When you read an author’s books or blog, you often quickly like or heart them. Most of the time, you will not take a second or two to write a comment. It is personally disappointing and discouraging to the writer. Taking a second or two to encourage them may make a big difference to them.

Writing a “review” is not like a grade school book report where you nervously stood in front of your class of torturers and skeptics, shuddering in your boots, while trying to read your handwritten report of an assigned book, knowing that they and the teacher will grade you! Writing a book review for a book you loved or hated is a one-way street! Most of the time, the author will never know who the person who wrote it is, as most book sellers only publish the first name. It is unlikely that anyone will comment on your review. But they might decide to buy or not buy the book you reviewed.   

As a point of interest, Indie Writers (Independent Authors) are often determined DIYers (do-it-yourselfers). Our tiny brains conjure up an idea of a story; we think it over and decide whether we want to spend a year or more of our lives allowing the idea to germinate and blossom. Once we commit, we put our blood, sweat, and tears into our book! 

We each approach writing a book in a different way. Some writers meticulously prepare every word of their manuscript, paragraph by paragraph, page by page, chapter by chapter, and some line by line. Some of the rest of us are Pantsers. We write by the seat of our pants! I am afraid I fall into the latter group. I almost always do a quickie synopsis and follow it somewhat, but the story often evolves into something quite different from my original idea. Sometimes, a character that I place in the story for just a quick thought or action develops into a semi-major player. It can happen in reverse on a whim.

Many of us indie authors do not have the money to hire a graphic artist to create a fantastic cover, dozens of people to read and make suggestions, and editors to polish our stories. And more than a few of us have not been accepted by a Publisher to produce and advertise our books professionally. There is a good chance you most likely will not see them in bookstore windows. Nevertheless, we are writers! And our hearts bleed!

My books are a “family affair,” meaning the whole family can get involved if they choose or have the time. My Hubby, of 64 years, works full-time, but always makes the time! Bless his heart, he struggles to navigate Gimp and produces the best replica of the cover that I dream up! I do not currently have any beta “readers,” although I would welcome one. I do that job myself, and my books are my babies, and I take good care of them.

I am recovering from a stroke, so I hired Grammarly to review my writing and suggest corrections for spelling and grammatical errors. Sometimes I take its advice, and sometimes I don’t. Not all my characters speak perfect English. I create a timeline for each book and keep track of the chapter lengths. I also create a cast of characters, including a physical and characteristic description of each. Several of my serial books feature numerous characters, so I list them by importance first and minor characters at the end, rather than alphabetically.

My final thing is reading it “out loud” to see how it reads. If it reads easily, I’m happy; if not, I make changes and re-read it out loud again.  Usually, my Hubby reads the manuscript too, and makes suggestions. It is amazing how a second set of eyes can see things that pass right by the writer.

By the way, I have been contacted by most of the companies that “guarantee” to make me a million-dollar seller. I bit on a minor dollar amount, and my philosophy is “once burned, twice shy!” Call me if you must, but the more forceful you become, the more I will match you. When they call you, remember that it is a salesperson trying to find the way into your pocketbook, and they don’t care about your bottom line. They care about their own.

Draft2Digital publishes my books and is available at the following places: Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Smashwords, Tolino OverDrive, bibliotheca, Baker & Taylor, BorrowBox, Hoopla, Vivlio, Palace  Marketplace, Odilo, Gardners, Amazon

Additionally, my new website is dedicated solely to my books. Books.By/bendacolbath, books are shipped worldwide at only $5.00.

Y’all take care now, and I’ll talk with you again later…..

Can I go pee, please?

I would like to weigh in on the so-called Gender Bathroom Controversy. I think it has been blown way out of proportion! Let’s get serious just for a minute, okay?  Does it really matter which bathroom a human being uses?  I don’t know about you, but when you gotta go, you gotta go! And any port in a storm will do!

After communicating with Spock (he is that logical alien), you know, with the pointed ears and extremely intelligent brain! We had a long, logical conversation about this and many other things I will talk about later. We came to the same conclusion, why is it any of your business where I or anyone else pees or poops! 

If you decide to use the women’s bathroom, you will find that there are no urinals! At least not yet! Suppose a man dressed as a woman goes into the “Ladies Rest Room to do his thing. In that case, he will quickly see that his usual mode of elimination, i.e., urinal, is not present.  If he is a reasonably intelligent human, depending on his urgency, he will do one of two things.  He will leave and search for a room that has the facilities that he desires.  Of course, he might have to endure the astonished stares of the manly men and possibly get tossed out on his ass. 

Or, being a girly girl, will use the stall just like other women.  Of course, he could pee in the sink, but most men are a little shy about whipping their tallywacker out in front of women.  Actually, I have been told that some manly men are shy about that around other men! Here’s a cheery thought!  How would you know how they are peeing?  Unless you are peeking over or under the stall, you would not know if they have a tallywacker or not. 

Men’s bathrooms usually have urinals and cubicles, unlike the ladies’ rooms, which have stalls, and never enough of them! There are the same number of stalls in the men’s and women’s rooms.  A woman dressed as a man doesn’t have the “equipment” to use the urinal; they will have to go into a stall.  You would not know if they have a tallywacker or not unless you are a  strange Duck and peek over or under the stall.

Personally, my dears, I don’t give a damn which one you use; as long as you wash your hands, don’t peek at me, and for heaven’s sakes, be so kind, and unlike at home, please put the damn seat down.

If the upshot of this is that more stalls will be built in the women’s bathrooms to accommodate transgender urinators!  I see that as a necessary innovation because the long lines waiting for a stall are infuriating, and in some cases, necessary or too late!  Are you aware that there is the same number of cubicles in men’s bathrooms as in women’s bathrooms?  As unfair as that is, more stalls in women’s bathrooms would be a good thing. 

Imagine a world where you do not have to explain to anyone where or how you do your business because it really is nobody’s business!

It would be wonderful if there were enough facilities so that oblivious men could stop complaining, “What took you so long?” to their wives when they don’t seem to, or try to understand that the women’s restrooms need to be upgraded to match the efficiency of the men’s restrooms!

This was written just for the fun of it! Don’t take offense, just laugh a little. We all need a laugh right now!

You will find my books on my website http://www.brendacolbathbooks.com, or your favorite site in eBooks and Paperbacks.

Thanks for listening and will see you later…..

In the good old days, you had a clear idea of the work you wanted to do, and you worked hard to build your business from the ground up with your own hands.

Buying and selling new widgets. Repairing them from your garage gradually evolved into a store, and you put signage in the huge window.  You rented or bought a cash register and bought a truckload of widgets on consignment, including repair parts.

You never dreamed of becoming a conglomerate and owning hundreds of stores and/or factories.  You wanted to “make a living” for your family.  Many times, several of your family members worked with you, and life was good!

You never had to borrow money; you invested your savings right back into your business. 

Then the Internet burst onto the horizon, and it became cost-effective enough that many households owned one or more computers. It became necessary for your company to upgrade to computers. Then credit cards entered the horizon, making it easier and faster for consumers to purchase.  Soon, it became normal business practice to purchase everything from soups to nuts. Advertising on the Internet brought more customers to your store, and life was good!

But suddenly, buyers started purchasing online. Some online purchases were shipped directly to the consumer. Then, the world turned upside down! A brilliant entrepreneur realized that you could bring customers into your store via the Internet. You could sell widgets to them online and ship products without ever having to see or meet them in person.

Customers liked the convenience of having their packages delivered right to their front door. But they also wanted to purchase from people they knew and trusted! They remembered meeting store clerks and sometimes the owner face-to-face, and liked getting to know them. So now you had to invest in computer programs that convey to your customers pictures and videos of you and your business. 

 At least once during this time, you probably said, “Hell, I don’t need to know my customers; I just want to sell to them!” However, the Internet was designed to connect you with your customers. 

Your customers could see pictures of you, your employees, and your business. You started selling many other things in addition to your usual Widgets because your website had hundreds and sometimes thousands of items. New start-up companies started competing for your business.  Entrepreneurs created sites where mom-and-pop shops could sell used goods online, along with those who just wanted to get rid of unwanted items. And it was good!

Eventually, the “Big Auction Companies” realized that they didn’t need Mom and Pop’s resale items; they could sell directly from the factory to a purchaser, making bigger profits, so Mom and Pop were cut out of the deal!  Big-box stores were happy to have their products online.  Fulfillment centers were created to expedite the delivery of packages from A to B.  Everyone with a computer jumped on the bandwagon and created an online storefront.  Most failed because putting up a storefront didn’t cut it; you had to bring the customer to your site.

The Big Box Stores saw that their stores were more often empty, while “discount” stores were thriving. Many investors had invested early and heavily in the Internet and sophisticated computer systems, discovering where to ship bulk inventory by learning how often someone bought a particular item at a specific store.  This took a lot of money!  Everyone hated the discount store except the consumers!

We now have big discounts and luxury stores in the same growing metropolis, built via Credit but still profitable.  Mom-and-pop stores started becoming nearly extinct. I know it is sad, but the customer demanded, and corporations listened! Some think they listened too well.  That’s for you to decide, but they are here to stay.  Sorry, folks, but you can’t put the Genie back in the bottle.

I loved the old way, too, but you must adapt to survive. I only hope to survive long enough to see what the next big thing is! 

Do you have any idea what it will be?

I often wonder why an “over the hill” old fart thinks they can write?  If you asked or didn’t ask, here’s the answer! Because I want to write stories, I need to write stories! I have stories bouncing around inside my head, and unless I let them out, they will drive me crazy, or crazier than I am if I let them out!

When I was a little girl, I dreamed of becoming a pitcher for the New York Yankees! I practiced every day pitching at a circle chalked on the barn door. I was 12 before it was revealed that girls aren’t allowed to be in professional baseball, as a matter of fact, girls weren’t allowed in ANY PROFESSIONAL sport! That sucked big time!

I escaped into books where I became the main character. My sex was not a problem. What adventures I had! I could be anything I wanted to be.  I lived in those books!  A funny thing happened to me when I stuck my nose in a book: my ears would turn off!  Literally!  Everything around me disappeared, and I flew away to other worlds and became beautiful, strong, and the best thing of all, I always became the heroine and the main character! It was a wonderful thing to never hear “you can’t, because you pee sitting down”.

This amazing ability got me into a lot of trouble! When my mother asked me to do something, I didn’t hear her or anyone else, I definitely heard her when she slapped me on the side of the head.  I wrote stories in a steno tablet when I didn’t have my nose stuck in a book. I was determined to graduate from High School because at that time, it was supposed to be my ticket to success! In 1958, employers demanded it. Guess what? It was another dream crushed, damn! 

When I was in the 6^th grade, we moved from Dexter to Corinna, a different world. We were bussed to a two-room country schoolhouse until the last month of the 8th grade. The teachers taught “readin’, written’, and rithmetic; they were not interested in or had the time to teach grammar. In the last month of the 8th grade, the school district closed the old country school, and we were shipped off to the school in town. 

The first day of English, the teacher started talking about diagraming sentences and a whole lot of other things that I was totally in the dark about. It never made any sense to me, and to this day, it still is somewhat of a mystery. Amazingly, I was passed into High School! I remember a conversation with my English teacher. I told her that I hadn’t a clue about diagraming sentences. She said, You will have to learn the answers to the quiz by heart, and I did, at least enough to pass. And might have learned a thing or two!

Want to know something funny? I learned more English in French class than in English classes and could write and translate French as well as anyone.

One of my other English Teachers required that we submit five handwritten pages of anything we wanted to write, be it prose, a story, or even copy something from a book (with acknowledgement). I couldn’t help myself, I had a little fun with him; I wrote stories that always ended in a cliff hanger, and when he asked (in fun, I am sure) what happens next, I would laugh and tell him he would have to wait till next week. Near the end of the school year, he took me aside and told me that I should do something about my writing. The sad thing is, I have forgotten his name.

No matter!  I have self-published over fourteen books and am still writing! I usually work on two or more books at a time.  One year as a Christmas gift, I wrote a book with a whole family as the characters and sent them as colonists to a newly discovered planet in another galaxy.  Oh, there are Dragons too!

Another book is based on my 30-year Real Estate Career. It is a murder mystery, and if some people recognize themselves but with different names, they can relax and laugh, because I changed the names to protect the guilty. Some will laugh, be proud, and be unhappy at my portrayal of them, even though it is accurate. 

I have a series of children’s books called Sleep Travelers. I enjoyed writing these because the main character is my baby girl. Little Dawnie takes her three friends, Ning (a Siamese Cat), Dog (a big shaggy dog), and Boss ( an African Parrot), on adventures when they are asleep! They are short, so I have combined two stories. They will be self-published soon.

My Christmas present this year was a Stroke, so my writing slowed down in favor of rehabilitation, which is coming along quite well.  I can now write okay. I practiced signing my name so I can sign books.

BTW, These are the places that my publisher Draft2Digital distributes:

Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Smashwords, Tolino OverDrive, bibliotheca, Baker & Taylor, BorrowBox, Hoopla, Vivlio, Palace  Marketplace, Odilo, Gardners, Amazon

http://www.brendacolbathbooks.com is another place you can find my books.

You think your Mortgage Company has your best interests at heart! Right? Well, it only has its own bottom line in its little heart of hearts!

It appears that EVERY company you do any business with has an agenda! And Baby It Ain’t you!

The minute you close escrow, THEY SELL YOUR INFORMATION TO EVERYONE in the world!

Today, I got an official-looking letter in the mail informing me that I have $2682.64 available funds. They had a very official File Number, and I need to have my file ID ready when I call to take advantage of TFSB programs.com.

I checked it out for you! I called the “gentleman,” who answered very formally, asking for the file Number, which I gave to him. The interest rate he quoted was not sufficiently lower than what I now have. We bought the rate down a tiny amount for a lot of $$$!

I attempted to ask more questions, and finally, after I grilled him for several minutes, he admitted that the “refund” that was quoted in the email would be my escrow account with Rocket Mortgage.  Rocket Mortgage, Thanks a lot for selling my info to every Tom, Dick, and Harry!

BTW, I would have to set up another escrow account!

Goodbye refund!

They would re-fi and establish a new escrow account, and he hedged a bit and

admitted there would be recording fees. I asked the big question: What will the total cost to me be for all this wonderful money?

When I revealed that I had been a realtor for 30 years, he hung up!

If you get one of these letters or phone calls, do what I am doing with mine!  Just say “Sorry Sucker, keep trying” and hangup or file it in the circular file called a waste basket!

Interest hasn’t dipped even a small percentage point and will not for a while. You need at least 1 percent to justify a refi. Two percent would be better! Three percent would be golden!

The big Corporations need time to milk us as dry as they can before it goes down for you and me.

By the way, do not succumb to the HELOCs! They are a refi in disguise, with a credit card attached, probably with a considerably higher interest rate for ALL your equity and beyond.

I’ve been there and know better now. Live within your means, and only purchase expensive items on a credit card if you can and will pay it off before you charge more. Do not pay one credit card off with another; it is a vicious cycle that you will never get out of!

Thanks for listening, and will see you later….

If you are interested in my books….

Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Smashwords, Tolino OverDrive, bibliotheca, Baker & Taylor, BorrowBox, Hoopla, Vivlio, Palace  Marketplace, Odilo, Gardners, Amazon

I publish through Draft2Digital, and my eBooks are available at Smashwords and Books2Read.  If you live in Kingman, AZ, I will keep stock available and sign them for you. s

My husband, Shirl, had heart surgery; he now has a new Aorta valve donated from a very giving cow (we were never told whether it was Daisy Mae or Ferdinand) and a double By-pass courtesy of one of the best Heart surgeons in Phoenix.  He was pretty resilient in his recovery, mainly because in the previous two years, he became a whole lot more serious about his health after he had two stents put in.  He is a very stubborn man, and when he likes something, he wants a lot of it, so to give up butter (cold Turkey) was an accomplishment.  Of course, the heart-to-heart talk with the surgeon who inserted the stents helped with his decision to get on the health train. We were walking a mile a day within a month of his discharge.  We progressed to 3 miles most days.

