It was just perfect!

Hi all,

How are all of you doing today?  I hope you're all well and had a chance to get out and enjoy today's weather.  It was, indeed, the perfect day:  temperatures in the low seventies and very low humidity, sunny and beautiful.  What more could we ask for? 

I'm sure not everyones weather was picture perfect today, but mine was.  That would be here, in South Central Pennsylvania.  After last weeks temperatures in the nineties, I'm over joyed to be enjoying the low seventies.  After all, it is only early June.

What have you been up to lately?  I've been doing some research for my next fiction novel.  I spent over two hours today looking up information and then printing it out.  I like to have most of my research done before I start writing.  Of course, there are always small things that come up that I need to look up. 

One of the things I learned many years ago, while taking some writing courses, was to document all my facts.  Even though I am writing fiction, I still need to make sure any place or thing that's real, is documented.  I suppose one could write a completely fictitious novel, if one wanted to do that.  I prefer to make the plot of the story fictitious, while using factual information in many of the places and things. 

This will be the third novel in this series.  All three of them will be able to be read alone.  The same characters are staring in all three of the books.  I've always enjoyed reading books, where the same characters appear in all of them.  I like the way the characters grow and change from book to book. 

I also enjoy novels which are about human life; every day living.  There are a few authors who write books like this and I always enjoy them.  I suppose I like this type of novel because I'm a very sentimental and tradition driven person.  I love carrying on the old traditions passed down from my Grandparents and Parents.  I think that's what makes families feel connected.  At least I hope it is. 

My husband, Gerry and I are in the process of having our home painted.  It's a big job.  It's a brick house which was built in the early nineteen hundreds.  I know you don't usually paint a brick home, but here's the problem.  Both the bricks and the mortar is deteriorating.  We had it repointed a few years ago, but it just keep getting worse.  We have a lot of dampness coming through to the inside.  So painting the house, we hope will do away with the dampness problems.  We've tried just about everything else.  We're going with a creamy tan color for the bricks and a dark cocoa brown for the trim.  It has to be thoroughly cleaned and prepared before the actual painting.    We had the metal roofs repainted a week or two ago.  They look good. 

There is so much upkeep needed when you own your own home.  If it's a home that's over one hundred years old, like ours, it multiplies the repairs.  I love my home; it's decorated exactly the way I wanted it.  It feels homey and comfortable to me.  It's my safe place, just as I'm sure, your home is to you.  Isn't that the way it's supposed to be? 

Well, tomorrow is once again, hump day, for all you folks out there who are still working full time jobs.  The weather tomorrow is to be nice, once again.  I hope that you get the chance to get outside, at least for a short time, to enjoy it.  I may go out tomorrow and do a bit of work in my flower bed.  We have a very small yard, but I do enjoy my flower beds, even though they're not big. 

Whatever you do, make some time for yourself to do something you enjoy doing.  It will, not only, make you feel good, it will also help build your self-esteem.  All my best to you and yours.  God bless and keep you all.
Susan