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That Pesky Mayan Calendar Thingy!

And so! It's the first weekend of Autumn, 2012. Not really, "autumn" yet, if the calendar is the sole indicator of the change of the seasons. But the cold front that came through MidMO yesterday afternoon brought strong, NW winds, a little over an inch of rain (which brings the total in the past week to over 4" according to the gauge on our deck!), and much-cooler as well as dryer air. Lots of folks coming into the MFA in Freeburg said their ponds are nearly full now thanks to the storms. The temp this morning when I finally got out of bed (close to 6) was 55. And that's a very-fine temperature for the start of a sunny weekend! (Wifey was already gone on another one of her Springfield adventures which is one reason why I allowed myself almost an extra hour's shut-eye!)

Before 7, I pulled the weed-wacker out of the storage shed (we use an electric, non-battery powered weed-wacker -- and it works great when tethered to about 100' of extension cords!) to prepare the yard for its first complete mowing since May! (Yes, it has been a very dry, very hot summer here in MidMO.) The grass at that time was still too wet for mowing -- but perfect for wacking -- so at a little before 9, I pulled Ryan away from his mindless Saturday-morning cartoons, and we ventured to the Habitat for Humanity "re-use" store. It's like a Salvation Army/Goodwill store, but there are no clothes or things like that. There's all kinds of used furniture, tools, larger sporting goods (bikes, exercise equipment, etc.) appliances and even plumbing and electrical supplies. But what's one nice thing to grab if we can get there right at 9?

Free donuts! Woot!

Before we finally gave up trying to find anything that we couldn't live without, I had polished off two of those wonderful somewhat-fresh pastries (Ryan, however, practiced a bit more self-control -- he had only one!). It was nice to have some REAL junkfood for the first time since my little hospital adventure three weeks ago -- especially since the pastries were FREE!

By 11, the lawn had been exposed to enough dry winds and warm sun, so we headed outside to mow the lawn. Since the mower has not been used a least once a week, like it normally is during the Summer, it just didn't want to keep running. But after fiddling with the choke and waiting for the carberator to reassimilate after such a long vacation, it finally agreed to keep running. Ryan and I traded off guiding that beast back and forth across the yard and by 12:30 the front, both sides, and the back yard were mowed! Man oh man, does the whole yard look good now! And isn't it just amazing how crabgrass and other wonderful MidMO weeds look just like regular grass when they are sufficiently watered and trimmed to about 3" high? :)

After getting a little something for lunch, I thought I would be able to plop down at my desk, watch some college football and maybe even start on the first chapter of Ahnak: Edelin's Revelation. Well, I am at my desk, and I am typing away on something. But is there any football on the tube? (I do need to add here that we do not have cable or dish; we have to rely on whatever is broadcasted via the good ol' fashioned way!) I have been given the choice of US Open tennis and some golf tournament. And so here I am, hammering away on this noisy keyboard, watching the 5 seed take on the 3 seed on the men's side of the US Open tournament. I could try to convince myself that if some college football game was on the tube that I would be hammering away on that elusive first chapter. Well, I could! (As another side note, the tennis tournament commentators keep talking about Ivan Lendl, one of the tennis greats from the middle 1980's, who just happens to be in the stands watching the same match that I am! I can't say that I liked Lendl Ivan the Great  that much when he was terrorizing the professional circuit. But I must say that he looks like he could just jump out of that box seat and show those two youngsters dancing around on the court how the game should be played!)

So when will chapter one of the final book of The Land of Betrovia trilogy be drafted?

 Who knows?

Maybe I have the goal of drafting a chapter a week, figuring on at least 16 chapters total for the book, and that would mean that the entire book would be completely drafted around the new year. And wouldn't that be nice? The goal is to publish Ahnak by Spring 2013 and having the whole thing drafted by New Years Day would be fantastic!

But will it happen? A previous goal was to have Lycentia drafted by July 4th (goal met) and published by Labor Day (another goal met).

Oh  no! Wait just a second! I almost forgot! It's that pesky Mayan calendar thing! The world as we know it is gonna end on December 21, 2012 The End of the World .

Well, so much for that!