About 15 years prior to his surgery, he had a virus attack his heart, and no, we don’t know what kind of virus it was, but basically, he died in the Doctor’s office!  Thankfully, he was revived and spent a week in the ICU. The aftermath was that he has a-fib, i.e., his heart will forever have an irregular beat.  It’s a good thing that he was never a regular kind of guy.  The part of his heart that controls the beat was and still is damaged, but the rest is in good shape now.

If you have ever had to navigate the mire of rules with Medicare Health, you can sympathize. Sometimes, the cheapest is not the best.  Too bad the government didn’t get that memo. The Insurance plan that we chose does not have a monthly premium but has a co-pay for Doctor visits, hospitalization, Urgent Care, and Drugs.  Which works great for us most of the time? Read on!

We were in Benson, AZ, working at Butterfield RV resort, which had a workout room and tons of activities in addition to a heated pool and a spa.  The neat thing about this resort is that we were within walking or biking distance of a Walmart and right next to a small strip mall with a Safeway and an Ace Hardware.  We did not have a carat at that time, so this was ideal as we could ride our bikes up a modest hill to Walmart and pack our groceries in cloth bags attached to the rack on the back of our bikes.

In January, Shirl started getting some double vision. A specialist added a prism on his glasses, which helped some.  Then, all of a sudden, Shirl started getting too tired to walk or ride, and work was getting hard.  On yet another appointment with another Ophthalmologist in Sierra Vista, we were sent over to the hospital across the road to get a blood test.  Since it was across the road, and we still did not have a car, we opted to walk.  On the way, Shirl tripped on a branch on the sidewalk and fell on his face.  Damn, we were so close that we could see the Hospital!

An Emergency Vehicle saw the accident and raced over to help.  Shirl was transported to the Hospital across the road! After an MRI, it appeared that he did not fall due to a stroke. Good news!  Unfortunately, he looked like a prizefighter who had lost the fight!  We actually made it through our contract with the RV resort, and in May, we headed for Phoenix for another visit with his Heart Doctor. His heart surgeon advised us that he needed a valve replacement surgery “sooner rather than later” The doctor’s words).  We knew what being in shock feels like.

Now the fun began!

Because his teeth were in such bad shape, he needed to have all the top teeth and some of the bottom teeth pulled, and it needed to be done before he could have Heart Surgery. If he didn’t do it before, he would have to wait at least a year after Heart Surgery to have them pulled.  Remember I told you he is stubborn?  He neglected his teeth in favor of minor things like a roof over our heads and food!

Since he was on Coumadin, he had to stop taking it and had to have two shots a day of Lovenox for a week before an Oral Surgeon could pull them.  Wonderful!  Guess what? Going to a doctor’s office to have the shots was another set of problems!

Remember when I told you we didn’t have a car? We did have our 32-foot Motorhome! No problem! All we had to do was drive every day to the doctor’s office for the shot and pay for the visit.

One other small problem! We had to make sure we could get into the lot where the doctor’s office was located AND get out! When you live in a Motorhome, that is necessary. We calculated the cost of driving the Motorhome at that time was $.50 a mile.

The logistics of Shirl giving himself the shots were not ideal.  Soooo, I was drafted to do the deed!

  It took me two days of a lot of “self-talk” to get mentally ready because I am not a Nurse and usually pass out when I have a blood draw or a shot.  I guarantee that from that experience, I do not aspire to be a nurse. 

The good thing was that the needles came filled and sealed, and when they were used, you only had to press on the plunger again, and the needle disappeared inside. Easy, Peasey! Not!

We thought we needed to have an Oral Surgeon pull them; however, we have since learned that you can’t bleed to death from teeth being pulled. Oh well! Too soon, old, and too late, smart! We got a lot of free quotes from Dentists who would pull the teeth and only charge $4000.00 for the set of upper dentures and a new partial for the bottom. We were starting to be afraid that Shirl may have to go toothless forever.

After a lot of fighting with the insurance company by going up three tiers of insurance representatives, we finally got the okay to have the teeth pulled and receive partial payment from the oral surgeon. When his mouth finally stopped bleeding and healed, we had another appointment with the Heart Doctor, who told us the time was now for his heart surgery. We only had to deal with the Insurance Company. Fun Stuff!

The Insurance Company told us that the Catheter that he needed to have to ascertain the condition of the heart before surgery had to be “Out Patient”, and we were responsible for the whole $15,000.00- yikes!!  We were devastated.  While we were trying to figure out how we could pay for the outpatient procedure and the surgery, our children came to town to visit.  While we were all out walking, yes, he still liked to walk, Shirl became so distressed that we took him to the hospital, and he was admitted.  Once he was admitted, it was determined that the catheter was necessary and was done, so we dodged that bullet, and it became part of the hospital bill.

The saddest thing that happened was that they had to cut his wedding ring off as it was very tight on his finger, and he probably would have some swelling during surgery.  We all almost cried when he looked up with his big blue very sad eyes, and said “I have had that ring on my finger for 50 years”!  The Nurse that was cutting it off nearly cried, too! His surgery was delayed a day because of an emergency with his heart Doctor, and when he finally went up for surgery, we were all glad, scared, and relieved!  We just withdrew into ourselves and waited.  When the Doctor finally came out and said it was a success, we were all nearly ready to collapse. Shirl was doing fine!

BTW, all surgical patients look like hell after surgery! There were many tubes and IVs hooked up to him; he was pale as a ghost! He had a wonderful Nurse at his side at all times.  She patiently said many times, “Mr. Colbath, just relax and lay still,” as the first thing that he wanted to do was get up.  I was a basket case and probably looked worse than he did!  Our Daughter was a Rock.  I probably leaned on her a lot more than I remember. She stayed with me until he was released. Our Son had to fly back home, and we communicated by phone and email daily.

Banner Thunderbird Hospital’s follow-up was excellent. As soon as he was released, a nurse and therapist visited us weekly to make sure he was taken care of. At the hospital, he was given a fuzzy heart pillow, which became his best friend. Heart patients cannot use their arms to push themselves up from a chair for months.  

Before he could leave the hospital, he had to learn how to dress and undress, get in and out of bed, go up and down stairs, and get in and out of a shower. The hospital staff was amazed at how fast he progressed. He expressed his dislike of hospital food, so I cooked food for him and brought it in to be heated for dinner. 

We walked him around the “track” as many times as he would and could every day!  By the time he was released, he was walking by himself, and they told him he was setting records.  LOL

We also found out that he doesn’t do well with pain medication. Every time they asked if he wanted some pain medication, he said, “I guess so.” At one of our visits, he told us about the dog that was biting his hand and that all of the members of the Star Trek, Star Wars, and Babylon Five movies were visiting him. We decided that he did not need any more pain medication and told them not to give him any more unless he asked.

While Shirl was in the Hospital, I rented a car, and when he got home, we had to return it. Wait! I got used to the convenience of having a car instead of driving the Motorhome everywhere.  We succumbed and let Bell Honda talk us into coming in to look at cars!  That experience is another blog altogether!  The result was that we bought our Red Honda Fit, which was named Red Rover by a friend of our daughter.  If you are a reader of my newsletters and blogs, you will learn about her, Miranda, and now Dolly Part-on.

We were wintering in North Phoenix RV Park, and the road inside the park was exactly ½ mile around, so we started slow. Gradually, by the end of the first month after his surgery, he was walking up to 3 miles a day..

Living in a Motorhome was a challenge, but together, we managed to make it work for 6 years.

When Shirl was released with no restrictions, we accepted a job in northern California in Lassen National Park at Hat Creek RV Park. I was supposed to work as host checking people in, and Shirl would do minor maintenance and lead Motorhomes to their sites.  We felt this would be reasonably easy work for him, even though he had no restrictions.  When we arrived, we were assigned to work in the Deli making sandwiches and Shakes.  We had an hour of training and started working full time, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week!  

We took time off to drive to Renton, Washington, to celebrate our daughter’s 50^th birthday. We had a blast! She throws a great party.  Wired, a Seattle-based band, played, and our son flew up to join the fun. It was great to spend time with both of our children. A friend of Dawn’s gave us a room in her house across from the party, so if we pooped out we only had to walk across the street to go to bed.

We were doing fine and adding some much-needed money to our coffers until the wildfires closed down the site, and we ran for our lives! We spent the better part of a day driving to Redding, CA, via Shasta Lake! We stayed in a casino parking lot until the smoke drove us further south to Sacramento, CA, and finally home again to Phoenix, where we spent the rest of the summer and the winter.

I am the author of more than 14 books, and they are available at the following:

Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Smashwords, Tolino OverDrive, bibliotheca, Baker & Taylor, BorrowBox, Hoopla, Vivlio, Palace  Marketplace, Odilo, GardnersAll my books are published by Draf2Digital.

If you have questions about where to find my books, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for reading my blog… there will be more later…

Clip on arrow to see pictures of our shoppe

I always believed that I would live into my 90s hale and hearty because the women in my family did. Great Grammie lived into her 90s after spending some time in a Tuberculosis Sanitarium. Grammie lived nearly to her 90s, but shoveling snow and falling put her in the hospital with a broken hip, and that did her in. Mom lived into her 90s but spent the last 30 years in a nursing home, victim of a major stroke.

She seemed to enjoy my calls to her at the nursing home, and she would respond with one of her three words to my jokes, stories about our travels, and the people we had met. By the way, her three words were; Ayah (Maine accent), “NO”, and Shit! She was a bad ass to the very end!

When we had our Colbath’s Paperback & Comic Bookstore, we would sometimes bring Mom to visit for the day, and she was happy to be out of the house and among young people. She would sit quietly in her wheelchair and often nap. It was obvious to the customers that she wasn’t always totally aware of her surroundings.

One young customer brought a three-comic pack to the counter to purchase, but Mom suddenly grabbed the package and screamed, “No!”

You can imagine that everyone in the store stopped and stared.

She paid them no mind and just held onto the package, refusing to let go, while saying loudly, “No.” 

She allowed Shirl to take the package from her and open it. It had two comics of good value and one of our collectibles in between. The kid thought no one saw him slip it in and would have got a better bargain than we intended if Mom hadn’t seen him.

He didn’t admit to trying to steal from us, and he didn’t get his bargain, but he left the store anyway. It was suggested to him that he not return.

Mom, however, received lots of thanks and was taken to dinner, where she had a special drink in her honor. The drink had a little alcohol, which she wasn’t supposed to have, but she earned it.

That bookstore was fun, if not very profitable! We enlisted both of the kids to help (with no pay), but they always got free meals.

We had tons of Romance Books, and the women loved to come in to pick out the newest ones. Many of them kept a small notebook of the titles they had read so they wouldn’t repeat purchases. We decorated a Refrigerator box like a castle filled with toys for their kids to play in while they shopped as long as they wanted.

The other thing we did was to fan all the books out as we sprayed Lysol on them. We have never had a single person complain of an allergic reaction to any of our used books. It took time and a little expense, but the reward was the word-of-mouth advertising we got.

We weren’t getting rich, but we were keeping our heads above water until the building’s owner decided he needed it for his own business. We tried to find a new rental, but alas, the fire codes made that impossible, at least for us.

We planned to use one of our rental houses and were in the process of preparing it for our business. But a home owner next door protested to the city that we were distributing Porn magazines to kids. NOT TRUE! We did have some Playboys displayed flat on a shelf about 6 feet off the floor. Most youngsters couldn’t reach them or see them. I never was able to understand how a few playboys could harm youngsters recovering from drug abuse, but the city sided with her, and we lost. We lost that battle, and with a rental property seemingly unavailable, we decided to close the store.

The person who sold the original batch of books and comics to us planned to file a lawsuit to reclaim all the books and comics we had traded for and purchased.  We would have gladly given her the original volume of comics and paperbacks, but she wanted it all!

To keep from the possibility of losing not only our original investment but also what we had earned, we filed for bankruptcy. We retained a considerable volume of comics and paperbacks that we sold from our garage, which kept us afloat until we sold the house and relocated to Arizona.

It’s great to have friends because we couldn’t store all our comics and Paperbacks in our single garage, so one of our friends kept them for us.

She was born before the Great Depression, into a poor family, the oldest of 7 seven children. Her name was Alice Addie Brannon, and she was one of the strongest and smartest people I have ever met, and I am so very proud to have known her. I am even prouder to be her daughter.

She was funny and kind in her own way! If she had been allowed to continue her education beyond grade school, she might have become a Doctor or one of many professional people. She was selected to quit school to help take care of her younger siblings.

I was born at home in the little town of East Corinth, Maine, and delivered by a midwife, I think. Of course, I don’t remember because of my age. I usually tell the tale; that she had me and then went to the hospital to make sure she didn’t have anymore like me.

She consistently won games of Double Solitaire and Double Nine Dominoes, and for years, she didn’t share with me her secret of how she won. It was amazing how she could pick a four-leaf clover the first time she walked into a field, while others would spend hours searching.

Growing up on a small farm, she developed immunity to many childhood diseases despite nursing her whole family through them. She passed that immunity to me, and it was nearly impossible to tell I had them at all.  However, it delighted me that my two tormenter brothers had the full range of childhood diseases and looked like chipmunks with mumps and some horribly diseased monsters with measles!

As an adult woman, she found herself alone in a small cabin with three small children in the middle of winter. She managed to keep us warm, clothed, and fed by doing men’s jobs. Those jobs were not offered to her; she had to seek them out and fight for equal pay with the men. She picked beans, peas, and potatoes and cut seed. I once watched her cut seed potatoes, and it scared me to my core. She straddled a potato barrel that had a wicked sharp knife attached and facing her! She swished potatoes on that knife, making sure each slice had an eye to seed new potato plants. At least she was sitting down, but one slip and there goes a finger or a hand.  She was very fast with her hands, and that is another thing she passed to me. I am also left-handed and ampidextrous, nearly equally good with either hand.

The job that ignites vivid youthful memories is picking potatoes! Potatoes are planted in long and wide rows and divided into sections. A picker could demand as many sections as they could manage. They were “picked” and placed in bushel baskets. The baskets had a sturdy handle to keep them moving ahead as they were filled. They were then picked up and dumped into the barrel placed at the end of each section, and each barrel would hold 4 or 5 bushels.

When she applied for the job, she was told she was hired, but at half the pay of the men. She challenged the owner with, “I will work one day for free, and if I beat all the other pickers, you will pay me the same wage as the men.” The owner took the challenge, and she beat them all with over one hundred barrels!

On a good day in my youth, I could pick 20 barrels!

By the way, she did this while keeping an eye on three kids sitting in the shade under the trees.

One of my fondest memories of her was a day when she was walking back to the field. One of the young men, who had obviously drunk his lunch, walked over to her, saying, “Hey, sweetheart, how about a little kiss?” As he swung his arm over her shoulder, she didn’t miss a step as she cold-cocked him, knocking him over three potato rows. None of the guys approached her again and treated her with the respect she deserved.

Fishing was her favorite pastime, and it didn’t matter whether she was in a boat or a brook. We brook fished as often as we could. I was 6 months pregnant with my daughter the last time. I fell into the brook a couple of times, and we caught a bunch of “Pocket” fish. If caught by a warden, we would have been busted.

We stopped at a farmhouse and asked the farmer, sitting on his porch, for permission to cross his land to go fishing in the brook. He smiled and said, “Sure, Sweetheart!” He even held the barbed wire fence up so we could climb under safely. As Mom crawled between the vicious prongs, he patted her on the ass, and I nearly fell over, trying to keep from laughing out loud. But I also knew that my turn was next! I was amazed that he didn’t get his head knocked off. 

When I laughed and told my Doctor about my adventure, he almost choked. He told me all the bad things that could have happened to me. I answered him with, “How much trouble could I get in, I was with my Mother!!!!

One day, I told her my teacher wanted to know how old she was. Bending over a ringer washer, she was not in the greatest mood. She said, “Tell her I am 104!”  That is exactly what I did!  And no amount of talking from the teacher could convince me she wasn’t.  If my Mother said she was 104, she was 104!!!

She met the love of her life when I was a very young child, and Lloyd was the best! He took on the responsibility of three little kids and a wife without hesitation! His job was working on the railroad, laying and repairing tracks. It was hard physical work! Lloyd wasn’t very tall; he and Mon were about the same height. Popeye would be envious of his set of shoulders and arms! 

