Simple Pleasures

Sometimes in life we look for the "big" moments.  We celebrate graduations or weddings, for instance.  We do this as writers too.  What is the big reveal?  And these things are important; we look forward to them and think back on them.

But, in my latest travels and adventures I have one favorite memory that surpasses all others.  One day, towards the end of  my visit with my daughter, I took my granddaughter outside their apartment.  There in a little breezeway I blew bubbles with my sweet little girl.  I blew and she chased for probably fifteen minutes.  She would run and say "bubba" while reaching to pop the bubbles within her reach.  At times they would drift too high, but she would stretch as if by some magic they might get close enough to pop.  We were both smiling, lost for a moment in time.

Life would not be complete without these simple, but treasured, pleasures.  Hopefully my novel will have these simple, but treasured, passages that bring reality and humanity to my words.

Lights in the Dark

I have recently been traveling to various locales - my daughter's to paint her new apartment among other things and to a girl's camp, camping in tents in the middle of nowhere.  I promised to bring back material to write about, and I do have a lot to work with.  However, it is here, in literally my own back yard, that I find material for today.

Yesterday, we had severe thunderstorms pass through our area.  Even before the first storm actually hit our house, our power went out.  I won't bore you with details of what we did for the next seven powerless hours.  Suffice it to say we played lots of games by flashlight and tried to keep cool with open windows when it wasn't raining.

About four or five hours into our outage we discovered that most of our neighbors had power!  We were part of a small pocket of about six homes without power.   At that point I called the electric company to report our outage in case we had been missed.  Although I'm fairly certain they knew that information, it felt good to take some kind of action, pointless though it may have been.

About quarter to eleven last night two electric company trucks pulled up across the street.  It was an awe inspiring sight, and not just for the obvious reason.  Yes, it was nice to know that relief was close.  But it was more than that.

Imagine this scene if you will.  The houses are dark.  The streetlights are out.  Tall trees are everywhere.  And then shining like an alien being are truck lights and a spotlight shining up into the trees.  You can follow the light along the cherry picker that is raised until it disappears into the dense leaves.  It is accompanied by the loud sound of a motor that seems to gun every few minutes or so as it powers the bright lights illuminating the linemen's task at hand.

I walked out in the rain to get a closer look, but I still could not see where the light ended, could not see actual workers up in the air near the power lines.  All I could see were lights shining in the dark.    It was eerie and comforting at the same time.  I wonder what stories it will inspire?

Fireflies

Well, I'm finally back from my adventures.  And as anticipated, it was a great opportunity to gather material to write about.  The hard part now is deciding what to write about first.  So, I'll start with something small, something small in size: fireflies.

I grew up in the West and my only experience with fireflies was in the book Gus and the Firefly.  It was actually one of my favorite books as a little girl.  But it wasn't until I moved to the East Coast that I saw a firefly in person, so to speak.  I was entranced by the bit of florescent light that suddenly appeared and then just as suddenly was extinguished.

Every year when summer comes I am once again mesmerized by the lights that magically appear in my yard.  I can't help but sit and watch, often with a child by my side.  My kids have periodically caught one in their hands and we watch it turn its light on and off until it flies away.

Only a few days ago I was camping in a largely undeveloped part of Ohio.  One evening we had a program that took us on a walk in the evening.  We passed by a large field on one side and a gentle hill on the other.  As dusk deepened, the fireflies came out en masse.

Despite years of living in the East, I have never witnessed such a large gathering of fireflies.  They could be seen at the edge of the path, but also beyond and on both sides of the path.  Their glowing lights were flickering off and on.  It looked like a large Christmas light display of twinkling white lights.  It was more than beautiful, it was ethereal and heavenly.

I have written before about writing what you know.  And you really don't have to experience everything you write about, but some things are beyond our imagination.  I had seem fireflies before.  I knew what they looked like.  But I had never imagined a whole field of them and the mystical dance they would perform before my eyes.

Vacation?

This will be my last blog for a couple of weeks.  I will not be at home, and while I'll have my computer with me for part of that time, I won't have the time to write a blog.

You may think since it's summer that I'll be on vacation.  Well, not exactly.  I'm looking at it as gathering information, doing research, if you will.  To start with I'm going to see my daughter, her husband and my granddaughter.  I'm excited about that and one special day we have planned.  But the rest of the time we're going to be helping her either pack up her belongings and move them or clean and paint the new place.  Maybe I'll get to do both!

