Silver James

First, this is Veteran’s Day here in the USA. Thanks to all who have served and to their families. It’s hard to be the one left at home while those on active duty are out there serving the country. And blessing on all those who gave their lives so that all of us have the freedoms we enjoy.

As for the rest, I did diddly last week so I have very little to report. I made some decisions about what comes next on the writing front–at least until the first of the year when more decisions will have to be made. I’m working on that today as I sit here and watch it grow light outside. I’m only taking occasional sips of my coffee. It’s enough for now.

Sports this weekend was disheartening on the homefront but whoa! The Kansas City Chiefs pulled it out in the 4th. Not a big fan of the NFL but I like the Chiefs for…reasons. (Goes back to an International Fire Chiefs Association convention in Kansas City waaaay back in the day, their cheerleaders and Only.) College football in these parts is just…sad.

I’m almost finished with Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson Grim Reaper series. After I finish book 13, there are a few novellas set in the same world and then it will be time to find something else to listen to.

That’s it. Except I’m feeling a bit…agog. I’m going to wax nostalgic, seeing as I’m older than dirt and all that. See, I’m old enough to remember the Little Rock Nine. Sputnik. The Cold War and the Cuban Missle Crisis when “duck and cover” drills were more frequent than fire drills in my grade school–and had nothing to do with tornadoes. What they didn’t tell us is that if a nuclear bomb went off anywhere close, we’d be toast. Literally. I remember when the Berlin Wall went up and I remember when it was torn down. I remember both World Trade Center bombings and the Oklahoma City bombing. Worked that one up close and personal. I remember hippies and N.O.W. (National Organization of Women) and women burning their bras. I had careers in “male-dominated” professions and never had problems, despite the flack all those feminists caused me. Yeah, not a fan. I’m still not. I had a dad who told me I could do anything and be anyone I wanted. And yeah, he was an alpha male through and through. My parents had a partnership. I married an alpha male and we have a partnership that’s lasted 40+ years and still going strong. His masculinity is far from toxic.

I remember when one party didn’t have a primary come election season because there weren’t enough of them registerd in the state. I remember being in the first year group to get to register to vote when the 26th Amendment was enacted and the age was dropped from 21 to 18.. Both parties had primaries afterward. I also watched as my state slowly turned from reliably one color to reliably the other.

I can tell you where I was when Kennedy was assassinated, when RFK and MLK were gunned down and when Reagan was shot. I remember the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut (carried out by members of Hezbollah) , the USS Puebla was attacked by North Korea and the USS Cole was attacked by…well, that’s a broken record but yeah, Mid-East terrorists. I remember the Munich Massacre when members of the Palestinian Black September group attacked Israeli atheletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics. I remember the Raid on Entebbe when Israeli special forces rescued civilians, many of them Jewish, who were passengers on an Air France flight that was hijacked by…Palestinian and German terrorists. I remember when our troops came home from Viet Nam and were spit on.

Growing up was not a picnic. Just sayin’… But we did grow up. We went to college, got jobs, discovered our places in the world. Some married and had kids. Some focused on careers. Life happened. We picked up the pieces and got on with life because that’s what we’re supposed to do.

Let me point to my meme up there at the beginning. This is what adult women do when faced with adversity and a scary world. We put our hair up in a bun, pull up our big girl panties, and face that $h!+ head on. Of course, coffee helps. The reason for this trip down memory lane is to shake my mother finger at the whimpering whiners who drank too much cool-aide and like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum in the grocery store, only melt down while videoing themselves for social media. I’m embarrassed for you. Grow up. And grow a pair. You want to get ahead in this world? Learn to get along. Don’t be that kid who grabs their toys and goes running home screaming about how unfair life is to you. It’s freaking Life. It is what is. What’s fair to you is unfair to someone else. Don’t be a spoiled brat. Learn to share. Because, yeah, that pendalum swings both ways.

Anyway, there is a reason I write kick-ass heroines who are strong, intelligent, independent women. And that’s the reason my alpha male heroes love them for it. I am a strong, intelligent, independt woman and you know what they say–write what you know. And yeah, I’m glad to finally get all that off my chest. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. *climbs off my soap box* Cheers to a productive week for all of us.