They bought a 15-acre farm when I was in the 6^th grade.  The seller had sold it many times and repossessed it each time!  They were the last ones to buy it, which I am sure was a big disappointment.  We lived off that land, and it saved us!  Until that time, I was the smallest kid in class; however, the following year, I gained so much weight that I developed stretch marks.  My mother had an acre garden, and we kept a cow and chickens and raised a steer for beef.  Lloyd hunted, and we always had Deer meat. 

We sold hay from the field and stored some in the barn. My job was to stomp the hay in the mow to pack it down because I was the only child who didn’t have hay fever. Later, we shared half of the hay in payment for having it baled. I wasn’t sad to lose that job.

The farmhouse was over 100 years old, and after I got married and had a daughter, it burned down. They put a Single-wide Mobile home on the foundation and added a room.  Many years later, when visiting Maine, I drove back to our farm and was disappointed to see that the owners had allowed the field to grow up into trees.  

It was sad to see my childhood dreams gone. I now know, “You can never go back!”

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

Odilo, BorrowBox, Smashwords, Gardners, Tolino, Kobo, Vivlio, Everand, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Baker & Taylor, Palace Marketplace, OverDrive, D2D Print, Bibliotheca, Amazon, Hoopla

Thanks for reading my blog, see you later….

Trump told the Democrats how to beat him at his last rally and told them how to win the next election no matter how much Russia tries to mess with it.

It’s so easy; it’s a wonder that no one has thought of it before. I watched the Democrats shoot themselves in the foot time and time again in the last two elections and groaned the whole time.

 First, the Democrats ignored their best hope to win big time with Bernie Sanders because he honestly said he is a Socialist. Big Deal! So what?

 They chose to back a strong candidate, but with a handicap that she could never overcome, and in truth, women won’t and don’t want be able to overcome it in our lifetime unless there are some major physical changes. In case you weren’t listening, it’s because we pee sitting down! Women are as skilled, and in many countries, except ours, Women have successfully been elected as leaders!

I heard things like, “When they go low, we go high.” That’s nice, but it won’t win a dirty election! You have to fight fire with fire. When they are screaming lies, you had better be screaming truths along with proof, and you had better Scream at the Top of your Lungs and with thousands of voices because that is what the GOP did not the truth, but loud and with thousands of voices.

Trump has revealed the true underbelly of this nation, and it is growing stronger. He lied his ass off! And everyone accepted it because, under the polite Christian demeanor, too many are downright racists! That is a fact! If we weren’t racists the Nazi and White Supremacists would not have gained such a big foothold to be able to have major rallies and to place those bigots on the ballot.

A few years ago, the Christian Right would never have stood up in public and gave their wholehearted endorsement to a man accused of rape of children and women, or gained power by embracing Russia as an ally. He and his republicans have no remorse for their actions!

Remember the self-righteous bigoted Christians crying loudly that “Donald Trump was sent by GOD” to save our nation! When they know perfectly well he was sent by the other guy! All you Christian women who love him, when he succeeds, he will come for your rights next.

Listen up! Here is how you beat him at his own game. He tells a good story and gets his people to chant along with him! Remember, “Lock her up,” “This country needs a successful businessman!”

“I will make America Great Again.”

 “I admire soldiers that didn’t get captured.”

You need to make your chants powerful, loud, and true! Come on, don’t make me do everything for you. Hire some great PR people! Get to work! Make some noise! Don’t hide what you’re doing in the background; shout it from the rooftops.

Your next candidate must be someone that everyone respects wholeheartedly! And I mean everyone! And for heaven’s sake, don’t even think of dredging Hillary or Kamala up again! They cannot win! It isn’t that they aren’t great candidates, and it isn’t that the country isn’t ready for a Woman to be president. It is that the White Male Establishment will NEVER be ready until you make them ready!  

To make them ready, you must seize control from their hands, forcibly if you must! You must break their iron grip on our economy. It will take more brains than brawn.

I suggest you start NOW! You need to get up off your hands that have been forcibly shoved under your ass and FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE!

Now that I have made half of you hate me, here is a list of my self published books;

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

And here are the places where Draft2Digital published them;

Odilo, BorrowBox, Smashwords, Gardners, Tolino, Kobo, Vivlio, Everand, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Baker & Taylor, Palace Marketplace, OverDrive, D2D Print, Bibliotheca, Amazon, Hoopla

Thank you for reading my blog. See you later.

Definition of Customer Service: A Live person that serves customers. 

Do you remember when you could pick up the phone and call any Company? Your Doctor’s assistant? Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, and other stores?  Do you recall speaking with a live person? Those were the good old days, and they ain’t comin’ back anytime soon!

What’s coming is AI customer service!

There is no good excuse for not being able to speak to a real live person.  The corporations received a massive government tax cut, which they used to line their own pockets, and didn’t raise the pay of workers by one damned dime.  

In fact, they furloughed many workers and replaced them with “no one”. Go ahead and try to get a product replaced because you didn’t like it or it didn’t work as advertised.  I have been successful several times, but I have also sustained substantial hair loss. 

On Amazon, within the first 30 days, you can usually arrange for the returned item to be picked up.  Of course, after you have disassembled and repacked it.  You will get credit for it as soon as it is picked up, usually.  You may have to drop off small items at one of their sites.  By the way, make sure to wrap it in the same size box it came in, as it may not fit in the designated slot. Many items can be “dropped off” at a UPS store, and sometimes they will package. Read the instructions!

I am an author who used to format and upload my books to Amazon. I used to call Amazon and be referred to KDP customer service to resolve a problem.  Not anymore!  I had to either figure it out myself, read through millions of help pages or Google results, or watch YouTube videos. If you don’t mind waiting for millennia or two, there is a number, and when and if your call goes through, you’ll be told first that the answer can be found in the help pages.  Now, I self-publish through Draft2Digital, and the last time I needed help, there was a live person online to talk to four days a week. They also offer help menus and produce a weekly video series. They distribute to around 50 sites, including libraries.

In truth, just before Christmas, I had a stroke, and my business has been on hold, but I am back writing and will be publishing again soon.

With most companies, the corporate bottom line is bigger because it is easier to let us flounder, attempting to converse with Artificial Intelligence or bots.  By the way, they don’t mind if you yell or swear, and they won’t get offended or hang up on you.  Of course, they also don’t care if you get your question answered.  

Like most of us, I want to work with Companies that have a little skin in the game, but they are few and far between.

During the Pandemic, many “essential” workers lost their jobs.  Many continued to work because they had to, and as a result, many fell ill.  It was great that some workers eligible for unemployment received an extra $300 a week. Wasn’t it wonderful, and aren’t you proud that the GOP voted to take it away from them to “make” them get back to work because they were getting so rich and lazy!  Too bad that so many people forgot that at election time.

 Many at-risk people did not leave home unless it was absolutely necessary.  Some people had difficulty navigating the internet system to schedule an appointment to get a shot.  Then there were lotteries, and people could win $ 1 million for getting the shot.   Did anyone else think, “Where were the lotteries when I waited in my car for hours?”  Many were lucky and were allowed to work from home.  The rich Oil companies noticed a big reduction in gas usage. They started crying because they weren’t making enough money.  I felt so bad, didn’t you? 

During the pandemic, we masked up, wore gloves, and wiped down everything. We also let no one into our home during that time.  I used to do sewing and repairs for my neighbors, and during the last year of the pandemic, I wouldn’t even allow my neighbors to bring items for repair. 

With our new leadership, let us hope that flu and COVID-19 boosters will be available, again. I say this with tongue in cheek! If not, we will repeat the process of putting on gloves, wearing a mask, and hiding again.

This is the list of my current books:

I am working on Book 9 of the Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space series. I do not have a title yet, but it should have a picture of a Volcano on the cover.

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

Odilo, BorrowBox, Smashwords, Gardners, Tolino, Kobo, Vivlio, Everand, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Baker & Taylor, Palace Marketplace, OverDrive, D2D Print, Bibliotheca, Amazon, Hoopla

I’ve decided to throw my hat in the ring and make a run for President of the United States! I understand I’m a little late to the party, but what the heck! I am retired, so time is not a priority for me.

The politicians keep shooting themselves in the foot or another part of their body; there surely will be an opening in the very near future.

After reviewing the qualifications of the few who are considering entering the ring, I believe I have a better-than-average chance of making some noise, and with any luck, I might make a strong showing. How much worse can I be than what you’ve got to choose from so far in this down-and-dirty race? And make no mistake about it, they are all eyeing the Presidency. What have they got to lose? Yogi Bear would be a better leader than this motley crew!

Let’s take a hard look at what you have to pick from! Old codgers that have seen better day, or ones that want to be king! If the truth be known, we have all seen better days, and it has very little to do with our health.

The BIGLY old one, and he is OLD, only wants to cheat at golf, eat his weight in Cheeseburgers and fries, and that is a damn lot of meat! They’ll have to kill a cow just to make him one meal! Imagine the old fool hiring a chef and eating McDonald’s and Burger King in the White House! That won’t happen with me; I don’t eat red meat, so it will have to be chicken or turkey burgers! His favorite pastime is to blame anyone else for his lack of understanding of what it takes to run a country, let alone a marriage! And he thinks he is God’s gift to all women except his wife! Someone should tell him that he missed that mark by a country mile! It doesn’t matter how much you pay for it, it is still ain’t love! And last but not least, it doesn’t matter if you shit on a Gold Toidy; it is still shit, and it smells!

The other one is slim and trim and appears not to give a damn if we live or not as long as he can get his supply of eyeliner and he says he loves his “little woman who knows her place in his life and the world. He loves cozying up to Billionaires! He isn’t a “Johnny-come-lately” to the political party game, but he doesn’t need the money bad enough to start pitching canned goods and pillows from the Oval Office! He gets more done quietly working behind the scenes and smiling than screaming and calling everyone nasty and giving downgrading nicknames! I will never know why the one that wants to make things better is not the most popular one! It has been established that the current one isn’t a dog trainer! The good thing is he doesn’t shoot them, so there is one lonely point in his favor!

Last but not least, the guy who boasts of a worm in his brain says he is all better now! He bears the same name as a former well-known political family, but that is as far as it goes. They are probably spinning in their graves at his use of the name without the wit or the brains.

I will effectively execute the complex aspects of the Office of the President of the United States. I would prefer to have a majority in the House and Senate that leans toward the blue side, but I don’t care much. One way or another, I can do it with one arm tied behind my back! It is a well-known fact that women can multitask!

Here is my platform:

1. I’m really easy to get along with, as long as you do exactly what I tell you. I am a post-menopausal former redhead and left-handed Gemini, which should tell the head of any country that messing with me would not be in their best interests!
2. I will appoint pre- and postmenopausal women as my ambassadors. Guaranteed they won’t tolerate backtalk from the male-dominated societies of the world.
3. Since I am a woman, all the old White Men will think they will automatically be in charge and will assume that I am complacent and will do as they tell me! You do know what assume means, don’t you, guys? I hit the toilet every time! It will be an unpleasant surprise that I am neither complacent nor will I do almost nothing that the old farts tell me! Unless they actually get one thing right!
4. My one and only first Gentleman and I have been married for 62 years. There will be no dalliances for either of us! 
5. I will definitely need to read from a teleprompter with big fonts! We wouldn’t want me to be running off at the mouth like so many of the nitwits who think they know what this country needs. Unless you have been living under a rock, you know who! They make fools of themselves and the country! We’ve had enough of that bull puckey!
6. Let’s talk about age! I am willing to admit I am old, but I can still walk and chew gum! And being old is not a sin; I have no desire to lead forever! No worries about me planning a dictatorship! Both our Son and Daughter are old enough to live in a 55+ community, and they have no desire to follow me unless I am making pizza.
7. I don’t come from a long-standing political family, and to the best of my knowledge, I don’t have worms in any part of my body. Don’t they have worm medicine to cure dogs?
8. And I won’t be redecorating the white house! It looks pretty damned lovely compared to what most of us Seniors own! I might not even move in, but govern remotely! We don’t need a new China; the pattern that is in the cupboard will be good enough. However, if we do need new plates, they will be made in the USA.
9. I plan on sleeping in every bedroom for at least one night, and anyone who sends a big contribution might get to sleep in one for one night! But, by themselves!
10. I will be happy to accept ALL the PAC money from everyone, as long as they don’t mind signing my little agreement that says, “Sorry, Sucker, I will do what is right for the country! I am the screwer, and you will be the screwee, for a change!
11. I expect to be a one-term President!  I am old but not stupid!
12. With the tax I am planning on slapping on the millionaires and Billionaires, there will be plenty of money to raise the minimum wage to $25.00 an hour, not that sissy $15.00.
13. With the money left over from the millionaire and billionaire tax, everyone receives full-coverage insurance, with no pre-existing conditions, and there are no co-pays. Don’t worry! They will only pay the same percentage that middle-class Americans have been paying for years, while they have been paying 0%. Medicare will forever be safe and never borrowed from ever again.
14. All laws designed to protect the environment that were reversed under the Previous Administration will be reinstated. Yay! Clean water, air, and undisturbed land!
15. Sorry, college-bound! You still have to pay for college, but the interest is low, and it is SIMPLE INTEREST. You figure the percentage on balance once, and it is added to the amount owed and never recalculated on the declining balance over and over. You will find you can pay it back before you die. AND the full amount you pay each year will be deductible from your income tax.
16. There will be thousands of steel beams for sale! Or we can build something useful with them. We don’t need a border wall; we need compassion for those who flee injustice. If we mind our own business, no one will be clammering to sneak into our country. The process of becoming a citizen will be less expensive and take less time than it is currently. Those who wish to come here will have the opportunity to work and pay taxes. It is a fact that immigrants WANT to come here because they have a chance to make a life. Come here for any other purpose, and you will be sent home!
17. There will be no bailouts for corporations and Banks that get into trouble due to risky speculation. You are on your own, pals! Just like the depositors that made you rich! No golden parachutes on the taxpayer’s dime!
18. Banks and all Lending institutions: If you speculate with your depositors’ money, be prepared to pay all of it back to them. And no Chapter 11, where you get to go bankrupt and continue to thrive on other people’s money. You play, you pay!

Did I miss anything? I want to clarify that this is intended for entertainment and is meant to be taken in a lighthearted, sarcastic manner.

No money will be accepted unless you understand and agree to #10.

Thanks for reading my blog, feel free to comment.

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

These are the sites where you can find my books published with Draft2Digital.

Odilo, BorrowBox, Smashwords, Gardners, Tolino, Kobo, Vivlio, Everand, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Baker & Taylor, Palace Marketplace, OverDrive, D2D Print, Bibliotheca, Amazon, Hoopla

Now, let’s think about this!

When was the last time that you visited your GP and he/she actually examined you?  I mean anything more than ears, nose, blood pressure, and weight! If it was done, guess who did the deed?  A trained assistant!  You are untouchable and invisible! 

Medicine is a corporate business! Caring personalities no longer get involved. They rush you in and out in 15 minutes or less (you can’t even get a good burger that fast), and they have to churn out patients by the dozen so that the payments on the yachts are made on time.

Let’s go through a typical GP visit.  You are not a new patient; they have your history before them, or at least they could if they cared to read it. 

“Hi (looks down at your chart because he/she doesn’t recognize you), John Doe. Why did you come to see me today?”  Jeez, I had to tell everyone but my pastor. Someone should have passed that on to you!

 The cute little person in the adorable scrub outfit took all your vital statistics and asked you again, “Why do you need to see the Doctor?” When you called to schedule your appointment several weeks ago, the person on the phone asked, “Why do you need to see the Doctor?”

Just try to avoid telling her/him specifically why you want an appointment. It’s not going to happen! I have tried several different tactics to keep my personal information to myself until I see the GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ, to no avail. I finally told them I needed 15 minutes, and it was none of their damn business why or what ails me; it was personal. Unless you have got your medical license, you do not need to know. 

I know I am a mean bitch, but if I am only going to get 15 minutes anyway, what does it matter? 

Also, I am old! I remember the days when you could see the Doctor in a few hours or, at the longest, the next day. I also remember when they could actually stitch up a minor wound in their office. If you were injured, you went to their office, and if the injury was major and required hospitalization, you were sent to the hospital. There were very few “Specialists.”

