Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

Nearly everyone thinks they have the best Mom, and that's a completely unbiased point of view, but in my own humble opinion, I do have the best mom.

From a very young age, I knew that there would be one person that I could always depend on. Even if she wasn't near me, she was only a phone call away.

We might not have always gotten along, but now that I'm getting up there in the numbers, I can see that she did always (mainly) have my best interests at heart.

I might not have felt that she had any room to worried about me, but after everything I've been through, I know that she did, and still does.

So this angel with the crooked halo is taking the time to say thank you to my wonderful mother. I know I wouldn't be the person I am without her love, guidance and support.

Happy Mother's Day to my first Hero.

Ten Life Lessons I Learned from My Favorite Childhood Books

Nearly everywhere you look, you can see lists. Lists of things you learned from your parents, lists of foods that are supposedly good for you, lists of reasons to avoid so-and-so. After reading about a billion and one lists, I thought, “What have I learned from these?” Truthfully, not much. In my opinion, most of those lists are full of bull-pucky. While funny to read and entertaining, most of these lists do not fall into the brain exercise category.

So I decided to try building my own. 

The first thing I needed was an idea. Since most of the lists I came across fell under the “Learned from” category, I figured why not.

So here goes:

1.      Black Beauty – Taught me Strength - Life can take you to some strange and horrifying places. How you deal with it will tell you the most about your character.

2.      Charlotte’s Web – Taught me Creativity - “That’s some spider”. Amazing things can come from small packages.

3.      A Yellow Raft in Blue Water – Taught me Empathy - You can’t see the same things as someone else. Perspective and experience will color it every time. 

4.      The Nutcracker – Taught me to Dream - Dreams can lead to great adventures. It’s okay to reach for them.

5.      The House at Pooh Corner – Taught me Friendship - Friends can be found anywhere. Or maybe I learned that as long as you have a teddy bear you’re never really lonely.

6.      The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Taught me Truth – Sometimes you need to take that journey before you’re ready to learn the truth.

7.      Follow My Leader – Taught me about the Impossible – Sometimes the impossible is about more than magic. Sometimes it happens in your day-to-day life. The impossible sometimes is about forgiveness, overcoming challenges, and the importance of believing in yourself.

8.      The Black Stallion – Taught me Love – Wild and free is beautiful, but often it’s lonely. The power of love can help you do things you never thought you could, but it’s just as likely to be blind and stupid things.

9.      The Bernstein Bears – Taught me the Importance of Family – Was there anything Mama, Papa, Brother and Sister couldn’t do?

10.  The Clown-Arounds – Taught me Difference – Just because someone is different doesn’t mean that they can’t be fun. Staying in the ruts is boring. Different people see things differently. Why not have an awesome and unexpected adventure?

I still read voraciously and I still pick things up from time to time between colorful covers, but the lessons from those childhood favorites have made a lasting impression. 

Now I challenge you...What was your favorite childhood book and did you learn anything from it?

Off the Road Again

Well, the cats and I finally made it to Maine. It's been an adventure and a half and I think I'm ready to get my life back on track. Between the missing lights on the trailer and the mud hole that tried to swallow my car, I think I'm past ready to get off the road.

The cats have moved into their new home and shoved the dogs off their beds with just a few hisses, scratches and growls. Traveling with cats? Yeah, mine were easy. Jasmine decided to yowl for the first hour of almost everyday and Fisher was still not 100% better so she just slept. She'd curled up into so tight a ball that I had to pull her out of the carrier to prove to the desk clerk at one of the hotels that the carrier wasn't empty.

And the sights I've seen. The grand canyon was the epic highlight to my journey. It's a sight that has been on my must see list for eons. The guide there says that they are running the biggest scam ever. Have you been to the grand canyon? What did you see? He said that nearly everyone if asked will tell you they are looking at the Grand Canyon, but you are really looking at where it used to be. All you are seeing is air. So yes, I paid $25 to see air. And it was spectacular. So many layers and to see what the Earth is capable of... yes it was well worth it.

Meteor Crater-also in Arizona - was a trip in some of my heroes' footsteps. Most people don't know this about me, but I've always been fascinated with space, Sadly, the closest I will probably ever come is traveling to different planets in my books, movies and imagination. But I will always return to Pern, Harmony, Greyson, Manticore, Sphinx and Discworld. My heroes that have traveled to Meteor Crater? Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Sally Ride. Astro-geologist Shoemaker and his wife.
Did you know that Meteor Crater is the best preserved Meteor impact site on Earth? Did you know that it's a small crater? Meteor Crater is the size of the head of a pin when compared to some of the craters you can see with the naked eye on the moon.

Maybe it's something to do with the rocks. Maybe it's the thought of playing in the dirt. I also stopped at a small museum sponsored by a community college in Oklahoma. It was a fascinating walk through but really it wasn't anything too special. It's one claim to fame was that it had its own bronzing facility so it could make bronze replicas of the dino bones. This was a great idea because the museum was a hands on exhibit kind of place.

Then I visited the Fantastic Caverns (FC) in Missouri. They have earned their name. It was a fantastic experience. A little too expensive - a family of four would cost around $100 - but being just me, I enjoyed the tour. FC is the only drive through cave in the US. It was discovered just before the civil war and was first explored by a ladies adventure group. How's that for women lib?

