to get back home before we might be quarantined or sheltered in place in one state or another. But boy was our trip from East to West wonderful.

 In Charleston South Carolina, we tracked down one of our favorite artists, Jonathan Green, and found the gallery where his signed prints are sold. We bought one, our first purchase of the trip, and we're still giddy about it. We came close to visiting his house and studio, but that's another story.

This is one of many signs we found along the way. I went out of my way looking for interesting and/or comical signs and sooner or later, I may bunch them all together into maybe a chap book. I wonder how many fried chickens applied for this $ 15/hour job?

All in all we stayed in at least 20 hotel rooms. In every one, we spread out a blanket for our dog Mattie and gave her a beloved greeenie on the bed before we left her alone. She was perfect the entire road trip, in the car, on the road, on city streets, in hotels and in people's home. She loved being with us.

 

This was my very favorite meal of all time. Shrimp and grits at Henrietta's in Charleston. It was orgasmic.

 I have no idea where this was. Just a scene among hundreds as we headed south and then west.

We have friends who moved to Carefree Arizona and this is the view from their deck. No subdivisions for these two--they are smack in the desert. While we were there, a loud rattle sound came from the garage. Not one but two RATTLESNAKES! The fire dept came and disposed of them, meaning they carefully captured both and released them not far from this very scene.

Oh Southern California. I could breathe you in every day.

Bisbee Arizona.  Once a thriving copper mining town, it has a charm to it that made it one of our favorite places. This is the Main Street, with all kinds of fantastic specialty shops and restaurants. We shopped a lot here.

Here we are  in Palm Springs visiting with friends. :^)

This place has a story to it! Nestled in the hills of Topanga California, it was the first time we tried AirB&B. It looks darling, right? It was called the French Quarter. We arrived to mud. More mud than I'd ever seen. JB's feet sank down 6 inches trying to get from the car to the front door. It was too late in the day to start over, so we hunkered down in the "French Quarter" for a night of uneasy funk. The place was tired, worn, unelegant. We laugh about it now, and we managed to reconnect with my dear friend ValGal at a local restaurant. But jeez Louise, mud and more mud. 

More to come. I hope my friends here are feeling as safe as possible. The virus and Donald Trump are  cause for great concern. I'm home appreciating the little things that aren't little, but it's pretty weird to be living a different life. I hope it's temporary.

love

kj

Quickie Update

This is Southern California. I have plenty of gorgeous and interesting photos to share from our Road Trip across America, but for now I'll quickly say that we hightailed it back to Massachusetts from California in an effort to get home before any of the states ordered a 'shelter in place' order. The trip home is a story in itself.

The Corona Virus has taken over daily life. My small tourist town is reeling from the real possibility that there may not be a summer season and local shops may not open and there may not be jobs. I have plenty to say about that too.

I'll blog again soon. I promise. And I'll write about our  awesome 8 week road trip adventure. Even Mattie the dog had a great time.

I pray we are all well and safe and I pray our doofus dangerous USA president is ignored in favor of our medical specialists and governors.

Take good care!
love
kj

Update from the Road

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

Mae West

JB and I have been on the road for 2 weeks. We're now in Pensacola Florida, heading to New Orleans and to San Antonio and Austin from there. We're having a remarkable time.

I've spent the last hour trying to upload my photos and I can't. The sights are wonderful, interesting, quirky, unusual. When I solve my photo problems, I'll be excited to share our slices of America, so far from Western Massachusetts, through Philadelphia, to Rocky Mount NC, to Charleston SC, to Savannah and Tybee Island GA, to Flagler Beach and then St Petersburg, to the sweetest town of Apalachacola and St George Island, and now, at a Home Suites Hotel, where we're (finally) doing laundry and re-organizing the car.

We've driven 2500 miles over 14 days, and by the time we arrive back in Provincetown, late March, early April, we'll have clocked 9000 or so miles. Might buy a new car when we get home!

Mattie our dog has been wonderful. We start most mornings at a local dog park or beach so she can run and sniff and play. She's been great in the car and great when we leave her in all these hotel rooms while we gallivant on our own. But she's spent the day walking on a leash with us in Savannah and St Petersburg and in Apalachacola, behaving like a well trained dog. (Ha!)

