Saturday Night Message: Week of May 25 to 31

Days Till Novel Launch: 154

Sunday, May 25, 2025
10:51 p.m.

Okay, so I may have relaxed on the couch “for a moment” and sort of slept the day away. Suppose my body knew it needed the rest, especially after yesterday’s events. :-)

Did a little organizing. Wrote and mailed a piece of ever-aging mail. More in progress. A good day, my sleeping notwithstanding.

Tomorrow is a holiday, and I’m officially “off.” That being said, I will be putting in an hour or two on the day job, just to hit it running Tuesday morning.

Feels good to essentially have another Saturday night…

Monday, 2:56 p.m.
Memorial Day Holiday

Met nice milestones today. Completed to-do items related to Eryn’s starting at Welch College in the fall. Forms, forms, and more forms. Multi-factor authentications out of the…well, you know.

There may be more things in the coming weeks, but I believe I’m caught up.

Eryn is in mid-prep for Quebec City: I take her and her granny to the airport tomorrow at the crack of crazy. At least they’ll land while it’s still daylight there.

9:10 p.m.

Spoke with Bob today. Who’s Bob? Come on, everyone knows who Bob is. Bob’s Mr. Strohman, a retired public school teacher—living in Louisville, Kentucky.

Bob was my high school English and French teacher. I had him for at least two English classes, three levels of French, and he was in charge of the school newspaper when I wrote for it.

When I was stationed in London, Bob flew over and slept on my couch while he did the tourist thing. I’ve owed him a letter for a long time, and I thought I’d check in with him.

In keeping with the literary theme of this substack, Bob was one of my early readers for my short story, “A Pass for the Brokenhearted.” The French bits were inspired by my time in his class, so it felt appropriate to have him look it over. Plus, he found some items for me to fix: always a great thing!

I’m gonna start a letter to him tonight…to get that ball in motion. Plus, I gotta make an early start of it in the morning for the airport.

Logged into the work laptop today and did a couple hours…to make tomorrow’s re-entry easier. Glad I did. I was reminded of some to-do items that need to be a priority.

Tuesday, May 27
10:09 p.m.

The “Crack of Crazy” arrived way too early, but I got Eryn and her granny delivered to the airport. I suppose it was around 5 a.m., Quebec City Bound.

Apparently…apparently, the airplane landed safely, but something broke. They had to wait almost an hour to be towed to the terminal, at which time they discovered that they missed their connecting flight and would have to spend the night in Chicago.

So, they took up residence at a Best Western Plus, near the airport. Not sure what makes it a plus. According to the girls, it is NOT the traffic. They spent the afternoon walking around Chicago and people watching. Word has reached me that there was a four-hour nap, as well. They have tickets for a flight tomorrow, so here’s hoping for a better report tomorrow night.

I tried to take a knee at the day job and hustle a vacation day. Didn’t happen. In fact, I worked non-stop until the last possible moment. No four-hour nap for me.

After work, Seth and I went over to his granny’s place and fed/watered the dog. While there, he showed me his progress with Caroline. He’s stripping it down before equipping it with solar panels and a tankless hot water tank. Afterwards, he’s gonna customize the innards.

Wednesday, May 28
Lunchtime

And just like that, it appears that they Dynamic Duo are Quebec City Bound! :-)

11:52 a.m.

Oh yeah, yesterday was Tuesday, but I wasn’t able to watch the Laydown Diaries until this moment. Enjoy.

10:58 p.m.

Eryn posted this photo on her social media feed today. And in conversation with her mother today, she described the place as…beautiful. :-)

In terms of infecting the kids with the travel bug, I feel as if my work here has been done…or at least started. ;-)

Thursday, May 29
10:30 p.m.

Just this moment, I finished work for the day job. Doesn’t happen often, but it does. I have a good manager and good company, so I don’t mind a couple times a year.

Throughout the day, Eryn sent reports of their Quebec happenings. :-)

And now, I’m clocking out. Long day.

Friday, May 30
10:57 p.m.

Another busy day. I feel as if I’ve taken too many days off; I’m accustomed to a good amount of productivity. And tomorrow I’m gonna put my mind through the mathematical meat grinder as I cook June’s books for Operation Burkhead. No way around it. I just gotta get up early, hunker down, and do the work. Then I can…well, get back to work.

11:55 p.m.

One last thought. This week, I learned of a magazine having a novel excerpt contest. Twenty bucks. Seems like a good goal for tomorrow, if I can put the budget stuff to bed early enough.

The Last Day of May, 2025
11:25 a.m.

Looks as if the girls have started their journey to the Land of "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs." That’s the good ole U.S. of A., in case you were wondering.

And Eryn has started filling in her waiting hours by vandalizing her postcards. ;-)

The last bit of info I had puts them at the Nashville International Airport at 8:30 p.m. tonight.

News Flash: This just in…

Me, I’m settling in for a multi-hour cooking session. What’s on the menu?

The books.

8:56 p.m.

It’s a wild Saturday night at Casa Burkhead, and that can only mean one thing: toilet duty. :-(

The toilet is Eryn’s bathroom has been giving me the middle plunger for several days, and I’m afraid it may be winning. May need to put in a work order to the good ole home appliance warranty company. The good news: I won’t pay more than $100, total. labor and parts. The bad news: We may have to wait until Monday or Tuesday.

And there’s a good chance I’ll have to get the master water valve key out of the garage, go into the front yard, remove the manhole cover, and turn off ALL WATER to the house.

I’m sure that will cause all of the women in this house to fall in love with me…all over again. ;-(

Also, a moment ago, I poured two gallons of bleach into the yet-to-be opened pool in the backyard. The pool dude is here on Thursday, but I’m concerned the hot temps will turn it into a sludge bucket by the time he gets here. ;-(

Oh yeah, and I’d love to spend any time this weekend reading and writing.

On an up note: my better half has possession of Miss Eryn, and they should be home in a moment or two. Sure hope she used the bathroom at the airport. :(

9:18 p.m.

After searching in the disaster that is our garage (Thanks, Master Seth!), I found the main water wrench/key stashed by the front door. Apparently, the last time I used it, I anticipated a future need.

FIVE minutes after Eryn arrived home, Careless Whisper came a knocking. ;-) Lucky for him, he’s a pretty good guy.

And with these words, I am out. Here’s hoping the coming week has more times with me and words and less time with me and the broken toilet.

As always, Freckles sends her regards.