thewalkingguy.com

It’s just past 2 PM on a Friday.  I went up to the store to get cat food so Jack and Bandit would have something to eat for lunch and dinner.  Anyhow, I took my umbrella along with me because I heard small rumbles of thunder.  When I left the house I could see the storm clouds to the north.  I figured I could get to the store and back in time.
Nope.  I had gotten about half a block from the top of Fulton Street where I turn down towards the house, and it started in with small drops of rain.  So I put the umbrella up and kept going thinking I’d still make it back home without too much trouble.  No sooner did I get around the corner and past the first house on Fulton did the thunder start up strong, along with the rain.  I think there was some kid on the porch motioning for me to come up and get out of the rain.  I decided against it because my house was only about four houses away on the opposite side of the street.  I had managed to get within two houses of my place when the sky just opened up and the rain went sideways.  The wind picked up, the umbrella busted an arm, next to the arm that was already broken, and I realized that I wasn’t going to get all the way back without getting soaked.
I tried holding up under a tree in the front yard of the neighbor two houses ahead of mine, but the wind didn’t let me stay there.  So I headed for their little front stoop, which has a small roof to it.  Me, I’m thinking if it has a roof it should keep me a little dry until the rain slows down.  Once again, nope.  The damn wind sent the rain sideways again and I felt as if I would have been better off laying down with the amount of rain I got hit with.  Then I saw the flat hale.  Yes, flat hale dropping from the sky.  It was fun watching it bounce off of the lawn though.  As the wind gusted the rain into my face I tried to shield myself with my semi-busted umbrella, which didn’t really work.  By now I was nearly soaked and I figured that I’d try to make a break for it since I was only two houses, and three yards away.  Unfortunately the neighbors have a yard big enough to put another house on it.  So off I went.  The rain had gone back to coming straight down so I was able to bear it as I made my way the rest of the trip home.  I was smart enough to find my keys and have them in my hand when I left the neighbors porch.  So when I got to my door I just had to let myself in; did you ever notice that it always takes longer to unlock the door when you really want to get back inside your house?
It’s now past 2:30 in the afternoon.  I’ve had to change shirts and the wet one is hanging on a line in the mud room.  I actually had to turn the lights on in the house.  Now that is sad when it gets that dark in the middle of the day.  The windows were open when I left for the store; and were still open when I got home.  The cats, who usually sit in the windows, were nowhere to be found until I looked under furniture.  The windows got closed, but the sills are wet, and so is my one set of curtains.
So that’s the rainstorm for the day.  I’m waiting for it to slow down, and hopefully stop within the next half hour so I can take my dog for a walk.  We got stuck in a sudden thunder storm this morning during our first walk of the day too.  I’m just not having luck with thunderstorms today.

I just had to write about this. My cat Alley, who was with me for 5 1/2 years died from cancer Friday afternoon. I loved her, and I’ll miss her. Rest In Peace old girl.

Lost But Never To Be Forgotten May 15, 2009

A broken car window is something every driver faces once in their life. If you are patient, you can replace a car window thus saving money on window repair. Replacing a car window is not a difficult task, but simply one with many small steps.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1590529/how_to_replace_car_windows.html

I’m working on a way to link my writing to one central spot.  Hopefully this site will be the hub.  As I get more articles written, I am hoping to set up a way to let everyone know about them.  I just re-joined Facebook, and signed up for Twitter.  So now the hard part is linking it all together.

Writing is my strong point, marketing never was.

Wish me luck.

I’ve just finished building and uploading my business site this weekend.  You can see that here.  I’ve also finished re-writing a book for a publisher this past week.  That, I am sorry to say, was the longest three months of my writing life.  I just took on too much crap to suit my life.

I’m trying to update this site, and my blogs finally.  It’s been since January since I’ve been here; and it’s already the end of March.  So yes I’m a little behind.

Yes, I know, it’s just past midnight between the 3rd and 4th of January and I’m just now thinking about writing a New Year’s post.

I’ve been busy a little.  Earlier tonight I sent out a contract for me to rewrite a book, and another Non Disclosure Agreement.  I’ve also got a book proposal to work on.  And there is the sposnorship packages for a nonprofit that need finishing up.  So it’s been a fun end of the year.

Speaking of the end of the year, I figured out my income for 2008 two days ago on the 1st.  While I only really made any money within the last five months because that is when I went full-time with working out of my house, I consider myself as having a good year last year.  I not only found out what I wanted to do, but also for once allowed myself to be brave enoguh to do it.  And while I may have stumbled around much of the time, I seem to have come out of it okay.

Just today I bought a domain name for my business so I could create a more professional brand for myself.  So now that’s another project i’ll be working on in 2009, along with all the other ideas.  Wish me luck.  Hopefully I’ll be able to write more often here.

Bill

Yes, writing is a business.  I found this fact out very fast after diving in full time just over two months ago.  When you start the attempt to make writing pay for your life, you begin to see a side of writing you most likely didn’t expect.  The business side.

