IT'S NEVER TOO LATE!

I said I would be blogging more regularly again, so here is another post. Today I was downtown at the Cultural Center to see a workshop of a one act play by Spartan Theatre. They have been doing these for several weeks now, but this one really hit home. It was about a man meeting a boy on an El train and revealing in their conversation that he had always wanted to be a writer but had let rejections discourage him and now he was an assistant manager in a book store, but not happy with his job. The boy encourages him to not quit his dream and he starts writing again. That was what happened to me too, but I did not go back to writing in a real way until I retired.

Now, you may wonder what that has to do with the title I gave this post and I will tell you. I was in the Metra Station waiting for a train and they were delayed, but I did not know why. When I got off at Cheltenham, I found out why they had been stopped temporarily. There were about a dozen police cars at 79th and Exchange and yellow crime scene tape across the street and sidewalk for a two block radius. Many police were out walking through the area. There were three ambulances, so I could tell something serious had happened. I saw one man with his leg wrapped up being taken to an ambulance and when I asked a policeman how many people had been shot, he told me four. So, the protection was that I was not there when it was occurring. If I had been, I could have been a victim of a stray bullet, which some of the four might have been. So, the Lord protected me by not letting me be there at that time.

I could have been if I hadn’t stopped at the Cultural Center to talk to one of our Senior Clown Troupe members who has not been coming to our classes or rehearsals for about a year. I had not seen her and was wondering how she was. Fortunately, she is as well as before.

I was looking for some information which I knew I had written about on my blog years ago and I was surprised to find that my last blog post was last year. That is much too long ago. It looks like I had nothing to write about, but I have been keeping busy and I’m still trying to get published. I’ve had more rejections (including one yesterday). I am waiting for responses from a contest I entered and a publisher I submitted a children’s book manuscript to. I have also been listening to some great author interviews with Chandler Bolt’s Self Publishing Summit.

Other things going on in my life were the death of my two parakeets. They did not die at the same time but both died this year. I have not gotten another bird yet but I probably will. I even picked out a name I may use.

I will be having cataract surgery in my left eye in July. I see nothing but blur through it now and I have been having trouble doing some things. Threading needles was always hard but it is impossible now without a needle threader as an example. It is hard for me to tell where the edge of steps are, so I have to be very careful going down stairs , especially very short ones with no fluorescent strip or something to differentiate it from the ground level.

I continue to sing in our church choir and participate in it’s activities. We will have a Vacation Bible School in the evening next week and our picnic will be on next Saturday. Every second and fourth, (or fifth) Sunday, there is a dinner at church and we have an afternoon service. Sometimes our own lay ministers preach and sometimes we have guest ministers.

At the senior center downtown, Renaissance Court, I sing with the chorus. Once a quarter we put on a concert and next Friday, at 1:30 is our Summer Concert. I am also a member of the Chicago Senior Clown Troupe. The clowns have a class one day a month, with professional clown Karen Hoyer, who teaches us clowning skits, and how to do make up and costumes. We rehearse skits one day a month with our head clown, Elisha Walters, who schedules our gigs. Usually we go out to a senior living facility, hospital, or senior center two times a month to put on a short performance of skits or just to greet people at an event.

So, there is a brief update of what I have been up to and I expect to write more regularly again so I hope you will read what I post and comment, if you so choose. Hopefully, I will have good writing news one day.