Stalk me elsewhere

Monday, October 31, 2011

Why I Seemed to Disappear from the Earth

My brother and his bride
Greetings, Fire Enthusiasts.

Coffin Hop: I want to thank everyone for participating in the First Annual Coffin Hop this past week. It has been a lot of fun visiting nearly 100 sites and trying to win some of the real great stuff that was given away. I hope you all left with arms full of loot. It ends Halloween night, so you still have time.

After the loot is all put away, I look forward to building up those new relationships, and also, reading some of the writing that was promoted during the week. I still don’t read as often as I would like to, but what I have read has really been top notch. I have been so pleased with the quality. Agents and Publishers should really be fired for letting some of your work slip through their fingers!!

Tybee Island beach house


We had some great views, didn't we?

Where did you go? As some of you might have noticed, I appeared to drop off of the face of the earth there for a while. I would like to take a few moments to explain where I was. I accompanied my parents to Georgia for my brother’s wedding. We were gone a week. Part of the time we stayed in their home near Atlanta, and we spent the other part, five hours away near Savannah. We spent a few days in a beach house on Tybee Island which is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.

James Sr, Eric, Leslie and me
The adventure began as we left on Tuesday the 11th from Fresno, Ca. which is in my back yard, essentially. We flew into Salt Lake City and spent an hour awaiting our next flight to Atlanta. After the week was over, we flew from Atlanta into Dallas/Fort Worth. You should have seen me with my nose pressed against the glass, while I surveyed the ground for Arlington, Texas and the location of God’s football stadium. *grins* Okay, scratch that. We’ll just refer to it as the Jerry Dome. No? Okay, the home of the Dallas Cowboys. In any event, I saw it. How could I not; it’s so large that one could see it from space! We then flew from there back to Fresno, and I was finally home.

We played a round of golf. I took 2nd. Not bad since I hadn't played in forever. It rained on us. Can you tell?
The bummer out of the whole trip was my family was unable to accompany me. Both my kids had school, obviously, and school events, and my wife is a teacher. I never could get comfortable with the Eastern Time Zone. I just kept reaching back to the west with both my heart and mind, waiting to call home or text the kids when they got out of school. And I hated Monday night. If I have to wait until 8:30 to watch the Monday Night Football game, I almost don’t care anymore!! I don’t know how you people do it! *grins*

Now, although I was only gone one week, I had to disengage the week before, in order to get prepared. I had to write and schedule two Monday posts, write a Halloween-themed article for Kings River Life Magazine (it was on black cats). This was on top of getting the house ready, preparing my day job to be left in the hands of others, making arrangements, getting packed, etc., etc. During that week, I did no blogging at all. The only thing that I did was Twitter #WW and #FF. In fact, I barely promoted anything, including my own novel or posts. Then, the week I got back was spent catching up. Once again, I did no blogging.
Why am I telling you all of this? It is because many of us feel compelled to do the same amount of promoting, sharing, encouraging, cheering, posting, Tweeting, reTweeting, etc., but it isn’t always easy or even an option from time to time. We just do what we can. That’s what I did during this period, although I was not happy about it. Thankfully, I am not only back, but all caught up.
Do what you can, my friends. Every little bit helps.

Before I go, I really just want to wish my brother and new sister-in-law the very best. Love you guys!


We’ll talk soon.

13 comments:

  1. Sorry you couldn't make it a longer stop-over in Texas.

    Sounds like you had a great time though. Best wishes to your brother and his bride.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice post, Jimmy! Love the beach wedding. Where else would one have it when one lives so close???

    Now go unfurl and relax for at least one full minute. *chuckle*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Boy, you've been busy! Haven't we all, tho. And you're so right... we do what we can do and that's enough. I think most peeps understand this, and if someone's offended because we forgot, or neglected visiting a blog for a week or something, then they need a reality check. This is for fun, and family comes first.
    Great pics of the wedding! ANd congrats on being all caught up!! Happy Halloween!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh yeah... and you're so right about The Professional... that's the film that turned me on to Oldman. He was amazing in it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a beautiful wedding! Congrats to your brother. I bet it was nice for you to have a little break and celebrate a wonderful event!

    Happy Halloween!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What beautiful photos, JImmy! Congrats to your family!
    Sounds like a great trip!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congratulations to your brother and SIL - and happy Halloween!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great pictures, Jimmy! I'm another who loves beach weddings. Your brother and sis in law are simply glowing!

    So true about the promoting. It's so tough to balance at times, especially when life gets in the way or you need a break. Thankfully it's always there when you get back. :-)

    Hope you have a great one!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Cowboys, eh?

    Uh... OK, OK, I won't say anything; I'll play nice... for once.

    (Gosh! This is SO difficult. No wonder I never tried this before ;o)

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  10. That's where you were! At a wedding! I thought you had at least become a vampire or that perhaps aliens were involved.

    Welcome back. The wedding looks like it was beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Beautiful pics! Always family first, I say! Glad you do too:)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for showing us a different side of Georgia than what I get in the news :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Beautiful photos and glad you had such a nice time. Welcome home!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate you taking the time. I'll get back to you here or on one of the other social networks. It's not like we're not on all of them, right? ;) Also, if you're here to give me an award - bless you. However, your friendship and visits are more than enough. Thanks and blessings.