While most writers will tell you they love to write whenever they can; many of us will tell you that writers don’t get to write as much as we all would like to.  Most often I spend the first three hours of my day with non-writing tasks; checking email, checking payments and bank balances, searching for new outlets for my work or new places to find paid work.  Sometimes I get caught up in news articles or a website, which then can put me behind for an hour.  The afternoon is when I try to get work done for clients so I can still get paid and pay the bills.  Lately this has been hard due to many interuptions and disruptions.

That’s another fact about the business of writing, especially from a home office; you can try to have set hours all you want but sometimes it just does not work.  This is especially true if you have pets or young children around. There are times when you start at 9 AM, thinking you should be done by the time the six o’clock news comes on; but then you find yourself facing 11 PM and you’re trying to get something done today.  Writing as a living can get frustrating sometimes.

Which brings up another issue of writing as a business.  If anyone says that they don’t get frustrated or stressed out while working at home, they’re probably not being completely honest with you.  And while it is so easy to just get up and walk away from the computer; you also need to consider the deadlines and timeframes which must be met.  Sometimes, more likely than not, a paid writer may find themselves working an extra day or two just to catch up.  Or sometimes a project or research takes longer than it should have.  Writing is still work, and work can be frustrating some days.

Well, today is the end of two months since I left “work”; that is working for someone else while I made nearly nothing from it.  Everyone at the old J-O-B told me various theories on why I should just stay at a job.

1. Anything on the internet is a scam (this they believe because none of them knows anything of the internet except what they hear about from the news, which is always something bad)

2. Job security (and honestly, there is no such thing in the working world any longer)

3. A regular paycheck (tell that to everyone who once made cars for GM)

4. Everyone has to work someplace (but not everyone needs to have a job to work)

5. Having a job is what normal grown up people do (but do they all need to work at some boring place they would rather not be?)

6. Any job is a good job (well no, not every job is a good job for every person)

Anyhow, on with the story.  I left the “job” world and started out working for myself on August 31, 2008.  Now here we are at October 31, 2008 - and I’m still at it.  Actually, I’ve managed a 20% increase in income over the past month.  And I’m still doing what I love to do; and why not do that if you’re going to earn a living at it.

Oh, by the way, I’m a writer.  That’s my “job”.

And I’ve managed to keep myself busy at it for awhile here.  Hopefully this can continue.  I don’t see an end in the current work load for at least two months yet; so that will most certainly help.  Meanwhile I’ll just keep going on through jobless oblivion, not worrying about what paycheck is coming next because there is no way anyone, even with a “steady paycheck” can ever predict that the money will be there next week.  Not in today’s world anyhow.  I’ll see you in two months.

3.

So the other night I had just finished off the last article I was writing, I think it was about nine or so.  And I was tired, but needed to eat something.  I nuked two chicken patties and decided to throw together a salad to go with them.

Now I wanted to have a salad, but I didn’t really want to “make” a salad.  So here I am making a half-ass salad because I didn’t give a damn enough to make a real salad.  Thank God I had the vegetables and salad mix.  Yes, I buy salad mix (the stuff with the lettuce, cabbage and carrot already mixed together).  But here’s the funny part, after grabbing a handful of salad mix and tossing it into a bowl, I almost wanted to say “ok, that’s good enough for me”, but knew better because I’m just not that lazy.  I am close though.

So I grab about five cherry tomatoes out of the fridge, toss them on along with some whole baby mushrooms.  And no, I didn’t even bother to cut any of that up.  I almost added raisins but thought that was too much work since I’d have to find the raisins, then open the box to get the raisins out.  And raisins never come out of those little boxes easily.  Anyhow, I grabbed the Ranch dressing and proceeded to half drown the salad.  I didn’t care.

For some strange reason I thought this would make a good blog entry, so I decided that a picture of the salad would be a good add-on.  Why I had the energy to try taking a picture and not make a salad I have no idea.  Anyhow, after two failed shots at trying and getting nothing but blinding light in the photos I said BLEEP this.  And yes, I was taking half-ass photos too.  It was at night and the salad was right under the kitchen light.

Anyhow, I finally just ate the salad that night.  And I’m just now getting around to writing about it because I kept forgetting to write about something.  And ya know what, I can’t even tell you if the salad was any good because I don’t remember tasting it.  Oh well.

That’s the story of making a half-ass salad.

Well, today is the second day away from my last “job”.  Yes, I quit working for other people just so I could be a writer.  Now I can tell you there are lots of people thinking “how dumb is this guy”.  And I know that there are people who just don’t think there is a way to make money unless you are working for some other idiot someplace.  But I honestly think they are mistaken, not all out wrong, just not informed well enough.

I’ve got a couple of friends who have been supportive of my efforts over the past few months on my way to this decision.  And I know it’s something I have always wanted someplace in the back of my head.  So now we get to see if it actually works, this thing with turning dreams into reality.

I do know that, for people who just don’t try things once, they are all missing out on what is true about life.  People weren’t given life just to walk around with their head in the sand and whining about how bad their lives have been.  If you don’t try it all, at least once, how the hell do you know what there is out there?  Life is about living, and yes I know that’s an old well worn saying; but it’s possibly true.  I may not make it as a writer, I may just barely scratch away at it.  But at least I will know that I made the attempt to see just what the hell it was like in the first place.  And that is nothing to be ashamed of.