JUST ROLLED IN after 200 miles of hard rain up from Jersey City.
On my way up from Virginia I spent two days in Jersey City with D1, SO1 and little D1D1, whose first birthday is coming up on the 27th.
I tried to get together for dinner last night with our friend N, she of the fabulous Manhattan view. I was going to bunk on her apartment balcony last night and get some solstice pics of the great magnetic rock. The one you see here I snapped the summer before last while riding down to Tybee Island, Georgia.
Given the gridlock of Christmas traffic in New York, I left the iron piggy in Jersey City and set out via public transit. The plan was to meet N in Astoria, Queens at 8 last night. What I ended up doing was getting completely lost and riding trains all over Manhattan and Brooklyn for 3 1/2 hours. Clearly I zigged when the situation demanded zag. Iron piggy would have gotten me there for 8. Always trust the piggy.
Here’s why I rode to Virginia in the first place: In 2008, I had a story in my head that I wanted to get down on paper. I decided to write it in screenplay format while riding to Key West. While camping here & there on the way down and back I wrote a 90-page first draft. When I got home, I worked with it some more, filled it out to 117 pages or so, started shopping it around. I got it read at some respectable production companies, and although the answer was no, I was encouraged by some to not take no for an answer. Keep hammering away on it; don’t put it on the shelf with the others.
I decided to hammer on by writing the same story as a novel. So that’s done, 140,000 words, been done for about two years now. I needed to get to Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia last week as part of the editing process I hope to accomplish this winter. Fact-checking, let’s say, if I can apply that term to a work of fiction.
So now I’m home and I can see the bride has finished a labor of love, her Christmas decorating. Where she is, I don’t know, house was empty when I got here. Just cats. In the lower left, you may notice big bully boy Felix lying around like a harbor seal.
It was quite a rainy, chilly ride today! I never saw another motorcycle on the road. Only saw one other in the last eight days and nights of riding.
I had a bowl of oatmeal for fuel this morning. Enjoyed a late lunch when I got home at 5 p.m. An avocado for the fat content, a shot of scotch whisky for the scotch whisky content.
Tony DePaul, December 22, 2015, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
Sweet little baby girl! Can’t wait for Christmas – glad you’re home safe pops!
Getting to my neighborhood sucks bad enough, no matter which way you slice it, that somebody needs to invent beaming post-haste. Balcony will still be there for a future trip (and perhaps dry, even … you can share space with the grill). Miss you, Tony and Pam!
Wait, what? All these years and I just find out you are a scotch drinker… and Islay scotch, too. Holy cow, get you arse down here to Hugetown and let’s tip a dram or three to whatever needs toasting at the time. I’m sure we can figure out something. Merry Christmas to you all.
Back from the grocery store! Glad he’s home! Trying to get as much done as possible so I can spend time with my guy! Cookies baked, gifts wrapped, shopping done now just preparing food for our Christmas dinner! Can’t wait for our gathering of family and friends on Christmas Day!