Not so today! You tell them what’s wrong, and they immediately—well, maybe not that soon—send you to a specialist or the hospital. Hopefully, it isn’t your arm or leg that is hurt because the hospital will charge you for the other one too!!! By the way, the Specialist is usually not so busy that they can see you within a month or two. Also, they don’t really listen, either!

Doctors do not want you to look up anything on the internet to try to understand your condition or the ramifications of any medication that they propose to write a prescription for you to fill at your local pharmacy.  Go ahead and try to discuss why you do not want to take that medication and your reasons. And ask if there is another drug with fewer side effects that still does the job.

I saw that Bill Gates says the future is coming when Doctors will be replaced with AI instead.

Soon, we will have online virtual doctors that you can talk to, who will listen just as their real-life counterparts do. Of course, they are AIs, and everyone knows how helpful it can be to deal with a computer. Doctors will have to become good actors like on TV, selling their Snake oil cures.  Imagine sitting in the comfort of your own home and chatting face-to-face with your smiling, friendly doctor! You probably won’t even notice the difference in care and concern; it’s possible that it might be better.

What do you think about it? Let me know. I am interested, really. Please speak with my assistant first, and I will be happy to allocate at least 15 minutes for you. I will almost immediately send you to the proper specialist!

Thanks for reading my blog. See you later….

Here is a current list of my self-published books

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

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When we were Workamping and living in our Coachman Motorhome, we contracted for Workamping jobs in the Winter in the southwestern states and summer jobs in the northern states.   

It was early spring when we were offered and accepted a Workamper Job with the Mt. Rushmore History Association as Cashiers at the Book Stores in Keystone, SD.  We were to arrive on May 1^st for our first day of work. We arrived near Keystone in a snowstorm so severe that we not only had second thoughts about the job but were unsure of our location.  We saw a sign for Custer’s Gulch RV Park and pulled in because we wanted to stop driving in the snowstorm! It was impossible to tell where the parking spots were, so we just stopped.

Spotting the “Office” sign, we knocked on the door.  The people at the office were very nice and let us stay the night, even though they weren’t yet open for the season.  We discovered the season is quite short in South Dakota, as you can imagine. The next morning it started melting and was gone by the next day.

We were offered an RV space, contracted by the Historical Society for $1.25 per hour each, and this amount would be deducted from our pay.  We chose to contract with another company and pay for it, keeping the $1.25.  As it turned out, it was to our advantage, as the first week, one of the Workamper’s wives was taken to the hospital and was out of commission for several weeks, so we volunteered to work overtime, which meant we worked 6 days a week and did grocery shopping and Laundry on our day off.  By the time she could return to work and we were back on a 5-day workweek, we were exhausted, but considerably richer, as the most we paid for our site and electricity was about $400.00 a month.  She returned to work and completed her contract, and by the time we left, she appeared to be in good health.

We decided on Holy Smoke RV Park, as very few RV Parks or Resorts are open until May 15th.  Holy Smoke RV Park was essentially a site with full hook-ups, but it lacked amenities, except for deer and wild turkeys, which were sometimes right next to our Motorhome.  Several times, we had to wait for them to clear the road so we could exit the park.  We also learned to drive down the mountain at night with our high beams on, as deer crossed the road at their leisure. We heard that there is at least one deer hit every year.  The owner also owned the Holy Smoke Restaurant, located just a short climb up the hill from the park, which served Buffalo Steaks. YUM YUM!! By the way, Buffalo steaks or burgers have to be cooked rare or medium-rare, or they are like shoe leather!  Hard to imagine that something that good is actually good for you.

The nearest Walmart was located in Rapid City, approximately 30 miles away, and Laundry was situated in Hill City, about 12 miles away.  Red Rover loved the drive, as it was all on a four-lane highway.  During the tourist season, as you can imagine, prices skyrocket with the arrival of tourists; everything in Keystone becomes more expensive than we are willing to pay.   We discovered a great place to do laundry!  In Hill City, there is a gas station, deli, laundry, and casino on the main street.  You did notice that there was a Casino, right?  Most of the time, while our clothes were drying, we played a little.  We won enough money most of the time to pay not only for our Laundry but also to drive to Rapid City and buy our week’s groceries.  We are not real serious gamblers; if we win with our $10.00, we stay; if not, we leave.  The first week, we went to Rapid City for groceries and Gas. We stopped at a little Casino called Jokers, and I walked out with $148.00.  We didn’t win all the time, but it was fun when we did.

Cashiering is not difficult.  Learning the somewhat antiquated computer system was somewhat of a challenge, when in the middle of a very large order the computer shut down, we sweat a little trying to remain calm; smiling when we had to “reboot” and start all over again, while keeping people from charging like angry Rhinos to get their purchases rang up so they could catch their tour buses, or get on with their tour.  Sometimes, we just want to say, “Calm down, you’re on vacation!” We understood that no one loves to stand in line, but we could only do what we could do.

We worked in one of three stores, but rarely in the same one on two consecutive days.  As you enter the park through the large granite arches on the right, you will find the Information Center, which is staffed by a Ranger or two during the busy season, along with a small bookstore.  They also rent wheelchairs (for free)! Directly across the Granite walkway is the Audio Tour building, where you can rent Audio Wands to hear information about the sights you’re seeing and about the park.  On either side of the Audio Tour building, in huge letters, are signs for the Men’s and Ladies’ Rooms.  Several times a day, a frantic vacationer would come in, interrupt another customer, and say, “Where’s the restroom?” After a few weeks on the job, we would point with a smile across the walkway. 

As you walk up the 200-yard Granite Walkway, you will see a bust of Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor, on the left, and on the right is a plaque listing the names of all 400 workers.   The amazing thing to me is that he scouted the Black Hills on horseback for weeks to find this mountain.  He looked at it and decided that it would be perfect.  He didn’t have any of the modern technologies to ascertain that it could be sculpted; I say sculptured, for want of a better word.  By the way, 90% of the sculpting was done with dynamite.  When the guys first started working with the dynamite, they complained of headaches. When they started wearing gloves, the headaches stopped. One of the ingredients in the Dynamite is nitroglycerin. 

By the way, there were minor accidents during the sculpting of the mountain, but no one lost their life, and the cost was less than a million dollars.  By today’s rules and regulations, it could not have been done.  Most of the workers were miners, so they were familiar with the tools and the concepts.

As you continue up the walkway, a huge gift shop is located on the left, and a restaurant is situated on the right. As you continue up to the sculptures, lined with granite pillars featuring flags of each of the states and several provinces.  At this point, if you are not awed by the spectacle of the magnificent faces, wait until you get to the Grand View Terrace!  You can look at “the guys” (as we called them) through the Viewers or take tons of pictures.  Many times, I took visitors’ point-and-shoot cameras and took pictures of them with their faces as the background.  We are probably in hundreds of pictures just going to and from work.

You may see several White Mountain Goats just walking in the park and feeding.  Many times, we tell people that they are not tame, but photography enthusiasts try to get close and sometimes even attempt to take a picture of themselves beside a goat or, worse, a picture of their children beside or on the back of a goat. One of the Rangers’ jobs is to protect visitors from themselves and their enthusiasm.  The goats are not indigenous to the area.  A brilliant bureaucrat decided it would be great to have several on display for visitors to Custer State Park and had a large, fenced arena built specifically for them.  Guess what? He forgot that they are Mountain Goats and can climb!  They promptly got out and went up into the mountains, never to be rounded up.  They multiplied, and you may see them along the road and if you climb the mountains.   In fact, sometimes, when looking through binoculars, you can spot them on the Presidents’ heads. 

Now that you are at Grand View Terrace, you will not only see the faces, but looking down, you can see the open auditorium with the stage.  You can take two flights of stairs down or use the elevator to access the main floor, which includes the Ranger Station, the largest Bookstore, the Borglum Museum, Movie Theaters, and additional bathrooms.   When you look out through the full wall windows, you will see the Sculptures.  Every night, a patriotic presentation featuring a movie is held, and all past and present Veterans are invited up on stage for the flag-lowering ceremony.  I have seen the Rangers make special arrangements for disabled Veterans to get to the stage.  It is very moving, and most people have tears in their eyes. Sometimes, just telling tourists about it, we get a little misty-eyed.

If you’re into hiking, there’s the Presidents’ Trail that takes you as close as possible to the mountain and down to the Sculptures Studio.  At the Sculptures Studio, there is a “Ranger talk” several times a day. Gutzon actually used the studio, and there is a 1/12-scale model of the faces on the mountain.  I have taken many pictures of people in front of them.  Another side note: when you get down to the Sculpture Studio, the only way back to Grand View Terrace is by taking a lot of steps or retracing your path back up the President’s Trail.  The Sculpture Studio does not have a public restroom; however, one is located about halfway up the steps. I worked there a lot, and that was the hardest thing to say no to people.  Sometimes, people got down there and realized that they could not climb the stairs, and we called the rangers to arrange transportation back.  Several times, we have had to call the Rangers to come and retrieve people who collapsed due to the strain and lack of water.  We have a fountain at the Sculpture’s Studio, but no water for sale.  The Rangers could make arrangements for the handicapped to drive down, but due to the very small parking lot, it could not be open to the public.  I climbed the stairs once, and that was enough! When I worked down there and Shirl worked up at the top, I would drop him off and then drive down.  There is an electronic gate that our badges would open.  I felt a little guilty, but we had already walked enough just getting to work, and we had lost about 30 pounds each.  

We were asked to invite people to purchase a yearly membership in the Historical Society.  They received a 15% discount at all bookstores in any National Park in the US and 10% at other concessions by Zanterra. They cost $30.00 for an individual membership or $50.00 for a family membership, which included two cards and two audio tours.  We received a credit for the sales of these memberships, and at the end of the contract, we were given gift cards, the value of which depended on the number of memberships we sold.  We really enjoyed spending them when we got back to Phoenix. 

We were given a VIP card and one of the History Society cards, which allowed us to access many of the attractions in the Black Hills. We took advantage of our time to do as much sightseeing as possible.  Look on Facebook, and as time permits, I will be posting albums of the attractions that we had time to visit.  We really enjoyed our time in South Dakota.  The scenery is beautiful, the people are friendly, and the air is fresh and clean. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you later…..

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake HaverlyMaye West Mysteries

Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

Here are the sites where my books are available.

Odilo, BorrowBox, Smashwords, Gardners, Tolino, Kobo, Vivlio, Everand, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Baker & Taylor, Palace Marketplace, OverDrive, D2D Print, Bibliotheca, Amazon, Hoopla

I will never understand why people need to lie. 

In my previous life, I was a realtor for 30 years. I sold many homes to many happy people. I never felt the need to withhold the truth about the homes they were excited about. My philosophy was: Do the Right thing because it is Right!

I always disclosed any defects; in fact, I would try to find them and either negotiate the repair of the defect or attempt to get a satisfactory price reduction to make my client happy or find them another home.  Another thing that we privately used as a description of the Real Estate business was, “Buyers are liars, and Sellers are Yellers!”

In our next career, we became full-time workampers. My husband and I took jobs for (FHU) full hook-up sites with a salary, which was usually minimum wage.  I did not lie on my resume or in my work history, and I obtained permission from all my references. 

The information that I receive from prospective employers is a horse of another color!  As an example;

Several years ago, I spoke with the National Supervisors about a position as Activity Directors at a “theme park” (which will remain nameless).  I was told that:

1. They have just finished a $ 5 million Rec Center (the operative word here is ‘finished’).
2. We would be co-directors (we assumed there was another couple to share the workload, but it turns out we were it.
3. Our salary was $ 2,500.00 a month, with full hook-up for our RV and propane at half price.
4. We would have a staff to schedule the work. 
5. They would like us to arrive a month early to become familiar with the program.

This is what we found when we arrived nearly a month early:

The manager was new and did not know that we would be on salary and would have to work for a site. It would be nine hours each.  When we told her 9 hours was not enough time to get the program ready and that we were supposed to be on salary, and would have workers. We were told they had to “check on it”.  We were finally told that starting Saturday, we would indeed be on salary.  So we either had to wait at our site or go to work for free. 

Seeing the disarray of the Rec building, the tee shirts, and the ceramics, we opted to go to work. 

By the way, the $5 million Rec Center was not completed. We have no Wi-Fi to work with, no computers, and our “office” is not finished, with a trench running through the middle of the floor. Additionally, there is no telephone.  No workers would be assigned; we were it!

We inventoried all the ceramics, T-shirts, and kitchen supplies and entered the information into spreadsheets on our own computers.  There was no inventory available and certainly no spreadsheets.

Our staff consisted of us for a week, until we asked for another couple who was also waiting to work in the store.  They were assigned to us, and between us, we prepared all the paints for painting the ceramics by manually shaking all the gallon cans and marking the colors of each one. We labeled and filled all the understock paints and the small containers for everyday use.  We relocated the ceramics and tee shirts from the old area to the new one in the rec center, cleaned the kitchen, and prepared the tables for the Sunday morning breakfast that we were also in charge of.   We also had to hunt and peck for whom to order supplies from, and we managed to find all the vendors’ telephone numbers to place our orders for the year. 

It seemed like every day, a new task was assigned, and when we asked where the information from previous years was so we would have a track to run on, we were told to “make it up as we go along.”  That is what we did, but we were unsure how long we could tolerate the disorganization.  We set up all the activities for a month on the very slow Wi-Fi and programmed them, only to be told it was wrong and needed to be done differently.   I did not have time to putz with the program.    

We are responsible for cleaning the Recreation room and taking out the trash, as well as washing and driving the Train and Fire Truck (either us or one of our many workers) around the park on a weekly basis.  Additionally, we have three costumed characters that we need to have out every day, one at a time.

We now have another couple coming to work this week and were told that they have three more people that we can call in to work.  It must be the new math because that doesn’t sound like ten people. 

We were looking for another job and would leave, just like most people have in the past.  It seems that this park has a reputation of going through people fast.

For the record, I prefer not to leave a job until the end of our contract; however, what RV Parks/Resorts should understand about “Workampers” is that we are independent contractors and we are on wheels!  Most of us are retired or “just tired” and are not slaves or indentured servants, and we work most of the time for minimum wage. 

Employers should feel lucky to have us work for them!  We perform many tasks that others cannot handle. They believe that the site we receive is a significant perk.  We more than earn that little piece of dirt with water, sewer, and electricity! 

The funny thing is, even if they had told us the absolute truth, we might have taken the job and stuck it out until the end, smiling all the time because we are honorable people. 

The final straw that broke the camel’s back was delivered when we were told that we were responsible for mowing our site.  Most of us RVers do not carry lawn equipment with us to mow our sites, and we work full-time, which keeps us busy all the time. The grounds workers were not allowed to mow our site. The day we said, “Done,” and packed up to drive off, the clover was knee-high at our site. We also know that for every mile we drive, our RV costs us $ 0.50 per mile, so leaving a job mid-term was expensive. But there was only so much crap we could take. This was around 2010.

Currently, we are happily retired from RVing, but the lure of the open road calls us periodically, and we are unaware of the ups and downs of the Workamper business.

If you are bitten by the “Open road bug,” take a little time to investigate what your actual cost of being on the road will be before you take that leap.

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

Odilo, BorrowBox, Smashwords, Gardners, Tolino, Kobo, Vivlio, Everand, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Baker & Taylor, Palace Marketplace, OverDrive, D2D Print, Bibliotheca, Amazon, Hoopla

Thank you for reading, and see you later.

Chapter Five

I slept the sleep of the dead! (Pun intended!) Upon waking, still wrapped together, we smiled and stepped back into the shower, but this time only to wash.

“Are you hungry? Daniel asked.

“Starved!” This was surprising, as I didn’t think that being dead would cause one to feel hunger.  I need food, and I need it soon. You are starting to look yummy.”   

“Hang in there. Get dressed, and I will get you fed. What sounds good?”

“A thick steak, cooked med/rare with a baked potato with everything!”

“Great, I am starving too, and I know just the place!” He said with a big shit-eating grin.

I spotted the closet, made a beeline to slide the doors open, and screamed with delight! “There are hundreds of evening gowns and exquisitely tailored men’s suits!” Daniel didn’t seem as surprised as I was, but we didn’t waste any time getting dressed for our first night on town.  

