Of Call Etiquette and Teasing by Konnie Enos

Growing up in the good ol’ days before everyone carried their phones in their pockets, we were always instructed that it was rude to call anyone before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. If you knew they worked ‘9 to 5’ you had about three hours in the evening when they might be available to talk.

There were, of course, exceptions to this rule. Such as calling someone you know stayed up later, or who was expecting your late call. And late calls did happen because long-distance calls were cheaper after 10 p.m.

Of course, you also couldn’t get ahold of someone who wasn’t home, or at least in a known location with a phone number you knew or could get. But no one was calling people at work just to chat either.

But to this day, anyone who grew up in that era will panic if their phone rings unexpectedly after 9 p.m. or before 8 a.m. I’ve done it myself and was extremely irritated when a spammer woke me at 6 a.m. I’m sure others will agree with me that there are just sometimes of the day when you absolutely shouldn’t be calling anyone.

Now, the one thing I learned about this piece of etiquette is that you have to know the time differences between time zones so you’re not calling someone too early or late. For example, someone in New York can call someone in California at 11 p.m. because it’s only 8 p.m. in California.  But California can’t call New York at 8 p.m. without first arranging the time.

Now that I have children on both coasts (Massachusetts and Oregon), not to mention family in Utah and Idaho, I have to remember the time difference before calling any of my family.

Okay, so four of my five kids live in the same time zone as I do. But two of those don’t live with me and I never remember their daily schedules.

Who am I kidding? I don’t know my son's schedule other than if it’s daytime, he’s probably working. I’m sure he gets a day off here and there, but I don’t know when it is.

My daughter does tell me her schedule, but their wake-sleep cycle is different and I’m never sure when they are awake. And my sister is active enough that between her jobs, friends, clubs, and groups, I’m never sure she’s home, at least during the day. I can generally catch her on weekends and evenings.

Our oldest son does have night owl tendencies but is working a daytime job. Even then I doubt he’d be in bed before 10 p.m. so 9 might not be too late to call him. Then again he’s had jobs where he had to be to work before 7 a.m. so he might be in bed by 9. The conclusion is that since I don’t know his work schedule, I don’t know the best time to call him.

Then again, he’s a twenty-something. He has told me more than once that he prefers people to text him. Then he can deal with it when it’s convenient for him. And apparently, that’s the mind set of most twenty-somethings. Even Bonnie and I have gotten into the habit of texting our questions or whatever we want to say to each other. Once in a while one of us asks if the other can talk which then leads to one of us, usually Bonnie, texting, “Call me”.

Thinking about sending a text just brought me to the realization that the new phone etiquette is ‘always text someone before you call them to be sure they are willing and able to talk to you at that moment’.

So, what brought all this musing on?

My husband.

It was inching past 9 p.m. and he asked if it was too late to call our son.

After I thought about it a moment or two (see my musing above) I told Jerry I had no idea if it was a good time or not but also mentioned how Bonnie would react if he called her.

He said, “Okay, I’ll call Bonnie.”

“You will not. She’ll panic.”

“I’ll call from your phone.”

“You will not. If you called from my phone, especially this late at night, she’d think something happened to me and really panic.”

(Don’t worry, Bonnie. I think he was teasing.)

He finally said, “Fine. I’ll just text.”

(Pretty sure he meant our son because Bonnie didn’t call me in a panic when his text woke her up.)

Anyway, that was my moment of clarity and my “I just got to write that down” inspiration.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

Of Cash and Myths by Bonnie Le Hamilton

The other day as I was driving home from work, I spotted a couple of kids with a lemonade stand near the corner of Walnut and Jefferson. It was a good place to set up. Jefferson is a major throughway, and trees line the sidewalk in that spot. Or rather the parking lot to the building on the corner of Walnut and Jefferson has a row of trees between the lot and the sidewalk.

I am very well aware of this because my car is having issues with overheating. I generally have to stop on my way home from work to let my car cool down; I prefer to do it under those trees. Its cooler.

So anyway, I pulled into the lot and parked under one of the trees and those poor boys thought I stopped to buy a cup of lemonade. Too bad, I hate discouraging such young entrepreneurs, but I rarely carry cash. I should.

