The quiet of a bookstore is different than that of a library. There is a pervasive smell of new books and fresh coffee. The lighting is adequate and yet diffused. It is a place of calm.
I enjoy being out in the world without any stress or expectations associated with it. I am writing my blog post on my iPad. I have a case with a built in keyboard with full sized keys but a compact layout. It is friendly to touch typists.
This is going to be a rather informal blog. It is going to be more of a journal entry than an essay. I think that is going to be one of the types of post that I am going to start making from time to time. I’m sure that some readers will decide to give them a miss but others, the friends and family that may not have much use for my technical posts may actually like these better.
I was out at lunch today when I got a call from Pam, my wife. She had taken the dogs to the groomers and wasn’t going to be available to pick them up due to a flare up of her medical condition. She is troubled by a condition that while it doesn’t render her totally housebound can make her loath to get too far from home during a flare up.
She was wondering if I could pick up the dogs when they were ready. I, of course, said, “Sure.” I told her I’d head out to get them right away. She called back immediately to tell me that they wouldn’t be ready for almost an hour.
I decided that it didn’t make sense for me to drive across town to my office only to have to get right back in my car and drive back across town to pick them up. Instead, I stopped at the bookstore, got a good cup of coffee and took advantage of the time to write this blog post. It is a nice little treat in the middle of an otherwise stressful day.
Another benefit of getting my blog post written in the middle of the day is that I can use the time when I would normally be writing my blog this evening to work on writing the story that I am contributing to the anthology that our Downtown Writers Group is writing to sell as a fundraiser for the library.
The story has a five thousand word limit. I’ve written less than a thousand words so far and I’m afraid I’m going to have to edit ruthlessly to get it to fit within the prescribed word count. This will be the first time (that I recall anyway) that I will have been published in a printed book. I’m excited.
Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.