He won't have to hire a hit man

I think my neighbor tried to kill me tonight. Oh, he was very clever about it, and offered up the most innocent proposal. I was walking without my dog, Nikki, as she is on bed rest until I can take her to the vet tomorrow. I think she's having hip issues. My neighbor came riding by on his bike, and we started talking about trying to keep in shape. I told him I'd thought about getting one but it had been so long since I had riden a bike. Last time, I bought a bike about 20 years ago, I rode it a couple of times then didn't ride it again. I didn't have a safe place to ride it so I ended up selling it. But since my house is in a better location, except for all the hills, I've thought about it again as way to get in better shape and lose weight. I just don't want to buy another bike only to sell it again. I mentioned this to him, and he said, "Oh, why don't you take my wife's bike for a few days. She won't use it."

Against my better judgement, I said okay. I stopped down at his house on the way back from my walk and picked it up. I rode it, shakily at first, for a couple of blocks and thought I was going to die. My legs were so shaky after just a couple of blocks. What an embarassment to see how out of shape I am. Now with a couple of hours between me and my bike ride, I do feel better. We'll see how it goes this week.

Okay, did I mention my back porch is out in the open? Before I could finish this post, it starts sprinkling with no warning. They've been calling for rain for days, and here it just appears out of the blue. I'm under my towel to finish this. I'll keep you posted about the biking adventures, if I don't kill myself that is.

Squirrels make their own roller coasters

As the name of my blog says, I'm out here on my back porch. That's the great thing, I can come out here in the evenings and write my blog. I enjoy being outside here on my patio so much. A small fan and tiki torches help keep the bugs away. Sunday morning I was sitting out here and three squirrels were chasing each other. Two of the squirrels jumped at least 10 feet from one tree to a neighboring tree, grabbing onto to the branch for dear life. The branch bounced up and down about four or five feet, and I thought to myself that must be one hell of a thrill ride. The third squirrel, however, cautiously waiting on the tree he was on. I just imagined that conversation.

"I ain't going across that chasm. Not only no, but hell no," the third squirrel said to himself as he lay flat on the branch waiting for the other two to come back, which they eventually did.

On the other tree, the two sat there cackling like hens, "Chipper, you big pus, sitting there on the end of the branch. Get your ass on over here." They continued to play squirrel games until they tired of waiting on Chipper. Soon they were back on his tree and the chase continue.

Charaters in Motion

I've discovered a new tool on this blog: Lists, but it doesn't let you say why you included something in particular. So I guess I'll just have to write a post about it. If you have not seen, To Live and Die in LA, you really need to take an opportunity to watch it. It's a great movie on several levels, but a dark one. As a writer, I enjoyed seeing how the characters changed through the course of the movie. I don't want to write a spoiler so you'll just have to check it out yourself. It had some actors that I have come to appreciate over the years. William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, and John Pankow, starred in it, kinda before they were stars as I recall. This movie is about 20 years old but still has a modern day feel minus the overuse of cell phones these days. I just checked, and it came out in 1985, God it seems like yesterday. Like I said, don't let this deter you from watching this crime drama involving a counterfeiter. Be warned, it's a dark movie, showing what can happen to the human spirit, which is why I liked it so much. In addition, it has a great soundtrack featuring Wang Chung. A song of the same name has a pulsing, driving beat that is slowed down and then sped up to match the action of the film. In my humble opinion, this song and its use made the movie. It would have been a good movie anyway, but the song just helped define it. Why am I bringing up this 23-year-old movie? Well, thanks to my wonderful DirecTV (again this is not an ad), I caught the last hour of it on the T101 channel last night, when absolutely nothing was on. It's the same channel that I saw Simply Red on and posted about recently. Now when I figure out this embedding thing, I'll post a video clip of Wang Chung's song for you to hear. For now, you'll just have to follow my link. I tried to find a link to the movie itself but couldn't find one. Don't check out Wikipedia, because even though its good, it contains early spoilers. The movie is one thrill ride after another. Watch it first, if you like crime dramas, and then go read about it.