But it got me wondering how anyone could have a lemonade stand, or a yard sale for that matter when very few people carry cash these days.

I guess with a yard sale folks can plan on having cash on hand before they leave, but with a lemonade stand, I never know about them until I see them.

Then again, I don’t read the paper, so I only get news of yard sales when I see the signs or drive past them. And I never stop because I have no cash on me. But other people were stopping. So clearly some people still carry cash.

Actually, I know my sister-in-law carries cash. She does that so she doesn’t go over budget. I guess a few people do it that way. I don’t. To each his own.

In other news, I finally read the Percy Jackson series. The trouble is I had a feeling of déjà vu while reading it. A lot of it felt familiar like I’d read it before. The only trouble is that I haven’t read it before! I know I haven’t.

At any rate, I have read the series, or at least the first five books. And now I am trying to figure out when I could have read them before.

Problem number one is that the copywrite date is from early this century. If I had read it that recently I would remember when and where.

Problem number two is that it can’t be very old because of the mention of things like cell phones and a model of car which didn’t come out until like the nineties. I most certainly couldn’t have read this series as a child. Cell phones were not a thing then.

Looking the series up online, it is clearly from this century. And newer than the Harry Potter series and I first read the first book around the time it hit the US.

And as much as I like Harry Potter, I think I like Percy Jackson a little bit better. Mostly because I liked the subject matter way back in third grade when we did a section all about Roman and Greek myths.

I do use a Greek myth in one of my stories.

Rick Riordan uses most of them and brings them into the modern age. It is quite an interesting take on the myths actually.

Anyway, it got me wondering if any other authors have used old myths for their modern stories. There have to be a few because of course, Thor and all those are part of Norse mythology. Modern stories of them do exist.

I think there are modern stories of other legends or myths from other cultures, the problem would be, that all I have ever studied is Roman and Greek myths. None of the others were mentioned in the course I had way back in third grade.

Technically, I have heard or read about a few others since then, but I seem to gravitate towards Greek myths myself considering that is the only kind of myth I have used in my writing.

I can also say one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek The Original Series is the one with Apollo in it.

Now that I think about it, that episode combined with the lessons I had in third grade may explain my liking of Greek myths so much.

So, do you like any myths? Have you considered, or even used, at least one myth in your writing?

You don’t have to make it as prevalent as Riordan does. I don’t. I barely mention the myth I use in my story, but it is there, without it the group my main characters are a part of wouldn’t exist.

Anyway, happy writing everyone!

 

Of Homebodies, Sleeping, and Editing by Konnie Enos

I’ve found that since Covid I’ve become a homebody.

Before Covid, I was the one who usually checked the mail every day. Nowadays I just remind my family that it needs to be checked and they bring it to me.

Before Covid, I was going to the grocery store at least once a week, though usually two or three times. Nowadays, I don’t go to the store at all, and my daughter does the shopping only once a week. Of course, that’s because she plans better than I do. She writes a menu plan for the coming week and then checks all the cupboards to make sure we have enough to make all those meals. She also generally refuses to buy anything not on the list.

Of course, she also refuses to go back to the store in the middle of the week when we run out of something. Milk seems to be the one thing that doesn’t last a whole week which is perplexing to me. There are only two people in our family that drink it. I only have milk on the rare occasions I eat cereal. And my daughter can’t have dairy at all.

Also, before Covid, I would go to multiple stores each week to find the best deals for the supplies and other things we needed. I would also do that for getting gifts and gift-wrapping supplies. Walmart and Family Dollar Stores were where I went the most. Nowadays, I don’t even bother going to Walmart. If I need something my daughter can’t find on her weekly shopping trips, I’ll order it online. Either from Amazon for delivery or Walmart for pick-up.

Another thing I would do before Covid was write checks and hand-deliver them to the provider, or personally take them to be mailed. I can’t remember the last time I wrote a check. Now I pay all my bills through direct withdrawals from my account or online.

When I was confined to my room with Covid, I complained because I couldn’t see and talk to my family and had to keep my bedroom door closed. Nowadays, the door is usually open, but I still spend most of my day in bed.

