Episode #93: My Summer Is Easy Livin'

It's a word! It's a bird! It's a duck chillin' on a rock!

Sort of what I've been doing these days: chillin', stylin' and profilin'.

Welcome to the literary world of G.B. Miller, where the only things that are free in this world is time and your imagination.

The last time we spoke, I happened to mention that I was seriously thinking about job hunting. I'm very happy to say that will no longer be the case. Earlier this month I had a hearing with the medical board to appeal my original denial of my disability retirement application, and I'm happy to say that my appeal was successful. My pension is increasing to a very livable monthly wage and I couldn't be happier. 

Whoever says the art of budgeting is a lost skill set is a spendthrift. It took me about a year to properly budget my bi-weekly paycheck, and 25+ years later, that skill has allowed me to seamlessly transition into budgeting for a monthly paycheck (helps that both children are between 85 and 100% self-sufficient).

With the need of a part time job falling by the wayside, I can now return to my previously scheduled routine of minimal to do and all day to get it done. The added bonus of less stress is allowing me to experiment with certain aspects of my writing

Like music.

As many of you probably know, I have pounded home the fact that in order for me to write, I needed peace and quiet. However, circumstances, in the form of a water damaged basement (about a 1/2 inch or so) from an early July rainstorm, forced me to relocate my den to the dining room. Unfortunately, because the dining room is an arm stretch from the kitchen and 20 steps to the living room, this has forced me to change tactics with my writing.

Enter classical music.

I'm not a big fan of classical music, even though it become my default genre when I'm the car and there's nothing on the radio nor c.d. player. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and in order to find my writing groove again, we went to YT and found classical music for relaxation (among other things). Popped those headphones on, adjust the volume to just barely audible, and presto! white noise for writing.

None too thrilled, but it is what it is. And for those who might be wondering, I'm currently listening to the softer side of Bach.

So this is what's going on with me so far. Lots of daily walking {good for the soul and body), some quality family time and slowly getting back into the writing groove.

Life is indeed good for me now.

{c} 2021 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #92: The Book That You've Read Is Always Your Friend

This seems to be a reasonable facsimile representation of what the past month has felt like with me and my computer. 'Nuff said, eh?

Anywho, I finally got inspired to write a blog post this week, and the inspiration, if you can believe it, came from FacePalmBook.

I know, weird, right?

A good FB friend of mine posted a pic/factoid about good old G.W (18th century, not 21st century), who apparently through a retirement party for a general staff member and it listed a total of about 100+ bottles of various intoxicating liquors that shared amongst the 54 invitees.

I happen to mention how a book I had received for my b'day back when I was in the 30-39 age range explained how he almost bankrupted the young nation by insisting that he only needed an expense account and not a salary.

The name of this wonderful tome was called George Washington's Expense Account, and it was about one the quirkiest book I've ever enjoyed reading.

So this got me to thinking about all of the quirky books that I've read throughout the years. I've always been a hardcore fan of the non-fiction genre (non-literary), and while I have branched out to other genres, this one has always been my go-to whenever I can't find something good to read.

My definition of quirky is probably extremely different than your definition, simply because it encompasses all of the sub-genres of non-fiction. So the type of stuff I've read is quite unusual/quirky to say the least.

My quirky reading started with The Book of Lists (only title that I've actually remembered) as a kid, and it quickly swerved into bad tabloid reading (courtesy of my grandmother). As I got older, it swerved back into lots of biographies (e.g. Van Johnson), lots of memoirs (e.g. a multitude of musicians/music groups) weird encyclopedias that delved into all kinds of topics (e.g. musicians who passed away, various sports leagues).

Then the swerve went to true crime, of which we've made our home base for the past 30+ years. Lots of quirky stuff there. Lately though, it's been whatever happens to catch my fancy at a given moment of the hour while I'm at the library (pre-Covid days. Haven't been to one since January 2020), so I'll drift from one given century to another given century, depending on what the topic happens to be (e.g. the last book I read prior to the pandemic was about The Crusades)

I've had mostly hits while perusing random non-fiction topics (e.g. law enforcement, true crime) but I've had some memorable near misses (e.g., a book about the bands Fish and Insane Clown Posse which turned into a journey about the writer being diagnosed with bi-polar, a book about capitol punishment in England circa 17th and 18th century), but overall, I've been happy with my quirky selections.

How 'bout you? Have you read some quirky books over the years that tickled your fancy? Do you read quirky books as break from your normal reading material?

{c} 2021 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved