Monday Musings

Do you live in the city or country? Your location may also define your water source. If you’re a city dweller, you likely have city water, but if you live more remotely, you may depend on a well for water. And a well pump requires electricity to function.  Last week a bad weather front raced across the country with severe storms and tornados. At one point, our home was in the middle of three tornado warning vortexes. We are fortunate that we only saw high winds and did not lose power, but the lightning dancing around the mountains caused a power surge that shut down our well pump. The good news is that I could reset the charge controller; the bad news is that the controller has required frequent resets over the weekend with only short periods of water availability. The well company cannot service our well until Wednesday, at the earliest. In the interim, we have resorted to water conservation and water storage capabilities. You may not realize how much water you use when it flows f...

Just as the leaves emerge from dormant branches, so too, does my writing resume. After a brief hiatus of reading and online doom-scrolling, my book characters are adamantly complaining about being ignored. My brain is filled with intrigue and adventures. Heroines, heroes, and villains talk incessantly: you have to change my name, this plot line is boring, oops-the timeline’s wrong, and oh no-I guess you’ve got to kill me. The first draft is back from the beta readers and has laid fallow over winter. It’s time to break out the red ink, the copy/paste/delete/move functions, and complete the second draft. And as a gardener, I see an analogy to transplanting healthy seedlings into fertile soil, looking forward to strong growth. Wish me luck as I dig deep to improve my post-apocalyptic novel. You can follow the Author at her  Website  or on  Twitter .

Do you feel drowsy today? You’re sleep-deprived and tired because you “lost” an hour of sleep early Sunday, as we “sprung ahead” into Daylight Saving Time. William Anthony, Ph.D., a Boston University professor, and his wife Camille, created this pseudo “napping holiday” in 1999 to emphasize the importance of adequate sleep. Some cultures regularly take a restorative nap midday, for example, the Spanish and their siesta . Long ago, the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Arabia also partook in a napping habit. How long is the optimal nap? In our hectic modern lives, we rarely enjoy the luxury of a nap. Treat yourself today! Although I am giving advice not personally taken, as I spent the day tidying the gardens for spring planting.  PS. I must have been napping last Monday because I didn’t realize until Tuesday AM that I neglected to write my weekly blog. But here I am again, back in the writing saddle. LOL. You can follow the Author at her  Website  or on  Twitter .