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Today I embraced my inner squirrel

/ Tracy Abell

I’m working on a synopsis for my work-in-progress and, as anyone who has ever written one can attest, it’s not a pretty process. This time around I’m writing a synopsis before writing the novel which means I’m not locked into anything.

NOT LOCKED INTO ANYTHING = EVERYTHING IS A POSSIBILITY

Or another way to describe it: SQUIRREL BRAIN FREE-FOR-ALL

My ADD tendencies are having a blast-y as I try to reconcile my rough outline with all the brand new shiny ideas firing in my brain.

ZIP ZAP ZOOP.

However, I did make progress today. And when I’d had enough of ye olde synopsis, I put Emma on her leash and we went for a run on the trails.

Nothing clears the squirrel from one’s brain like a run over uneven terrain.

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I changed my mind

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Just now, I sat down at my computer and went to pexels.com in search of a Lamb’s Ear photo. My plan for this blog post was to publicly declare my new-found hostility toward that invasive plant, and to describe how I’d ripped out AT LEAST SEVENTY GAZILLION of them from my garden today.

But when I got to pexels.com, my search results from several weeks ago were still there; I’d been looking for images for the characters in my work-in-progress.

And this guy was the very first photo:

I’ve decided to drop my rant and, instead, dedicate today’s post to this delightful child.

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Twofer Tuesday: Tulip edition

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Today’s post is brought to you by people who no longer live here. The first tulip was planted by former neighbors, but not when we were gardening side-by-side. Rather, they did one of their infamous “drive-by plantings” when we weren’t looking, and gifted us some miniature tulips.

The next tulip is a senior citizen and was planted by the former owners of our house. Next month, we’ll have lived here 20 years.

That red flower is a lesson in being beautifully tenacious.

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Sunday Confessional: Sometimes I’m perfectly happy to be less-than-perfect

/ Tracy Abell

I made a new hoop today, something I’ve been talking about for months. My reasons for not doing it sooner include the usual procastinate-y suspects, but one of the main reasons I put it off was because I was nervous about taping it. The last hoop I made (in 2008) has layers of gaffer tape where I screwed up and overlapped. The tape added heft to that hoop (and a little imbalance).

Today, after Zippy measured, cut, and connected the irrigation tubing, I decided to take the easy approach: one color.

The spacing varies and there are some wrinkles, and I’m pretty confident that I’ll discover dog and/or cat hairs stuck in the tape, but I’m thrilled with my taping performance.

The hoop is pretty and blue and ready to go for a spin, and I’m perfectly content.

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A garden had better make room

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

A garden is to be a world unto itself,
it had better make room
for the darker shades of feeling as well as the sunny ones.
~ William Kent

I worked in my garden today and experienced conflicting feelings. Why was I born into this life and society while others were born into regions of the world that are under constant assault? I’m no more exceptional than any of those people facing horrific circumstances. Why is that I can quietly work in my garden while others know only mayhem and violence?

At times, I felt guilty for my easy day outside under the blue sky.

However, I also felt satisfaction knowing my work would help living things thrive and that my efforts were keeping materials from the landfill. I reminded myself that I was creating beauty in the world and that beauty is a legitimate pursuit.

Last spring’s poppy blooms reminding me of the beauty yet to come.

Today, my garden made room for all the feelings.

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A feeling of buoyancy and clarity

/ Tracy Abell

For me, when I ‘discover’ a story,
there is a feeling of buoyancy and clarity,
perhaps similar to early morning out on a prairie highway,
when darkness lifts and reveals
the outline of farmhouses and copses of trees in the distance.
~  David Bergen

Image from Pexels.com

 

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Sunday Confessional: I feel like Imelda Marcos

/ Tracy Abell

Okay, I’m exaggerating. Imelda Marcos was/is WAY more obsessed with shoes. However, I’ve got a shoe tower growing in my dining room.

I wear a women’s size 12, which most stores don’t carry. I’ve come to the realization that in-person shopping is inefficient. Instead, I’ve started going online to order shoes in hopes of finding styles that fit well. I’m tired of settling for whatever unattractive and/or ill-fitting shoes I come across in stores.

The only caveat? The online source must have an easy return policy because I have nowhere near Imelda Marcos’s closet space.

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SQUIRREL!

/ Tracy Abell

Actually, unlike Dug the Dog from the movie UP, I maintained my focus today. I woke this morning with a game plan for working on opening pages of a new middle-grade, and I kept to that schedule. I made good progress and am feeling (slightly) less nervous about sending those pages (plus more) to my critique group on Monday.

I declare today a WIN for this writer.

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Bunny Monday

/ Tracy Abell

It’s always a good day when a bunny hops into my line of vision. May you also be blessed with a similar sighting.

Wishing everyone a happy Bunny Monday!

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Sunday Confessional: Today I’m wishing I could have a do-over

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

This afternoon I randomly thought about a man I once knew and then looked him up online. Well, I discovered that he’d died about 18 months ago. He used to be married to a friend of mine, but they divorced. The man had done some stuff that ended up being unforgivable. Zippy and I had spent quite a bit of time with both of them as a couple, and we liked the man. He was smart, funny, and always made us feel welcome when we visited. But after the bad stuff came to light, my loyalty was to my friend. The man reached out once, but I didn’t return the call.

I still believe I was right to stand by my friend, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m now wishing I’d tried to communicate with him at some point. The thing is, my friend and I aren’t really in touch anymore so this news makes it feel as if I’ve lost two friends.

But, as Billy Wilder said, “Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.”

Because he loved these flowers.

 

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Documenting my bracketology wizardology UPDATED

/ Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

As of this moment (6:32 p.m. MT), my bracket ranking looks like this:

It’s hard to read, so allow me to highlight a pertinent detail:

This means that my bracket is better than 99.7 percent of the tournament brackets. Woot!

I’m posting this here and now because I’m pretty sure I’m about to fall in the standings. I have Oregon beating Kansas, and that’s just crazy. After watching Kansas play their last two games, I’m thinking they’re gonna keep on winning. As in, the whole shebang.

But at this moment in time, I look pretty damned smart.

UPDATE:
Well, the Oregon Ducks did, indeed, beat the Kansas Jayhawks. My bracket ranking is now this:

I’m in the 99.9 percentile which, according to Zippy, means my bracket is on a par with roughly 14,000 other elite brackets. WOOT!

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