Musings of Two Creative Minds

Yeah... the title for this entry pretty much sums up my feelings today. Why? You ask... or maybe not, after all I'm not inside your heads. But if you are asking that question, well the answer is "THE DOOR"! Now I might be hearing some of you saying, "A door? What door?" Well, here's a little reminder... Yeah, THAT one. The one I've been going on about for months and even a couple of years. Sadly, it hasn't exactly been just a couple of years. After going over my entries for this blog it turns our that I've apparently been going on about this book since about... 2013.   Cue embarrassment... Damn it! Why is there never a nice big rock (preferably the size of a small mountain) to crawl under when you need it? Well, since said rock isn't about to make a helpful appearance anytime soon, I may as well give you the rest of the explanation. A severe, and I do mean SEVERE case of Writer's Block has been plaguing me when it comes to this book for q...

" 'Cause, nothing ever goes as planned It's a hell of a notion Even Pharaohs turn to sand Like a drop in the ocean..." This is a snippet from the Styx song "Nothing Ever Goes as Planned", from their Paradise Theater album (one of my favorites albums I'll admit). Anyway, what does a Styx song have to do with today's topic for this blog entry? EVERYTHING! When we were still house hunting and came across what would become our new home, One of the things that really attracted us was the basement. It was set up almost like an old 1980's arcade, complete with black lights, an arcade game, a projector, and a black light carpet. See image below It was so wild when we had the black lights on, we started joking about holding 80's parties down in it. But of course... (cue the Styx song) That's right! You guessed it. Things didn't quite go the way we had been hoping. While we were in contract and had a home inspection done, it was discovered that...

  Well... this is my first post from our new home (shown above) in Washington State. It's been quite the journey to get here, as well as settle in. It's a whole new experience for all of us, and yet kind of familiar at the same time. At least for Helen, her brother, and their mother. They've all lived under the same roof together before. I'm the newbie in this case, aside from growing up with my own family of course.  Luckily, we got a pretty good idea of how we'd all click based on the Verbo places we all stayed in on our previous visits to Washington, during our house hunting. Mind you, none of this would've ever been possible for just Helen and me. Between health issues for both of us, (and me having had to retire due to disability) affording much less managing an entire house would've been a Herculean task.  However, after my mom took ill and before she passed last October, Helen's mother brought up an idea Helen had suggested a couple of years ago, ...

*Author's Note: This short story first appeared on our other site The Vampyre Blogs - Private Edition (link: https://www.thevampyreblogs.com/ ). This site features mainly short stories involving Allan's long-lived 'Para-Earth' vampyre character Nathaniel Eoghan Steward, and his friends who know his secret. Nathan was serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, when he was 'changed' by a life-form from Para-Earth that has given him such a long life as well as many traditional vampire-like abilities, as well as limitations. However, this tale involves the history of Memorial Day from when it was first celebrated on, and seemed like an appropriate story to share with you all. So without further ado, I present  you with the tale of "The Soldier" :  May 1999 - Memorial Day, From the Journal of Brian Weston: The Soldier appeared again this year, just as he has over almost a hundred and fifty years.  The first reports of him showing up here in Pointer dat...

Hello everyone, and welcome to my first blog post for 2025. I know it's been a while since I last posted anything on this blog, but as the title of this entry says... life and reality has REALLY been demanding so much of my time and energies.  And since it's been so long since my last post, let me quickly recap where I left off... I had located the crystal ball my wife gave me for my birthday many years ago and was contemplating looking into it to see if a wheelchair might be in my future due to my continuing leg and back issues. Well, here's the real-life answer as to that question... So yeah... this has come to pass. Mind you, I am getting used to it. Plus, I'm not in the chair all that often. I mostly use it on long outings and excursions with family and friends. (Sadly, for me these days a long outing lasts more than 15 minutes on my feet for the most part before the pain and numbing of my hips/legs/and feet become intolerable). Still, I really like being able to be...