Late Morning, Wednesday, January 3, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire
“My shivery acquaintance with the defiant shaft of the sun beaming brilliantly, one morning, with the smell of wintry air.”― Henrietta Newton Martin
Hi, everyone, and welcome to another entry in A Certain Point of View, Too. It is, per the heading of this post, late morning here in “Almost Maine.” This being winter in New England, it’s cold outside. The current temperature is 29°F/-2°C under mostly cloudy conditions. The feels-like temperature is a bit warmer: 39°F/4°C. That’s certainly not shorts-and-T-shirt weather, and when I go out to get my dose of sun I’ll be sure to wear my winter coat, hat, and maybe even gloves – no need to go looking for trouble in that chilly air. The forecast for today calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 39°F/4°C. Tonight, we can expect partly cloudy skies and a low of 25°F/-4°C.
Trials and Tribulations
Last night I looked again in my bedroom for the missing remote for my 4K UHD Blu-ray player, which I last remember using on December 31. Nope, no luck. I can’t find the damned thing, which means I can’t use either the player or the TV (I am still waiting for the remote for that to arrive from Florida). I know where I saw it last – it was on my futon, on top of the bedcovers. I might have placed it on one of the IKEA shelves (which unfortunately are all black, like the remote), or maybe this house is haunted, and a poltergeist borrowed the remote.
Whatever the reason, or wherever the remote is in my room, I can’t find it. I ordered a replacement from Amazon the night before last, but since Madison is not a large metro area – more people lived in East Wind Lake Village, the condominium where I lived for 38 years in South Florida than in this small rural area – Amazon deliveries take about a week from the time you order something till UPS or FedEx delivers it. (Amazon does not have its own Prime delivery facility in Conway or anywhere else close by.)
And, I just realized that because tons of my things are still in boxes, I am going to need AA and AAA batteries for my mouse, wireless keyboard, and remote. I brought a few packages of batteries from Florida, but I don’t know in which box they are stashed. (They’re not in the box marked “Last Minute Things & Cables,” that’s for sure.
Hump Day Plans – Action This Day
Speaking of Amazon deliveries, today I’m expecting a package from the e-retailer that contains a 12-pack of Premier Protein Shake (Café Latte) in 11-ounce bottles. I would have preferred Ensure, but that stuff is pricy as fuck, so I chose the closest equivalent to Ensure. I did not do a huge food shop the other day, and I need all the nourishment that I can afford to buy with my SNAP benefits, so I buy all the ready-to-consume supplements that I can.
The shipment with the Premier Protein Shakes also includes a copy of (I hope) the corrected paperback edition of Reunion: A Story, the first book of the Reunion Duology. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember that I had to upload one more fix to Kindle Direct Publishing because I spotted a mistake in one of the last pages of the novella. It’s a minor punctuation error, one that I missed previously because my mind “sees” what’s supposed to be on the page instead of what is actually there.
The correction appeared in the Kindle edition quickly; I believe it only took 24 hours to “take” in the e-book. However, for the paperback edition, updates take longer – about a week after Kindle Direct Publishing tells us authors that our corrections and other edits have gone “live” – so I waited several days before ordering yet another copy. (I guess I’m my own best customer, since I do get copies either to give to friends or to own the corrected edition.)
Since UPS is handling the delivery for Amazon, I have no idea when this shipment will arrive today. As of 10:22 AM EST, it’s not marked as “Out for Delivery,” and the last update says it arrived at a facility in Northfield, NH at 4:13 AM EST. It’s supposed to arrive before 8 PM, though, so it will get here at some point today.
Aside from that, my plan is to try to get back on the working schedule I had in Lithia – which I still sometimes think of as “home,” even though it isn’t anymore. After I post this on WordPress, I’ll take a midday break, then return to my office an hour later and open the file with the Reunion: Coda manuscript. Then I – more than likely – will read what I’ve written so far, then I’ll make what edits and revisions need to be made.
(I’d rather have a sharp-eyed editor look over the manuscript and do the editing, as I tend to miss things that later show up in the published book. I plan to release Reunion: Coda in three formats – hardcover, paperback, and e-book – so I would like my first-ever novel to be as error-free as possible. Alas, I can’t afford to hire an editor, so unless someone volunteers to do the task pro bono, I’m on my own with that task.)
I honestly don’t think I’ll be writing “fresh copy” today. I have been away from the story for too long – since November 17 – thanks to this interstate move, so Jim, Marty, Mark, and Maddie (so many “M” names in the main cast!!) seem like strangers to me now. Hopefully, a careful re-reading of the 11 or so chapters I’ve written so far will immerse me back in the fictional world of the duology, which is – in its high school elements, at any rate – based partly on my experiences at South Miami High School in the early 1980s. And if that happens, I’ll be in a better position to move the story to a satisfactory conclusion that will please both the reader and me.
Anyway, that’s the plan. Wish me luck, cos I am going to need all the good luck I can get.
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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