Friday, May 23, 2008

Tornado Watching on a Friday Night

Well, they say the tornado/thunder-storm is about 30 minutes from us right now. So, I think I'll probably be heading to the basement soon unless something changes. I've gone to the basement fewer than a half dozen times since I've lived in Kansas, but tonight may be a night when I do that very thing. I'll update twitter from the phone if possible - you can see twitter in the sidebar of the blog at www.patsyterrell.com.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.


WhatsUpHutch

I'm involved in a new project locally, and it's one I'm excited about. I think it has tremendous potential. It's www.whatsuphutch.com, an online magazine for Hutchinson, Kansas. It's the brainchild of Cody Heitschmidt, whose blog CodyTalks is always worth a look.

For a long time I've wanted something like this to exist - a place to go to for talk about the community and what's happening and what could happen. Possibilities. I love possibilities. Look at whatsuphutch.com and take time to be part of the community there.

I'll be doing a monthly column called, "Patsy Writes," and so will other folks - folks with very divergent views. You can find my column, as well as others, in the "reads" section.

I don't know Cody well - we've crossed paths a few times and chatted, but recently we've been working on a local task force together and have gotten to know each other a little better. We've also gotten to know each other better as we've exchanged messages on twitter. (Consider this your formal invitation to join us there - look for patsyterrell and codyks and you'll instantly have two friends. OK, I'm speaking for Cody without his permission, but I feel pretty confident on this one.)  In the brief time we've been communicating, we've realized we're in agreement about a whole lot of things and at opposite ends of the spectrum on others. I'm very comfortable with that, and I suppose Cody is as well. These interactions led to him asking me to be a columnist on whatsuphutch.com. I'm excited by the potential, and wanted to be in from the get-go.

You can also write. The site will depend on a lot of interaction from folks. You can blog there. You can comment. You can tell us we're full of it. You can tell us we're right on. You can write your own piece because we're all missing the obvious.

In one of those things that happen in a smaller city, Cody and his wife own LogicMaze, which is the company that was hired some months ago for web design by a local organization on whose board I serve. Frankly, this sort of thing is something I like about living in a smaller city. I like walking into a group and figuring I'll know at least one person there, but that's a-whole-nother topic - and perhaps something for a future column.

Go on over to whatsuphutch.com and take a look. Today is the first day it's live, so you'll be in on the ground floor.


This Week in My Life

I'm so glad Friday is upon us. This has been a hectic, busy week, and I've gotten a bit behind in blogging about life in general.

I've been working on the garden tour. We've had it full. Then lost one. Then got a new one. Then lost one. I am so weary of doing these sorts of things. It's exhausting and stressful. On top of that, I've got some unexpected things looming to take care of.

When I had lunch with Trish this week we were talking about things and she used the perfect phrase for it. She said she didn't have anything on the horizon she was dreading. I realized that was the word for it - dread. There are things I'm dreading. It's just not a good way to live one's life. I suppose people do it all the time, but it makes no sense to me.

I've been spending more time on twitter these days. I'm eager for more folks I know to get on there. I've had an account for a long time but haven't used it much until recently. It's very interesting. I'm also fond of friendfeed, but even fewer people I know are on it.

Mark is down for the Antique Truck show. I got to see him at lunch and dinner today. He's working for his XM show, so I haven't seen him except in passing. He's not staying with me this time. Since he's working his company got him a hotel room.

I'm just trying to push through the next month and get everything done I need to get done. Then I will be able to rest a bit, I hope, and work more on the novel.

My plan is to work very hard tomorrow and get some things out the door so I can have this three day weekend off. I'm hoping. Hoping, hoping, hoping.

Other good news today - I got a good report at the dentist. I always love to hear I have no cavities.

I have almost all of my plants in the ground. They were saying we might get bad weather tonight but I'm hoping it's not big hail. I don't want all the pretty white roses on the bush in front torn up, nor do I want the plants I just got in the ground beaten to a pulp.

Yesterday I got a call about doing some voice work that sounds like it will be a fun experience if they hire me. I love doing voice work so that's a bonus. We'll see what happens. I also got a new writing "job" that I'll be saying more about as soon as it's ready for public consumption. More on that soon.

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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.