Larry's Log

Last night Gerri and I left the house as soon as she got home to attend a “meet the author” thing at Bound To Be Read, a bookstore in East Atlanta. The author was Michael Wiley and his first book, The Last Striptease, was nominated for a Shamus award. He gave a little workshop on on how he went about writing murder mysteries.

This got me thinking about my own writing. I’ve been fairly happy so far just writing my opinions and penning a few poems from time to time but like I think every one who tinkers with writing I’ve always fantasized about writing a book. The problem has always been one of time and inspiration. I’m either too busy to seriously get into a big writing project or I just don’t have an idea big enough to expand into a book.

That’s about to change.

Last night Mr. Wiley made a comment that really got me thinking. If one just commits to writing two hundred words a day, every day, at the end of the year one would have a manuscript. I think I can do that. I can at least do that to write a short story. If I can write a few short stories I think I can get into the frame of mind to write at least a novella.

The thing is, I don’t have to be published. This would be just for me. I’ll send the manuscript around to some people for feedback and if the feedback is good I can submit it. If it’s rejected I can publish it here…. or I can just start over on something else.

Two hundred words a day…. I can do that. I’m already over that with this piece.

In six different ways in this past week
I have told of my love in poet speak.
Now the end of the week is drawing near
There is one last thing you need to hear.

I love you Gerri more than anything.
Being near you makes me just want to sing.
For a week I’ve given my creative best.
But for now I’m going to have to rest.

I’ll continue to write of my love for you
Just not as often as you’ve seen me do.
But that doesn’t mean my love’s gone away,
It’s burning and growing each passing day.

So please accept my levity
I’m at the end of my creativity.

I wake up each morning and you are there.
I snuggle up to you craving your warmth.
Your softness comforts me. Why can’t this last?
We must get up and start our day. But wait!
Let this moment last just a bit longer.
I love this time lying here beside you.

When we first met I never dreamed
the simple delights in store for me.
You’ve given me years of happiness,
on so many times I just can’t address.

Those early years in St. Augustine,
Our time spent there was so serene.
At Washington Gardens we’d spend the day,
Or a walk up the beach, nothing to pay.

Planning the new kitchen for our first house,
Life has been fun with you as my spouse.
Adding a deck and putting up the rails
We were having fun working off our tails.

Raising two sons sports came on our scene,
Cheering them on and supporting their team.
How we found time I don’t know the way
Running from morning to late in the day.

Now the boys are grown each doing their thing,
We have time to ourselves ’til babies they bring.
But just sitting with you brings me such a joy.
No matter how old I still feel like a boy.

So ’til death do us part I’ll shout out with glee,
I can’t do without you, you’re the best part of me.

I wake up anxious.
I hear you softly breathing.
You comfort my sleep.

If I compare you to a sweet perfume
I would only know your gentle fragrance,
or the beauty of your fragile bottle.
I would miss the kindness of your sweet voice
and the laughter from your wit and humor.
For a scent alone can not define you.

Should I compare you to a fine, red wine?
I can admire your vibrant, intense colors,
and take in your complex, rich aroma.
I can taste your subtle mix of flavors
that age and maturity have brought out
in a way that youth stands no chance to compete.

No, even something as complex as wine,
with all the senses it fully engages,
can not start to describe in full all
the depths and fullness that pulls me to you.
You are you and no metaphor describes
all you have come to mean to me my dear.

I spent much of my youth attached to a bottle,
I found little meaning that required a clear mind.
But then I met you, a most beautiful model,
who’s more beautiful inside made you such a great find.

You helped me to see that my life had more purpose
than seeking out pleasure and having a good time.
It’s through you that I learned that no one could hurt us
if we trust in the Lord He’ll provide for us fine.

Why such an angel as you would hang with me
I’ll never know but I’m so glad that you did.
My life is much richer with you living it with me.
For you made me want my bad habits to rid.

For thirty-two years you’ve been my companion.
Through thick and through thin you’ve stood by my side.
With a love for you deeper than the world’s deepest canyon
We’ll look off in the sunset and finish our ride.

On Facebook I promised my wife a weeks worth of original poems by me. Since what I publish here gets mirrored in my notes on Facebook I’ll write the poems here just so they get the proper Creative Commons Copyrights added to them. I started it with this one:

The snow is melting, the skies are blue;
It’s Valentines Day and I’m thinking of you.
Since Diamonds and gold are out of my reach
and I don’t have the dough to visit the beach,
My gift to you is to give you a rhyme
each day for a week before noon time
to tell the whole world of my deep love for you.
I want them to know that our passion is true.
So for the next seven days please know you are my muse,
my inspiration, my source of all my creative juice.
I love you, dear Gerri, that’s what I’m trying to say,
and I’ll say it for a week instead of just a day.

I’m beginning to question whether or not I’m going to be able to continue running on a regular basis. My knee, which seemed to be getting stronger and better, now seems to be going the other way. I’m guessing that my increased stress on the leg has been a little more than it can stand.

I’m still wanting to run the 5k in Chattanooga on February 27th but I think I’m going to concentrate more on riding my bicycle between now and then and see if that lets me strengthen that knee more at a pace that doesn’t over do it.

