Looking forward to February

Here it is the end of January, not that I'm sorry to see it go. As most of you know it didn't start out well for me. In fact, I'm still coughing. Add to that the severely cold temperatures and, well, let just say January wasn't my favorite month. Besides that I hate taking down the Christmas decorations. Everything looks so blah. Although I'm used to it now.
So I look forward to February. The month of love. The shortest month of the year. Although I've always thought it was the longest. Seriously, January you're winding down from the holidays, March you're looking forward to spring, which is right around the corner. But February....other than Valentine's Day what do we have to look forward to?
For me, it's the submission and publication of another book, Trouble Comes in Twos, previously published as Double the Trouble, I've revised it and will be sending it to the publisher soon.

Two men, two murders and the twin sister of one of the victims complicates life for Kate Wesley.

Life isn’t supposed to be so complicated, is it? After a five year absence, Kate Wesley returns to Twinsburg Ohio to open a florist shop. Life is good until Mark Westfield enters the picture. To make matters worse her ex fiancé is back in town and looking to pick up where they left off and Kate’s attracted to both men. When she finds a dead body in the cemetery and the twin sister of the victim shows up and a second body is discovered, life couldn’t get much more complicated. Will she be the next victim?

Excerpt:

 “Where’s Emma?” The tall, blond, muscular man yelled, before Kate had a chance to ask if she could help him.

Kate didn’t like his tone or the deep scowl, causing his eyebrows to almost meet above his icy blue eyes. “Excuse me?” Who did he think he was stomping in here like this? She took a step toward him.

“Emma’s supposed to be at the church for rehearsal. And don’t tell me she’s not here, her car’s in the parking lot. Why is she hiding out? Does she have cold feet?”

Kate pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, took a deep breath and counted to ten. She couldn’t lash out. This was a potential customer, although at that moment, she didn’t want to sell him anything, but no use riling him up further.

“I’m sorry, Mr...” Kate paused to let him fill in the blank. Surely this wasn’t Emma’s fiancé. He didn’t act anything like the way Emma described Doug Johnson.

The man didn’t answer, just glared at her.

Something about him struck her. Attractive, self-assured. Something else. Something tugged at her heart. A feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time. She ignored it.

Okay, that went nowhere. “Emma left almost...” Kate looked at her watch, “well over an hour ago, but she left her car keys.” Kate took the keys from the desk drawer and held them out to him but quickly drew them back.

She didn’t know who he was, and his attitude left a lot to be desired. She wasn’t about to give the keys to a complete stranger. For all she knew, he could be the guy who was following Emma. How did she know if Emma’s car was really in the parking lot? “Excuse me, Mr...” This time Kate refused to continue until he told her who he was.

He glared at her for a minute. “What do you mean she left? Her car’s still in the lot. And why do you have her keys?” He reached out to grab them, but Kate put her hand behind her back.

He stared at her.

No way was she giving this man more information. Gripping the keys tighter, she folded her arms across her chest and stared back at him, matching him glare for glare.

Who did he think he was? How dare he come into her shop and accuse her of hiding Emma? That was just plain ridiculous.

The stranger took a deep breath. Obviously he realized anger and yelling weren’t getting him anywhere. Not that Kate cared much what he thought. She wasn’t saying another word until he told her who he was. She could stare just as long as he could. She’d learned stubbornness a long time ago.

Spreading his hands out in front of him, in sort of an ‘I surrender’ mode, his eyes softened to a dusty blue. He let out his breath.

“Okay, I’m sorry. Let’s start over, shall we? I’m Mark Westfield, Emma’s brother.” He extended his hand, but Kate ignored it. “She’s supposed to be at church for rehearsal and hasn’t shown up. I’ve retraced her steps, and no one has seen her. I saw her car in your lot.” He let his hand fall to his side.

“This may sound like a strange request, Mr. Westfield, but may I see some identification?”

 “Identification?”

He looked at her as if she asked him to undress. “Yes, ID. I don’t know you. How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”

“Fair enough.” His lips moved just enough to hint at a smile.

He took out his wallet and handed her his driver’s license.

Kate stared from him to the license. Not bad looking, same fair coloring as Emma. Mark Westfield–thirty-seven. Only a few years older than her. Now what made her think that? She shrugged off the thought.

“Okay.” She handed it back to him. “Emma was here about an hour or so ago, like I said. She paid for the flowers and left, said she had a lot to do. A few minutes later, I found the keys. By the time I got out to the parking lot, she was gone. I figured she had another set, or someone picked her up.”

Mark ran his fingers through his short cropped blond hair and paced in front of her desk. “I don’t understand it. If she left her keys, and her car’s still here, what happened to her? Doug’s at the church beside himself worrying that she stood him up.”

