In Today’s Journal
* My Quote of the Day
* A Day Off and a Fun Visit
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
A Day Off and a Fun Visit
I was blessed yesterday to have an enjoyable, fun visit with my youngest son on the approximate conjunction of his 40th birthday, the Marine Corps’ 250th birthday, and my own 73rd.
For that reason I took off much of yesterday, at least during normal waking hours.
We drove about an hour to visit a favorite antique shop, then visited the Sierra Vista mall, then ate lunch at Culvers before returning and spending some time at the house to effectively finish the day.
Today, again during those normal waking hours, we’ll visit for a few hours before he has to embark on a 5-hour drive back to his home in northern Arizona.
My son is fun to be around. He’s as enamored and engaged with and passionate about radio and telecommunications as I am with fiction writing, and he’s seemingly always been bent in that direction.
When he was a young toddler at 2 or 3 years old, he would stand in the back floorboard of the car and point past my or his mother’s shoulder, his eyes wide, as he proclaimed, “Radio tower!”
Today he effectively runs a ‘head end’ where he oversees telecommunications over much of Arizona and California. Those telecommunications signals service millions of people.
And he’s still so passionate about his chosen combination vocation and avocation that his mother and I host a twenty foot tall “radio tower” today just behind the Hovel: one that bears both VHF and UHF antennae, and that Roy and his friend erected.
So thanks to my son for visiting, and thanks to Cathy (his girlfriend, who was unable to make the trip this time) for sharing him.
I hope all of you have had as enjoyable a weekend as we have.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: Illness
The Invisible Universe: Why We Only See .01% of Reality
Speculative Fiction: Beyond a Novel’s Entertainment Value Maybe something of value.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 350
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 350
Writing of Blackwell Ops 51: Sam Granger | The Road Back
Day 1…… 2807 words. To date………… 2807
Day 2…… 2489 words. To date………… 5296
Day 3…… 3111 words. To date………… 8407
Day 4…… 2430 words. To date………… 10837
Day 5…… 3274 words. To date………… 14111
Day 6…… 4034 words. To date………… 18145
Day 7…… 2686 words. To date………… 20831
Day 8…… 2813 words. To date………… 23644
Day 9…… 3794 words. To date………… 27438
Day 10…. 2765 words. To date………… 30203
Fiction for November……………………… 47264
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 709305
Nonfiction for November.………………… 14040
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 253510
2025 consumable words………………… 955246
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 17
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 121
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29