It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. I thought that since starting this new site, I would keep my entries to writing-related posts only. Truth be told, while I did enjoy the break for a while, it has been wearing on me for some time. I can say I really, honestly miss it. I kept all of my entries from my old blog on private. Last night I went through them all; culled some and trashed a bunch of others. Some of them were too childish and whatnot to bother putting up here. I still have them though and I may go through and do some more culling. In the meantime, my Old Post Promoter will randomly re-post them as it has been doing with my other posts. I am looking … Read entire article »

I found myself in three different states today. I woke up in my home state of Georgia, traveled through South Carolina, and will lay my head in North Carolina tonight. My wife and I are visiting Biltmore Estate this weekend, somewhat of a second anniversary present to ourselves. Two years has gone by quickly. It feels a little weird at times, considering I’m thirty years old and have friends that have been married the better part of ten years and have children that are already in school. Anyway, on to the point of this blog. The house is simply amazing. The architecture of the building simply took my breath away. I spent quite a lot of time outside at the little cafe estimating what it would cost to recreate this house and the … Read entire article »

My wife and I have been in a constant battle every year over who can buy the other the most presents on the same amount of money; not an official battle, but this year I won – for the first time. Of course, I only wanted one thing, and that one thing took up just about her entire budget. That allowed me to go hog-wild this year and get the one-up on her. Next year she’ll most likely continue her reign. We were supposed to get all manner of rain storm on Christmas Eve around midnight, 35 mph winds and 2″ of pouring rain, but we got nothing. I did keep my fingers crossed in hope that Old Man Winter would actually lend me an ear this year and give me … Read entire article »

Yesterday found me and Denise down in Newnan, Georgia braving ice cold winds and threatening rain. What on earth could possibly convince us to drive an hour and a half away from the comforts of our humble abode on a perfectly good Saturday morning? My good blogosphere friend, Clay Perry, was attending Newnan Market Days and seeing as it was the last one of this year and the fact he’s invited me down so many times – funny how our schedules conflict so badly – I decided I’d better go. Add to that the fact that he set me up with the owner of Scott’s Bookstore on the square, it was a day I just couldn’t pass up. More on that in a minute. Clay calls his little event Crickhollow … Read entire article »

Did I have you going? Yes? No? Maybe a little? Were you thinking I was referring to some girl’s crotchetal zone? My spousal unit would not be too happy with that. What kind of pervert are you anyway? One of my blogosphere friends Erin did something pretty neat a while back, back in my Angry Georgian days; she posted I’ll Send You Junk, You Post About It! Fun! Okay, when I say a while back I mean June. I’m a bad, bad blogofriend. I set things aside sometimes and let them slip my mind. This morning I was scrounging through the myriad nick-knacks of my own junk on my desktop, culling things to throw in the garbage can (yet again), when I came across this little piece of junk – … Read entire article »

My wife and I made a trip down to Panama City Beach in Florida – yes, the Redneck Riviera as it’s so lovingly called; soon to be defunct now that all the fleabag hotels are being torn down and replaced with pricey high-rise resorts – to visit family and get a little fishing in. Hell, I grew up there; well more over in Seagrove Beach, but PCB is only a hop, skip, and a jump away. We spent a lot of time there in my youth. It’s always good to go back.When I return it feels like I’m home again. When I walk barefoot down the white, sandy beaches, my mind returns to my youth – surfing, sailing my Hobie Cat, snorkeling for sand dollars. Ah, I love to live … Read entire article »

Today I got to do something I just don’t get to do all that often – take a nice, long drive. Something about the road puts me at ease, but I have to be careful because it’s a double-edged sword waiting to turn itself over. I like to get in the car and just go. It doesn’t matter where I end up; all that matters is that during the drive I got to clear my mind of things and enjoy some time alone. On the other hand, I succumb very easily to road rage and have no patience for people who take the speed limit a little too seriously. Because of this, most of my thinkin’ drivin’ is done early in the morning when the roads are relatively clear. I have a … Read entire article »

Yes, someone made my day today; a certain Meagen Ridley did, to be exact. I was one of the lucky five to respond to a post in her blog with the promise of “The first five commenters on this post will get a something special in the mail made by me!!” What did I have to lose? I replied and waited. Now, Meagen has recently started another blog highlighting her craft projects and being that there’s only one post on there (pertaining to crafts) at the time of this posting, I got a nice sneak peek at what my hand made gift might be. She appears to have become quite interested in book binding, particularly the Coptic Stitch and German Case Binding styles. Visit her blog to see examples of the … Read entire article »

It’s been raining since Friday morning and yesterday it decided to morph into snowflakes. At noon we started seeing small hail, about the size of BBs, and then small flakes. Part of me wanted to load some in my Red Ryder and see if I could shoot them. As the hours ticked by the flakes got bigger, and another inch was added to the accumulation. When it ended last night at about 7:00, we had a hair over 6″ stuck to the ground. I decided to whip out the camera and play around a little bit. I played with the shutter speed to see how well it did catching the flakes in mid-fall, set it all the way down to 1/4000. Looking back I should have used the flash on more … Read entire article »

I found a nice little surprise in my P.O. Box yesterday. In it was a small candy box from my good friend Brenda (Dirt Travels). At first glance I thought it was, well, candy. And Valentine’s candy at that. Huh, she thought of me on Valentine’s Day. Kind of weird but then again, so am I. As is usual I shook it. I don’t know what it is in a man’s genes that makes him shake things to see what’s inside, but I did. Much too light to be candy. And nothing is rattling around. This made me even more curious. I slipped it in my pocket and got in the truck. When I arrived at Loco’s for lunch I pulled it out and whipped out my pocket knife and cut the tape sealing … Read entire article »