Observations From Hadleyville: AN EPIC TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

AN EPIC TWENTY YEARS IN THE MAKING

It snowed in the Antelope Valley today. Oh, it often snows here in the winter. Once it even snowed on Easter Sunday. But our "snows" tend to be more a one-day-wonder frosting than an actual Buffalo, New York SNOW.

But not today. Today we got SNOW, at least by California High Desert standards. I just looked out the back window and the patio table has somewhere between 8-10 inches. Cool. We even have a snowbound guest who cant get home because of the snow. Now THAT'S a storm. I know, I know, non-Californians go ahead and laugh, but we don't see this stuff too often. It's still a novelty.

I had business in town all day and driving was bracing, to say the least. I do have one rule for snow driving in California--if you need chains STAY OFF THE ROAD. I did my snow driving basic training in the Ozarks, too many Californians did theirs on Nintendo.

Merry White Christmas Bing.

4 comments:

Eric said...: I was home yesterday but didn't think bike riding was a good option :-). I got my workout shoveling snow.; December 19, 2008 at 9:02 AM
Don the Baptist said...: Yep. Nothing quite dampens the joy of snow like shoveling it off the walk and driveway.; December 19, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Kathleen Flynn said...: I think everyone in Ca. learned to drive with Nintendo; December 19, 2008 at 3:42 PM
Anonymous said...: I have learned to not appreciate the stuff; December 21, 2008 at 5:42 AM

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WORDS OF WISDOM FOR WRITERS

The secret of becoming a writer is that you have to write. You have to write a lot. You also have to finish what you write, even though no one wants it yet. If you don't learn to finish your work, no one will ever want to see it. The biggest mistake new writers make is carrying around copies of unfinished work to inflict on their friends.

I am sure it has been done with less, but you should be prepared to write and throw away a million words of finished material. By finished, I mean completed, done, ready to submit, and written as well as you know how at the time you wrote it.
-Jerry Pournelle

WHAT'S THIS HADLEYVILLE THING?

Those of you familiar with Mark Twain’s works might recognize my blog title. As Samuel Clemons grew older, he became increasingly disillusioned with humanity. Towards the end he began referring to the Damned Human Race; employing the secular and religious epithet at one stroke.

I find I’ve not reached that level of despair myself. I still believe in redemption and I still see signs of nobility even among we fallen, damned creatures. So, I could not bring myself to call this blog “On the Damned Human Race.” I do however, resonate with another of Clemmons stories; “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.” And viola, there you have it. “Observations From Hadleyville.”