I was at a book fair in Killeen Texas yesterday sponsored by Texas Authors. The Views of the Neighborhood this week will hopefully give you a taste of what went on.
Here is the entrance to the fair.
The main desk
A lot of authors are in attendance
Here is a shot of my booth.
More authors
I was happy to finally meet Jan Sykes. Here we are at her booth.
Gwen Plano was visiting Killeen and stopped by. This was the first time we met in person.
I call this “Thorn Between Two Roses.” It was so much fun seeing Jan and Gwen.
I hope you enjoyed the brief tour of the Killeen Book Fair.
Gad that headline took some figuring out. This is Stream of Consciousness Saturday and this weeks prompt is “abash/a bash/bash.” Linda Hill further orders to use “abash,” or “bash” as a noun or a verb. Then she offered up bonus points if we manage all three. Her final order, “Have fun!” (Easy for her to say).
If you would like to be under the boot of the lovely Ms. Hill go to her blog and read how. Here is the link.
Such an interesting week. We closed on the house in Port Aransas and will be closing on the house in the Austin area today. In between, we loaded up a truck which we rented and moved. The estimates for a move did not make any sense. The prices were way too high. The primary factor was not the labor but the milage from Port Aransas to Austin. By renting a truck, we had unlimited mileage, and the cost was under $300. We did have to gas up the vehicle which was another $60.00. We hired two able-bodied men in Port Aransas to load the truck and were willing to pay $50.00 each for about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, they did not show up (island time and all that), and we were fortunate our neighbors helped load.
When we got to Austin, we had hired a group named Bell Hops, and they were there on time and had the truck unloaded in an hour. So, all in all, it worked out and at a price significantly less than the lowest quote. Today’s JohnKu talks about being ready to take care of yourself. I hope you all have a great weekend.
“No Twiggy it is Wednesday.” “Lucy where are we?” “Beats me Kiddo. Beats me.”
It is Wednesday Story Day again, and last week we arrived at Mrs. Rafferty’s house to find a lawyer by the name of Sanders waiting to greet them. I think we better get over there to find out why she lawyered up and what she has to say.
“Mrs. Rafferty this is Detective Dunfee and Mr. Cummings from the Boston police. Gentlemen, Mrs. Rafferty.”
“Oh, Sanders you are so formal today. My name is Janice, and it is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Thank you, Mrs. ¾er Janice. My name is Larry, and this is Andrew. It is nice to meet you as well.”
“Please have a seat and let me ask if you would like anything to drink?”
“We are fine. Thank you so much.”
“If you change your mind just let me know.”
“We will. The reason we wanted to talk to you is—”
“Excuse me, detective. Before you begin, I think a couple of ground rules are necessary.”
“Of course, Sanders. By the way, is that your first or last name?”
“Evon is my first name.”
“Ah Evon, why am I not surprised.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing counselor. I just didn’t think with the last name of Sanders your first would be common.”
“Thank my parents, Detective. Now as I was saying a few rules.”
“Happy to comply, Even.”
“That’s Evon. Ah, I see you’re making a joke.”
“Sorry. A habit of mine. Please continue.”
“Okay, the first is Mrs. Rafferty has agreed to talk to you, but anything you discuss is off the record.”
“We are not here to accuse Mrs.—um Janice of anything. We just want to inquire about his behavior before he died.”
“Even so. Off the record. Yes or no.”
“Fine. Yes.”
“Thank you. The second. Anytime I feel you are violating rule one the conversation will be over. Clear?”
“I don’t think we will have a problem with these rules. Anything else?”
“Mrs. Rafferty only has an hour. At the end of that time, I will call the meeting.”
“Very good counselor. May I begin?”
“Certainly.”
“Um, Janice. I would like to know how much alcohol your husband normally consumed when he was, let’s say, being social?”
“My husband was not a big drinker. In fact, he frowned up those who got out of hand with alcohol.”
“Can you explain the fact that he registered over 2.0 percent blood alcohol level that night?”
“No, I can’t. I wasn’t there but can tell you, there is no way Alexis would consume alcohol and ski.”
“How do you know this?”
“He often mentioned how much he couldn’t stand those on the slopes who were drunk. He said they were a danger to themselves and others.”
“So, you believe he didn’t get carried away with a party or something.”
“He was there for a meeting. I doubt seriously that he would be out getting drunk.”
“Who was he meeting with?”
“Hold on Detective. Mrs. Rafferty may not even know.”