“I’m pretty sure she didn’t. She was all excited this afternoon. Couldn’t wait. Maybe a friend picked her up?” A shiver ran up Kate’s spine. What did Emma say about being followed? Still Emma shrugged it off as her imagination. As excited as she was, no way she stood Doug up. Should she mention it?

“Most of her friends are in the wedding. Hell, the rest of them are at rehearsal. No, I can’t think of anyone. Besides, Emma wouldn’t leave her car and go with someone. She might have followed them and met them somewhere. No...that’s not like her at all.”

“Maybe you should call the police.”

“Call the police? Are you nuts? I can hear it now. Bride disappears two days before wedding, family panics. You know they’ll say she had cold feet.”

FREEDOM COMES WITH AGING

FREEDOM COMES WITH AGING - Repringed From Ginger Simpson's blog

This is an email I received from a dear friend, and I really needed to read and absorb the words.  I hope you will, too.

Start Shared words:

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world, too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it, if I choose to read, or play on the computer, until 4AM, or sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 50s, 60s & 70s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.

*I will walk the beach, in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves, with abandon, if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And, eventually, I remember the important things.

Sure, over the years, my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break, when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength, and understanding, and compassion. A heart never broken, is pristine, and sterile, and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so  blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore.  I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if I feel like it).

MAY OUR  FRIENDSHIP NEVER COME APART, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S STRAIGHT FROM THE  HEART!

End Shared Message****

Please feel free to share this with others who need to appreciate the gift they've received.  Yesterday, I discovered a dear friend for many years lost her son during the night.  He simply went to sleep and didn't wake up, and he was a classmate of my youngest son who is 38.  Sadly, Jeff passed from complications caused by a medicine prescribed to combat the epilepsy he contracted during his military career.  The end result was liver disease, and now his mother has outlived her child…something I'm certain none of us want to do.  So…laugh today, live like there's no tomorrow, and dance if you want to.  Yesterday was the past, today is the "present"…a gift from God to you. 

Thanks to Ginger Simpson for allowing me to share this blog. 

*Footnote from me: No way am I going on a beach, Not in any kind of bathing suit. 

What does an ear infection, a sinus infection and brochitis have in common?

I started the year out without a voice. Literally unable to squeak and barely able to whisper. In fact, I ended last year the same way. Not a good way to start out the year. We were at my daughters to celebrate the old year and ring in the new. By ten o'clock we were home, by eleven, we were sound asleep. We had the TV on and I did hear them count down. Upon the shouts of Happy New Year, I turned over and instantly fell asleep.
New Year's Day, I was running a fever. Great, just what I needed, the flu. I couldn't speak for four or five days, but the fever subsided and I really didn't feel bad. The worst part was the runny nose and I soon developed  a cough. 
Full blown head cold - yuck. I knew colds lasted anywhere from a week to ten days, so bought several boxes of tissue (the soft kind with the lotion, because already my nose was sore from blowing) and drank plenty of water. I still cooked, cleaned, and did laundry, because like I said, I didn't feel sick. 
After ten days, the cough got worse. I was gagging and coughing up a lot of junk. But it was clear and I wasn't concerned. After all, I wasn't running a fever, and I didn't feel sick. Most of the time, my temperature was lower than normal. 
Two weeks and two days later, I started gagging so bad, I was throwing up. That scared me. Besides by two weeks this darn thing should have been gone. So even though I felt fine otherwise, I called the doctor, who by some miracle got me in that same day.
Diagnosis - ear infection -What? my ear didn't even hurt, Sinus infection - Okay with the way my nose was running that didn't surprise me, and Bronchitis -No way would I have believed that one, Other than my ribs hurting when I coughed, my chest seemed fine. 
So now you know what they have in common. I have all of them. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic and a kicker (as he calls it) cough medicine. I could take one to two teaspoons every four to six hours. Of course, I took two teaspoons. I wanted this cough to go away. Boy he wasn't kidding about the cough medicine. It has codiene in it and about ten minutes after I took it, like a miracle, my nose quit running and the cough was gone. However, about three and half hours, the nose starts running and the cough returns. I've been on it for three days now and unfortunately, the cough still returns. Not quite as bad, and I'm trying to wait six hours between doses. I might make it to five. If I'm not better in four days (that would be Sunday) I'm supposed to call. Unfortunately, they're not there on Sundays or Mondays, so I'll have to wait until Tuesday. I'm hoping I won't need the cough medicine by then and won't have to go back. 
Needless to say, I've not been writing much during this time. The cough medicine has two side affects - drowsiness and dizziness and I'm experiencing both. I hope to get back to my writing next week. I have a couple ideas brewing.