Josh's Thoughts

Happy New Year EVERYONE!

Well, COVID is still here and it has ruined yet another of our families traditions. But in an effort to continue to keep our 96-ish year old grandmother alive, we will stay home. Some more. Again. Crap.

I’m sore from virtual golf, haven’t swung a club since June of 2020, seems so long ago.  I need to get into shape.  The shape I am in, round, is no good for the future.

I resolve to lose weight this year, and to structure my life so that I can woodwork, write, read, work out, and maybe play some video games….

I also resolve to organize the areas of my life and clean out the clutter.  That means the garage, and the basement. Here we go, 2021!  Hooray!

Well faithful readers, we have made it to the end of this wretched year! Lets review, shall we?

January – We were treated to massively damaging wild fires in Australia, that ravaged 18.6 million acres.  The fires raged for nearly 80 days, displacing or killing nearly 3 billion animals!

February – We all thought that we were going to war with Iran to start WWIII!  Thank goodness that Coronavirus hit and put the kibosh on that party! My daughter got her braces off!

March – Oh yeah.  Coronavirus. Turns out it was much more dangerous than previously thought.  Time for lock down! My son got his license and car on March 13th! School is closed! We baked bread and Corned Beef!

April – Well shit.  The fan is spinning and the shit is in the launcher, just waiting for someone to pull the trigger.  Schools have been closed and the kids are ALL home schooled now! We had a virtual Scout camp out in our backyards! Built a vegetable garden in the backyard!

May – Black Lives Matter. I believe that they do. As do all lives. Should we riot? Absolutely not! Oh so we are doing this now? Who’s Aunt Eefa?  Oh, Antifa! Great.  Who invited these guys? Ah screw it, let’s all work from home! What? Go camping?  Sure, on Memorial Day Weekend at Higgins Lake KOA? I’m in!

June – School’s out for summer! Fixed brother’s car door handle, drove through daughter’s graduation from middle school to high school, finished Mom’s lighthouse, did the book cover a day challenge (and loved it!), and finished my bookcases project! Camping again? Sure, at Traverse City RV Resort?  Let’s go!

July – Missing Brandy, been gone a year and still hurts. CPL class? Why?  BLM and Antifa, oh shit, let’s do it! Get into reloading? Hell yeah! Political ads and turmoil have started. Loaded my first rounds and got my first freedom seed spreader! 2nd wave of Covid-19 has started. Great.

August – Voted in the Primary elections.  Fat lot of good that’ll do. Camping again?!? Where? Drummond Island? Hmmm…the prospect of being on an island during a freaking global pandemic does sound promising. Let’s do it!  20 year anniversary to my beloved wife! Here’s to 20 more! Huge explosion in Beirut at port. Ammonium Nitrate is not for playing around with. Wildfires out west in Oregon and California make the skies all red in Michigan!  No band camp this year.

September -Turned 45! Finally built my reloading bench! Got my CPL! Working on my wood shop! Started my novel again! Kids are back to school!  Virtually….

October – Halloween!  Many Biden and Trump costumes, glad to see the kids out and about. Got to see the marching band on the field! Hooray!

November – Can we just say WTF for the election and just leave it at that? Happy Thanksgiving? Yeah sure, but it was a bit weird having it at home but we made the best of it with our wedding China and my son’s girlfriend participated!

December – Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and welcome to the third wave of Covid-19!  Also first round of official vaccinations are sent out and administered.

I’m ready for 2021!

Just a quick note to wish all of my friends and family a very Merry Christmas!

In this time of Covid-19 and political unrest, it is best to take some time with your immediate family to cherish the time you have with them.

I wish the peace of God upon all of you and love you all!

Apologies, but it’s been a hectic month.  With all of the hullabaloo about the election, the lack of protests and the never-ending fear of the Coronavirus it has been hard to keep finding the drive to continue writing.  I did take a weekend and secluded myself to my cabin with the idea to get back into the follow up novel to Home Bound.  I was able to proof and the novel from Prologue to Chapter 13, which is where I had left off.  I am feeling uneasy about this one.  It is set up to be a world and character building story, with the main antagonist showing up in the last third of the book.  It is a setup for the third novel. 

In addition to all of that I have been getting my shop in order so that I can work on some woodworking projects over the winter.  I want to build one of those dice games where you flip over the numbered tiles.  I made one in high school and I’d like to try again.  I’m hoping my experience will make it easier.

My son has started working!  It’s his first job and he’s at the local Taco Bell.  I couldn’t be more proud of him!  He was in contact with someone who has Covid!  Crap!  Well we were all in “quarantine” over Thanksgiving.  No one got it, including him! 

I am going to continue writing in this blog as an exercise to keep the writing muscles flexed!  I am not sure if I’ll do it daily or bi-weekly, but I am going to keep trying! 

Till we meet again!