Definitely Fall...

Well, as usual, I've fallen back into sloppy behavior and have been remiss in keeping up with my journal. I'll try and do better but it soon becomes a case of is what I'm going to write interesting and/or cathartic enough for me to make the effort and for people to want to read? I guess I'll focus on cathartic for the time being and let "interesting" take care of itself. A fair amount has happened since I last put metaphorical pen to paper:

My friends, Carolyn and Steve, got married this past weekend. October 24th to be precise. They were kind enough to invite me to a very intimate reception with some of their closest friends. I was a bit shy at first since I only knew Allison, but once we got on the topic of books I relaxed and opened up. To tell the truth I wish now that I hadn't been quite as chatty as I was; I feel like I drew attention away from the newlyweds. Carolyn was gracious enough to say that it was just fine with her, and Steve is the very definition of quiet anyway.

Carolyn was, I think, still reeling from all that happened to her within the last two weeks: she lost her father and had to finalize her wedding plans all the same. I can only imagine how traumatic it must have been for her. She's amazingly resilient though and will be fine in time, I know. I say all that not to idly toss around Carolyn's personal business but to try and explain why I think she was glad to let me be the center of attention for awhile. It was good to see Alison again and meet the hosts of the reception too. Delightful time all the way around.

Fall is definitely here. It's cold and the leaves have gone from crackling as they shift and die in windblown Brownian motions to being sodden multi-hued masses on the curbs and driveways. It does make the fireplace that Julie and Scott had installed last year that much nicer though. Its lovely to come in from taking Titan outside to, as my sister puts it, "check his peemail," and have the fire to warm both of us up. Titan is getting a lot of mileage out his "bed" in front of the fireplace as well.

Halloween is fast upon us and Thanksgiving Day will be here before you know it. The end of the year seems to happen sooner and sooner as I grow older. Of course, the department stores are no help. They have their Holiday items out earlier and earlier every year. This year, our local Fred Meyer had theirs out in late September. Good Lord! What does that say to consumers? School's back in session ... for God's sake, do your Christmas shopping NOW before EVERY THING'S gone?!!

Last Sunday, we were invited to a celebration to honor Yussef, the newborn son of our friends Mo and Mariam. It was lovely to be invited, see all our friends, and take part in the feast and fun but I saw the pictures from that Sunday yesterday and I cannot BELIEVE how amazingly FAT I've become since the operation!! I had lost 25 pounds!!! Now I'm terrified to weigh myself for fear of what it'll do to my blood pressure. And the scales.

I had great plans to go to the gym today and start the long, hard, crawl back to some loose form of fitness, but I felt under the weather today. Maybe tomorrow. I have simply GOT to get back to the discipline. Even starting out at 10-15 minutes on the stationary bike will be a nice start. I don't want to over do it and spend MORE down time letting this mystery pain in my abdomen keep me from exercising.

Julie and Scott's trip to India draws ever nearer and I'll be alone on Thanksgiving again. I have mixed feelings about that: It'd be nice to have them there with me, but having been alone for two Christmases before this pales by comparison to no big deal. Maybe I'll buy a small turkey breast and make myself a nice lunch and not worry about the weight for one day. I'll see how it goes.

Finally have an idea for my pulp story. I'm going to try and write it as a serial. Who knows, there might be a magazine interested in it. One step at a time though; have to actually get a coherent picture from all my years of notes and create a story from the endlessly retooled opening that I have. I'm going to follow ("Doc Savage" creator) Lester Dent's formula for writing a pulp story and see if those are the parameters that will give me the guidance to see this through.

Okay, that's enough for tonight. If I'm not careful I'll get maudlin about my love life. Time to finish the latest Spenser novel and fall asleep...