Paddy's Wanderings

Junk Drawer, Feb 2012

I need a new pic for the Junk Drawer. Then again, it is a junk drawer and hasn't changed much in a long time. Maybe I should clean it.

Then again the wandering has not been happening much lately either. The nasty sickness from early December is back, not as bad, but back. It is a viral thing too.. Silly me asked the doctor to give me a broadbase anti-viral. He said there is no such thing. I have to tough it out for 2-3 months. It has been two months. I guess I watched too much SF because I would have swore they had stuff for viruses.

I wish. This thing makes it hard to work, let alone finish writing projects, or wander. But I am doing some of that wandering now, I sure am.

At The Farm, there is a mountain of work to do. I have started helping my Dad do some of that. We got a lot planned for Spring, so we have to get prepared. Being sick, and the relentless snow and cold, especially this weekend, is making it hard to get a lot done.There is so much to do, so much to transfer to the Old Barn, to preserve and save all those treasures.

We even plan to build a new house, which if you are keeping count, would be the third house on the property since it was homesteaded in 1882. I never saw the first one, still have not found a picture, but there is plenty to go through. I do remember the second one, but that is, sadly, now gone too. So we are gonna build another one.

I know complaing about the warm winter sounds funny, but up north here, there is plenty of snow and the wind off the hill cuts right through a person. I would swear that the winters of my childhood, back in the Fashioned Challenged Seventies, were much colder. I don't remember them that way at all. Might be my age,might be that there is no house or power or my Grandma baking cookies in the kitchen to come in to after being out in the cold barn.

The power is disconnected, first time since they put in electricity back in 1937. We'll get that hooked up in spring so we can use power tools. Unlike my great-great-grandfather, we'll want power for tools. Feels like cheating though, it really does. That is another post though. For now, we freeze and do our thing. Still not as tough as those old guys. no where near.

Other than that, January was a long month, and Febuary is going to be too. Thats ok, we'll get it done. Then we can spend the weekend at The Farm, not in a hotel. Better 1/2 has Grandma's recipes so maybe I can get her to bake some cookies.

Until next time...

 

 

Of Time & Rambling

It has been a long road.. time.. oh my I am quoting song lyrics to open a post! Oh well, I have no excuse really. I have not been blogging like I was for over two years. My lame excuse is working sixty hours a week. I admit, it is a pretty weak excuse. I am tired, and not feeling funny.. like I should. So I am doing a junk drawer post of random bits.

I have a ton of pics and half finished blog posts to finish and post. I may get to it in a bunch and overload my feed. I will, it might be awhile yet, but I will. I miss ye olde blog a great deal. If I thought about it, I would scream.. so let us move on, shall we?

I am super excited, I got tickets to this Sunday's Tigers game. Seems silly to be excited, but I am. There will be a blog post about this adventure, for sure. For one thing, I have yet to see the 'new' park. Crazy right? Comerica Park has been there forever, but the last game I saw was in Tiger Stadium, years and years ago. So yeah.. I gave up the ghost, gonna stop pining for old fashioned baseball and gooo.

I was in the gas station this morning and got hit with the age stick. The young lady behind the counter did it. Some song from some 90's band, I think Soundgarden although I am unsure even though the song sounded vaguely familiar, came on the radio. She was 'Oh what a blast from the past, a good classic oldie, I was, like in middle school when this came out, like '97!'

Egads! My oldies are Jan & Dean and surfing safaris and the like... like 60's tunes man! But, you know, you gotta laugh at stuff like that. My middle school oldies was Disco... and it is not dead! Oh and punk too, gotta get that whole duality thing going. My mix is Sex Pistols with BG's, good grief. I can Hustle, can you? Oh and the Lindy too, but talk about an old dance. So yeah, you gotta laugh at stuff like that, otherwise, you become crotchety.. where is the fun in that?

And you know what? I shaved my Santa Beard this morning. Why you may ask? Well, when a good friend and co-worker says hey Santa, what you gonna bring me for Christmas.. you know its time to shave it off. I can be Santa in 20 years, for now, I am still the kid waking up before the crack of dawn, peeking at the tree.

So it has been a busy month, working on the Farm, going on a couple weekend Sheeple Jaunts and working, a lot. Oh and writing, a bit here, a bit there, a bit everywhere. Still house hunting, the goal is to find one by spring so we can dig up the yard and plant stuff. Planning vacation next year too. I will have some days off, cool! I think we may do a Great Lakes Tour, hit all five next summer. That would be super cool.

Time marches on, as do we all. Well maybe not march, more like wander.

See ya on the other side.

 

Junk Drawer Jan 2011

Hey, after what seems like forever, I posted an actual pic of a junk drawer, currently existing within the ol' homestead. You would not want to see the computer file I have titled junk drawer, even I am loathe to go there unless I really need to find something. The junk drawer in my head may be even more scary, I don't know, I rarely visit it consciously. Stuff from there just pops out in conversation from time to time. I find it adds to the aura of strangeness.

