A mini vacation
Celebrated 20 years of marriage with my wife, got a ton of projects around the house done, the current state of our daughters hand, and even built the pool
Good morning everybody,
It's not quite 8 AM here in Iowa and it's already getting hot and muggy outside. Really glad I will be spending my day inside in the air conditioning writing all day.
Last week was a lot of fun. I started out the week getting writing work and some editing done. Working on some different things, writing notes for other things, and trying to get more editing finished up. Then on Wednesday my wife and I officially celebrated 20 years being married. We had a really great day. We decided to get our tandem bike out and go for a ride in the morning. That was nice, always love being on the tandem with her, but we may have pushed it a bit far. We ended up doing 13 1/2 miles. Which was awesome, but maybe a bit much for the first big ride of the season. After getting back from that, we hung out and died for a bit. Got cleaned up changed and we went out to dinner together. It was nice just sitting there at dinner, having great conversations and sharing some appetizers with one another. Came back home and hung out for a bit then decided to get out of here again and went walking later in the evening in a nice downtown area. Actually stopped and got a couple of scoops of really good ice cream to finish off the evening. It was a great anniversary with my wife, And just a great day together. Well, minus the bad sunburn my wife got on the bike ride.
We also found out on Wednesday morning that our daughters thumb is indeed broken, but for now they're going to keep it in just a splint. They are concerned about making sure everything's all good with tendons in there, so they are going to schedule an MRI. As long as the MRI is clear, she'll just stay in the splint for Several more weeks, then be good to go. If the MRI shows any damage though to the tendons, they will have to perform surgery. So, hoping everything's all good there, and she can just wear the splint for a little longer than be free and clear to do all the fun things she wants to do.
The rest of last week was projects projects projects. We had a list of stuff we wanted to get done while my wife was off for five days, and we really kicked some ass. Got everything on the list crossed off and done, even got our 16 foot pool set up to enjoy with the hot weather. The pool is great, and I love swimming in it, but man it takes an entire day to get set up. The first couple hours of Saturday morning were spent leveling sand and getting the place where it sits perfectly level before the thick tarp it sits on went back down. Then we spent the rest of the day bringing up pool parts out of the basement, laying everything out, then building the whole thing. Now, as of this morning, the pool is done filling, pump is on and going, and we just need to do a chemical check on it later this evening. Otherwise, should be done and ready to go. The way the temps look this week, I will definitely be getting in that pool later this week and enjoying it.
Finished reading The Redemption of Morgan Bright by Chris Panatier. It was a pretty good book. Had some pretty dark and creepy moments in it. I'd liked the back-and-forth between the different personalities. That was really interesting and done very well. Also had some great twists I thought were fun and done really good. Overall I thought it was a pretty damn good book.
Currently reading: They're Watching by Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella. Wow, really enjoying this book! It's written really well, characters are believable and relatable, and I'm just enjoying the hell out of the story and where it's going. Can't wait to see where all this one goes!
Currently listening: cranked up my Lacuna Coil playlist and rocked out to that for a bit. I love that band and thoroughly enjoy cranking up all of their music and just letting it play. My wife and I have been listening to a lot of Chevelle lately. Thinking about going to their concert in July, but not sure yet. We've been a huge fan of that band since we first got together over 20 years ago. So definitely love their music, and would love to see them live.
Currently watching: we caught up on a new episode of Mayor of Kingstown, and damn, I'm really loving the new season. Of course, I love the first two seasons, amazing show, but this new season is just awesome. Check it out on Paramount+.
After having my wife home for five days and being able to sleep in a little later than we normally do on weekdays, I'm a little tired this morning. Trying to get motivated and going. Was busy a little bit with house stuff, topping off the water in the pool and getting that done, And generally running around finishing up things. But now, I'm done with all that, and I'm going to try to get back to work on my book Dark. I really want to make some great progress this week on that book, and see where all I can take it. It's one of those things where I'm excited to finish writing this book, but also trying not to be too eager to get it done. I don't want to rush the last third of the book. I want it to flow like the rest of the book does. But, I feel that eagerness to write other projects I want to get working on, but I want to finish this one first. So, going to sit and take my time to finish writing this one and tell the story I really want to tell.
All right, well, I'm going to guzzle down more hot coffee, hope it wakes me up a bit, and try to get back to work on my book. I hope you all have a great day, grab some coffee yourself, and take it easy my friends.
Thank you for reading this weeks newsletter. I hope to see you back here next week. Be yourself, be original, and be bloody.
- Matthew R. Taylor