NANOWRIMO 2019 starts 1 November. I wrestle with competing this year. Interestingly, competing implies competition. Yes, It is a competition against oneself.

The competition is to write a novel of fifty thousand words in November, an average of 1667 words a day. Some days I might write more or less, such as during the holidays.

I participated twice, and both times met the goal.

Both times, I sprinted the last couple of days to reach the goal.

Taking the plunge

The first time I didn’t consider Thanksgiving. Losing one day might not sound like much, but I am not a great typist. I averaged, maybe, ten words a minute on a good day. So, a day’s writing was nearly three hours to put 1667 words on paper.

Shucks, only three hours. Yes, three hours if the vision for the story flowed from mind to paper in a steady stream. It didn’t always for me, I started and stopped as the story revealed. As a result, I spent longer with the keyboard the days after Thanksgiving.

The second time, it had little to do with the holiday. I was in the last couple of months working before retiring from my job. I started November strong, but as the holiday neared, I suffered a form of malaise, lack of motivation. Fortunately I found it again after Thanksgiving. The sprint to the end found me crossing fifty thousand words on the 30th.

Each time, I wrote with a vague outline. The key elements were just a sentence or two. From these, I had to build the story as I wrote. Challenging, very!

This year

I am starting early this year, laying out a foundation. I hope to have a good grasp of the story and where it will go before the 1st. It should make finding 1667 words a day (average) easier. I will let you know after 30 November.

Do you intend to take the NANOWRIMO challenge this year? A comment form is available for your convenience.

The refrain most often heard by me today has been, “Where were you on that day?” The day being September 11. 2001. What are your memories of that day?

Will you remember September 11?

I worked for a government contractor on 9.11 and scheduled to fly to Dallas and on to San Antonio in the afternoon. My wife and I had arrived at the FT Meade bowling alley when the music channel we were listening to interrupted for a news break. They announced a plane had flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center. I left her at the center where she later told me they watched the rest of the happenings on large screen monitors.

Television coverage uninterrupted

I went home and tuned into a live broadcast. I vividly remember thinking the first plane was an accident as I listened to an announcer suggest the same. That the pilot lost track of where he was, causing the crash into the north tower.

A few moments later, I watched the second plane enter the picture on my television. I watched as it flew into the south tower at 9:03. There was no longer doubt this was an orchestrated attack on the United States.

I remained glued to the television as the day’s events unfolded. I listened to the frantic voices of the announcers as they announced a plane violated its flight plan. It headed into Washington, D.C. Some feared destined for the White House, but it hit the Pentagon at 9:37.

I watched as the north tower collapsed and it was announced a fourth plane hijacked. Passengers on that plane attacked the terrorists who, then, crashed the plane in a Pennsylvania field at 10:03 rather than return control to the passengers. Shortly after, the south tower collapsed.

Staying home

I decided not fly to Dallas before President Bush grounded all planes.

“Where were you on that day?” What are your memories? I hope you will share them with me using the provided comment form.

Labor Day weekend found Pipeline 2007 Girls Black team competing in the Keystone Cup 2018 tournament.

Last week the team played in the 2018 Spirit United Kickoff Classic. They finished the weekend losing two games and tying one.

This weekend, the team finished with two losses and a tied game. The results are similar on the surface but much different. Last weekend the team played in the third division.

This weekend the 2007 Girls played in the Keystone Cup’s top division. Pipeline lost to two highly ranked teams from the Pennsylvania East Region. The third game was against a team highly ranked in Virginia. That team was a semi-finalist in the Virginia State Championship. Note, though, the competition at Spirit was fierce, but the opposition teams ranked in GotSoccer below the teams played at Keystone.

Tournament Takeaways

What to take from the two weekend tournaments?

The first weekend was against quality talent, but it was the 2007 Girls first competition together. The team was in every game, losing 2-3, 1-2, and tying 1-1.

This weekend the team learned what it meant to play club’s first teams. Pipeline’s second team in the age group needs more time together to develop their team dynamics. As girls settle in their role with the team, ball movement will improve and yield quality attacking opportunities. The team put up four goals in the tied game indicating they can score against quality teams.

This weekend, the girls learned how important it is to be able to play with intensity over 5, 10, and 15+ minutes. There were limited substitutes available, but rotation from the pitch to bench left some girls playing long minutes. Improving fitness is something the girls can focus on outside training sessions.

The girls need to improve their technical skills. The teams that beat the 2007 Girls had girls with very good technical skills. They controlled the ball better, winning most 1v1 situations against Pipeline, and made smart, strong passes. None of these are beyond Pipeline but must be cultivated and learned.

The last takeaway from this weekend is Pipeline improved from the first weekend. Playing strong competition is the way to find areas for improvement. This weekend highlighted things the team and girls, individually, can work to improve.

