Musings & Thoughts for Sunday, March 19, 2023, or: A Quick Weekend Update on a Chilly, Gloomy Sunday Afternoon

Closely Watched Packages – Déjà Vu All Over Again?

“It’s like déjà vu all over again.” – Yogi Berra

Well, it’s early afternoon on Sunday, March 19, 2023, here in Lithia, Florida, and it is a cloudy, chilly (56°F/13°C) day in the Tampa Bay area. The low temperature and the gray, gloomy skies are affecting my mood – once again, I’m feeling anxious and full of regrets (mostly things that are beyond my control, such as my half-sister’s personality problems, that influenced my life – especially after 2015).

It also doesn’t help matters that once again I’m waiting for a paperback copy of my novella, Reunion: A Story, to arrive. I ordered a copy not long after I uploaded the first batch of fixes to Kindle Direct Publishing on Friday, March 10, thinking that if Amazon was already displaying the new cover design on the order’s status window, I’d receive the second revised version rather than the flawed 2018.

Unfortunately, when my package arrived four days ago, the copy of Reunion I beheld turned out to be the first unrevised edition. I briefly considered returning it, but that would have been a hassle, and since I need the royalties anyway, I kept it. It’s not a thick tome and doesn’t take up much space on a bookshelf, so what the hell, right?

So as I sit here listening to the original soundtrack of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, I feel a mix of hope and dread. The package with another copy of Reunion is marked Out for Delivery; the window for its arrival is between 1:45 PM and 5:45 PM. My brain is reeling as it ponders, “Which edition am I going to get? The one from 2018, or the new – and hopefully ­improved – version that went live on Friday night?

We’ll soon find out, so stay tuned.

Looking for Suggestions

“The company in bars is, I have noticed, either very good or very bad; there seems to be some force of a minor destiny that draws good company to the same place at the same time.” ― John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse

As for what I will be writing next, I do have a few ideas percolating in my brain, and one of those happens to be a story that starts in a New York City bar with a Big Band era theme and “vibe.”

I don’t live in Manhattan – a fact proved by a faux pas I committed when I described where the adult version of my “I-guy” lives – so if you were going to write about a bar with a Big Band era theme, what would you name it?

Right now, I have a few ideas for naming such a bar. They are:

• The Moonglow Bar
• Little Brown Jug
• Tuxedo Junction
• The Moonlight Cocktail
• Serenade in Booze

However, since I have not “fallen in love” with any of these, I am open to suggestions. If you have any ideas, don’t be shy! Please, feel free to jot down any potential names (and likely NYC locations) you can think of and share them in the comments section.

Or, if you prefer, tell me which one of the names you like from my list of potential choices above.