I’ve drifted away from blogging again. Mostly I’ve been busy, but I also I think I’ve fallen into a sense that each blog post must be more  formal, somehow planned or crafted. To counter this I’ve decided to begin a stretch of daily blog posts, each one limited to no more than five minutes actual writing time. No more excuses about not having enough time to blog. Today seemed like a great day to start, since I woke up at 4:38 AM before my already-set-too-early alarm clock. I could grumble about missing those few extra minutes’ sleep, or I could just write something.

So before I begin a series of short daily blog posts (I reserve the right to post more than once a day, or to occasionally flesh out a post into something lengthier), here’s a quick recap of what I’ve been up to lately:

Lena and I took a long weekend and visited Manzanita, Oregon last week. When we go to the beach alone (just us as a couple), we usually go to Cannon Beach which is the next town up the coast. When we go larger group beach trips with my family, we always go to Lincoln City. So it was nice to stay somewhere new, hike on some new hills, eat at some different restaurants, get coffee in a new little place. Because of the long weekend we went mid-week (cheaper rates) and probably due to this and the rainy weather and the off-season, the town was almost deserted. It was nice, actually. Reminded me of Lincoln City when I was a kid, during winters. Mostly a few locals, many of the shops and restaurants closed. Extremely quiet. I tend to be too busy all the time, overscheduled, stressed, mind buzzing. It’s worth a lot to me to get away from this, to slow my mind, get some sleep and truly recharge the batteries. We had fantastic artisan pizza at Marzano’s and watched Arsenic and Old Lace on DVD in our hotel room, which was upgraded for free because the place was half empty.

What else? Trying to continue exercising consistently when it’s no longer summer outside. Writing a ton, and focusing on trying to finish more, rather than just keep starting new ones and tinkering with stuff endlessly. Reading a fair amount. On that subject, almost done with the Blood and Other Cravings anthology, halfway through Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (will discuss both of these when finished), and dabbling away at a few other story collections as well as that Donald Barthelme bio. Watching a ton of videos and maybe I’ll blog about those from time to time as well. I just realized I get most of my good movie suggestions from a few blogs I read, especially Caitlin R. Kiernan, whose recommendations always seem to work for us.

More to come. It may not always be organized, but I think that will be good. Time to loosen the flow.