Catching a glimpse of the exquisitely designed dress I was wearing, I nearly fainted. I didn’t, though. I guess you don’t faint if you are dead. I looked like a movie star! My hair magically styled itself in an elegant, upswept style with sparkling diamonds set in the curls. My dress touched the most beautiful pair of shoes.

Glancing at Daniel in his perfectly tailored suit, it was nearly impossible to keep my hands off him, and I decided, after our fun on the town, I was going to enjoy stripping those clothes off him and having my way with his beautiful body.

Stepping out the door, we were met by our chauffeur, who opened the door of the limousine. We stepped into the well-appointed back seat, complete with snacks and champagne.

After a fabulous meal of everything, which I would have denied myself in my previous life to keep my figure, we danced for hours and drank gallons of champagne.

“Damn, this dying is better than I ever imagined!” I said silently.

We were dropped off at our apartment, which I noticed was in pristine condition.

Daniel sat me down on the couch in front of a lovely fire and said, “Ask me any questions, and I will give you the truth!”

“Can I see and talk to friends that have died?”

“Yes, you can.”

“What about those that I hated, and it was mutual?”

“You can if you want to punch them in the face or do worse! You can’t kill them. Obviously, they are already dead!”

“So, if I wanted to do bodily harm to anyone, I could, but they just disappear and resume their existence somewhere else?”

In a nutshell, you can be anything you want to be and do anything you want to do!

My goal is to be blissfully happy forever! But there must be a catch!”

The catch is that whatever you bring with you to the new plane of existence, you are likely to be stuck with it!

“But can’t you change if you want to?”

“You can do or change anything you truly want to change!”

“How about visiting Old Earth and scaring the shit out of a few people that truly deserve it?

“Of course, it might be fun poking a little fun at the non-believers, and the devout believers, too!

“Can we become solid enough that they can see and touch us?

Certainly, but you do realize they can’t hurt you?

Of course! This is going to be fun!

I think I will stick around! Watching you will be a hoot!

“You won’t cramp my style, will you?”

“Nope! I just might know a few people that deserve a poke or two!”

Thanks for reading the last chapter of my short story. I hope you like it and maybe it made you think about what our existence might be.

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

All my books are available at the following sites in either eBook or Paperback.

Odilo, BorrowBox, Smashwords, Gardners, Tolino, Kobo, Vivlio, Everand, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Baker & Taylor, Palace Marketplace, OverDrive, D2D Print, Bibliotheca, Amazon, Hoopla

Chapter Four

“You don’t know where you are?” he said, continuing to laugh.

My laughter died, and anger took its place.

“What is so God Damned funny, and why can’t you answer a simple question?” My temperature rose several degrees, and I was about to erupt into some not very lady-like language, intending to pin his ears back and possibly blow them off his head.

“Okay, take it easy. It’s always amusing to meet a newbie.

“What the hell? I am certainly not a newbie! I want answers, and now would be a good time for you to start giving some!”

“I can’t help but be curious about how you managed to get here without any help.”

“Look, this has been a very long night and day, and I haven’t met a single soul.” Now would be a good time to tell me where the fuck I am and why the fuck you think I need help!”

“Take it easy. I’m sorry for laughing, but new people are always given the complete rundown upon entering the gate. I don’t understand why you didn’t talk to the person at the gate. They are supposed to prepare you, so nothing should come as a big surprise.  This is the first time someone has gotten this far, alone.”

“There was no nice person at the dammed gate! I waited forever, and since there was no lock on the dammed thing, I opened it and walked right in. If I wasn’t supposed to come in, someone should have been there to stop me.” I huffed.

He started laughing again, which didn’t quench my anger. Seeing the look on my face, he raised his hands in surrender and said, “Okay, relax, have another glass of champagne, and I’ll tell you everything.”

Leaning back in my chair, I crossed my legs and waited for him to speak.

“First, you do know that you died! Right? This is not Purgatory, Hell, or Heaven! When you die, you have a choice of staying here and just doing what the hell you have always wanted to do. Do you understand?

“Look, buddy, I’m a quick study!” When that bastard took all my organs out and stuffed me into a freezer, I figured it out pretty fast! So far, this sounds a little boring. This drink feels like water, and I rather like getting high.”

“Give it a little time. This is all pretty new to you.”

“OMG, I am sure as hell glad that I am not going to spend eternity in a field.”

“You could if you want to.”

“I am a city girl and am used to the bright lights and partying till dawn. Some hot sex would be an added bonus. Please tell me that there are other partyers here besides you and me. Am I going to see some of my dead relatives? Will they be hale and hearty like they were before they died?

“Of course, if you want to look them up, you can, or you can change the scenery to a city and find parties.”

“That’s better. This second glass is kicking in nicely, and I am getting a little buzz. But I want specifics!”

Have another glass, and I’ll tell you everything I know. He said as he filled my glass again. I started feeling a little light-headed.

“Say, what did you put in my glass?” I am feeling it more than usual. Immediately the scenery changed from green grass to white shag carpet in a magnificent bedroom featuring a king-sized bed and an open door to a huge shower, sending clouds of streaming mist into the room.

“Shall we?” Daniel said. He took my hand and led me to the inviting steaming room. We didn’t slow down as we approached the shower, now only wearing our smiles!

“Would you like me to wash your back?” He asked, and a large sponge appeared in his hand. I had to admit he did a great job. I turned around, intending to offer him a back scrub, too, but I saw that he had something much better in mind. He kissed me as he walked us entwined to the bed. I don’t usually have sex on the first date, but his lips were doing things to various parts of my body that made me want more before this dream ended. And he brought me to orgasm repeatedly! It was so amazing I didn’t want to stop, ever!

But, finally sated and still wrapped together, with smiles on our faces, we drifted into deep sleep, and I thought, “I hope this dream doesn’t end when we wake up.” 

Thanks for reading Chapter 4 of A Plane of Existence. It is just another thought of hope for what comes after our time on this ball of confusion.

This is a list of my currrent books;

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

I publish with D2D and my books are available at the following sites:

Odilo, BorrowBox, Smashwords, Gardners, Tolino, Kobo, Vivlio, Everand, Barnes & Noble, Apple,

Baker & Taylor, Palace Marketplace, OverDrive, D2D Print, Bibliotheca, Amazon, Hoopla

Chapter 3

Looking around, I could see white fluffy clouds and a lovely park-like setting behind the gate. I was unimpressed that the gate wasn’t exactly pearly and that there wasn’t a padlock attached to the gate, either. Seeing no one around to stop me, I pushed it open and strode in, as if I knew what I was doing and belonged there. I haven’t lived long enough to belong in the fiery hell most humans feared. Looking around, I was somewhat pleased with the vast park, featuring soft grass and tall trees that shaded the numerous walking paths. It wasn’t really my thing, but it was not a bad start.

With a warm breeze caressing me, I thought, “Well, fuck me! I must have made it into heaven!”

The rules of admittance must be loosey-goosey and not at all like the Fire and Brimstone crap the preachers tried to scare us with Sunday morning. I always suspected that the only reason for the scare tactics was to get more dough into that silly plate that was passed around.

I was too busy having fun to waste my time attending many of those sermons. In fact, I tried my best to do everything we were told not to do!

I tried to surrender my virginity at the tender age of 10! It was not a memorable experience! A quick ten minutes of thrusting and not at all like the Love story books portrayed it would be. I wanted the BIG “O,” not the quick in and out of a 13-year-old who didn’t last long enough or was big enough to break my hymen! I didn’t feel a dammed thing! Later, I did have what was supposed to be real sex, but that was not all that memorable, either!

“I hope there are grown-up men or women in this place that have the equipment to do the job!”

This after-life experience was giving me a migraine!

The park setting and not seeing anyone were a little disconcerting. After all, if this is the afterlife, i.e., Heaven or Hell. Surely, I can’t be the only one to make the cut? Where the hell are all my irreverent friends? I wonder where they are and how many are wandering around here. I thought it would be heavenly (pun intended) to see Lee and Leymoyne again. I wonder if they still smoke Pall Mall Reds. Or if you can smoke in either place. God, it would be wonderful to give them huge hugs and spend an evening talking about our friends and enemies from Real Estate again!

I would love to see Karen E with her nearly straight black hair, bangs covering her eyebrows, and sharp blue eyes peeking out under them. It would be a kick in the pants! She looks like a demure church Mom but with the dirtiest potty mouth in our group. She embarrassed every one of us when we got our new voice pagers, sending the most God-awful messages at the worst times. Like the one to me when I was listing a house for a Minister and his wife. The Pager shouted, “Brenda, your Black and Decker dildo has arrived.” My clients nearly fell off their chairs, and another listing went down the drain!

My mind snapped to the present, and I said, loudly, “By the way, where the hell is the champagne? Don’t I get a complimentary bottle since I made the cut? A Magnum would suffice nicely, with extra glasses for any guests who might happen along. In case someone does.”

And, just like that, a bottle with several beautiful glasses appeared on a small table with chairs. But with no bottle opener! “Well, that’s just great! How am I supposed to open this? With my teeth?” A corkscrew instantly appeared in my hand, and I opened the bottle not expertly but poured a glass. I sat there looking at my bubbly! “Damn, it’s not as much fun to drink alone!”

“Well, dammit, I guess I will have to if there isn’t anyone in this damned place to drink with me! And I drank the glass in one swallow and poured another! If no one shows up soon, I might just drink myself into oblivion.”

And, just like that, the landscape changed, and I am now sitting in a lovely, well-appointed room complete with chandeliers and soft music. Sitting across from me is a gorgeous man who smiles as he pours us another glass and makes a toast. “Here’s to all the people we left behind and to all the new ones we will meet!” He said with a big smile on his handsome face.

“Now, this is more like it!”

I look him over, and I like what I see, from the full head of light brown curly hair and sexy brown eyes. My imagination was wildly picturing him naked and ready for some fun!’

Finally, we pause in our mutual admiration, and he speaks.

“Hello, my name is Daniel. And you are new here.”

“Yes, and I am wondering exactly where the hell ‘here’ is?”

“This is where we come to have fun! And whom do I have the pleasure of introducing to the finer points of the “afterlife.”

“My name is Amanda! And now that we introduced, I need to know exactly where the fuck we are?”

Before Daniel could answer, I said, “Are we in heaven or Hell?”

Smiling, he said, “It can be either, depending on which one you desire.”

“Does it have a name? And exactly what can I expect?”

“You can expect it to be anything you want it to be. Some people arrive here expecting to be punished for their sins in their previous life, and that is exactly what they receive until they feel their sins have been atoned for.

“But, if someone does not believe they committed any sins, but they did, what happens?”

“Did you commit enough punish-worthy sins?”

“Hell, I didn’t live long enough to do near enough sinning!”

List of my current published Books, which are available at the following sites Odilo, BorrowBox, Smashwords, Gardners, Tolino, Kobo, Vivlio, Everand, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Baker & Taylor, Palace Marketplace, OverDrive, D2D Print, Bibliotheca, Amazon, Hoopla

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

There are so many Whys in our lives—many more during this administration?? than we ever had before.

Every organization and group is soliciting us hourly for donations of $5, $10, $25, or more to combat the terrible people who have been elected to run the country and protect our environment! They are doing such a great job making sure that we and our once great County continue to circle down the drain.

I personally get 20 or more emails from our newly elected Senators and Representative asking for donations to stop the terrible things that are happening. Really?

You were elected and aren’t you receiving a sizable salary “to do your job?” and didn’t you shout that if elected you would do wonders and shit marigolds? So far, marigolds and your personal bank account have grown, but my personal income has not. However, prices at the grocery store have grown in comparison to your insistence that you need even more $$ to do your job.

I just deleted one today that gave the names of at least 5 Senators and Representatives that stated I have been solicited 5 times and why haven’t I responded? And wondering why I am not fulfilling my obligation to give until it hurts.

I would like for them to get up off their lazy asses and FIGHT for the country, and little old me.

I wonder why any other solicitation for money for any organization has an “unsubscribe” button that works! Nearly ALL political solicitations have them, but they DO NOT WORK! I have unsubscribed on some a dozen times, and right behind it is another email begging, and some of them are downright insulting! AND YOU CANNOT RESPOND TO ANY OF THEM! I get it! You only want money, not my opinion or concerns.

I wonder what happened to all those BIG Republicans who were shouting how they were not only backing Kamala but were voting across the party lines???

I am probably just misinformed and do not have the mental strength to understand the political game because of the misfortune of being born a female.

I am retired and damned tired of the “same old thing!”

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear one politician tell the truth?

I was a Realtor for close to 30 years, and my Motto was: Do the right thing, because it is right! I was never sued, and no one ever looked the other way at the grocery store.

Here is a silly idea. Politicians, why not try that motto on for size?

It might be a snug fit, but you will sleep better at night!

Chapter Three

Looking around, I could see white fluffy clouds and a lovely park-like setting behind the gate. I was unimpressed that the gate wasn’t exactly pearly and that there wasn’t a padlock attached to the gate, either. Seeing no one around to stop me, I pushed it open and strode in just like I knew what I was doing and belonged there! I haven’t lived long enough to belong in the fiery hell most humans feared. Looking around, I was somewhat pleased with the immense park with soft grass and tall trees shading the many walking paths. It wasn’t really my thing, but it was not a bad start.

With a warm breeze caressing me, I thought, “Well, fuck me! I must have made it into heaven!”

The rules of admittance must be loosey-goosey and not at all like the Fire and Brimstone crap the preachers tried to scare us with Sunday morning. I always suspected that the only reason for the scare tactics was to get more dough into that silly plate that was passed around.

I was too busy having fun to waste my time attending many of those sermons. In fact, I tried my best to do everything we were told not to do!

I tried to surrender my virginity at the tender age of 10! It was not a memorable experience! A quick ten minutes of thrusting and not at all like the Love story books portrayed it would be. I wanted the BIG “O,” not the quick in and out of a 13-year-old who didn’t last long enough or was big enough to break my hymen! I didn’t feel a dammed thing! Later, I did have what was supposed to be real sex, but that was not all that memorable, either!

“I hope there are grown-up men or women in this place that have the equipment to do the job!”

This after-life experience was giving me a migraine!

The park setting and not seeing anyone were a little disconcerting. After all, this could be the afterlife, i.e., Heaven or Hell. Surely, I can’t be the only one to make the cut? Where the hell are all my irreverent friends? I wonder where they are and how many are wandering around here. I thought it would be heavenly (pun intended) to see Lee and Leymoyne again. I wonder if they still smoke Pall Mall Reds. Or if you can smoke in either place. God, it would be wonderful to give them huge hugs and spend an evening talking about our friends and enemies from Real Estate again!

I would love to see Karen E with her nearly straight black hair, bangs covering her eyebrows, and sharp blue eyes peeking out under them. It would be a kick in the pants! She looked like a demure church Mom but had the dirtiest potty mouth in our group. She embarrassed every one of us when we got our new voice pagers, sending the most God-awful messages at the worst times. Like the one she sent to me when I was listing a house for a Minister and his wife. The Pager shouted, “Brenda, your Black and Decker dildo has arrived.” My clients nearly fell off their chairs, and another listing went down the drain!

My mind snapped to the present, and I said, loudly, “By the way, where the hell is the champagne? Don’t I get a complimentary bottle since I made the cut? A Magnum would suffice nicely, with extra glasses for any guests who might happen along. In case someone does.”

And, just like that, a bottle with several beautiful glasses appeared on a small table with chairs. But with no bottle opener! “Well, that’s just great! How am I supposed to open this? With my teeth?” A corkscrew instantly appeared in my hand, and I opened the bottle not expertly but poured a glass. I sat there looking at my bubbly! “Damn, it’s not as much fun to drink alone!”

“Well, dammit, I guess I will have to if there isn’t anyone in this damned place to drink with me! And I drank the glass in one swallow and poured another! If no one shows up soon, I might just drink myself into oblivion.”

And, just like that, the landscape changed, and I am now sitting in a lovely, well-appointed room complete with chandeliers and soft music. Sitting across from me is a gorgeous man who smiles as he pours us another glass and makes a toast. “Here’s to all the people we left behind and to all the new ones we will meet!” He said with a big smile on his handsome face.

“Now, this is more like it!”

I look him over, and I like what I see, from the full head of light brown curly hair and sexy brown eyes. My imagination was wildly picturing him naked and ready for some fun!’

