Current location:	Guess! Go on, guess!
Current mood:	hopeful
Current music:	"Every Fool has a Rainbow" Merle Haggard
Entry tags:	what i'm reading, writing progress

On a Tuesday?
Seems strange to be posting during the week, but I never got a chance for it over the weekend.  I worked Saturday morning, did some (other) computer type stuff in the afternoon, and went and watched the Lilac Festival Armed Forces Torchlight Parade in the evening.  Jessica has been in the parade as part of the Shadle Park High School marching band for each of the past three years, and as this was her last time we thought we should go for once.  The only other time I'd been to (or been in) the parade was a dozen or more years ago when the Corvair Club participated.  I'd recently bought "Tim" my '62 Rampside pickup and ended up leading the group.  The engine was dirty with oil and dirt, and with all the idling it did, it started to smoke.  So here I was, laying down a smoke screen to effectively hide all the other Corvairs behind me.  The cloud disipated as soon as I reached the end and got up to more normal driving speeds.

And speaking of Corvairs, Sunday the INCC got together for what we like to call "Tech 'n' Tune."  The idea is that we can get those nagging little problems we have with our vehicles taken care of.  Yes, some folks do get some work done on their cars, but for the most part it's a time to get together and chat BS.  As it turns out we've had them for the past four years now, every spring, and I've never had either of my Corvairs running to drive to any of them.  Next year?  Anyway that took most of the day, and when I got home and finally went on the computer, I had other stuff that I needed to do.

I'd been trying to write a short five page essay or presentation for a contest that a perhaps well-known blogger is running.  I was under the impression that the deadline for it was yesterday (Monday the 18th) at midnight.  I had my thoughts on the topic pretty much together, but was having trouble translating them to "paper."  I'd started a few days earlier but kept putting off a real indepth attempt at finishing it.  Sat down again yesterday and worked it through to the end.  Still it wasn't really what I wanted, but as the deadline loomed and I was tired I decided to send it as is.  I went to the particular post that announced the contest to retrieve the e-address of where I should send it.  In doing so I found that the deadline had been extended to 1 June.  I suppose I had mixed reactions to that revelation.  I was a little ticked off that I had worked later into the evening than I would have, and yet I was relieved, as now I'd have time to polish it a little more.  Whether or not my effort does any good in this contest, I'm thinking about submitting it to Gray Dog Press for inclusion in the next or a subsequent issue of Spoke Write.  That's a little collection of essays, stories, poems, and illustrations that the above mentioned publisher has started and sells in the Spokane area.  It comes out on a quarterly basis and features work by folks in the local area.  Either way, doing well in the contest or having it published locally would work to my advantage as a "hope to be published author."  It will be something I can list as having been published in my author bio and other claims to fame.

Information about the contest can be found on the Author! Author! blog at www.annemini.com  Go to the list of categories along the right hand side of the page and look for Author! Author! Award of Excellence.  Click on that and it will take you to Anne's post of 20 April in which she announces the contest.  It basically has to do with our view or experiences with subtle or direct censorship, and perhaps how it relates to one's writing.  She also has several guest posts dealing with the subject from about that time.

So that's what I was doing, rather than posting here.  And since I am here today, and since I've got over two weeks to polish my little entry, I'm NOT working on it today.  I'll give it a couple days' rest, which should allow me to collect my thoughts a little more.

Today I finished 16 X Mom by Barbara Cagle (www.barbaracagle)  Guess I'll need to find something around the house to take to work tomorrow so I'll have something to read on my lunch (half) hour.

Dave