Apricity West 4

October 27, 2023 - Friday 

Danced off 532 calories so I could enjoy Friday Night Fish Fry at the Elks - special tonight is steak!

You see all kinds...

Full moon is shining bright.

October 28, 2023 - Saturday

Lu and I went for a good walk this morning around the park. Afterward, we sat to chat at her campsite. Along came Greg, 50-year-old foot loose and fancy free off the grid pretty much.

He worked on military marine vessels. Young man for this park who has been off the grid since November 2022. He picked up a stray feral cat, Sammy, who is his travel companion. His wife passed in 2014. He had a nice home in Florida with a $1500 mortgage, but when found himself dipping into his savings every month to cover the bills, it was a wake up call. So he sold everything and bought a Black Series HQ19 trailer which is made for off roading and rough terrain. He made his way to Alaska where he spent the entire summer fishing, hiking, etc. and then followed the weather to Arizona. He stops at Harvest Host RV parks on his journey which is an inexpensive way to travel, if you don’t mind no hook ups. 

 

Took a ride into town to check out local honey being sold at a mom-and-pop hardware store. I couldn’t believe how affordable it is - $7 for a small container, $14 for 48 ounces. They even had a gallon jug of it. It is from here in Wickenburg at the Robson’s Ranch. The young man who waited on me said that he had allergies so bad, he could hardly breathe. His grandpa had a hive of bees and told him honey was the sure cure. It was for him; now I hope it is for me too.  

October 29, 2023 - Sunday

Tom stopped by to gift us one of his creations.

October 30, 2023 - Monday

Danced and went to the Elks for lunch, but the rest of the day I was committed to my book publishing project. I am taking a course on how to self-publish and am trying to fulfill the 7-Day Profit Challenge. You have to do a series of steps day by day over seven days. Today is Day Five which involves writing the book. Since I have been doing this blog for four years now, I figure I have enough material already written. It is a huge learning curve to get through all of it, but I am determined. I will be sharing it with you once I actually publish it this week. 

October 31, 2023 - Tuesday

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Crunch day today getting stuff done - most of it completely foreign to me, but you’ve got to keep the brain sharp. 

 

Did yoga this morning, but had to leave about 5 minutes early since my nose was running so bad. I hope the honey fix kicks in sooner than later. 

 

November 1, 2023 - Wednesday

Stayed up late (9PM) last night trying to upload my manuscript to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing before the bewitching hour of 12AM EST. Kept on saying Failed Manuscript Upload! Doesn’t make sense since the e-book version uploaded ok. Therefore I made a call to them today and spoke to an Aussie, Christian, who can hopefully help me. I did successfully complete the Challenge, but just not completely done on the selling side. 

 

I sneezed all night which isn’t pretty when you wear a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) mask for sleep apnea. So I got up at 5:30 rather than try to sleep more with my mouth open. Made it through dancing with tissue in hand, and then off to the Elks for a quick lunch. Now back at it waiting for Christian to figure out what is wrong even after we cleaned out the cookies and cache. 

 

A package arrived for me today - a refurbished iPad from Rich for my music. That way I can pull up songs to play along with the band. Now, I don’t do anything but strum unless it is my turn to sing/play because I don’t have the song list with chords. 

It was a nice surprise to have Bob and Eddie come across the way for a visit. We shared more music on iTunes and many stories about boating and singing. It seems that they both sang in groups early on in their lives. As a matter of fact that is how they met. 

They are both 88 years young - Eddie retired from the office here at North Ranch and Bob is still a work camper responsible for the water and sewer plant here. 

They bought their first RV when their kids were young. Over the years, the rigs got bigger until they bought their fifth wheel home 22 years ago and have been here ever since - happily ever after.💕

November 2, 2023 - Thursday  

Another night interrupted by sneezing and wheezing! Not as bad as last night, but… After a walk with Lu and chair yoga, today’s mission was to get the size of my paperback book down below 650MB in order to upload it to Amazon KDP! It is very difficult, but necessary, to delete pictures from the first year of my blog. Pictures take up most of the data and that is what my blog is based on - pictures. Ugh. Also, the paperback will be printed in black and white, but the eBook will be in color. This is the recommendation of the course as color printing it is so expensive.

 

Shockingly, I was able to upload the manuscript just in time for the jam session. It went fairly well, thanks to Harvey and his patience with me. Miss Ellie’s son, Randy, came today with the pictures used at the service. 

I dedicated “Summertime” to her which he appreciated. He told the story of the person who bought the house already. When Ellie first came to Wickenburg, she engaged in all things music and met her second husband, a musician. They had many friends and one of them stood in the kitchen and said, “I have an overwhelming feeling that someday I will own this house!” Well, she is the one who bought it soon after Miss Ellie passed! You can’t make this stuff up...

Update - the eBook is Live on Amazon with Updates in Review. This could take up to 72 hours. Right now, it says (Spanish Edition) which it is NOT! Working on that with KDP. 

They say the best way to earn money is having people review the book! Search for “Finding Love Again by Driscoll.” Would appreciate any reviews I can get from this special group. ❤️