Travel

 I mentioned last week that I’d sent off the manuscript of ONE FOR THE HOOKS.  The usual process is that my editor writes a letter with her comments and suggestion or changes. It usually takes quite a while to get her notes, but This time it only took a week.   I got her comments yesterday just as we were leaving for the Raleigh Durham airport.

I was relieved that she liked the manuscript a lot.  Her comments were mostly for tweaks or to explain things more.  Nothing that I had a problem with.  

The trip to Durham was short and extremely busy.  We got my brother’s place emptied and had contractors over to get estimates on things like carpeting and painting.  We found out selling his car is kind of weird.  Because we are from out of state, I have to sell it to a resident of North Carolina.  It’s crazy, but that’s he rule.  His car is a 2007 Toyota and it has 7000 miles on it.  That’s not a typo.  It’s 7000 miles. I’d consider keeping it, but it’s a stick shift.

In the midst of going through the stuff, I found out that my brother and some other people invented some computer things and have a patent on it. There was a plaque from IBM congratulating them.   I met some neighbors who had known him and they gave me a little more insight in his life.

I have lots of nice memories of him.  We always got along.  The memories mean more than any stuff I could have kept.

I really like the area where his place is. His dining room looks out on a forest and when we drove away the last time, there were a bunch of deer across the street.  That rural feeling and yet it is a short drive to Duke University and the University of North Carolina.  There are stores galore nearby, too.

The time we weren’t dealing with his place, I was busy working on other writing projects.  Somehow the peace of the hotel room stirred my imagination and I got the plot for the next Yarn Retreat book and ways that I want to change the manuscript I’m working on for the second Writer for Hire book.

Everybody asks how it was to fly.  Just tonight I heard on the news that the way the air circulates on a plane makes it as if the person in the middle seat was actually 12 feet away.  Nice to know since all the planes we flew on were more crowded than when we went in early June.  Everybody was wearing masks and the flight attendants handed out a bag with a small bottle of water, a packet with a cleaning towelette and a package of cookies as we got on.  We changed planes in Dallas both ways and the airport was crowded.  LAX was pretty quiet as was Raleigh Durham, though both had more things open than when I flew in June.

I’m glad to be home, but want to go to Chicago.  I have some repairs I have to do and October is my favorite month there.  The crazy thing is that I wake up at 8:00 give or take a few minutes either way, local time wherever I am.  I don’t seem to get jet lag.  It’s like I am wherever I am.
No complaints about it.  It makes travel so much easier.