(I must apologize here.  Because it suits the purpose of my blog, I'm not presenting this in a very good light.  I actually volunteered to help my daughter with her move and I only wish I could be there longer to help more.  But putting it the other way makes for a better story, don't you think?)

So, after I return from my daughter's, I am home for a very short time, and then I get to go camping with a bunch of 12-17 year old girls!  I haven't been camping this century!  I slept in a cabin a decade ago, but a tent . . . I don't even recall!  (Okay, so I volunteered, but other than that, I'm not sure how to spin this one.)

In the end, let me assure you I'm not abandoning my "post" here.  The next couple of weeks will be interesting.  And in the end, I should have some great "material" (code for good stories and especially tired, dirty, etc. stories), and some I'll share here.   We'll see what turns up.

Schools Out For Summer

The last day of school in our area was yesterday.  It's such a magical time.  I can still remember the  exhilarating feeling of walking out of school for the last time that school year.  I felt so free, so alive, so unfettered!

Our kids are celebrating by sleeping in. Our youngest has plans - he intends to have more play dates than the number of summer vacation days.  His older brother has a plan also - basically to have no plans.  That's okay, we have plans for him.

You may remember those feelings of excitement when summer vacation arrived.  But how do you capture that feeling on a written page?  Do you bring up comparisons to draw upon your reader's emotional memories?  Do you describe it in detail?  Maybe a combination of both?  Maybe metaphors to sunrises or birds set free.

I think summer is epitomized by laying out by the pool with the sun warming your limbs while laughing and talking with your best friends.  This is the ideal.  The more common reality is lying around all day watching tv, eating cheetos, playing a game or two, and maybe reading a book.  Although, I'm beginning to think more and more that the ideal is reading a book!

Birds of a Feather

It's a short walk to my son's school, maybe a block and a half.  The two of us make this trek every morning and afternoon.  I noticed this morning the abundance of wildlife in that short distance.  I saw squirrels and chipmunks and half a dozen or more different types of birds.

It is interesting how species of birds vary in their behavior.  Some are small but noisy, sounding like a busy body talking to her neighbor.  Others are quiet and devoted, only seen with their mate.  Some birds were hopping along the ground while others flitted about in the air.  Many were colorful while others were plain, almost fading into the background.

I've also been keeping up on basketball.  The "Birdman" on the Miami Heat is an interesting species all by himself.  He reminds me of the truly awful film Sssssss made decades ago.  For some reason it has played on the TV multiple times over the years.  It's all about a crazy scientist (Dr. Stoner, interestingly enough) who turns people into snakes.  It's creepiness is highlighted when one of the "good guys" is discovered too late as half man-half snake.  I don't think we need to go to these physical extremes to demonstrate the similarities between humans and the animal world around us.

For instance, one of the birds I noticed this morning was a hawk.  He first made his presence known with his loud call.  I finally located him perched on the corner of a house right in front of me.  I have since identified him as a Northern Harrier.  Beautiful and majestic, this is actually the same bird I saw in the same place yesterday afternoon.  Only yesterday this large predator was being picked on by a blue jay.  The blue jay kept flying at him and chasing him off.

Isn't this world an interesting place?  How many "bird people" do you know that look completely human?  Gives you pause to think about it.  If you were a bird what species would you be?

The Great Kindergarten Graduation Riot of 2013

I've blogged before about the stranger than fiction aspect of our lives.  Here is yet another saga to add to that.  In the Cleveland area last week a kindergarten graduation was held.  Now, I won't even get into whether we need kindergarten graduations or not.  Suffice it to say, we live in one of the best school districts in the state and no one has felt it necessary to "graduate" from individual grades.  Anyway, back to my story.  Apparently at this graduation someone spilled punch on someone else.  Oh, the horrors!

Well, words were exchanged; more words were exchanged . . .  Apparently some teenagers got into it, and possibly some adults (accounts vary).  When all was said and done eight people were arrested for participating in a riot!  All of this from a kindergarten graduation!

What can I say?  What were these people thinking?  Was anyone around with a clear head?  What life lessons did those kindergarteners receive that day?

All I can really say is fiction is hard to write today when you have to compete with the absurdity of real life!