To often we go through life being offended when people challenge our beliefs. I’m not sure why we do this because every time someone challenges our beliefs it gives us an opportunity to do a little self reflection and see if the beliefs we believe we hold we really do.

This coming year I want to be challenged on my stated beliefs. Whether religion, politics or society please challenge me if you find any flaw in my stated beliefs. I promise I won’t be offended and I won’t get defensive with you about it. I may not agee with your assessment but I promise you I will give much consideration to your feedback to me. I want this process to take place.

That can be your holiday gift to me. I’ll even return the favor if you would like for me to. Just tell me.

I’ve been trying to get myself back in shape. After several months of walking my dog on multi-mile walks I finally got my knee strengthened up enough to run on it with a knee brace. After a couple of weeks with the knee brace it is now strong enough to run without it.

I’ve been making progress.

A big part of that progress has been due to my sticking with my training plan and at least doing a portion of each days plan. This has worked fine until this morning. Winter has finally set in with a cold and rainy day. I can’t motivate myself to get out and do the 20-25 minutes of running that I really need to do today.

My worry is that this early into my training any deviation from my plan will destroy my committment by giving me a precedent for not following through with my plan any time there is something in my way of completing the days plan. Habits are formed through repitition.

I’ll run this afternoon when the rain lessens.

The other day I was musing about various religions and what I knew personally about some of the adherents to them. I started thinking about a couple of Hindu guys I know. They were both devout to their religion as far as I could tell but one of them was much more compassionate than the other. In fact the compassionate one had more traits of what I think a Christian should show than most Christians I know.

That got me to thinking about Luke 6:44:

Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.

If I’m to take this verse literally then I have to recognize my compassionate Hindu friend as a Christian. I”m not saying that he’s any less a Hindu but if he’s walking like a Christian should walk and talking like a Christian should talk, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and caring for the sick, he must be a Christian. If, then, he is a Christian he must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But he’s a Hindu so how could this be?

Maybe our ideas of how one believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, how one becomes a Christian, are a little skewed. The prophet Micah pointed out, “What is it that the Lord requires of you but to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” Could it be that that is also what is required for us to believe in Jesus? Maybe we don’t need to even know His name, just His attitude of being just and merciful and doing everything for the glory of God.

After all, a fig tree can’t yield dates.

I’m in Columbia, SC this week on a temporary job. I’ve enjoyed the work and really like the company. This week has me staying in a Country Inns and Suites. I really like this chain.

When making my reservations I asked about places to run close to the hotel. I was assured that there were sidewalks and residential back streets right there at the hotel and this was in a safe part of town. This is important because I am now fully committed to a running program and can’t miss any of my scheduled runs. There is also a treadmill here and an indoor pool.

Since I’m suppose to run today the treadmill might be where I head in a bit. It is a rainy, messy day and I really don’t want to get out in this weather. Twenty minutes on the treadmill and a half hour in the pool may be my exercise for the day.

The fact that I’ll be running for a time on the treadmill rather than running a distance along a street is what got me thinking. So far I’ve been thinking of goals in distance. I want to run a 5k in March. I want to run a 10k by the end of the year. I want to run a Marathon (26.2 miles) in five years. Maybe instead of distance I ought to be thinking of running in time. I want to be able to run solid for forty-five minutes. I want to be able to run forty-five minutes at a certain cadence. This makes more sense to me for a training regimen. Once I get to where I can run for my goal time then start increasing the cadence of my run. Once I reach a certain cadence that I can maintain for a certain period of time then increase the time I’ll be running and drop my cadence back down.

Does that sound more reasonable than setting distance goals?

Weight Watchers is going good. I’m staying really close to the plan but I could do better. I’m down over six pounds overall. Yeah, that’s slow weight loss but that’s what I’m expecting. I figure as long as my weight continues to trend down I’m not in a huge hurry.

Altering my eating habits has had one good effect so far. I seem to have more energy. I’m walking more and have even began mixing a little running in with the walks. My knee is getting stronger and I have decided that I need to go ahead and move from just walking to running and building on my distance.

In fact, I’ve set a goal for myself. In five years and a few months I’ll be 60. I intend to run a marathon then. I’m not counting out running one before then but running a marathon a 60 after the last 25 years of being a couch potato seems to be a good goal.

Other small goals, fitness wise, are the 100 pushups, 200 situps and 200 squats programs. All three are six month goals. If I’m going to get old I’m going to do it healthy.

After six months of being out of work the phone has started ringing. Last Wednesday I received two calls about jobs. Friday I received another and today, on the way back from a meeting about one of the jobs I received a call for a pet sitter. Pet sitting is something I worked at getting off the ground for a month right after I found myself out of work and never received any interest.

As much as I would have loved it I had to turn down the pet sitting job. Now I just hope that these other three jobs can be juggeled so that I can do them. None of it is employment but all of it pays well and in these times I’m not seeing employment meaning security like it once did.

This does lead me to believe that our economy is improving in spite of everything the politicians are trying to do to us.