Finally, we pause in our mutual admiration, and he speaks.

“Hello, my name is Daniel. And you are new here.”

“Yes, and I am wondering exactly where the hell ‘here’ is?”

“This is where we come to have fun! And whom do I have the pleasure of introducing to the finer points of the “afterlife.”

“My name is Amanda! And now that we introduced, I need to know exactly where the fuck we are?”

Before Daniel could answer, I said, “Are we in heaven or Hell?”

Smiling, he said, “It can be either, depending on which one you desire.”

“Does it have a name? And exactly what can I expect?”

“You can expect it to be anything you want it to be. Some people arrive here expecting to be punished for their sins in their former life, and that is exactly what they receive until they feel their sins have been paid.”

“But, if someone does not believe they committed any sins, but they did, what happens?”

“Did you commit enough punish-worthy sins?”

“Hell, I didn’t live long enough to do near enough sinning!”

If you are looking for my books, they are available online at your favorite sites.

Draft2Digital publishes my books, and are available on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Smashwords, Tolino OverDrive, bibliotheca, Baker & Taylor, BorrowBox, Hoopla, Vivlio, Palace Marketplace, Odilo, Gardners

My books: Maye West Mysteries Book: 1 Murder on Lake Haverly Maye West Mysteries Book 2 OptionsThe Spirited One Book: 1 The protectorThe Spirited One Book: 2 James The End of the Road Immortal Enemies

Young Adult; Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 Science Project Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The OthersRuby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 9 in progress

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, and Boss Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park Book 3 The Dude Ranch

I know you have the best intentions and are anxious to “help” me become a NY Times Best Seller! All I have to do is purchase your pricey, ever-so-helpful course, which will teach me how to write and make tons of money, right?

I look at all of these offers with the attitude of “Once burned, twice shy!” I bit on one of those wonderful offers. Want to guess the result? Nada! It was supposed to be a big book show! I paid a lot of bucks, and my reward was that my inbox was filled with hundreds of “Offers” from many who promised to have their “friends” in the Movie Production business start production on my wonderful book! But not one sale! It’s not going to happen!

Everyone wants to “train” me to write best sellers! If they are so damned good, why don’t they have books on the Best Seller list?

If a movie producer does “find” your great story, you will hear from them directly with a contract offer, and NOT from an intermediary who wants $$$ to introduce you to their mythical friends.

My philosophy of my writing career is this: I have many stories screaming and streaming inside my head, wanting to get out. They may never get to the silver screen or become million sellers, but they insist on getting out. I do the best I can to make them the kind of books that I love to read.

I have tried several people as Beta Readers, but generally, they are too keen on correcting spelling and grammar! I have my friend Grammarly for that! Of course, there are mistakes in a first or second draft! I really need someone to help me discover what works, point out a lapse in flow, and point out mistakes, flaws in character, and generally flow of the story. And there is no hurry.

It is sad but predictable that the minute you self-publish a book, you will be inundated with offers to “help” you do everything from making covers that guarantee to sell to editing and polishing your book to the point that buyers will swarm the bookstores, demanding your book!

I write and rewrite and then let the manuscript “rest” for several weeks. I then read it like a reader would, and then I rewrite it again. Like other indie writers, my budget is on a shoestring.  

I either love my characters so much that they come alive for me, or some of them bring out my hate for them. Many of my characters are “borrowed” from the people I met as a realtor and from my travels in our Motorhome at various resorts. I always change the names to protect the guilty.

Some of my stories are from real life! “Sleep Travelers” is from my daughter’s imaginary playmates as a small child. She had three, and as an adult, she could only remember the names. I created characters for them to fit the names. So far, there are three books in the series, and I have two more places in mind for the Sleep Travelers to go on their adventures. These will be fun to read to kids as the animals talk and all of the adventures occur when “Little Dawnie” goes to sleep.

My books are distributed to Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Smashwords, Tolino OverDrive, bibliotheca, Baker & Taylor, BorrowBox, Hoopla, Vivlio, Palace Marketplace, Odilo, and Gardners.

I am currently working (if you can call this working) on Book 9 of the Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space, a YA series about real people. They didn’t go into space, and they were in grade school.  They have both graduated from high school, are all grown up, and might have adult adventures in later books.

Thanks, see you later….

I didn’t get a Gown and a hat to throw in the air.  There was no pomp and circumstance, but I graduated from needing in-home Physical Therapy!

My Physical Therapists, Page, Preston, and Steve, were knowledgeable and helpful. They cheered me on and always congratulated me on each new thing we achieved. My hubby, Shirl, cheered right along with them while still being there if I stumbled, ready with a helping hand.

In the beginning, I thought I would make progress fast because my Stroke was minor, if a stroke could ever be considered minor; however, when I learned that I had lost much of the ability to walk and use my left side, I realized how serious it really was. The big thing for me was that I forgot how to write, and typing was difficult.

My immediate goal was walking! It appeared that I would not get a walker, so Shirl went to Walmart and brought home a shiny new one. Thanks, Hon! A few days later, Aetna, my insurance company, delivered a shiny new red walker with wheels and a seat. Thanks! I used the Red one more than the Black one.  

One of my first goals was to learn how to sign my name. How could I autograph my books if I couldn’t write my name? I practiced writing it hundreds of times! I discovered that if I wrote slowly, I could make all the letters so that they could be read. I wrote many pages full of words by hand: “Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country.”

Then I tackled the keyboard! I have South-Western College Keyboarding (keyboard course)! I will admit that I haven’t gone through the whole book, but I used the pages to help my left hand. With a little help from Grammarly, I am doing better.

It is so much better that I am now on Book 9 of the Ruby & Nolan series. If you’re reading the series, you will be happy to know the kids snuck out of the camp and are on the way to rescue Donzereli, Robin, Ty, and the elderly Fairies from the erupting volcano. I don’t know how that will work out as I am a Pantser Writer! I’ve got a good idea, but sometimes the winds of time blow, and the story swerves in a new direction.

 I continue my Physical Therapy exercises to maintain my strength. I am eyeing the Treadmill, which is still in the box. Shirl wouldn’t open it until he felt sure I could handle walking fast enough not to fall. We are thinking of checking the instructions for how to assemble it and deciding if today is good or if we should wait until next weekend.

Thanks for the encouragement on my journey back from the stroke. I am working on staying stronger and healthier so there won’t be another stroke in my future.

See you later…. My books are available on most book sites in eBook and paperback formats.

Chapter two

Almost immediately, the same smelly sheet is thrown over me again, and the cart starts moving rapidly. The squeaky wheels are driving me crazy. I shouldn’t be able to see anything with my eyes closed and covered with that damned sheet, but somehow, I CAN!

We roll along endlessly down a creepy corridor of rough concrete painted an ugly gray until the bastard slams the cart into some doors, which open, creaking and scraping the sides of the cart. I try to move my hands closer to my body so they don’t get scraped, but they won’t move! Dammit! “I am going to have a few words with the hospital administrator about the treatment I have endured,” I shout, but no one pays attention to me.

Finally, we are inside a dingy-looking room with one small desk and a guy sitting with his head in his arms, snoring loudly. The cart smacks the desk, and he jumps a foot screaming, “What the fuck is the idea waking me up from my sexy dream? It’s the only time I get ever close to sex with a woman!”

The voice of the jerk pushing the cart says, “Ask me if I care! Have sex with this one; she must have been a looker. She’s the fifth dimwit this month to sail into heaven or hell off Happy Hollow Mountain Resort Road. If they don’t put up some solid side rails soon, we will be working a bunch of overtime and still won’t be able to afford a car like the one this bitch smashed to smithereens! God forbid that we get paid for overtime! Can you imagine putting a brand new Porche in the tree a hundred feet off the road? It won’t be lonesome because it has company! Three more fools put their cars in that same tree! I heard that they aren’t even going to try to get them down. You’d figure someone would rescue them for parts!”

“Shut up and put her in locker ten and get the hell out of here so I can go back to sleep!” The guy at the desk growled.

“Locker! What the hell! No fucking way!  I am not going into any God Damned locker!” I scream! No matter how much I screamed, no one was listening to me. And over my objections, that bastard slammed me feet first into the locker! The minute the door slammed shut, I sat up! This was no easy feat, as the locker was about two feet square and freezing cold!

OMG, it finally hits me: I AM DEAD!

Fuck, I didn’t know the dead could move!

I shot out of that locker the minute I realized I could move and straight through that metal door! I amazed myself by landing on my feet, naked in front of the grubby desk. The jerk was sound asleep again and snoring loudly! My fists banging on the desk should have woken him up, but he continued snoring loud enough to wake the dead! Unfortunately, that appears to be me!

I’m Dead, awake, and mad as hell!

Standing buck naked in front of the snoring man’s desk, the need for clothes became my top priority! God forbid that he should wake up and see me naked! I certainly didn’t want anyone to see me with that horrid tattoo on my chest. They would probably scream bloody murder. I searched the room, but there wasn’t a scrap of cloth anywhere!

I will stay naked forever before I consider that sheet in the locker!

I shouted out to the universe, “Dammit, I need some clothes! I want some real clothes! And they had better be stylish to show off my sexy body! Thankful that Goddammed death didn’t take that!”

 I look for a mirror to check my makeup and hair, but, dammit, there was none in sight, and by this time, I was fuming!

“Dammit, I want a mirror and some clothes!” I screamed, stamping my foot on the floor! 

Apparently, when you are dead, if you scream loud enough for what you want or need, you get it!

Immediately, I was standing in front of a full-length mirror. I studied the image, looking back at me. I could see that my hair was a little messy but in the same shoulder-length style and brilliant red color as before. I was shocked that my makeup appeared nearly flawless.

I quickly slipped the dress over my head, and I adjusted the thin straps to show off my perky breasts. I suddenly realized the ugly chest tattoo had disappeared! Well, things are finally looking up!

But then I realized that each time that ugly buffoon snored, he farted, and the air was getting so pungent I was fighting for a breath! I started screaming to the heavens or to anyone who might be listening, “Fuck, is this all there is?”

In a New York second, I am transported to another plane of existence!

Fuck, tell me this isn’t true? I Am standing in front of The Pearly Gates.

“Wait a minute, I screamed. Don’t I get a chance to plead my case? I’ve got my law degree right here in my purse. I will make minced meat out of that old duffer, St. Peter!”

If you read Chapter 1 of A Plane of Existence, this will continue with our hero’s path to enlightenment.

Please comment how you liked or didn’t like it. Thanks!

My books are available on Book2read, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and most book sites in the U.S. and Europe. Or you could go to my website: http://www.brendacolbath books.com.

Chapter 1.

One minute, I am soaring on a spectacular mountain road, literally on top of the world, with magnificent clouds nearly touching the ground. The next minute, I am in complete darkness! The dammed GPS didn’t say anything about any fucking tunnels on this road. Dammit!

I am super excited about my new job, a brand-new car, and a long-awaited weekend of fun! If Mountain View Resort is half as exciting as advertised, it will be a weekend to remember forever!

Wait a minute! Why am I lying on a cold, hard bed with a rough sheet covering me from head to foot? And what in hell is that disgusting smell? It can’t be me!

Wait just a God Damned minute!

Before I could figure out what was happening, the ugly sheet was lifted, letting in a tiny bit of light, and I saw a rough string tied on my big toe! This can’t be right.  Don’t they only do that to corpses?

I AM NOT DEAD!

I’VE GOT MY WHOLE LIFE LEFT TO LIVE!

I’m screaming HELP at the top of my lungs!

Fuck, either no one hears me or gives a shit!

OK, this is better. I am moving. I’d better be heading into surgery.  How come I’m not hurting anywhere? Oh damn! I must have been in a wreck! I wonder how badly my new car and I are injured! Oh well, no worries! Insurance will either fix my car or total it, and I’ll get a new one, and surgery will fix me! They must have given me a shitload of painkillers because I can’t even move my little finger, and the only thing coming out of my mouth is spit! I think it is spit, but it does taste kinda metallic.

This is better; I’ve finally stopped, but it is deathly quiet! If I am in surgery, why aren’t the Doctors and Nurses talking? And the machines should be making noise.

Without any warning, the rough sheet is snatched off my naked body, and dammit, I am being tortured by a blast of icy cold water entering every nook and cranny of my body. And, dammit, I can’t move or scream!

I am going to kick the shit out of that jerk that is torturing me as soon as I can move! Why won’t my god dammed body listen to me? I can’t do anything, and I am glued to this dammed metal table, freezing my ass off!

What kind of hospital is this, anyway?

My eyelids refuse to OPEN. And if I am heading into surgery, why am I still naked, and what’s with the cold shower?  

Well, I can guarantee I will do more than scream bloody murder at the first Doctor I get my hands on!

Oh shit! A mean-looking bastard is approaching. He is tall, with more whiskers on his face than humanly possible, and he looks at me through thick Coke bottle glasses. His white doctor’s coat is filthy! This is weird! Doctors always keep their coats immaculate! I can see him approaching, though my eyes are still glued shut. 

What the hell is that son of a bitch doing with that knife?

I am screaming as loud as I can but not making a dammed sound! Shit, wait a minute, that isn’t a knife; that’s a scalpel!

All right, things are looking up; I must finally be in surgery!

I can’t see the room I’m in. It is totally dark, with only one very bright light overhead that would blind me if I could open my eyes!

When a large V-shaped flap of skin smacks me in the face, I still can’t speak or move! Help! What the fuck is that son of a bitch doing?

OMG, I just saw that bastard slap my heart on a scale. And before I can protest, the rest of my organs follow suit!

Dammit, I need those things! “Put them back, you son of a bitch!” I scream, but he doesn’t listen and keeps on talking into a microphone, droning on and on about how many pounds and millimeters everything weighs. Finally, he is done, and he sews an ugly, horribly stitched V-shaped tattoo on my chest. I am screaming bloody murder, but no one hears me! 

Shit! I thought a surgeon would do better than that. At least my perky boobs are still there!

This is only the first chapter of a short story for my irreverent friends. It is not intended to make fun of anyone or their beliefs. It is just in fun.

Let me know what you think as this morning I noticed Russsa, China, Canada., and the US is on my blog.

Have a great day! See ya next time.

Today was my workout day with Preston, and he came prepared. I do not work out on the days he comes because I know he will put me through some tough paces. It’s nothing I can’t handle, but I usually work up a sweat.

We walked across the street to check the mail. Our street has gravel on both sides of the hot top. I used my cane, and after we checked the mail, we walked around the house and over the bridge on the concrete walk. I loved getting outside and smelling the fresh scent of “after the rain.”

After a short rest, I walk to the sink for my balance workout. He places a rubber pad several inches thick in front of the sink, and without holding onto the sink, I step up with one foot, add the other foot to the pad, and step back to the floor. I then repeat it with the other foot first.

It sounds simple, and it is! Balancing is the key. I did it 10 times, with each foot as the dominant one.

I bet you think we were done, but then I worked on the Rowing Machine for 5 minutes.

I think I need a nap! Not so, now I can have my breakfast.

Onward and upward, now I get to have fun. I am working on Chapter 3 of Book 9 of Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space. They have taken a flying car, again, without permission or knowledge of their parents. They are intent on rescuing their friend Donzereli, Ty, and Robin, who are Ruby and Nolan’s parents. This will be fun as they have no idea where they are!

To make matters worse, the volcano’s irruption has interfered with everyone’s telepathic ability for miles around the explosion.

I love writing fiction! It gives my mind wings to fly and imagine anything!

Have a great day, and I will see you later…

I didn’t need a cap and gown. I learned to walk with a cane. Yes, there is a right way to use one.

You usually take the cane in the hand of your dormant side and, using your less dormant foot, take a step while moving the cane forward at the same time. Bring the other foot forward. It is a little awkward, but later, it will seem natural.

I have to admit it isn’t natural as of today, but soon it will be. I am looking forward to going shopping. For that, I will probably take my walker, as if I get tired, I can sit on the seat to rest.

Enough of my trials, now for some fun. I am on Chapter 2. of my latest book, which, as of today, does not have a title. I will figure that out after I have several chapters done.

I know that isn’t the way it is done, but this is my creation, and It is my choice. As a matter of fact, I probably should have opted for a shorter title for the original book, but then I wasn’t sure it would be a series. “Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space” sounded good at the time.

