Poodle Tricks

My name is Pete

and I'm a poodle pup.

My tricks are many

for treats I love.

My parents have loved me

since the day I came

They knew from the start

that I would find fame.

Art of Hitch Hiking

     I briefly touched on the art of hitch hiking in my last blog, but I firmly believe that there is a fine art to it. I suppose that you can make the argument that people that hitch hikers are destitute or down and out. However there are, or there once was, a group that did it because it was fun. Even if you are destitute you have to present yourself as someone who you would pick up. You don't have to wear your Sunday best, but being filthy is not the answer. The rules as I see them are Look like you want a ride. Be attentive to the road and traffic so that you can make eye contact with your potential driver.
So that when and if they are going to pick you up you are at least aware of it happening. Circumstances put people in all kinds of positions, I never thought that it was beneath me to hitch a ride. Once I hitched on old route 20 from Albany, New York to Rochester with my old dog Dusty. We actually did well and got good rides. Although he was a very cool dog. It was a great experience.
     Many of my short stories have the central character as a wayfarer. In fact I once got a rejection letter telling me my central character should have obvious means of support to be a role model for young children. I think that only fueled my Pied Piper Complex. If traveling and hitching were truly to be an Art. My characters would be stellar examples of it.
     So I will continue to make The Art of Hitch Hiking a theme to write about. For all the children out there I will leave you with one of my Poems from Of Mountains and Men.

                                                       Upon The Mountains


Go upon the mountains
My beautiful innocent children
Leave the cities far behind.
For they in their ingratitude
Condemn themselves to their solitude!
Today's Song
Take To The Highway, James Taylor

The Traveling Man

There is a fine art to being a successful traveler. My greatest asset was my Tough Traveler Backpack.https://toughtraveler.com/
It was every Hitch Hiker's dream. It was so long ago and unfortunately I don't remember what model the pack was. However I do remember that the zipper broke on the pack and I brought it back to the company and was ready to pay to have a new one installed and they said that they would warranty the zipper and install a new one for me for free. They are Tough Traveler of Schenectady, New York. I was so impressed that I have had my character Tyler Thompson pic up his Tough Traveler backpack in several of my ski bum stories to date. You can search my stories on back blogs and count the times. There is no substitution for quality workmanship in the market place today. They didn't need to send me an email and ask how they were doing they just delivered. The Art of Being a good Hitch Hiker is directly related to the Art of Traveling and I hopefully can conjure up some new stories to showcase them. The memories are all you get.

Mornings with Jack London

        I was reminded this weekend of my early mornings on our rescue ranch with our orphaned paint colt Slick Little Fox. He was born with congenital flexural deformity and the breeder's wanted to put him down. I am and Equine Massage Therapist, and Yogi I have dedicated my life to healing and not killing and I knew we could help his crooked little legs so we persuaded the owners to let us take the young colt. We orphaned him at just a few days old and needed a companion for him so we purchased a nubian alpine goat that I named Jack London. He was very young himself. I had him in the trailer so that when the colt came in he would at least have another animal to be with. Over the days I fed Bubba (my pet name for him) with a bottle and worked on his legs around the clock. The progress was wonderful and to make a long story short his legs grew strait and true and he became a fine young colt. Once he was weaned, we fed him folac a supplemental nutritional feed to help him grow because he did not have his mother's milk. Jack London took a liking to the feed and would push my friend Bubba away from it. I tried everything including raising the feeder above his reach. He still managed to get to it. He became angry and would try to head butt me to keep me from pushing him away. The days moved on and Bubba grew and Jack became known as folac Jack. Until one morning I went in to feed and the little colt stepped in front of his companion cocked his head raised his front legs and head butted me right in the chest. Down I went and the folac went flying all over the stall floor. So that Jack London could get it. Needless to say we stopped that behavior quickly.

1. "Love Song" Elton John Tumbleweed Connection

The Art of Retirement

      Ok the big day has come and gone. It seems that the last few months became unbearable. Once you give yourself permission to stop being in the work world you are not. Several years before deciding to retire my wife, Kathy, set up this blog for me for when I retire. She has always supported my writing mindset. My editor, confidant, critic, and fan Kathy has always encouraged my writing. I would not have a book on Amazon nor would I be writing under the name of Write My Fire. I am fortunate to have gotten the girl!
     The question now about retirement is where do you go from here. Is writing just for pleasure? Should I try to make money or publish a product? The need being is to supplement my income so that we can travel to do the things that we enjoy and also gather the experiences to draw future writing from. The natural thing for me is to do what I know. I have been told before to write about what you know. However I have never wanted to write a Plumbing and Heating blog nor have I ever wanted to write about pipes. The answer to the question may be to reinvent yourself. Is this what Grandma Moses did? Don't know what she did before picking up a paintbrush!
     What it really appears to be to me is an opportunity. There are many things in my life that I have left unfinished. Writing projects started but no completed. If you were to go back and look at all of my blogs from the beginning you would see that there are stories and thoughts that were begun but not pursued. A Historical novel that I have an outline, first chapter and notes for as well as a first act of a screen play. I even enrolled in a screenwriting workshop in Aspen when I was living there. Then there is a novel about writers estranged wishing to write with one another that is almost complete. It lacks a better beginning and a couple middle chapters in order to be complete. I wrote the book by writing separate short stories with the same characters designed to be linked together into a novel. Completion is not that far away.
     The answer is in the list. Like writing an outline, a list of half started works and ideas could be fleshed out and completed and turned into finished works. Not to mention many ideas and short stories that have been begun like blogs started and sitting in my blog sphere with the big red label of Draft on them. Yes there is also all of my poetry that was not included in Of Mountains and Men. Finish what you start!