Not asleep mind you. I’m generally sitting up on my computer or tablet. I spend my days doing coloring, Sudoku, and other games on apps, getting sucked into Facebook or other social media sites, reading books, doing handcrafts (admittedly rarely), dealing with our finances, or working on my writing. All of which I can do from the comfort of my bed.

Currently, the one thing that takes up the most of my time is editing two of my WIPs. My fantasy is the shorter of the two. I spent about a week working my way through it. Changing my wording here and there. Changing some of the POV. Adding a bit of detail. (I’m really bad at adding the necessary details until about the tenth draft.) The one thing I’m sure I still need to work on is the POV but I’m much closer now.

After working on that, I started on my sci-fi. It’s much longer. In fact, it’s so long I’ve broken it down into five books.

I got through the first three books just editing a few word choices and, again, adding some details. I even managed to get to the last chapter of the fourth book without much problem.

Then I hit a snag.

The fourth book currently cuts off with an incomplete chapter and at the wrong point of the story line. Fortunately, the correct point is in the fifth book, I just have to move it over. But this also means I need more scenes for the fifth book, or it’ll be a novella instead of a novel.

Knowing this, I did some brainstorming with my daughter and sister. I even was all tech savvy enough to take notes on my phone, so I have something to refer to while I’m making these changes. The thing is, some of these changes mean I have to go back to the very first book and start over.

Heavy sigh.

So, Monday I spent much of the day working on the first book but decided I needed a break and went down that famous rabbit hole known as Facebook. I got off and went to bed sometime early Tuesday morning. Yes, I shouldn’t do that.

So, yesterday I tried to concentrate on my editing, but I kept dozing off. But I finally managed to get about halfway through the next to the last chapter. I only quit because I was extra tired and still needed to do my post. I opted for sleep and doing my post this morning.

Now back to editing.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

Of Knees and Not Writing by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

I put my knee out last night. No big deal, I’ve done it before. The problem is that I also somehow skipped a day, and I didn’t realize I needed to write my post until it was way past my bedtime, and I was in so much pain I needed some pain meds just to get some sleep. I couldn’t think beyond that.

I’m still having trouble thinking, mostly because I didn’t get enough sleep.

I am falling back to sleep right now, so I’m going to end my post here.

Happy writing everyone.

Of Writing and Sleeping by Konnie Enos

Trying to come up with an idea for a blog post is a daunting task. Especially when you can’t come up with even one thought that could be extrapolated into sufficient coherent words to fill several pages.

As is usually the case, when I can’t come up with ideas, I start reading hoping to jar something loose. My efforts yesterday included reading some of my stories.

I started with a few of my WIPs that I never managed to complete at least one rough draft on. The longest one I read was only around thirty pages. The next longest was barely over ten. Another one was three or four scenes, while the shortest was only one scene.

And although most of my stories are romance, only one of the ones I read yesterday was. The others were either fantasy or sci-fi.

And none of them jarred anything loose but it wasn’t late yet. Thinking about getting my mind off of finding an idea for my blog, hoping that would help germinate an idea, I decided to look at my fantasy, which I’ve been editing lately.

All that served to do was to keep me editing just one more scene until about two in the morning. Then Jerry’s alarm woke me up only a few hours later. So now I’m tired and still not able to come up with an idea that will fill more than a page.

Since I hadn’t had enough sleep yet, after his alarm woke me, I went back to bed and ended up sleeping past my alarm. Meaning, I slept longer than I should have and now I don’t have enough time to formulate any other idea than rambling about why I’m now so tired.

And I can’t help but think that it tends to be a recurring theme with me that I don’t get anywhere near enough sleep the night before I’m supposed to write the blog post. And part of the reason that is, is because I stay up way too late, either writing something else or down the rabbit hole known as Facebook all while trying to generate an idea for the blog. Then I have to get up earlier than I usually do to actually write the blog, which of course, I usually don’t even start the night before.

Since this happens frequently when I have to get a post written, you would think it’s a regular occurrence, but really it isn’t. It doesn’t even happen every time I have to write for our blog.

It's far more likely that I’ll be well rested on Wednesday morning yet have no idea what to write about and just do a rambling stream of thought. Which happens far more frequently than I admit. Mostly because it works for me.