Now, eight books later, it seems kinda long, but what can I say? Too soon, old, and too late, smart!

Right now, the kids (nearly adults) are making plans to do exactly what the adults don’t want them to do and will stop them if they have time to try. Will Dr. Allen come along with them on this adventure? He is the traveling teacher of the group, but in reality, he is just a kid in an adult’s body. Time will tell. He bribed his way on their first adventure but was asked to come along after.

They are planning to steal a flying car to look for their friend Donzereli, who happens to be a Dragon, and Ruby and Nolan’s parents, who remained on the island where the volcano is erupting to save the elderly Fairies.

See you later, have a fun day…

I have been using a rubber heart and world to exercise my fingers. It was helpful, but getting them on the keyboard is necessary.

Since I needed to practice typing, what better way than to write a book? I have written chapter one of Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book 9. If you have read Book 8, this book will continue from the adventure of sneaking out right under the noses of the parents to explore the continent across the ocean that the parents forbade. This book introduces a race of people and Fairies.

The main character’s name is Irus. I liked her “no-nonsense ” attitude and bravado. She actually faced Donzereli with her bow, demanding, “Who are you? And what are you doing in our land?”

She was horrified that there were more creatures like him close by. Donzereli was not worried about her arrow pointing at his chest as he was sure it could not penetrate his skin. As usual, he made friends with her and invited her and her Panther Clan for S’mores. The tasty, gooey treats sealed the friendship.

That was a good thing because Irus and her Bison saddle saved the boys when their flying car nearly sank when a Rockasaurus tentacle grabbed Dr. Allen’s arm and was dragging him overboard. Donzereli and Irus came to the rescue.

Book 10 starts with a bang! The long-dormant volcano on the island that the boys wanted to explore decided to blow its top! That would be fun to watch from a distance, except that Donzereli, Ty, and Robin are trying to save some elderly Faries trapped in their dwelling in the Volcano.

No one can reach them telepathically, and they can’t get close enough to attempt a rescue.

Are you wondering what will happen to them? I can’t tell you, because I haven’t written it yet! I also haven’t named the book. Maybe latter I will get brave and post Chapter 1.

It has taken me much longer than usual to write one chapter. I committed the sin of not adding new characters to my Character sheet like I usually do for any series I am creating. I had to re-read several chapters of a couple of books to add them.

Will write again tomorrow about my Therapy Session with Preston.

See you later, and have a good day….

Today is Sunday so that it could be my day off. To win the game of physical rehabilitation; there can not be a day off. I have done almost all of my exercises. The last one is walking as much as I can.

I have an app on my phone recording my steps. I do more than 1000 a day and am trying for more.

The last time, my physical therapist had me do exercises to help with balance.

I sidestepped around the kitchen island with my eyes closed. That one I will not do when I am alone.

I can walk without the walker and will soon switch to a cane. Steve brought a big green step, and I practiced stepping up and down with each foot with my eyes open and closed.

The most exciting thing I did was get on the Rowing machine and work for three minutes. I plan to get on it again for at least a five-minute workout. I don’t feel totally comfortable getting on and off yet.

As you know, rowing machines are very low on the floor, which would make them out of my reach. Shirl solved that problem by setting it on two strong wooden boxes, making it easier to get on and off.

We will soon set up the Treadmill! Shirl won’t take it out of the box until the therapist gives him the go-ahead.

I have to get busy writing. Yesterday, I published a trilogy of the first three short books of the Ruby and Nolan series. I have eight books in the series and two more waiting to be edited. My books are available on most of your favorite sites in the U.S. and Europe in eBook and Paperback.

When I need a break from writing, I have several sewing projects waiting.

See you later, and have a fun day…

Yesterday was a red letter day! Preston gave me new challenges. In addition to my regular workouts he added getting up from my chair in the family room five times. I did it with only one double try. A double try is getting almost up and sitting back down.

He brought a big Yellow round plastic platform about 18 inches in diameter. I held onto the sink and stepped up and back on the floor one foot at a time.

We took a walk around my house on the concrete walk. I loved being outdoors, feeling the light breeze on my face and seeing the clouds drifting across the sky.

I take my exercises seriously and try my best to complete them as many times as I can during the day. After all, the only other things I have to do are write books, fix lunch for Shirl and me, sometimes dinner, and read.

I have an app on my phone that counts my steps! I do 1000 or more. The therapist says the more, the better.

I have to run. I have a sewing job to do today. This one involves hand-sewing with black thread on black material. I will use my very bright light. Gettin’ old ain’t for sissies!

Speaking of Books, check out Murder on Lake Haverly! It is set in Arizona, and the main character bears a striking familiarity to me during my 30-year career in Real Estate. Maye has a friend with benefits who is a Sheriff’s Deputy. I didn’t have a boyfriend, because Shirl wouldn’t allow it!

It is on most of your favorite sites, including eBooks and paperbacks. Thanks, and see you later.

Today I went outdoors and walked around the house on the concrete walk, twice. I walked over the bridge over the walk and around it on the loose gravel, too.

My husband/ caregiver will be happy until he realizes I want to be able to water my roses and snip the dead blossoms off. Maybe I will get wild and crazy and cut back on the Lantanas. Hon, I promise when I know I can do it safely.

My physical Therapists, Preston, Steve, and Page, are awesome. They always have a new goal for me to achieve, like getting up from the big chair in our Family room or doing squats holding onto the sink.

I spend much of my morning exercising my body and my mind. I write pages of sentences to regain my penmanship skills, and I also type pages of typing exercises to improve my typing skills.

My Dawta suggested writing about the whole stroke experience, and it is in the back of my mind. It could happen. It has been an interesting experience.

If I missed anyone with my thanks for the many well wishes, please know I am grateful for the encouragement. It means a lot to have you take the time to let me know you care.

One well-wisher mentioned she would look at my books for her child. I suggested Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space. I started the series when Ruby and Nolan were in grammar school, and the books have grown with them to when they graduated high school. I like that they get into serious trouble, but no one dies, and their thinking process is like kids their age.

My books are available as eBooks and paperbacks at most of your favorite websites in the US and Europe, as well as in some libraries.

See you later,

If you know me, you know I am a fighter, and the tougher the challenge, the harder I will fight.

A couple of days before Christmas, I faced my toughest! I was hospitalized with a stroke. Not the best time or the type of challenge! But a challenge is a challenge, and I am determined to win!

It was a minor stroke, if interfering with the brain is ever minor, and I have insurance. KRMC (hospital) was amazing, and I received great care. I was released three days later, and my hubby of 63 years stepped up to the plate as my caregiver. He is amazing! And I have in-home Physical Therapy.

Some motor functions were affected. I forgot how to write, so I am practicing every day, learning how to write. I have pages of writing: “Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country.” Typing is slow, and Grammarly helps.

I am practicing signing my name. I am an Author; I must be able to sign books! I am writing and have three books in my head, waiting to break out. I will announce the publish dates soon.

I walk with a walker; soon, I will be able to use a cane or just walk. I was very lucky that a small part of my brain was affected and will have nearly full functions, as they tell me the brain is amazing and will step up to the plate and heal or take over the part that died.

My books are on most of your favorite book sale sites, including Books2read, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. They are also available in libraries worldwide through Hoopla.

We will talk again, soon.

Some people say, “I am an Author,” and some say, “I am a writer. ” It means the same thing to many people. I feel that if you write for yourself and it gives you pleasure, then you are a writer.

If you write a book, have it spell and grammar checked and edited, and submit it to 100 publishers and get 99 or 100 rejections, you could still be considered an Author. If you do the “Indie Author” thing, you are an Author. and It doesn’t matter if you sell one or 100K books; you are an Author.

I chose the Indie method and got lucky in finding Draft2Digital Publishers. I sold more books in the first couple of months than in two years with my previous Indie publisher. I may never be a million-seller or on the NY bestseller list, but some of my books have been sold to libraries for free reading. That pleases me, and that is important.

I am a Pant’ser writer! That means I do not outline or do anything else that sounds like “work.” I start with a basic premise, and from there, the characters tell me what to write. I picture any action in living color and in motion, in my mind. And I am my own worst critic!

Some of my characters are so real to me that I cry when they are hurt or killed. I re-write several times, and Grammarly helps me with spelling and gross grammatical mistakes.

I am behind on books that are still in my head, waiting to get out of my prison. I am two books behind on my Young Adult series. This is a fun adventure of a family that I sent into space to help colonize an uninhabited planet in another galaxy. So far, they have met three very different inhabitants. The characters are patterned after some real friends in Seattle, WA. I made the children grow up in the books just like they did in real life.

If you want to find my books, they are available in eBook and paperback at most of your favorite book sites, like Smashwords, Books2read, Barnes and Noble, and, of course, Amazon. If you type my name, Brenda Colbath, in the search bar, they will pop up. Also, they are on my website, with links: http://www.brendacolathbooks.com.

See ya next time,

Every day, I see posts and emails telling me that this or that person is “dropping the hammer” or somehow destroyed someone with their verbal humiliation! Sorry, we haven’t heard you and don’t care because you have won the battle.

Let’s take a look at all the hammers that have been dropped and laugh at their pathetic strikes! None of them have even come close to hitting their mark.

Enough already! You sold us “down the river!” Admit it! Take your filthy lucre, crawl back into your hole, and admire your own perceived genius because no one else will. We see what you are! No matter how many times you shout, “I will fix it!” You won’t because you never had any intentions to do anything but line your own pockets!

Your time is coming! Throughout history, people have finally had enough and risen against people just like you. They changed the world! It will happen again!

My Physical therapist gave me some new strengthening exercises. I had a stroke just before Christmas.

I was very lucky, as it was light (if any stroke could be light), and I could walk with a walker. I have the best live-in caregiver ever. He is my hubby of 63 years. I was given some exercises to strengthen my leg muscles. I take them seriously and do as many as he recommends. I can walk a little without the walker, but never when I am alone.

Today, he has a doctor’s appointment, and then he returns an item to Amazon via the UPS store. Then, he does the grocery shopping! BTW he is 90 years old and still works part-time.

II still do sewing and have a pair of jeans to shorten this week. I am a little slower, but I will get them done. I also need to upload two Trilogies (Books) on my Publisher’s website and finish a short story.

My books are available on most of your favorite booksites online. I also have some in libraries in Europe under my name, “Brenda Colbath.” You can google me also. My website is http://www.brendacolbathbooks.com

I write, Murder, sci/fi, Young Adult, and children’s books.

Thanks for listening to me ramble. See ya later!

Wisdom Quote By J.r.r. Tolkien: “There is more…”

I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to get in touch with you again. Life got in the way. In the form of a Stroke. Fortunately, it was a small one, which does not address the turmoil it caused in my life. I am fortunate to have good insurance and a life partner who is the best caregiver, ever.

I walk with a walker and can do most things quite well. I am taking my physical therapy seriously and complete it every day.

When Preston arrived yesterday, I asked him if we could skip it as I had fallen that morning. All accidents are caused by stupidity or forgetfulness. I chose to accept forgetfulness. No worries, I am fine. As my famdamily says, “bumbles bounce!”

My other hill to climb is that I forgot how to write! I practice writing my name and thank you every day because, as an author of more than 14 books, I would like to sign them for readers.

I also write, “Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country.” I have many pages filled with that sentence. I also typed pages of that.

I plan on getting everything back, and the only way is to practice, practice!

I hope your day and life are happy, and your hills are not to steep!

By the way, all my books are available on Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Amazon, and my website, http://www.brendacolbathbooks.com. They are also available on most of your favorite booksites. I write Murder Mysteries, sci-fi, Children’s, and Young Adult books.

I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to get in touch with you again. Life got in the way. In the form of a Stroke. Fortunately, it was a small one, which does not address the turmoil it caused in my life. I am fortunate to have good insurance and a life partner who is the best caregiver, ever.

I walk with a walker and can do most things quite well. I am taking my physical therapy seriously and complete it every day.

When Preston arrived yesterday, I asked him if we could skip it as I had fallen that morning. All accidents are caused by stupidity or forgetfulness. I chose to accept forgetfulness. No worries, I am fine. As my famdamily says, “bumbles bounce!”

My other hill to climb is that I forgot how to write! I practice writing my name and thank you every day because, as an author of more than 14 books, I would like to sign them for readers.

I also write, “Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country.” I have many pages filled with that sentence. I also typed pages of that.

I plan on getting everything back, and the only way is to practice, practice!

I hope your day and life are happy, and your hills are not to steep!

By the way, all my books are available on Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Amazon, and my website, http://www.brendacolbathbooks.com. They are available on most of your favorite book sites. I write Murder Mysteries, Sci/Fi, Children’s and Young Adult books.

The Regrettably Unlived Moments at the End of Time

It has been a wild political ride for the last few months! Do you agree? As a woman, I am thrilled to have a woman come this close to being elected, but I am also afraid that victory will be snatched from our grasp, as it has been so many times.  

I have to admit my first thought was, “Shit, we are so fucked!” when I first heard that Biden had stepped down and was throwing his weight behind Kamala Harris.

Not because she didn’t have the background or the brains to win but because she sat down to pee. You know it is true! Many men and women do not think a woman will or should ever become president. If you are shaking your head, “No,” do I have to remind you of Hillary, who got the majority of votes, but the dreaded electoral college gave it to “the Orange One.”

I hope you remember the disaster!

I remember huddling at home and wondering when COVID would strike me and/or my husband down.

We didn’t get the vaccine until Biden was elected.

I don’t know about you, but I still have a huge supply of masks. I remember sewing a bunch of cloth ones and sending them to our kids. I know they would not be as effective as the ones for medical workers, but they gave us a little breathing room, so to speak!

Remember the Supply Line that wasn’t? The empty shelves? Toilet Paper pirates? Keeping six feet away from everyone. We were lucky; we didn’t have to watch any of our loved ones waste away, locked away from us, and not allowed to hug them or say goodbye.

But that wasn’t the worst of it!

It was when our “Fearless Leader” told us to inject bleach into our veins to stop the virus! And that Covid was no more dangerous than a cold.

But when he was affected, he was rushed to the hospital and treated with the best of everything.

Okay, enough of my bitching!

I remember when Kamala participated in a REAL DEBATE against then-Vice President Biden. She stood out from all the others as a strong, intelligent woman. Biden, to his credit, picked her to be his running mate. I would bet that he was told it was crazy. I think he was crazy, like a fox!  

So far, the opinion of this “over-the-hill female” appears to be that she is also crazy like a fox.

She picked the lesser-known Tim Walz as her running mate over several better-known men. I can’t remember when a potential running mate dove in head-first and came up ready to take on the fight of his life.

I remember the principal of a small school I attended, and Tim mirrored him so much. He was kind and caring, but he took on the bullies and made me feel like my Daddy was there with me on the school grounds at recess.

The team of Harris and Walz may not be able to do all the wonderful things they propose, as that depends on the support of the Senate and House of Representatives, but they are sure gonna try!

My vote may not mean as much as Cheney’s, but they have got it!

I’m waking up to a Sunny, possibly 104-degree day with a predicted heat advisory! We will probably have a windy breeze, sometimes as much as 18 to 25 miles an hour. Do we even need to talk about Global Warming? I thought so—next subject.

Let’s talk about “The Good Old Days!”

Back home, in Maine, living the rural lifestyle was fun as a child but not so much as an adult! As a kid, there were bar-b-ques, horseshoes (played with real horseshoes), Ice Fishing, and Skating on the frozen pond at night with old tires set on fire for light. We also skied with skis held on our feet with one strap over the foot and sticks for ski poles.

Our 15-acre farm with a 100-year-old house, a huge barn, and a chicken house was a blast for us kids—I suspect not so much for our parents.

It sounds like we had a carefree life, but the truth was a little different. The wood-burning cookstove had to be fed wood before it would give heat or food! And it was my job to have potatoes cooked for dinner. It didn’t matter that the stove was stone-cold. I had to be stoked potatoes peeled and cooked ready for dinner when the folks arrived home from work.

I know what you are thinking, “How hard could that be?” I will share a short story with you about one of my adventures with that blasted stove!

