Nice Morning

Well, I just got back from being on the road for a couple of days, working on a story. Short road trip with 1,000 miles logged in 2 days, but several good interviews out in West Texas, where there's more land than cattle, more cattle than humans, and where oil crickets dot the land instead of trees.
There is nothing like being on the ground to collect the sights, sounds, smells of a place I need to write about. Gives stories an added dimension.
And that's all I'm going to say because I haven't written the story yet.
I came in maybe 8 PM last night, pooped from the drive, and to my delight, everybody was here, waiting for me to get back. Damn, it was like we was a real whole family. Madeleina hugged me while the babies hugged my legs, waiting their turn to get picked up and have me sing them their private songs--and though she's getting old for it and I was only away a couple of days, I know Madeleina liked hearing a few lines from "Potato Legs", a song I made up for her within minutes of her being born.
Better than that, Italo was in the middle of cooking dinner. He was making up a batch of chicken thighs with barbeque sauce and had a pot of rice on. Cool.
And nicely, there were a couple of notes in my email--I hadn't seen a computer in a couple of days--from people telling me they'd made wire transfers of their deposits for my two upcoming trips in June and July. Hot damn. I'm gonna have a couple of pretty good groups of guests out there.
There was also a note or two from my only January guest. I'd had four with a couple more promising to come when two of them said they couldn't make it. So I canceled. One of the two is coming in July; the other had a non-refundable ticket so I arranged for him to do the trip with my crew.
Of course I wondered why I wound up having to cancel and then utilized much of the time to finish and edit the book--see how easily I can pull you into the book? See below for important details on BUYING THE DAMNED THING!!!!!--but also knew there must be something else going on or that would go on.
And, of course, there was. It was rain in the Andes. And my one guest, who was in Machu Picchu on the dates we all would have been there, got stuck when some bridges went out. He was evacuated by helicopter a few days later. But everybody would have been stuck and for some that might have meant their jobs, so it turned out great that the trip was canceled. (It did not turn out great for the Peruvians badly affected by the mudslides and deaths the rain caused, and that's really the important thing, and I'm not forgetting that.)
So my guest, stuck several days before he could get back to Lima, wound up getting mistreated by KLM, who, despite the natural disaster that caused him to miss his flight, wound up having to pay nearly $800 to change his flight after the fact. Neither my people nor I would have all had that.
So I'm sitting here thinking, Man, that's for the protection. You guys looking out for me are doing a great job.
And I'm sending energy spears to KLM to have them make good on my guest's money. Com'on: Natural disaster strikes; you miss your flight because of it and an airline the size of KLM has no capacity to understand and change the flight for free? Grrrrrrrrrrrr......
And I just finished egg salad from our chickens. Man, I don't know if I'll ever be able to eat regular eggs again. They're just not real eggs, no matter the quality egg I buy. My little chicks are churning them out once a day, and the duck has started laying as well: Her eggs are HUGE!!!
And now it's time to work.
BUT::::::Not before I remind you that this book thing is coming along well. A friend is working on some sketches for it; the art director has this great great cover and look to it....hell, if I can get a few more bells and whistles maybe no one will notice if the text sucks.
IT DOES NOT SUCK!!! It is amazingly honest, brutally candid, and unflinchingly full of my fears. Hopefully the story of that stuff will keep you interested.
So go to pgorman.com hit the button for the "book" and then slip $25 to paypal in my name. And when it's done in about a month, when there are real copies in hand, I'll send you one. Okay? That doesn't sound so painful now, does it?
And for those of you who have already bought it, thanks.