Truth in advertising

I was going through some vacation photos from last summer (okay, a LOT of vacation photos - we were on the road for a month) and came across this laugh-out-loud sign that we drove past somewhere in Montana. You know, the state where casinos are as generously scattered as the Tim Horton's in Ontario. This particular one is somewhere west of Great Falls and east of the continental divide but it found a way to stand out from the rest.



I suppose no one can claim they weren't warned...

Braggin' a bit

I was hired to paint some menu boards for a coffee shop called "Daily Revival" and after some ISSUES with the board and primer, finally got them installed yesterday. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, if I do say so myself. I know the picture's not huge but let me tell you the latte I painted on the top right corner makes me wish I was a coffee drinker! I'd post a close-up but I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt in the rush to the nearest bean-o...



And I figured out how to add a bookshelf to my blog so you can see the books I've written. Cool, huh? (That's "Cool, eh?" for those of you still living in my native land.) Anyways, I'm pretty proud of the bookshelf thing. It's just a full-of-me kind of day...

Fortunately my kids get out of school early today and that brings me back to earth pretty quickly.

Like a rich cup of chocolate...

A dear friend of mine loaned me a book the other day, and I have to say this is a very special book. It's the "Emerson Birthday Book," copyright 1881. The edges are worn and the binding a bit shaky and there are signs that this was once part of a library collection although they've almost faded away.

I have never held a more beautiful book.

I had talked to her on a day I was feeling down and she had gone to this volume and marked a particular page before loaning me the book.

It was marked with her coffee punch card. (She must really trust me. Either that or she knows too well that I'm not a coffee drinker.) It's dated May 5 and reads

"Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret. The inquisitiveness of the child to hear runs to meet the eagerness of the parent to explain. The air does not rush to fill a vacuum with such speed as the mind to catch the expected fact..." -Progress of Culture

Aaahh...

A fantasy of a book tour

Last night, my kids and I attended the local Motiv8 Fantasy Fiction West Coast Tour in our area. Wow!

Now I have to say, as a writer, book signings are often a mixed bag when it comes to interest, excitement, store support, community turn out, etc. Some are really fun, some are really dreadful. Sometimes even the authors go to great lengths to avoid them. I have one colleague that says "You're not a real writer until you sat and been ignored by the public."

But this group did everything right.


Evangel Family Bookstore hosted the event and decorated the hallway of the mall with pillars, an antique podium, pillar candles (with those little battery-operated tealights inside so the mall was happy) and a chained-off circle of velvet-covered table. Each of the 8 authors was dressed in a medieval/Renaissance costume and each of them carried a sword with a cross embossed on the handle (apparently the mall wasn't happy about the swords but they were a HUGE hit).

The authors included Wayne Thomas Batson, Bryan Davis, Eric Reinhold, Sharon Hinck, Donita K. Paul, Christopher Hopper, LB Graham and Jonathan Rogers. Turn out was great and the authors kept the crowds fascinated until well after the lights went out in the mall. (In fairness, the mall stayed open an hour late to accommodate the event but apparently they forgot to tell the timer on the lights.) Along with the signing "circle", there were the usual short readings and then, a sword fight! Christopher Hopper and Wayne Thomas Batson did a fantastic job entertaining the crowd with their funny sword antics and Jonathan Rogers brought a scene from one of his books vividly to life - almost too vividly since it involved eel slime and mashed garlic...


Authors stood for photos, signed autographs for fans young and old, and some even knighted their readers. (I'm not sure I'm going to call my son "Sir" though.) My family has 8 treasured autographs (several of each, actually) and we have a new stack of books to read and we're anticipating some great adventure!

This group is going to be in 8 cities over 8 days on the West Coast of the US so if you want to know if they're in your area or to find out more about the authors and their books, visit www.fantasyfictiontour.com. I highly recommend it.

An evening with friends is always special

Okay, sometimes procrastination pays off...

Heroes in funny hats

Bike helmets are not sexy.

Now motorcycle helmets have a certain mystique that adds to the attraction but no matter how you dress it up with that thin plastic highly colored slightly reflective shell, bike helmets still look dorky. Of course, riding without a helmet is even less attractive when you consider what that head might look like in the event of a crash but for cyclists, safety can be a blow to vanity.

Until you get into large groups of like-minded - and like-hatted - people.

My family and I signed up for the Quarter-Century (25 mile) ride as part of Ride the Rogue a couple weekends ago and weren't sure whether the younger members would make it. They were definitely among the youngest cyclists on the ride. Of course, I wasn't sure I would make it either!

It was a perfect day for a ride though (except for the forest-fire smoke that is very much a part of summer in our area) and we headed out. The roughest part of the ride was a climb at the beginning and we pedaled and panted and stopped for a rest or two and generally fell behind the pack.

And then I realized how many heroes wear dorky hats.

Every time - almost without exception - a group of riders passed us, they would cheer on my kids. "Good job!", "Way to go, tiger!", "Stick with it!", "Keep pedaling!" They pumped them up and cheered them on and stopped to make sure we were okay every time we were resting.

And it wasn't just my kids. An older and somewhat heavier woman had pulled off, obviously near her limits, and two women crossed the road to sit with her until she recovered or until Sag Support came to pick her up. Search and Rescue teams were out keeping tabs on any rider on the route in all distances. As riders thinned out, they kept a count of who was still on the ride.

Another group of riders on recumbent bikes were our own particular parade that inspired us just by the colorful flags they'd put on their bikes. Seeing those colors waving in the breeze and over field tops kept our legs turning.

The lunch stop volunteers were cheering us on and keeping us up with ride-friendly energy foods. Sag support volunteers helped replace flat tires (one of our bikes had THREE flats over the course of the ride) and relayed messages when riders got separated a little further than they (we) expected, or when cell-phone coverage died in the mountains. And the BBQ (tri-tip and salmon) and band at the finish line were absolutely worth the ride to get there.




It's Friday. What better way to end a week and get ready for a weekend than to remember someone or something special that happened during the week? I think I'll have a "Hats Off Friday" post every week to try to acknowledge the unsung heroes that we all encounter every day. It's a small way to say thanks for the big difference they make.


So today it's "Hats Off" to the heroes in dorky helmets.