But here in ye olde blog, it kind of wraps up the previous month and all that is going on in the world of wandering. A mish mash if you will, of what is going on. Sometimes it is funny, sometimes it is rather dull.

We had a good holiday, it was fun. The techno-tot got a pair of hockey sticks and a street ball and puck. That was the big, cool thing. So we have been shooting various and assorted pucks, balls, pieces of snow balls and anything else that comes in contact with the stick all over the drive and, on occasion, in the house. Well not the snow, but almost anything else.

So far, no stitches, but I did get a high stick to the jaw. It hurtbut I was okay. But the little guy? He got pretty upset and cried. Hopefully he will learn to control the stick a little better, but at five, he gets pretty excited and likes to do the big slap shot. I just have to be a little quicker!

On the job front, I completed training and am out doing the job. Going pretty good so far which is super cool. I know down the road there will be more training and more and more to do and that is exciting. All is well and that makes me pretty happy.

Been reading a lot, nothing new there. Not been writing much, but that is more to do with getting used to the new job and getting acclimated. I have done some, but no where near the pace I was on before. It is a great trade off though, the job is very important and the writing? Yeah.. that will comeback as I get used to the schedule and get a tad bit more comfratable at work. Then we'll rock it again. Past couple of weeks have been pretty good with that, so.. baby steps, baby steps.

All in all, a good month. This month should be even better. What more can anyone ask? Oh.. um yeah..

We have a metric buttload of zip discs floating around this house, why there was only one in that drawer is a minor miracle. I have words and pictures on a vast menagerie of media devices floating around the abode. Doesn't everyone?

Happy Wanderings

 

 

 

Junk Drawer Dec 2010

What a month November has been. It was a good month, but long and I am tired.

November is birthday month and that was fun. Thanksgiving was good, I stuffed myself like normal on all the great food. Then spent the weekend with a killer chest cold that is trying to hang around even now. The cold will not win, they never do, but they can be persistent little buggers.

On the creative front? Yeah.. I got about six thousand words on the NaNo thing and just did not have any energy left. Inspiration? Oh sure, have that going no problem, but just too tired to write much of anything, on any project.

The new job. I like it, it is groovy. Four weeks in and its cool. I have four more weeks of training to go then boom, into the mix. I was thinking about that last night. I have studied and put into practice (lots of practice) about 1200 pages of material so far. Yeah, seriously. It feels like condensing a semester's worth of college into four weeks. No parties or craziness though, no time or energy for that! And I am thinking.. I have another four weeks to go of more of the same.

Lots of testing and assesments and a weekly review each week. Intense seems too mild a word for all of that. Cant miss a day, cant be late, too much to do in a day to not be fully committed each step of the way. So far, so good.

I am tired today, very tired. But not once, not even a glimmer of a thought, have I asked myself is it worth it, because it is, very much so. Trial by fire and the heat is on. In the end, with all of the effort of 8 weeks of training, I will be prepared and do just fine. That is the part I like, the strive for success and the desire of everyone to work hard and be successful. It will be cool.

I just need a nap.. Then when I am in the groove, all that creative energy will return and I can rock it with the words again. Patience is the key, something I have always had to work at very hard to attain even a modicum of a smidgen of on any given day. Doing that too.

Then we'll finish that novel in the spring eh?

Happy Wanderings

Junk Drawer Sept 2010

Everytime I post a pic and talk about the grand baby Miss O, traffic spikes on ye olde blog. Gotta love technology, my son txt messaged me the pic and voila! its on the blog. She is rapidly becoming the star 'round these here parts. Well.. co-star. The Techno-Tyke, er Techno-Tot is still the leading dude. My scribblings will never be able to compete with cuteness and kid stuff, and thats cool, rambling on and on about assorted.. stuff is no where near as fun as kids being kids.

We like kiddos 'round here and they are going to sit right down and have fun too. I have not even begun to post pics of drawings and doodles and all of that stuff. I have resisted the urge to post techno-tot's pics, cause well... most of the pics he takes are half scene, half finger. He gets that from me.

What a month. This month seemed really long and a lot of stuff doing. I don't even know where to begin.. what is in this drawer...

Lets see, I was comparing card games to movies.. talking about book burning(I hate that you know), couple excerpts from the novel in progress, a poem. Miss O got her first tour of a game store with the techno-tot showing her all the cool stuff. He was so excited he was jumping up and down.

Changed the look of the blog. I kind of like it, but there are some more changes in the offing, of that you can be sure. I just want to do more, make it more cool looking and more.. neato. I really need to take the time to figure out how to do all of this stuff, but I get distracted esaily. I also get caught up in other things that are more important. For example..