I look forward to seeing the girls in the coming league play as preparation for the Columbus Day tournament.

Remember to check the follow button at the lower right to be kept aware of future postings.

I previously blogged about making memories. This weekend two Pipeline Girls team made memories at the 2018 Spirit United Kickoff Classic Tournament.

Pipeline 2006 Girls Black

The Pipeline 2006 Girls Black team is a meld of Pipeline players from last year and girls recruited after the May tryouts. The team began practice in early August. Though, some of the girls missed scheduled practices because of summer activities including family vacations.

2018 Spirit is the second tournament for the team in August. The team won the first tournament. The team score two wins and a draw on the way to the championship game. The game was hard-fought with each team exchanging goals in forty minutes of play. The opponent score in the last ten minutes and Pipeline was unable to find the goal, although having a shot went over the goal and two went wide. Final for the championship game, 1-2. The team’s performance in sunny, high 80’s, with only two substitutes, was impressive.

More impressive, to me, is the team has a championship and was a finalist in another after only eight games playing together. Congratulations to the team. There will be many good results as the team grows together.

Pipeline 2007 Girls Black Team

I am an assistant coach for the Pipeline 2007 Girls Black Team. This team played Spirit but had a less spectacular result. Like the 2006 Girls team, the 2007 team are a group talented girls. Some played for Pipeline teams last year, and some recruited at the May tryouts. They, also, began practice the first week of August and this was their first tournament of the fall season.

The team played three games, ending in a consolation game. The first game lost 1-2, the second lost 2-3, and the third a draw 1-1. The scores don’t adequately show the girl’s play. Yes, they were two losses and a draw. The girls suffered breakdowns allow the opponents their scores, but gave their opponents fits in all three games. E.g., in the second game, Pipeline scored their second goal with less than five minutes to play and had a third nullified by an offsides call as the game ended. Praise is deserved for the hard play, and a never-give-up attitude displayed to the final whistle.

Memories, memories!

Thank you to the girls on both teams at the 2018 Spirit for giving me many memories to treasure. The 2007 team as a coach and the 2006 team because my granddaughter, Elizabeth, plays for it. I hope the girls treasure theirs as I do mine.

I expect the 2007 team to drown me in memories this holiday weekend when they play in their second tournament of the season!

The comment form is yours to use to tell me about your plans for the holiday weekend? Don’t forget to use the follow button to receive notification of new posts.

Road trips are a place to make memories and learn of other’s memories. Road trips are something we are familiar and comfortable with. Pack the car, settle the kids, charge off to the destination, a short stay, and return to home. This weekend followed the menu with one exception, no kids settled in the car.

Stopping in Ohio

We spent the first afternoon and night in Dayton, Ohio where we had dinner with Jennifer, my wife’s cousin. We did an after dinner visit with Ronald, Jennifer’s father–my wife’s 92 year-old cousin. For two hours, we listened to stories of Ronald’s years in Scotland and some from his years in the United States.

My wife, Jennifer, and Ronald exchanged stories until it was time to go. Before we left, Jennifer and Ronald treated us singing several Scottish songs. The visit was interesting and entertaining.

The next day we visited with my niece, Crystal, in Illinois. The hours sped by as I told some of my memories and she shared some of hers. They were stories of family and friends from mine and her youth. We sometimes strayed into stories of my siblings and my parents. Unfortunately, time was called, and we had to leave, leaving many stories yet to be told.

More Family Memories

I find it difficult to translate the enjoyment of hearing stories of Ronald’s life and sharing remembrances with Crystal into words. I relished learning of Ronald’s time in the Army during World War II and Crystal’s adventures on a three wheeler on School Street’s hill. But, melancholic at knowing when Ronald, Jennifer, Crystal, my wife, and I pass on interesting and fun stories of our lives will leave with us.

That is unless we share them with others. I can’t tell their stories, but I can mine. Occasionally, I will use this venue to pass them on.

Make my day by using the comment form to relate a memory you cherish.

Missing you

What does ‘missing you’ mean? My wife would say it means not being able to make the call to her Mother when she has a concern. Or when she wants to brag on one of her seven grandchildren. Or being able to take a vacation and sit together talking about the cares and joys of life.  They talked almost daily for the last 30 years. Daily life will never be the same for her since her mother passed Feb 2016.

My wife would say it is not being able to go fishing with her brother. Or sit with him talking cars, guns, grandchildren, work, people they knew or hundreds of shared experiences growing up. He passed April 2016, about 10 weeks after her mother.

At the cemetery

I sat with her today at the cemetery. We sat on a bench monument at the head of her brother’s grave. We overlooked her mother’s grave to the headstone for her parent’s. We shared stories, but mostly I listened. When she cried, I tried to comfort her. I found myself tearing up.