Then there are mornings like today when I can’t seem to think in full sentences and have to keep backtracking because I wasn’t making sense. And everybody knows the harder you try to pull out the words, the more elusive they are.

Right now, all I can come up with is that I have way too much planned to do today especially considering I’ve only had about four hours of sleep. On the plus side, I managed to do a rough edit on nearly half of my completed fantasy WIP. Unfortunately, most of what I did edit didn’t include fixing the POV issues, which means I have to go back over those chapters again.

I also think I should change the ending because the last couple of chapters feel too rushed. Too much like I’m trying to get in too much information into too short a space. Worse still, it feels that way because I am trying to get too much information into too short a space.

At this point, I have no more time to contemplate the problem because I have to get my post and then start preparing for my busy day. I imagine I’m going to be crashing from sheer exhaustion about the time the sun goes down today.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Technology and Me by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Of late I have been thinking a lot about how much the world has changed since Konnie and I were in high school. Can you believe that we graduated 42 years ago?

And a whole lot has changed in this world in those 42 years. Back then personal computers were behemoths requiring a considerable amount of muscles to heft and carry. They also cost an arm and a leg. They were most decidedly not standard fare in every American home.

Of course, back then phones were for the most part attached to the wall. Some of the wealthy people had a phone attached to their cars. It was very much a luxury item. And cordless phones were a novelty, but the base was still attached to the wall. Though maybe it was around that time when they started having mobile phones, those required a large case to carry around, and there was an antenna that you had to extend to make or receive calls.

I sincerely doubt anyone back then would believe that computers could be small and light enough to carry wherever you go or that phones would fit in your pocket!

And those phones attached to the wall? Nowadays they call those landlines, and who has those anymore?

Off the top of my head, I can name one friend who still has a landline, and she and her husband are considerably older than Konnie and me.

Konnie doesn’t have a landline anymore. I certainly don’t. One phone bill is enough, and my cell phone does a whole lot more than a landline ever could do. I actually don’t bother with wall calendars anymore. My phone is always closer, so why bother?

I also don’t bother with those appointment reminder cards generally given out at doctor’s offices anymore. Within seconds of the receptionist typing in my next appointment on her computer, I have it noted in my calendar on my phone.

Need a “To do” list? My phone has that too.

It also has a calculator, address book, camera, and my e-mail, as well as all sorts of apps I’ve added to it.

With my phone, I can track my health, and record things like my blood pressure, blood glucose, and weight regularly, and it's on hand when I see the doctor!

I can do most of my banking and bill paying on my phone as well. I have apps for my bank and my credit cards. And those bills I don’t have apps for, I still have most of them on autopay. I have both my electric and heating bills on level pay and autopay, so it’s easier to budget. And I’ve gone paperless with most of them too.

I have a whopping two bills that are not paperless or autopay. I do have several that are not autopay, but they are still paperless. I have their mobile app, and they notify me by email.

I personally find autopay, paperless, and mobile apps very convenient.

I’m not so sure my husband would be able to handle it if he were still alive. He was totally against cell phones, and he hated using drive-throughs. In fact, he avoided using the ATM as well! And he insisted on hand delivering payments if it was local. He would mail the ones that had to be mailed, but he refused to go autopay. He honestly thought once it was started there was no way to stop them on our end and you’d end up overpaying.

He also thought having the utilities on autopay meant getting shocked by large withdrawals. That’s what level pay is for.

Man, when I switched, life became so much easier.

All my money is directly deposited and most of my bills are automatic, so I don’t have to remember to get them paid on time, and for the few that aren’t, I can pay most of them on a mobile app. So much easier. And the only time I need to go to the bank is when my sister-in-law gives me her share of my cell phone bill. So just once a month, and just once a month I hand deliver my car payment to the credit union.

Plus, I always use the drive-through if I can, one less time to climb in and out of my car, and no standing in line!

Except when the app doesn’t want to open. Which was one issue I was having two weeks ago. Now the issues I was having with that one app and the internet have been fixed. Getting in touch with my internet provider and the owners of that app was the hard part.

Boy was all that a pain!

And in the end I had to factory reset my modem and delete and then re-install that app.

Happy writing everyone!