Tonight’s WPCA-FM broadcast of my stories was a mangled fairy tale, Hansel and Gertie. What they found in the small cottage at the end of their wandering was not expected. I found myself laughing many times during this romp of a mangled tale; it was even funnier than I remembered. And that’s one of the points mangled fairy tales make: all seriousness aside, here’s an absolutely absurd story. I’ve said for years now that I am grateful to WPCA-FM for airing all my stories and it is a privilege few writers ever get to have. You will find Hansel and Gertie in the paperback, Some Mangled Fairy Tales, as well as in the ebook collection, Yet More Break Time Stories, and in The First Gathering of The Break Time Stories paperback. Check your local book store as well as online.
As for the rest of life, I’ve been busy laying 720+ bricks to extend the small patio off our back door. I do that when I’m not trying –still–to continue our process of moving into our new home and downsizing at the same time. Downsizing is something Marina and I talked about and did a bit of in the past, but you know how it is: life interferes. But I can see now the possibility that I actually will be able to get the car into the garage before the snow flies. That, and completing the half-finished shed need to happen and it’s a race with the calendar. Wisconsin’s north still has Winter. Tonight, while sitting under our pergola in front, three cranes (I think) flew overhead. Apparently, some Winter over not far south of here, while others flee further These guys were going the wrong way.
And after weeks of struggling with a new computer and trying to get a new printer to work, the things have settled in and I’m as functional or moreso than I was before. Now, it’s getting Marina’s computer to work properly after an upgrade. Ain’t technology wonderful!
Speaking of my wonderful wife, she has put in her application for another Seeing Eye dog. Gretel and Andy gave her much more independence. A cane does not know where to go, but the guide dog does know. Even in a store, “Follow Dad” made things easy, while without a guide dog, if I’m more than four feet away I can’t be seen, so following me is difficult. The best remedy, then, is to hold onto the shopping cart and pilot it jointly. After being in our new place for just the short time before he died, Andy knew our driveway and the sidewalk to our back yard and back door. A cane would never know.