I have been doing some fun stuff over at Kid Wonderful, check it out if you have not already. There is some neat stuff going on over there by a bunch of talented folks and I get to be a small part of it. I also got to do my first article for Pop Army. Check out the site, there is a ton of stuff going on from celeb news to show recaps to all things entertainment. I got to do a recap of Leverage, man I was hopping up and down. I am going to do more Leverage and if I can, I am going to do more TV stuff.

I also want to give a big shout out and huge thanks to the folks who are helping me out with doing this fun stuff. Give some link love and check out these sites. Jenny at the Inner Bean, James at his House, and Nikki at her Corner. These folks are super cool, have cool sites(they write great fiction as well) and write for Kid Wonderful and Pop Army and help me out a bunch.

I am digging the wandering.. autumn is round the corner and I am gearing up for major write time. This time of year is the best. Come and hang out, I am sure I will have more fun stuff to pass along, and more pics of kiddos too!

Happy Wanderings!

 

 

 

 

Junk Drawer, Aug Edition

The month of July was a whirlwind of stuff. Wow! And here I was thinking I need to crank it up a notch in August.. Well why not right? Where to begin...

In my life long love/hate relationship with Television, I watched all the episodes of Legend of the Seeker. What a cool show, but of course, it is canceled now.. Still looking for my copy of Wizard's First Rule, gonna try the series again. Me and the tyke have been surfing through cartoons, which he is not real keen on, but we hit it with The Land Before Time series. He seems to like Ice Road Truckers and Dirty Jobs, Discovery, History Channel, and Food Channel. Weird, I know..

The From The Dark Side Charity Anthology was released and has sold a few dozen copies. I have a poem in there myself with some fine short stories and poetry by some truly talented folks. It is a good thing, and if you have not bought a copy, go here, for more information. The proceeds go to furthering literacy.

In that vein, I have been happily scribbling along, writing poetry, working short stories, and of course, the blasted novel. All of which moved along just fine. This past week I have had the good fortune to start writing for Kid Wonderful. What a great opportunity! I get to write about kid stuff, a subject I have a bit of knowledge about, being as I was once a kid and loved it, and I am happy to say we have three boyos who keep us on our toes. The tyke is my chief assistant! You can check out all the cool stuff by a group of talented parents at the website.

If you stop by on a regular basis, no, I did not forget the big news! I made you read all that other stuff first, before I got to the newest member of the family. My son Julian and his better 1/2 Melissa, had a daughter last week. They named her Olivia. Which means, I am now a grandfather and that is pretty cool. She is already a media star on facebook and in ye olde blog. As a matter of fact, my busiest day ever here at my meandering wanderings, was the day I posted her picture and did the announcement. I guess I will have to do more blog posts about her.

Not much of a summation of a wacky, crazy month of stuff. So much going on that it kinda gets a post during the month, if I catch my breath long enough. Who knows where I will wander this month?

Happy Wanderings!

Junk Drawer, July Edition

I had forgot that today was the beginning of July. I really should post up a drawer full of junk and start doing all those beginning of the month blog stuff. I just plum forgot, well almost.

So lets see, June.. what in the world did I do?

Having did a quick review of ye olde blog, I sure did not blog much. I did not write a bunch of examiner articles either. I did not even finish a short story, just doodled on a couple, but nothing worthy of talking about. Worked on a few poems, but really did not finish one to satisfaction. I worked on the blasted novel a  lot. I even posted up a few excerpts, cause I am feeling crazy I guess. That was the month in writer-ville.

I got hooked on Legend of the Seeker and only have four episodes left. I don't think they will do a season three, which sucks big time. I dig the show. I never did get into the books, but I will try the first one again, I think I still have a copy kicking around here.

And that was kind of that. I am still hunting for that elusive job, but I got a few nibbles at least. We did some grilling of meat, that is always good, and I got to hang with the techno-tyke a bunch, and that is way cool. Oh I left the cave more often this past month, got out and about, not sure if that is a bad thing though.

Hopefully I will post a bit more about my adventures in cooking and photography. I got a bunch of books and the like I should do reviews on as well. I will also post up some more excerpts, I kinda dig that and it is another prod to keep writing, keep digging, head for the light. Who knows??

Happy Wanderings!

Junk Drawer, June Edition

Welcome back to the drawer of wonders...

Okay, really it is just a drawer full of stuff. I kinda start off the month with a blurb about all that was from the previous month. May was a crazy, busy month in the world of ye olde blog. I am happy to say it was all good too.

I got to read and review some really good new fiction, that was fun. I have no doubt I will do more of the same this month. I have been consuming blogs as well, and not all of it is fiction. As a matter of fact, just today I was watching a video about a fan by Dyson. It was cool. The science, techno-geek in me was thrilled.