Respect for Russert, saddness at his sudden death

Tim Russert died today. It's such a shame because he was really at the top of the game. As a former journalist, or one who just leaves the business because I can't afford to live on what it wants to pay, I have a lot of respect for him and his work. Not being a political reporter, I didn't always follow his stories, but when I did see his work, I appreciated the way he approached his stories with integrity and honesty. I loved his sense of laughter and always a ready smile. When I saw it on the Internet, I just couldn't believe it. I turned on MSNBC live and couldn't turn it off. I was mesmerized. It was like 9/11 in that I couldn't turn from the TV. I'm not equating the two events, just my inability to stop watching the breaking news. As I learned more about him as a man and an American, I came to understand what a loss we have all suffered. I think about his family: his wife, son, father and sister, and hope that they are surrounded by love, friends and family members during this difficult time. God speed Tim Russert.

Making the Music

I told you about the 17-year cicadas and showed you a picture of one. Well the common-garden variety are out singing tonight as I sit on my back porch. It is such a welcoming noise for me. You see, I grew up in East Tennessee, and when I was growing up, kids used to play outside until it was dark. (It's almost dark now.) The what I call the "common-garden variety cicadas" would muscle up their legs and make the most wonderful buzzing noise you have ever heard. It just permeated everything. Almost to the point where you didn't pay much attention to it after awhile. Particularly if you were a kid. In my grown up years, I lived in Knoxville and Bristol, Tn., and then moved to Columbia, SC, where the mosquitoes grew so big and hairy they could just about carry you away. The heat was unbearable. The first summer I moved there I thought I had moved to hell. No disrespect meant for Columbia, I loved it down there, but it was hot as hell. So needless to say I never spent much time outside. I never heard the cicadas. I don't even know if they live down there. Anyway, when I moved back to my East Tennessee community, and I bought my house, I would sit out here on the back porch (see the name of my blog). I heard the cicadas again for the first time in many years. It was a sweet, sweet sound to my ears. It took me a while to figure out what was making the music. But then I figured it out, and I've loved it ever since. Playing kick the can and hide and seek in the dark with friends was one of the fun parts of growing up -- that and Halloween. Listening to the cicadas was icing on the cake. Now it gives me comfort and reminds me that all is right with the world.

My cat ate my homework

I can't believe it's been more than two weeks since I wrote anything. It's not that I haven't had things to write, it's just that I've been busy about every night. Then by the time I get home, after I've had night meetings, I'm too tired to work on my blog. Now you see what the problem with getting my novel finished. I've written two, which I haven't been able to find an agent for yet. And now I'm working on my third. I was reading an article on a web site the other day about setting goals. It had some different ideas than I've read in other places, and I'm going to work on those this weekend. I might even share them here, which might actually make me heed them. I'm determined to make some definite progress on the novel this summer.

Anyway, I'm going to try to be more dedicated to posting at least three to four weeks.

Flying lessons

This Saturday evening I sat out on my back porch after planting some flowers. I had brought something out to read but got a show instead. A daddy cardinal -- the beautiful red bird -- was teaching his son (I think) to fly. The birds go from babies to flying in short order, and the parents had built a nest in a large bush next to my backdoor for the second year.
The first year had disastrous results while the babies were learning to fly due to my stupidity and one of my dogs. Without going into details, I did not realize the babies were out and about and ready to fly. It upset me tremendously, and I was determined this would not happen again. This year, I've kept a vigilant watch over my backyard and a careful eye on one of my dogs, who likes to play too much. Saturday night I had to put her back inside. I was determined to make this outcome different and was rewarded when I realized the babies were flying.
I saw the cardinal flying around my backyard and using my binoculars was able to determine that it was one of the babies. He looked to be a male, even though his feathers were still brown, but he had a red crest on his head. I just can't believe how fast they grow within about a week's time, it seems like. It's probably longer, but the time sure does go by fast. This year, I never actually saw the babies in the nest, just heard their plaintiff peeps for food.
Anyway, the daddy was flying around, I presume, to supervise his youngster in the proper flying techniques. The younger bird flew down into the yard, up onto several branches of nearby tree and on the top of the wooden fence. Because of his landing sites, I was able to get several good looks at him. And by all observations, he's well on his way to being an ace flier. I just hope he'll continue to make my backyard his home, and I'll continue to keep an eye on Nikki.