“I do know Evon. He was meeting with his boss Cortez.”
In Keith’s words. “Using this photo (below) as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really; even just a caption for the photograph. Either put it (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithchanning@gmail.com before 6pm next Sunday (if you aren’t sure what the time is where I live, this link will tell you). If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated, but please do also mention it in a comment here.
Go on. You know you want to. Let your creativity and imagination soar. I shall display the entries next Monday.”
As you may know, I’m in the process of moving and today is unload day at the new location. So today’s Top Ten Things Not to Do has only one thing times ten.
10 – 1 If you are moving, do not try to do a quality top ten list. If you do, at best you’ll embarrass yourself. At worst you’ll have to answer to Tiny the WWF champ who just finished grammar cop school. (Sure you only missed a couple of commas, John. Try explaining that to Tiny before the knuckle sandwich finds its mark)
As I mentioned on Friday, today the producer, Lucy, Twiggy, and I will be relocating to the Austin Texas area. Since this is my last Port Aransas post I decided to give you a view of my neighborhood. I have taken many pictures of other neighborhoods but this is a first for my own. We enjoyed the last twelve years living by the Gulf but now is time to move to a new chapter. I hope you enjoy the little tour.
Here is the entrance sign to our neighborhood. After Hurricane Harvey a number of things needed to be replaced. This sign was one of them.
Marie will hate this but here is our main gate
This is the golf car crossover to the beach.
Speaking of that here is the first picture of our golf cart. Notice the raised suspension and nubby tires. All the better in the sand. That number and red flag denote our lot number and residence status. (All carts in our community are registered.)
Bit of fog yesterday when I took these photos
A shot from the crossover of the pool area.
That little house contains the bathrooms and pool pump. By the way, The Producer was tasked with developing the color scheme for the neighborhood. She redesigned all signs and chose the colors.
Here is a shot of the expanded lanai.
This is a view of the front of our house. The Producer also designed our home and worked with an architect to bring it to reality
Here is the back view. I have taken many photos from the backyard but this is the first from this view. My office is on the third floor overlooking the pond.
I hope you enjoyed the Port Aransas series and next week we start anew from Austin.
It is Stream of Consciousness Saturday time again, and this weeks prompt is “cele-” Yes that is right. Linda Hill says to use a word that has “cele” in it and to have fun. If you would like to participate, visit Linda’s blog and read how. Here is the link.
“Oh, this? I’m studying it to see if it will fit in my celebratory event.”
“What celebration are you having and why wasn’t I invited?”
“Well, I’m celebrating my first year racing anniversary.”
“You don’t want me as a celebrant?”
“I just haven’t gotten around to invitations yet. I want to make sure my celerity is still up to par.”
“Your what? I’ve heard of celestite but not celerity.”
“Means swift or fast. I have to make sure my racing is still as fast before I throw a party. I’m wondering if I should have a celestia as part of the music?”
“Now you have me thinking you are looking to celestials for inspiration.”
“It’s an instrument. I would have thought a celebrity like you would know that.”
“You can take your foot off the insult accelerator.”
“Your thin skin is priceless. I was giving you a compliment.”
“How is your graceless comment a compliment?”
“I called you a celebrity I thought that was kind. Let me decelerate by giving you an apology.”
“Okay. Consider my angst canceled.”
“Maybe I should consider celeric instead of celery.”
“Huh. You have me there. I feel faceless with all these words.”
“Whew, you have me winded.” “Aw Lucy. It’s Friday. Time to blow off steam.” “Let me catch my breath before I try the steam thing.”
Another Friday has rolled around, and it has been hectic for the last two weeks. The producer and I have sold our house here at the beach and bought another in Austin Texas. Yes, I know. The question comes up, “Why on Earth would you do that?”
It is a good thing that there are excellent reasons for doing so.
Our youngest daughter lives in Austin, and we would like to see her more.
The health care facilities are more accessible for a septuagenarian. (Me. The Producer is still a kid.)
We love Austin. (It has an element of weird more like us )
We think the last 10 years at the beach are enough and want some city life for a while. (theater, opera, symphony, and exercise facilities)
On Sunday we will be leaving for our new home. I intend to post one last View of the neighborhood which will be where we have lived.
Today’s JohnKu talks about change. I hope you have a great weekend. Oh yes. I do have a personal hot spot but will not have internet at the new house until March 5th. Please bear with me if anything should go wrong and my posts don’t appear.
