Well I am getting better about this writing but I fear that  I am in no way prepared for NaNoWriMo. I did this in 2008 and didn't finish but this has always been a dream of mine.  I really do love to write right up and about to the time where I am committed to doing it. Perhaps I have a fear of commitment. I do know that I am the only one that can overcome my issues and this is going to be a very serious attempt at doing what I profess to love doing. 
    The weather is getting cool here finally. That always makes me want to build a fire and start writing while drinking coffee and eating biscotti. This is my favorite time of year and I really spend 9 months of the year waiting for the 12 weeks of cool weather that we sometimes get. Living in Texas is not really ideal for someone that loves cold weather. I was born in Alaska and I love the cold. With that in mind I was forced to grow up in central Texas and Arizona. I have spent the majority of my life longing to live somewhere that has more than two seasons. I keep getting pulled back and forth between the two but if given a choice I would be living in the pacific northwest. I have always thought I belonged in Alaska. I keep hearing you can't go back home but I think I could do nicely in a little cabin in Alaska beside a stream. Let me be snowed in for three months at a time, I love to garden and I am fairly certain if I had internet I would be able to live off canned foods and just write in front of the fireplace all winter. Yes that would be my heaven. I can imagine spending leisurely days fishing to catch dinner or hunting and smoking and curing the meat to be saved for the winter. My husband on the other hand think that anything below 60 is really too cold for him so this does present a few issues. Well not really, this is where he works so I will die longing for the land I come from.
   If I know anything I know that life certainly has not given me what I thought it was going to. Isn't that always the case. I had visions of being a famous singer but I was not given a singers voice, so I thought maybe acting and lord knows I am dramatic enough but alas I never followed that path. It seemed to be my mission in life to raise kids, both helping with my siblings and then having my own child when I was still but a child. I loved being a Mother despite learning as I went. I guess we all do to a degree.  I know I am a much better Mother now than I ever could have been back then. Perhaps there is something to people needing to be licensed to have kids. I would not have passed a class then but I feel like now I could do a more than decent job of parenting.
     I will attempt to be more frequent about writing, we were in a car accident this weekend and it really has derailed me a bit. It's hard to sit comfortably and write anywhere that I try to sit. I suspect this will pass soon enough. It will have to FALL IS HERE! Did I mention that I LOVE this time of year?!?!?!?!

Well I am once again looking for excuses to not blog. It is so easy to get caught up in the events of the day or all thing things I need to do and not write. Not very productive I know but it is what it is. While sitting here formulating what will be my next topic, I found myself trying to concentrate on the peace and quiet but there was a problem with that. At first I thought the strange noises I was hearing were children playing in the yard behind us. Nope could not be more wrong. Apparently our neighbors are the new owners of a whole flock of chickens and they sounded to be most unhappy. I asked a passing roommate,  That's farm animals correct? He stood at the back door and pondered for a moment and nodded his head. Sounds of Old MacDonald were playing in my mind. I am quite a few years beyond singing nursery rhymes. What does one have to do for solitude? From the moment the sun comes up the dogs bark, the sirens wail, school buses roar by. Our world has become so full of noise. I long for the quiet of the White Mountains with nothing but the sound of birds and the stream passing by. I wonder how many people don't actually know what listening to the wind blow sounds like. I can't imagine living somewhere like New York where there is constant noise traffic. I am in rural Austin....now just let me clear up that I live in a small suburb, small being near 100,000 according to the most recent US Census. We lay right on the line next to Austin Texas which is the 11th largest city in the country. Austin is close to 900,000 but there are cities all around it. We sit nicely between Dallas/Ft Worth and San Antonio. Not really a farming community though. Despite the fact that we now seem to live within hearing distance of a farm. Perhaps I have become cynical in my old age but your home is supposed to be your respite. The quiet place you have to land at. This place is starting to remind me more of an airport than a respite of any kind.  And things land at an airport but certainly not what I had in mind. I understand the need for growing your own food and I totally get that it is better for your health to be in control of the things that go in to your body but I am not sure there is any amount of good health that is going to make living with these chickens bearable. Maybe they are just loud when they are being checked for eggs or disturbed but being a writer and working from home are going to make this a difficult relationship. Honestly not a whole lot different than the noise MY dog makes lately but that is because there is a new dog in the house and she thinks she is protecting us from the evil spawn in the front room. That poor animal doesn't stand a chance. She tries to walk through the room and Bonnie (my crazy chihuahua) goes on a barking spree that would rival any other chihuahua I have ever heard. We joke that perhaps she is old enough that she just barks at imaginary things now because we sure don't hear anything to trigger this. She can be sound asleep and just tear it up. I am realizing that this is all frustration coming out. Writing is good for that, helps your figure out exactly what it is that is REALLY bothering you. Not that a solution is there to be found but sometimes just knowing helps. Makes me feel a little more in control anyway!