My favorite moments so far: the Shrimp and Grits at Henrietta's Restaurant in Charleston, the tiny tall beach houses on St George Island, and time with friends. And the unlikely fact that JB and I have had no arguments in the car. :^)

Hopefully I'll be back soon.

love
kj

Road Trip

Come the end of January, JB and I are starting a 2 month road trip. We'll be heading south in our car, away from snow and colder weather, down to Florida, across the Southern USA to Phoenix, where we'll drop off our dog Mattie with friends, then take a plane to Mexico for 2 weeks, return to Phoenix, pick up Mattie, and head to Southern California.

If this sounds adventurous, it is! I've been mapping out places we want to see, and friends/family we want to visit. It's like putting a puzzle together. We've decided we don't want to be stuck in the car driving more than 5-6 hours at a time, so we'll have plenty of stops, some overnight, some for several days. Philadelphia, Charleston, Tybee Island, Savannah, St Petersburg, New Orleans, Austin-San Antonio, El Paso (Texas is big!), Tucson, Phoenix, Puerto Vallarta, Palm Springs, Pismo Beach, Carpenteria, LA. There are people and places I will be so glad to see.

I've started mapping our return trip and it's equally exciting: Los Vegas, Sedona, Santa Fe, Memphis, Nashville, Washington DC, maybe New York City for a final fling.

I should add that I'm doing this with a back that still limits me and a knee that probably needs a replacement.  I just ordered walking sticks so I can walk further and with better balance. I should further add that neither of us is sure how traveling life will be with Mattie. But I feel good about it all. I'm glad that JB and I are opting for a grand adventure. I might do a road trip Photo-Journal. I haven't found much help with the planning and gallivanting from available books, so who knows: maybe I'll write one myself!

I see 2020 as an auspicious year. I'm hoping by its end the turbulent era of Donald Trump will begin to recede, and I'm hoping I will have a book contract for my family saga manuscript. I'm also aware that living and dying seems to be playing a significant role for many of us, so far.

I keep reminding myself: Wait to Worry. That little mantra has helped me out more times than I can count.

Happy New Year from me. I'll be posting our travels. :^)

love
kj

Wishing each of you a wonderful season and a wonderful year ahead. These images just about sum things up for me.

with love

kj

Tis The Season

It's no secret that I love the holiday season. I feel and act kinder this time of year. But I also miss my Mother and Father. My childhood Christmases were always good. My Mother made dozens of her famous chocolate chip cookies, there were always great presents under the tree, and on Christmas Day she cooked a huge turkey dinner complemented with her made-from-scratch raviolis. Company dropped by throughout the day and my Mother made it all special. She died a couple of weeks before Christmas, surrounded by love and gracious to the end. And my Father died before her, in his own bed, comforted and comfortable. I miss them. This time of year the life-gifts they gave me shine bright.

Ha! This is a telling snapshot of JB. Who else manages to take off pants and socks and keep them in tact?

We'll be having a holiday open house in part because it matters to me to offer a festive time to so many folks who may need or want company this time of year. Plus JB and I are good at throwing parties. I had an elective surgery four weeks ago so I'm planning menus from the couch.

And TA-DA! JB has been invited to show her metal pieces at the Bowersock Gallery in Provincetown. This is a prestigious fine artgallery, and she's over the moon about it. I'm so proud of her.

That's it for now. I'll be back. Meanwhile, happy holidays for any reason.
love
kj

Provincetown

I'm not saying this to brag, but I live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. It's a small town in winter, barely 300-400 year rounders, and an any-thing goes tourist attraction in summer--20,000 people letting go and relaxing. The shoulder months of spring and fall are the best of all. Beauty and bouncing light everywhere.

There's a large Portuguese population here, and a large gay and lesbian population, and hard working Mexican and Jamaican folks who send money back home,  and plenty of artists and writers and dogs and foxes. 

It's easy enough to get tangled up by life's chores and not take the time to walk along the bays beaches that make up this peninsula. Or to hunker in when a storm or a N'Easter comes and not head to the sea to watch the weather come right at you. 

JB and I have found that Provincetown is an expensive place to live--we drop close to $ 100 for a nice meal out, and the town government and annual meetings can be pretty funky and contentious. But most of all, there's a vibrancy here that's just awesome. 

PS Every so often I can't tell if I've taken a photo myself or copied it from someone else on Facebook or Instagram. If I haven't given credit, I apologize.

Love
kj

Mini Mish Mash

Way back, I invented selfies. I'm sure of it. Here are JB and I at a wedding last month. It was a wild wedding with lots of drinking and loose tongues. I don't drink and JB did. When we were ready to leave, I turned my head for a quick moment and found her dancing wildly, hands over head, sandwiched between two grinding men. I told her she was too old to be a grindee or grinder. 