On the fiction front, as far as books and the like go, I am reading The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway and I may just do a review of it, just my take on it. After all, a novel published in 1926 is not exactly current, and said novel has been dissected by scholars for a bazillion years. I originally read it in 9th grade when I was all of 15. A lot has changed in 30 years, and so has my perspective.

Of course, I have been scribbling along on my own fiction, poetry, and the like. My only complaint is the quantity of my output, which seems rather low. But, whatever, onward and upward. I have transferred all the files I could find from the various electronic hotels they were staying in, so I think I am good to go there.

And.. we are in grilling season, so that has been fun. A good month, I expect June do be full, both in the grilling department, as well as the scribble department. Oh, and I imagine there will be much playing with the trains. Heck, I may even get out of the cave more, who knows?

Happy Wanderings!

Junk Drawer, May Edition

Good Day fellow wanderers.. welcome to the junk drawer.

As I am not as big a fan as most, on this day, the 4th of May, I will say only this. May the Schwartz be with you. Okay, now that I have had my Brooksian Moment and chuckled for the past few minutes, let us run down the past month in ye olde blog.

The techno-tyke had a blast doing the egg hunt, and has been busy planting his garden and painting his rocket ship bird houses. We have been having a bunch o' fun playing with trains and cars and the like. Month two into the layoff and we are still having fun, playing.

Speaking of which, I have been trying my hand at baking, with mixed results so far. Oh it is all edible and what not, just this latest project of making a cake look like a castle has been.. challenging. Oh yeah, why just make a pan of brownies when I can tackle a castle shaped cake? We'll have to do some investigating and a few posts on cooking. The quest continues.

I read a lot of good short fiction, all purchased via Amazon or Smashwords and did a bunch of reviews. Man there was some good stuff there, I look forward to more. I also got to read a good murder mystery, find another new author I can follow around and pester for more good stories. Good news is, there are I believe seven more novels to consume, and I believe more on the way.

I also collected a few rejection slips and found some new markets to explore. I have two anthologies squarely in my sights and I am looking forward to both. I am also debating selling my own stuff, self publish some stuff. I am still submitting, but I am intrigued by the idea of doing my own thing. I think I will, I just have decide what and when. I think I'll do both, submit and self publish.

Last but not least, I joined The Creative Alliance. It has been a blast so far and a real opportunity to connect with like minded individuals on a creative level. I have met some new folks and have had the opportunity to experience some really great, new stuff. All good, and I am looking forward to even more cool things, coming out of TCA.

All and all, a busy month in the blog and in my own little writing corner. I am sure this month will be more of the same, maybe more so. Have towel, will wander.

Happy Wanderings!

Junk Drawer - April Edition

Welcome Wanderers! Just a few random do-hickies from the past month in ye olde junk drawer.

Got my game on, played a bit of Warhammer with Paddy Heroes. I believe we will be doing that again this month. I am a gonna have to paint more figs, keep sprucing up the ponies. I would like to do a weekly gathering but renting the clubhouse is cost prohibitive. Other venues may arise, the Heroes will just have to keep poking away at, and we shall.

We are fast approaching the one year anniversary of the blog. I sure have come a long way since then, and got a long way to go as well. It has been fun, educational, and by golly miss molly, it has broken the block and I can not shut up. Good thing too, I would burst otherwise. The good thing is, I am constantly adding new things, and will continue to do so.

You may have noticed the ads on the page. I thought I would give it a go, blog space is not cheap and if it pays for the blog, cool. I am not gonna make big bucks, just pay expenses. We will see how it all plays out. You may have also noticed new pics, new graphics and new categories, that is cool too. As I continue on, that will change too, but a couple new ones are Paddy Books and Cooking with Paddy.

The book section is obvious, I read a ton and like to share, so look out for the book pic, it should be something on well, books! The Cooking with Paddy is, you guessed it! Paddy trying his hand at cooking. I cant boil water, never learned how to cook. Now that I am currently laid off, well, I am going to give it a go. You can tell I have been watching too much Food Network.. You, my fellow wanderers, get to see the trial and tribulations of Paddy in the kitchen, should be fun.

We had a good Easter and a foine St Patricks Day, middle son hit the big two oh. I keep plunking out bits and bobs of writing in the fiction department, collected four nice rejection letters on the latest short story and it is still out there. Who knows? Maybe it will find a home. No worries, there are more stories and a bunch of venues to foist em on. 

I also started freelance writing for examiner.com. I am also looking at other venues, maybe do some of that, make a few bucks, write, see where it all goes. There are a lot of opportunities and being a wanderer, I am going to give em a go, why not?

That is about it. My goal is to crank the novel and polish some shorts and a couple poems, get em out there. On the work front, who knows? Finding a job has been tough, but persistence is the key. And one last thought, my goal is to not screw up better halfs kitchen or her cooking utensils, and not burn the place down. Gonna see how it goes I guess, no worries.

Happy Wanderings!