So, you’d think I’d learn after all the time I’ve spent on this planet, that I should stop making plans. I do suspect that the old cliché, “The best laid plans” and all that was coined just for me.
Let me explain.
A few weeks ago, I finished the first draft of my WIP, One More Time, and figured the self-editing would move along at a brisk pace. The plan was to have the book ready to go to the publisher by the end of July.
That deadline has come and gone.
Last week I posted that I’d finished the second draft of the book and thought there would be a quick read-through, and the manuscript would be ready to go to the publisher by last Monday.
Ha!
It’s now Friday again, and I’m still editing. Even though the book will be edited in house, an author is ultimately responsible for a missed comma or “their” instead of “there.” Not to mention the sentences that need a tweak to get cause and effect in the right order. “He pushed the lever to lower his window when he saw the tinted window on the other car slide down.” That sentence should read: “When he saw the tinted window on the other car slide down, he pushed the lever to lower his window.”
So, I’ve stopped setting a deadline and trying to stick to a plan. The book will go to the publisher when it’s ready. Not a day sooner.
Anyway, while I’m knee-deep in this work, I’ll let Slim Randles take the stage and entertain you with this story about summer evenings and friendships.
Enjoy!
The evening was one of those that come back to you time after time, year after long year. It comes back and whispers of how good life can be when you’re well fed, enjoying life, and a good friend shares the front porch with you on a summer’s evening.
It was that way with Doc and Steve the other night. Doc thought he might have to do a scientific paper on the soporific effects of ice tea, fried chicken, and corn on the cob. As long as it didn’t take any effort.
So when this huge meal had been bull-snaked down, the two grinning friends came out to the porch to watch the sun go down behind the trees along Lewis Creek. The air had that orange and russet glow, and the breeze, that little one that caresses the neck, came slowly down from the hills and made their shirt collars wiggle ever so slightly.
It was like taking a dry bath in paradise.
Doc sidled up to one of the porch posts and gently tested it to see if it could hold the extra weight he was carrying with that meal. It stood fine, so he leaned against it seriously and looked out on the evening’s warmth.
Steve, who was enjoying having a fine meal that someone else cooked for a change, leaned against the post on the other side of the steps.
And then they just stood quietly, watching the day make beautiful skies as it ended.
The shadow on the ground foretold the presence of the circling bird. Doc and Steve paid no attention at first. Then a few minutes later, it was joined by two more circling birds over Doc’s house.
“Buzzards,” Steve mumbled.
“Yep,” said Doc.
The birds circled around again.
“I think one of us should move a little …” said Doc.
“Move?”
“Well … to let them know … you know.”
Steve sighed, then glanced over at Doc. “Flip you for it.”
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Sorry to hear May Company went broke and closed. Nice people, clean sheets … oh where has the time gone?
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Check out all of Slim’s award-winning books at his Goodreads Page and in better bookstores and bunkhouses throughout the free world.
All of the posts here are from his syndicated column, Home Country that is read in hundreds of newspapers across the country. I am always happy to have him share his wit and wisdom here.
Slim Randles is a veteran newspaperman, hunting guide, cowboy and dog musher. He was a feature writer and columnist for The Anchorage Daily News for 10 years and guided hunters in the Alaska Range and the Talkeetna Mountains. A resident of New Mexico now for more than 30 years, Randles is the prize-winning author of a dozen books, and is host of two podcasts and a television program.
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That’s all for today folks. Whatever you have planned for the weekend, I hope it’s a good one for you. Be safe! Be happy! You can probably guess what I’ll be doing.