When I arrived home, I searched the shed for kindling wood. I got it arranged with an old newspaper under the kindling, but it just wouldn’t start. I desperately searched and found some Kerosene, I thought! Unfortunately, it was Gasoline. You may not know this, but Gasoline does not ignite easily, so being the brilliant kid, I put my face close to the opening and blew on the small spark. That did the trick much better than I knew. I burned my face and most of my hair around my face.

I ran out to the well and, priming it, pumped water to cool my skin, and by the time my parents arrived, my face was cooler but still burnt. Later, I learned that it was the right thing to do and not to put butter on it as I was advised. I was lucky; I didn’t blister, and eventually, the hair grew back.

Life on the farm was a DIY (do it yourself) way of life.

I will save more farm life fun to share for later.

If you get bored and are looking for something to do, go to www.brendacolbathbooks.com and look at my books. You might find one that suits your fancy. They are available in eBook and paperback at Smashwords.com, Books2read.com, and Barnes & Noble. I had fun writing them, and many of the characters are from real life; of course, I changed the names to protect the guilty!

I hope you had a fun, safe Labor Day and are looking forward to a fun, safe Halloween.

Here is a list of things that I couldn’t do in my youth just because I was and still a girl.

1. I had to wear a skirt to school, no slacks EVER! This was winter in Maine, where it could get to 30 below.  I was allowed those ugly brown stockings to keep my legs warm. NOT! You girls know what I mean when I say the wind was not kind to our backside! As an after-note: I rode the bus to school and, after walking to the bus stop, rode the frigid bus 8 miles to school to find that the school was locked, so we waited for half an hour before we got inside. When we got to high school, we rebelled and wore jeans and one of our Dad’s shirts to school until the school relaxed the rules.
2. I had a choice of taking secretarial, general, or college courses. I took college courses because that was my dream. Several of the boys and I took the college test (probably not the SAT), and our counselor “advised” me that I should forget college, get married, and have kids, as that was where my qualifications led me. It is interesting that several years later, I took several college courses for my real estate career and earned a 4.0 on all of them.
3. It was a thrill to find out that because I was missing that all-important body part, my salary would be ½ to 1/3 of what the guys got. And let’s not talk about raises! They were non-existent for women or as “girls” as we were referred to. One of my first jobs was at Hartford Fire Insurance as a Keypunch Operator, and I discovered that the guys who were computer operators got double or triple our salaries and earned raises. I worked there for a year or more. When the time came, we were all heard in a basement room and addressed by the BIG manager, MR. Something and told we did not do well enough to earn a raise that year. As I recall, I did not make a great impression on him as I mentioned that my boss had told me that I had several “Perfect” packs of Keypunch cards. I will bet my Manager, Mrs. Bills, had a three-martini lunch that day!
4. I needed a roommate to afford the rent for a two-bedroom apartment. The differences between us were interesting! At one time, we allowed another girl to share with us for a while. But she was so different and strange that we campaigned to marry her off. We prepared romantic meals for her and her boyfriend and managed to be out for the evening when they got together. If it worked like a charm, they eloped! We were free! Stay tuned because there a lot more.

More tales of the single life in the city in the “Old Days!” Next time!

If you are bored, check out my books at www.brendacolbathbooks.com. Just click on a cover, and you will be taken to one of the sites where you can purchase them as eBooks or paperbacks.

One has to wonder why the political parties vying for our vote this November need to solicit money every day to win! They appear to be trying to convince us that if we do not give money every day, week, or month, the party will surely fail.

Once the bogus poll collects your email, you will be solicited daily from every person running for office. You will get solicitation emails every day from every candidate.

Now, here is a thought! How about showing us how the money is being spent? Specifically!

I understand that the huge TV ads cost a lot of money to produce and that TV time is expensive. But when you are collecting millions of dollars from big donors, why is my $3, $5, $25 so important?

It would be nice if they weren’t so sneaky. I get emails daily wanting me to do a poll. As soon as you give the info you are solicited for a donation, and it makes me wonder, are the polls credited or is it just a way to, sort of force you to donate.

Many of us barely getting by on Social Insecurity have to weigh the value of letting loose with $$$ that was designated for living expenses. And by the way, since in the olden days when Women got half the salary of men, we have a check that is half of what men enjoy. Please do not tell me that tired old story, “You have a husband to take care of you!” Many of us heard that when we were offered a 25-cent-an-hour wage increase. I personally have told at least one offeror where to put that 25-cent raise. The last time I was offered that so-generous increase, I signed up for the Real Estate Class. Best decision I ever made.  I was never credited with the moola that I paid into SS during that time, and at this late date, I was told, no dice, you have to work for a company and receive a paycheck. Funny, I guess all those commission checks I cashed didn’t count. Even though most self-employed people pay into SS, it’s too bad we can’t collect!  

So long, for now, gotta do something to supplement that so generous SS check!

If you would like to help, go to Books2read, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords and check out my books available for order as eBooks and Paperbacks. Here is a list to help you find the genre you like.

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 8 Irus

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

Have you ever wondered if the people writing the political ads really think we are that stupid? It is my considered opinion that none of them really care what I think or believe because if they did, the ads would ask for and provide a way for me to comment! And most Americans have already made up their minds!

Some have known for eight years which way they will cast their vote. It is amazing how stupid some people can be.

The evil politician looks us right in the face and says, “Our party cares about you. We guarantee that we will fix everything!”

To hear them, one would think we are on our way to utopia!

It appears that their need for money to pay for huge, expensive ads on TV is inexhaustible!

Those of us subsisting on Social Insecurity are concerned with the direction that this country is heading, but we do not have a lot of moola left over after our luxuries, such as food, clothing, a roof over our heads, and a stale crust of bread.

We know that if a certain Orange One gets his tiny hands on our pittance, he will snatch it away without a single thought of what it will do to us. And when we are told to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we will answer, “Sorry, those straps are still there. The problem is that we can no longer reach down to pull them up!”

It is hilarious that the party that shouted, “Biden is too old!” is now the party led by the Orange One, who is as old as Old BIDEN was when they derided him for his age.

This whole thing reminds me of what a friend once said: “I am not as good as I once was, but I was as good once as I ever was!”

All you young whipper snappers, keep in mind your time is coming!

We didn’t think ours was coming, but it did!

Enough of that!

Have you noticed that the price of some things is going down a little? The greedy corporate mogels have realized that if they keep going up, up, and up, soon there will not be anyone to pay their sky-high prices. Now, please don’t get excited; they are not dropping to yesteryear’s prices! Keep in mind that it is relative! When the prices were low, so were the wages!

Here is another thought! Why is it so hard to open all of the packaging of products you desperately need to access and packages of pasta are easy peasy?

Well, that is all of my helpful hints for today, but stay tuned because there are a million more waiting in the wings.  If you have any helpful suggestions, I am all ears! That is about the only things that is still working!

Marissa Mahoney is a hopeless romantic. She has been warned that keeping Mario, her live-in pool boy, landscaper, and full-time lover, for five years is dangerous! What if he is a SASHA (Seek and Save Humans from Aliens) agent?

Marissa ignores their warnings of being captured by SASHA! She had been told how Captives always die from human scientific experiments to find out their secret of immortality!

Unfortunately, time is not on her side! Marissa needs to regenerate soon or grow old and die! Her choice is clear: she must spend a month or two at the SAROS (South American Regeneration Organization Spa) or convince friends to supervise the procedure at home.

Dr. Carl Sanderson, head of RAPT(Regenerists Are People Too), and Francesca Montenegro, Marissa’s new housekeeper/nurse, have agreed to care for her at home but are unfortunately caught in the middle of a dangerous game.

Mario loves the abundant sex with Marisa, plus his highly secure, high-paying job. But he is looking forward to his bonus when he turns over his video evidence of Marissa’s regeneration in living color! He will be a celebrity when he reveals the secret of how the regenerists draw energy from humans! Mario is so sure of himself, that he is in charge of the who’s fooling who game he is playing with Francesca that he can’t see the forest for the trees! His eye is on the reward he will garner when he betrays Marisa, Dr. Sanderson, and Francesca and reaps his reward upon turning over a video of Marisa’s regeneration in a living color presentation.

This isn’t a story about conflict between the bad guys and the good guys; it is about a struggle for survival between humans and an Alien culture.

This book is available in paperback and eBook at your favorite book site. Books2Read. https://books2read.com/u/3Ldzjw, Barnes & Noble.com.

A list of my current books published by Draft2Digital

Maye West Mysteries Book 1 Murder on Lake Haverly

Maye West Mysteries Book 2 Options

Immortal Enemies

Spirited One Book 1 The Protector

Spirited One Book 2 James

The end of the Road

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 1 The Science Project

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 2 Dragon Flight

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 3 The Keep

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 4 The Others

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 5 Wormhole

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 6 Merpeople

Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space Book: 7 Decisions

Sleep Travelers Book: 1 The Story of Ning, Dog, & Boss

Sleep Travelers Book: 2 The Amusement Park

Lieutenant James MacDonald’s family needs him! The Task Force trying to convict Senator Allen and his son needs him! He only wants to crawl into a hole and die! Jack takes him for a wild ride to knock sense into his head and maybe his body! It works until his life is inundated with bombings, shootings, rapes, and murders. How much pain can one person bear?

The Spirited One can protect him from bodily harm, but he will need a little help to heal his overwhelming need for revenge against those who took Jena from him. It’s one thing right after another! The rape kit disappears from the evidence room, and without Jena to testify, the Task Force is looking at an uphill battle to convict.

Mama Celeste, his family’s restaurant, blows up with his family and Task Force team inside! James is mad as hell!

James realizes there is a mole in the precinct, and she is good at her job! Sending Young Aiden to find out who she works for might backfire, and it does!

Senator Allen and his son must pay for their involvement in ruining the lives of many young women! His determination to see the Senator and son in prison becomes an obsession bordering on Cowboy Justice! Let’s hope the Spirited One has something up his sleeve to stop James before he heads down that road of no return!

The cover of Spirited One might appear to be a ghost story, but it is a Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and fiction.

Orphaned at age one, Jena Andrews grew up in the Foster System. She accepted her lot in life, understanding it would never be easy.

Anger issues thrust her into court-appointed therapy to remember the horror hidden in the deepest recesses of her mind. In the dead of night, she remembers everything, and every morning she wakes in sweat-soaked sheets, screaming!

Her life consists of teaching Taekwondo, 5-mile runs, and waitressing at Olive Garden! A new student joins her beginners’ class, and she meets her new therapist and the Spirited One, who changes her life forever!

Why was she chosen by the Spirited One

What is the Spirited One?

This book is available in eBook or Paperback at your favorite book company or use this URL https://books2read.com/u/318zPv, for book2read, it is available at Smashwords, and Barnes&Noble

She was pitched into the icy cold Pacific Ocean, 15 miles off the coast of Oregon, by her loving husband.  Amanda was drugged and wearing only her flimsy nightgown. 

She would need a miracle to survive! Her first miracle was a fishing boat; her second was burglarizing a cabin on the beach!

Her fuzzy memory refused to tell her who she was and what compelled her to walk south on Interstate 1-5 all day.  She slept in the ladies’ restroom stalls and scrounged food from anywhere and everywhere until she realized winter was coming, and she had to get south faster than she could walk. She must hitch a ride or freeze to death, sleeping outside on a bench!  Finally, her last resort was to beg for a meal! Getting smacked on her head was the miracle that saved her life.

Learning she and her late Father owned a Cadillac dealership in Phoenix should have been another miracle. She saw red when she learned that her con man husband and his Skank wife stole her business and murdered her father!

Amanda grows up fast and decides to re-capture her business while grieving for her father! Come along on the bumpy ride with her new friends as they untangle the lies and deception.

Re-building her business, she meets the man of her dreams, Elvis Reese, a Police Captain who resembles and sings like the King.

Be prepared to sigh when the sparks fly on the first dinner date at Amanda’s suite. After Amanda’s spaghetti and The King’s Apple Pie a la mode, there was more dancing and lovemaking on the couch until the wee hours!

Every time Amanda feels like she will have that happy ever after, her con man husband pulls another dirty punch!

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Maye’s production is as dry as the Arizona Desert! Her team is going gangbusters, but she is bored to tears without a sale or listing of her own!

She was daydreaming of her life when she got her Temporary Real Estate Permit and her first listing!

Shaking herself awake, she forces herself to create two full-color pages of ads in Homes Illustrated. Her best friend with benefits, Frank Singleton, rescues her.

 After a lovely but too-short weekend, she is back to the grind.

At her borrowed Open House listing, a nice young man asks her to write up the sale on a house for which he has already made a deal with the seller. It’s a piece of cake, right? That is a sale, a lease option, and another sale!

It starts with a visit from the FBI and goes downhill fast! The seller’s ex-husband is in prison for nearly beating her to death, and she is in hiding somewhere in Texas.  Frank and Ward head to Texas to find her and bring the wife home with the evidence that will convict her husband and keep him in prison for a long time.

Maye is devastated when her best friend Lavonne is kidnapped. Frank insists Maye wear a bulletproof vest when she exchanges the books for her BBF! That helps, and Lavonne is rescued without a scratch, but Maye is rushed into surgery, which freaks Frank out big time.

Come along on the bumpy road to Maye’s well-earned commission if she lives to collect!

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I admit I was a realtor for close to 30 years, which will give Maye’s adventures a ring of truth, but no worries, I changed the names to protect the guilty.

Maye West’s first Broker in Real Estate taught her “How not to do Real Estate,” but she survived and prospered! Maye and Ed McGinley sell the deal of a lifetime! All four of the large properties surrounding beautiful Lake Haverly are owned by a New York attorney and her stay-at-home writer husband.

Josh and his friend Chet find a body floating in their Shangri-La while fishing. It is identified as James Crandall, a well-known hothead, and Maye’s toughest client! Friends gather to scatter his ashes in Lake Haverly. It’s a beautiful ceremony until James shows up madder than a Hornet!

The coroner, George Green, and Frank Singleton, the sheriff’s deputy Maye’s boyfriend, with benefits, go across the road to “The Recovery” Room to drink their troubles away. Maye and Ed to the rescue!

If it wasn’t James’ ashes scattered, who was it?

Frank is up to his neck in bodies, and he can’t decide if the bad guys are damn smart or just damn lucky! It doesn’t matter. He has to figure it out before his boss puts someone else in charge!

James admitted he has been looking for his twin sons, who were put in foster care when his wife died with no relatives, and he was deployed overseas. With the help of Frank’s department, he finds one son, but the other is nowhere to be found.

Stay tuned for more murder and mayhem! A couple of love stories, sex, a jailbreak, and uninvited guests at a housewarming.  

This book is available on several sights

This book is available on many of your favorite book sites including Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Books2read.com or follow this URL ttps://books2read.com/u/4D2ZDg

Book:1 MAYE West Mysteries

II admit I was a realtor for close to 30 years, which will give Maye’s adventures a ring of truth, but no worries, I changed the names to protect the guilty.

Maye West’s first Broker in Real Estate taught her “How not to do Real Estate,” but she survived and prospered! Maye and Ed McGinley sell the deal of a lifetime! All four of the large properties surrounding beautiful Lake Haverly are owned by a New York attorney and her stay-at-home writer husband.

Josh and his friend Chet find a body floating in their Shangri-La while fishing. It is identified as James Crandall, a well-known hothead and Maye’s toughest client! Friends gather to scatter his ashes in Lake Haverly. It’s a beautiful ceremony until James shows up madder than a Hornet!

The coroner, George Green, and Frank Singleton, the sheriff’s deputy Maye’s boyfriend, with benefits, go across the road to “The Recovery” Room to drink their troubles away. Maye and Ed to the rescue!

If it wasn’t James’ ashes scattered, who was it?

Frank is up to his neck in bodies, and he can’t decide if the bad guys are damn smart or just damn lucky! It doesn’t matter. He has to figure it out before his boss puts someone else in charge!

James admitted he has been looking for his twin sons, who were put in foster care when his wife died with no relatives, and he was deployed overseas. With the help of Frank’s department, he finds one son, but the other is nowhere to be found.

Stay tuned for more murder and mayhem! A couple of love stories, sex, a jailbreak, and uninvited guests at a housewarming.  

My books are available on Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. I have added Book 8, “Irus” to the Ruby & Nolan’s Great Adventures in Space series.