It was a big leap to move to Provincetown. But now I love being here. We've fixed up our house to our liking and it's cozy. The bay is a block away. The neighbors are great. I sit on the couch looking at this view more hours than I should admit. I write on the couch. I watch the news, I eat snacks, I read books, I play games on my phone. I have to force myself to get up and move. Which means I could be a sedentary slug if I'm not careful.  

This cracks me up. I am on record predicting that Trump will not win a second term. His erratic instability has hit home with the Republicans who ignore and cover for him, but it's at a point where history will not treat them well if they allow him to continue to hurt the country.

And my family. I couldn't love them more. This week we learned that Logan, age 8, has petit mal epilepsy. He has to take medication for the next few years and there's a good chance he'll outgrow the seizures. Even though we expect that his day to day life won't be limited, the diagnosis hurts my heart. He's a very swell kid.

Happy October, everyone. The leaves are changing color.

love

kj

Book Writing

I'm finishing up a novel I've been working on for several years. Not consistently. I probably went a year or more without touching it at all. But now, 300 pages later, I'm almost done. Actually, I am done, but the last month I've been chopping and polishing and editing, chapter by chapter. Doing this is joy for me. I'm getting closer and closer to knowing I will have done the very best I could. 

This is quite a process. I've re-read the manuscript several times now, tightening words and deleting anything that doesn't add to the plot or characters. Today I  put together a timeline that begins in 1947 and ends in 2011. I have to fact check all kinds of things: was there e-mail in 1985? How much did a house cost in 1970? When did John Denver write Rocky Mountain High? What was the average hourly wage in 2000? Who won the Super Bowl when Michael Jackson wrote Billie Jean? And on and on. A book has to be congruent. I can make things up, of course, but some things need to be factually accurate. I've picked up a good 2 dozen errors so far. 

I'm also establishing what happened when, and deciding what's relevant and what isn't. I realized I can't write this family novel without mentioning September 11'th and JFK's assassination and the AIDS crisis. 

And I'm word-smithing. Can I use one word to show this instead of 4? Do I have too much description and not enough action or dialogue? Have I kept the plot moving at a good clip?

In a few days I'll send the manuscript back to the Development Editor I hired (Zoe Quinton), for her 2nd read through. She's been absolutely great, which for me means helpful and clear and encouraging. She tells me the book is good enough to land an agent and I think that means to land a publishing contract. I have this grandiose idea that the story can also be a mainstream movie. 

All of this means I'm writing a book I feel great about. I love the writing of it, fleshing out the characters, creating story arcs, offering a glimpse of my version of loyalty and devotion. That's the theme of the book. 

IF (a big IF) I'm lucky enough to be picked up, it would be another 1-2 years before the book would be in print and available for sale. Publishing is an industry that generally moves slow. I'm not sure why. 

Is this my new career? I think so. For many people, it doesn't matter if other people like what they do because they do it for their own benefit. That's not me. I would love some degree of commercial success. I think I have a shot at it. 

There: I said it. I know what I'm hoping for. 

love

kj

Kids and Sand Dunes

This explains a lot of my summer. 

JB and I have had each grandkid, separately, for several days and overnights. We've said 'yes' dozens of times more often than a meager 'no' here and there.  We've gone bowling, eaten dessert first, had water balloon fights, seen a drag show and a couple of children' theatre plays, searched for shells, swam every day, had meals together, watched movies, stayed up late, walked along zany Commercial Street, and counted our blessings out loud together 3 times a day.

Ryan, age 12, was the last to leave today. JB and I are exhausted. But exhaustion isn't what I feel the most. I KNOW we've created lasting memories. I KNOW they know it too. No doubt being one of four kids in a family requires daily compromise, so coming to Provincetown, alone, means getting total attention with a minimum of rules. I'm so happy to be able to give these beloved children that. And I love knowing that my Jessica appreciates it all. 

And now, JB and I plan to chill. I have a manuscript to edit and a garden to tend to, but both are so easy peasy I'm ready. We'll wring out the last few days of summer and the nearby pool and look ahead to a gorgeous autumn on Cape Cod.  

It's been a good summer. In a messed up world where a horrible man continues his racist rants and policies, and too many of my fellow-Americans either ignore or approve, I'm grateful to have a corner of life where only love lives. 

love

kj