The time came to leave. We stood, said goodbye to her brother and approached the parent’s headstone. My wife leaned over and rubbed the picture of her mother engraved there. “Happy birthday, Mom.”

It is cliché to say “They will never be gone as long as we hold them in our hearts.” The cliché is supposed to make us feel better. But it is a poor replacement for seeing the smile, hearing the laugh, or holding the loved one. It can only soothe the hurt in ‘missing you.”

Me, it has been twenty years since my mother passed. I lost two brothers and my father between October 2002 and October 2003. My sister passed in 2011. Some days, when I am experiencing a success, I find myself reaching for the phone to share it with my mother. To this day, ‘missing you’ touches me.

May they all rest in peace knowing we are “missing you.”

Are you missing someone? Use the comment form to tell me about them.

Vacation to high temperatures

Who takes a vacation to South Texas in July? We hesitate to say it is my wife and I. And we brought two grandchildren with us.

It was in the high 80’s when we left Maryland in our RV. We saw the temperature gradually rise as we drove south. The first night we stayed outside of Knoxville. The air conditioner ran until sleep time. Even with it off, everyone slept well.

The second night found us in Lafayette, LA. We spent the night there. The temperature wasn’t bad, but it was very humid. Sleeping without air conditioning meant wallowing in sweat. Air conditioning became the norm after this stop.

This is SUMMER!!

We spent the third day and night with relatives living outside Houston, Texas. The temperature stayed in the high 90’s the entire visit. A trip to the pool did not cool anyone off, the water was too warm. Grandchildren and cousins were the ones asking to leave, the adults were glad to leave than swelter in the shade.

We reached our destination on the fourth day. It was 105 the day we arrived and passed 100 degrees each day since. Heat indices reached 109 degrees.

“Who takes a vacation to South Texas in July?”

We do it to commemorate the birthdays of my wife’s mother, father, and brother. We will celebrate these and her parent’s anniversary—all between 23 and 31 July.

That we can ignore the discomfort caused by the weather, and enjoy the time with cousins, nephews, and nieces is an added benefit. Catching up with happenings of the last year adds value to the trip.

“Who takes a vacation to South Texas in July?” We do.

Thanks for reading and I hope you will use the comment form to let me know you visited.

What do you blog when life is great, and nothing unusual is happening? How about a hodgepodge.

An RV Excursion?

My wife and I will take three grandkids on an RV excursion to Corpus Christi, Texas next week. We, she and I, have got the thirty-foot RV ready. We had the annual maintenance, and oil change competed by the RV shop. I did the slide out maintenance. The vehicle is ready for the trip.

We started the challenging task of populating it will linens, food, utensils, and sundry. The RV is connected to house power, so the refrigerator is at a temperature to take cold and frozen foods anytime. On the night before we set out, we will store the last of the food stuff and the grandkids bags. Not that we are eager to get on the road, but there is so little left to do while the day of departure is days away.

Novel Update

I am making steady progress on editing my novel. I am halfway through the second pass and feeling better as each scene is finished. Becoming impatient to get feedback, I sent two scenes for critique. The reviews were uncomplimentary but enlightening. The comments opened my eyes to ways to improve the chapters submitted.

Knee Surgery Update

I had a meniscus repair surgery three weeks ago. I consider the surgery successful. Before surgery, my knee would throb almost continuously, whether walking or sitting. Since I have had almost no discomfort. I say almost because there has been a time or two when I forgot I am still healing inside the knee. A twinge of discomfort, not pain, reminds me to slow down or stop.

GoPro and Garmin

The RV trip will see us using two acquisitions we did not have on the last trip. We have a GoPro camera to document the trip. We used it on our trip to Ohio in April. My wife edited the video to create an interesting memory. The GoPro will find a home on the windshield and may allow for another video memory.

GoPro HERO5 Black

We have a Garmin GPS to put on the dash and guide us to Corpus Christi. Don’t fret that we don’t know the way. We have made close to a hundred trips between here and there. The Garmin will provide mile checks, traffic reports, and maybe alternate routes around bottlenecks and construction. We will learn its value as we go.

Garmin DriveSmart 60LMT 6″ Portable GPS Navigator w/ Lifetime Maps & Traffic

“What do you blog when life is great, and nothing unusual is happening?”

I end each blog with a request for comments. I ask because I enjoy hearing from you, the readers. Take a moment and tell me about your day or just say “Hi.”

It is not often a kitchen appliance impresses me, but the Instant Pot is one.

