Another Road Trip and Saying Yes to Opportunities
How can it have been eleven days since my last post? We have a lot to catch up on since I last wrote.
First of all, over the last week-and-a-half we took the Model Y on another road trip down to Ohio to celebrate my Mom’s 82nd birthday. We rented an A-frame cabin in the woods, complete with chickens (the one in the video was named Betty White) in Galena, Ohio. The Model Y, cruising on the latest version of FSD (v14.3.4), did almost all of the driving which eliminated a lot of the fatigue that comes along from long roadtrips.
It was great to celebrate my Mom and spend time with my family over those five days. The Airbnb had a swimming pond, hot tub, and plenty of nature to immerse ourselves in. It was all a great reminder of how important it is to spend this kind of time together with family. Despite the heat and tropical level humidity the time together flowed so effortlessly and enjoyably. Here are a few pictures and video clips from the trip if you'd like to see them.
My wife and I both decided that after driving 3000+ miles to Sedona Arizona and back and now racking up another 1200+ miles on this trip to Ohio I think we’ll be flying for these kinds of trips from here on out. Despite how much less stressful it was to have the car drive us we had so many near misses on the interstate highways due to distracted drivers that it just isn’t worth the risk anymore.
We were nearly sideswiped and ran into a concrete barrier by a distracted driver on I-270 in Columbus and then again in Wisconsin when a semi truck driver veered into our lane. There were many more instances than this but these two were the closest calls. I have no doubt that Tesla's Full Self Driving saved us from crashing both times.
One More Book
I had hours on end to do nothing but think on this road trip and decided it would be crazy to retire from writing books just yet. Almost the instant I made the decision to publish another book I was flooded with optimism and excitement so it’s probably the right decision. The book designer is secured and over the next few months I’ll be gathering some of the short stories I’ve written over the past three decades for a new book tentatively titled, “Walking with the Muse”. I’ll also be working on the book cover design. I have a vague idea of it forming in my mind but the entirety of it hasn’t fully presented itself quite yet.
If all goes as planned, Walking with the Muse will be available for purchase on Amazon by the end of October. Gathering the material together will be like a trip down memory lane. As I've been rereading these stories I'm transported back to the time in which I first wrote them.
There’s been such a surprising surge of interest in my books recently and I’m not entirely sure where it’s coming from. I just know the Amazon royalty payments are getting larger—which is very welcomed after so many years of stagnation. I also received word from the editor of an English magazine in West Sussex that they’ll be publishing one of my poems, "The Butterfly" and will be reviewing my most recent book, Poems from the Edge of the Apocalypse in their autumn edition which I’m hoping will spark some holiday sales.
If you've purchased a copy of Poems from the Edge of the Apocalypse I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd take the time to leave an honest review of it on Amazon. The book currently only has one review and I would like to grow that number before the book is featured in the magazine. Thank you in advance for that. : )
I'm ready to ride the wave again. Maybe, just maybe, my story as an author isn’t over just yet. I’ll say yes to that. After a long, dry spell in my career it feels incredible to feel the old familiar feeling of "warmer, you're getting warmer..." once again.
It is really interesting about distracted drivers. It has been a while since I have taken a road trip. Actually my last road trip was before the popularity of smart phones, so these days drivers entertain themselves by using their phones on a freeway?
It’s horrible. People steer with their knees while texting and driving. Even some semi truck drivers have their phones in front of them now. The kid that almost ran us into the concrete barrier has his phone in his hand. After the incident he sped off across three lanes of traffic and exited, probably fearful that he’d be followed.
Yeah, I am going to stick to flying...
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Opportunities can lead to some of the best adventures in life 😉
Definitely. Sometimes all it takes is patience.
https://x.com/i/status/2073114235266351388
That's awesome about the book and the royalty payments. I think a lot of car rental companies are starting to add electric options to their fleet. How does that work with Tesla? If you own a Tesla and you rent a Tesla do all your settings apply? 270 in Columbus scares the crap out of me. They race on parts of it late at night.
Thanks! Yes, the renewed interest is greatly welcomed. If you're a current Tesla owner I do believe your driver profile—with all ergonomic settings (seats, mirrors, temp, driving dynamics, etc.) is there in the rental. Unfortunately I've heard most rental companies don't give customers any instruction when they rent an EV. This frustrates people from the get go if it's their first experience and has probably turned a lot of them against EVs. I-270, especially around Polaris/Dublin, is nuts. This is where we were almost driven into the center barrier. The kid drove across three lanes without a turn signal and would have clipped our passenger side front quarter panel had FSD not swerved to the left. It felt intentional but my wife saw that he was looking at his phone.
That's horrible about your experience up on 270. We haven't been up near Polaris in a long time, but it is nuts how much that area has grown in just the past decade or so. I really appreciate it when we are able to ride around with my brother in law instead of having to drive it ourselves. If you are ever able to figure out what caused the renewed interest, I'd love to hear about it!
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https://x.com/i/status/2073411532508004459
#hive #posh
That's right: your writing life isn't over yet. You have a lot of talent, and I'm happy about the new wave of interest your creative writing has generated. The idea of compiling your latest stories seems great to me. What I don't quite understand is the title. Is it just me, or does it sound like texts that came to you thanks to the muses? It seems to me—this is just my opinion—that you should look for a title that relates to a theme present in all the stories. I don't remember much, and forgive me if I'm wrong, but there's quite a bit of science fiction in them. As for the trip, there are always reckless drivers. Thank God nothing serious happened. The video made me smile several times. If your mother enjoyed it, then everything else is a bonus. Hugs
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Thank you Nancy! I think the renewed interest is probably coming from X. I've started posting more on that platform lately. Hive has never been a great book sales generator for me. "Walking with the Muse" is how I feel when I'm really in the writing zone. The ideas feel almost as thought they're being channeled from somewhere else and walking with the muse was the best metaphor I could think of to explain it. There are quite a few Sci-Fi/Time-travel stories I've written in the past but there's going to be a decide variety of different kinds of stories in this collection. The distracted driving is so bad around the larger cities here! Sometimes when you're driving 80-85 mph people pass you going well over 100 mph. My Mom said several times it was her best birthday ever. That made it all worth it. : ) I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!