Some of the weirder things? Who hasn't seen strange and unusual things on road trips? This one was no different. Of course there were the usual rubber-neckers who had never seen an Oregon License plate before. One guy pulled off the highway to use the same gas station I did just so he could ask where I was from in Oregon. Here's a shout-out to all the ducks out there and we are everywhere. How ironic is it that the one guy in Ohio that asked me about Oregon was a huge duck fan?

Weird and strange:
Have you ever seen a gigantic rocking horse? I have.
A rubber squid hanging on the side of a boat being towed by a semi? I have.
A giant Teddy bear riding shotgun in a pink convertible? I have.
Lions, tigers and bears in a circus truck? (I didn't know they could do that)
A semi towing a semi towing a semi?
It's really too bad that most of these were seen while I was driving. So many pictures I couldn't take.


But I'm here in Maine now and the door is wide open. I think I'll run through it and see where I land.
Happy trails and happy reading!
 

Frustraion, thy name is Shannon

As many of you know, I decided to relocate recently. I just never knew how hard it would be. Here I am thinking, “Wouldn’t it be nice to get this show on the road?”

I know what you’re thinking. What’s the holdup?

And that is the source of my frustration. I don’t really know. There was a communication melt down between my job and my benefits provider. If that doesn’t clear up soon. I may have to start looking for work here – and a new apartment.

I was really looking forward to a new start. Hope everything clears up soon.

Bad Customer = Bad Customer Service?

Not that long ago there was a meme floating around Facebook that said, “Did you ever think that maybe you get bad customer service because you are a bad customer?”

Blunt, short and to the point. But the message is there. Why should the person behind the counter treat you any differently than you are treating them? 

For some reason, today’s society has been taught they are entitled to everything; that the worst they act, the more they get. I see this on a daily basis. And the only thing I can do is shake my head in disbelief and walk away.

The worst customers in my experience are those who are trying to return something. Now, I’m not saying that all customers who return items are bad customers. Far from it. Often the item in question is returned for a very good reason. No, the bad returners are those who know they are going to get a rejection, steal themselves for it, and come in fighting mad. 

These are the customers than have the ability to completely ruin a good day. The children throwing a tantrum and rather than sending them to their room, society pats them on the head, says ‘there, there,’ and then gives them what they want. Often with something extra thrown in if the tantrum was loud and disturbing enough. Why are we encouraging this?

Did it ever occur to anyone who doesn’t work ‘behind the counter’ that maybe there is a reason why your return was rejected? Before you threw that hissy-fit full of crying, screaming and making demands, did you stop long enough to ask? Or did you just hear ‘no’ and decide ‘that’s the wrong answer’?

Did you know that the most common type of Rejected Return is simply because they happen to be in the wrong store? If the bar code is not in the system there is nothing the clerk behind the counter can do about it. No bar code = no return.

Ask rather than hissy-fit. If it is a case of simply being in the wrong store, the clerk may very well know which store the item came from and is willing to tell you, but not if you are being an ass.

So next time you are talking to a customer service representative please put yourself in their shoes. Are you acting like someone you wouldn’t want to deal with?

What happened to December?

So, here it is the new year and I'm asking myself, "Where the heck did December go?"

For me, I would guess that it went by with out much notice because of all those graveyard shifts. Before you say something like eww and ack, just know that I chose those shifts. It was so bad during the day, I was literally getting nothing done. Between the phone calls and the "nice" people who were sure I was hiding shoes in my stock room, I was 'pulling out my hair'. I'm a detail type of person so it really bothers me when I can't get something done that I know needs to be done.

Oh well - it's all over now.

Or is it?

Something tells me that the season isn't quite over. Now that the gift giving is past, it's the season of gift returning and resolutions. What do these have in common? Not much, unless you work in retail. All those wonderful gifts of clothing coming back because they were the wrong size, tends to lead to people buying things like stationary bikes and elliptical machines. Oh, did I mention the running, walking and cross training shoes?

But enough about that. This post/blog is supposed to be about me, so I asked myself, what are my new year's resolutions. Yeah, right. Me? Make a new year's resolution? My very spirit cringes knowing how well I tend to keep those things. Ha, I say.

Instead of a resolution, which by its very nature is too lofty for me to attain, I decided to set up a series of small goals. Here's what I would like to do this year:

1. Revise and repost "Seryn's Tale." This was the first story I had as an ebook. It's also the pre-queal to Halcyon's Guardian.
2. get my health back on track. Now that I have a car, I find myself not walking as much. While I haven't gained any of the weight back, I know that horrible time weather-wise is still ahead and I would like to skip it.
3. Finish Halcyon's Wolf - book 2 Hopefully I can get this one published, too. Although nothing can compare to the feeling of getting my first book published, I bet number 2 will rate just as high on the happiness meter.
4. Make some friends. This might sound weird to anyone who actually knows me, but the friends I have I can count on one hand. While they might be dear to me, they all have their own lives. You try being single in a crowd of couples and see how lonely you are.

So there we are. These are my goals for 2015.
For those who do make resolutions, I wish you the best. Improving your live is a lofty goal and I applaud those you reach for it. For those you just wish to reach your goals, I wish you the best, as well.

So my wish for all of you out there in cyber land:
May 2015 be as good to you as 2014 was to me.
Happy Reading and Happy New Year.