Instant Pot Ultra 8 Qt 10-in-1 Multi- Use Programmable Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Yogurt Maker, Cake Maker, Egg Cooker, Sauté, Steamer, Warmer, and Sterilizer

Last October, I bought the eight quart size as a present for my wife. Since, she used this combination pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, sauté, steamer, and warmer to create great meals. Though it has these modes, we have not explored its slow cooker or rice cooker modes. The Instant Pot has a stainless steel inner cooking pot. We liked this because there is no coating to wear through or away over time.

Instant Pot LUX80 8 Qt 6-in-1 Multi- Use Programmable Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker, Rice Cooker, Sauté, Steamer, and Warmer

Care for cheesecake?

How do we use the Instant Pot? One of the first uses was the cheese cakes my wife made for my grandson’s birthday. She found recipe’s online and used the Instant Pot to create four-inch sizes shared at his party, and, later made some as Christmas gifts. She created a seven-inch chocolate special for him.

The Instant Pot allowed her to stack multiple four-inch spring pans on a trivet. With a bit of ingenuity and tin foil, she made multiple seven-inch cheese cakes at the same time. You can find instructions for recipes to quickly create mouth-watering desserts at several places on the internet.

My favorite-steak and gravy

Steak and gravy is my favorite meal made with the Instant Pot. My wife browns the steak and places it in the pot with mushroom and onion soup mix and enough, a secret ingredient (can’t reveal), and adequate water to allow the pressure cooker to come to pressure. She sets the timer according to her recipe, and when finished cooking allows a natural release of the pressure. (The Instant Pot has a valve to release pressure. Opening it is the quick release.) The natural release ensures tenderness of the meat.

Care for pepper steak?

My second favorite is pepper steak. You can use the sauté setting to brown the meat but use care there is no residue on the inner pot before adding the bell pepper, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and water. She prefers to brown the meat in a skillet before adding to the pot with bell peppers including green, orange, red, and yellow. Add enough liquid to bring the Instant Pot to pressure.  Again, when finished the cooking cycle, allow a natural release of pressure.

The boss tells me she has used it to make tea, macaroni and cheese, chicken meals, pork meals, and more. I hope you see why I like the Instant Pot.

Do you have or have you used a pressure cooker to create meals? What are favorite recipes? Tell me in the comments.

A year ago, I wrote a 53k novel during NaNoWriMO using Microsoft Word 2013. In January this year, I started to edit and revise it using Word. Recently, I transferred the work-in-progress (WIP) to Scrivener. Word aficionados may disagree with my evaluation and comparison. Word is a great product but less useful for this effort than Scrivener. Some justifications for this opinion follows.

I, a pantser, wrote the novel using a minimalist outline. To meet the daily writing goals, there was a duplication of content and a poorly developed narrative. The characters were not developed nor settings defined.

Reluctant to change to Scrivener

Writing the draft, Word enabled meeting daily writing goals. When revising the draft, Word was awkward to use. It didn’t offer me an ability to easily move scenes, track thoughts for changes to existing scenes, or create and insert new scenes. For a time I struggled with using Word while ignoring the capabilities that Scrivener offered.

Made the move

Out of frustration, six weeks ago I transferred the WIP into Scrivener. Each scene became a document within its own folder. That completed, I reread each scene and made notes in the Document Notes section of the Inspector for things to consider when revising the scene. Word requires maintaining a separate document for notes or incorporating the notes into the scene text. Word’s notes placed in the story text need to be removed before creating the file for submission. Scrivener’s notes are not part of the scene text and are ignored when compiling.

More reasons to use Scrivener

Other features that Scrivener offers are templates for characters and settings. I used the character template to note my characters’ information. The template missed information I wanted to track, but it provided a good starting place. The setting template was a good starting place for descriptive information about where events occurred. Word requires creating documents or appending character and scene information to the WIP’s file. Neither of these is as easy to use as Scrivener where accessing information is as simple as clicking on the character or setting’s folder.

A feature I found useful was the ability to move scenes within the story. I found several scenes out of place during the read-through. It only took a moment to drag the scene’s folder to its proper place to reorder the scenes. With Word, I must cut the scene, locate the place I want it, and paste it.

Two more useful features

There are two more capabilities I learned Scrivener had which I use. I name each scene with a descriptive title instead of chapter numbers. I can move scenes without worrying about numbering. The second is custom labels. I edited the label section to include revision labels. When I finish the scene, I label it according to which revision number just completed. Most scenes are at revision one and are so color-coded. Other scenes are revision two and one scene at revision three. I can see at a glance what scenes need work.

As noted earlier I said I am a pantser writer meaning I do not work from a detailed outline. Word sufficed for writing the draft, but Scrivener’s tools and capabilities simplify revising the draft into a finished novel.

Do you use Scrivener or another tool when writing? Tell me your preferences using the comment form.