Tonight’s WPCA-FM story broadcast was The Eye Of The Beholder, a tale of several artists with talent and the hidden artistic purpose of one of them. Of course, I know the story’s outcome but it seemed to me that the mystery could be figured out without much trouble. Give the story a read and see if you reach the same conclusion as the story’s end. (You’ll find the story in the paperback book, The Second Gathering of The Break Time Stories and online in the story collection Four More Break Time Stories (available on Amazon.com). The paperback book is available through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
My latest paperback story collection, Six Short Stories, is available now through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Booksellers. If you think a geezer can’t get excited about things, you just don’t know your geezers! I’m excited about this latest book. The stories include a hometown hero with some problems, a biker with even greater problems, and a tale of the proverbial Hollywood casting couch. Then, there’s a story about a priest who hungers for real justice, a sculptor pushed into success by a strong ally, and the mangled fairy tale is Snow Job and the Four Dwarfs.
At Wolf Creek United Methodist Church we are losing our long-time organist, who’s off to a larger congregation with a more sensible service time–and probably a lot more money than we pay. Musicians for church are near-impossible to find these days; everybody’s looking. I have arranged coverage for three of our coming Sundays but April has five Sundays and three of them are yet to be filled. We shall see. I’m hoping the congregation is praying as fervently as I am that we can field the right person.
As I’ve written, we have had lots of snow and too much ice this Winter, so–somehow–in dealing with that, I figure, I managed to injure myself. X-rays show no broken ribs or cracked hip, but prone on my back in bed and stretching high is agonizingly painful. The closest I can compare the pain is to a broken finger I experienced while low crawling in Army Basic Training. The doctors figure I yanked muscles and prescribe heat packs and Ibuprofin.
WPCA-FM’s broadcasts of my stories happen on the first Tuesday night of each month. For several years now the broadcast time has been 7:00 p.m. but beginning in April the time will move to 7:30 p.m. As I’ve said, I am grateful to Bob Zenk and LuAnn at WPCA for sharing my stories on the air; it is a privilege few authors enjoy. (And if the truth be known, some of those stories are read aloud quite well.)
Updating my brother Guy’s condition: he has oxygen during the daytime (that means his lungs are working) and life support at night. He is confused but does understand instructions from his nurses. He can get out a few words with a speaking device but cannot hold a real conversation. That’s not great progress since our last update but as my elder son Aaron says, “Where there’s life, there’s hope.”