September 30th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

 

I realize this is really late today, but I just couldn’t shake the cobwebs this morning. You wouldn’t have wanted to read anything I wrote, that’s for sure!

 

Waiting for breakfast.

It doesn't get much prettier than this!

We picked the girls up around eleven at the dorm and took them out for breakfast. My youngest daughter and niece’s first experience of dorm life was quite uneventful. When they got back to the room, my oldest daughter popped in a movie and my niece fell asleep before the half-way point and my youngest was out cold before it was over. Then they didn’t wake up until ten, so their college experience consisted of the challenge of sharing a bathroom. LOL.





The water's still kinda warm.

The MONSTER hill.

After breakfast, which because of the wait at the diner wasn’t until 12:45, we walked down to the waterfront, to the shuttle back up the monstrous hill, then strolled along Church Street. Too soon it was time to bring my daughter back to school and for us to start our journey home.



Too funny!

One of the many Church Street performers.
 

I LOVED being able to see her, but it was really difficult having to leave her again.  We won’t get to see her again until November 23^rd when she comes home for Thanksgiving. Fifty-four more days! I wish I could sneak up there again, but the $125 in gas is a lot right now.



View of Champlain College from the Champlain Bridge.



The alternate route we tried worked well. Basically the first third of the trip was exactly the same, but instead of staying on Route 9 all the way around Lake George, we turned on to Route 74 and that brought us out to Route 87. Although Route 74 is hilly and has a few turns, especially around Eagle Lake, it is nowhere near as treacherous as Lake Shore Drive. If handled with care, I should traverse it without incident, even in questionable weather.

 

We’ve decided my daughter should fly home on November 23^rd, but we are still debating as to when we should book the return flight. Should we do January 4^th or March 9^th? I want to pick the day which would have the worst road conditions so I can avoid traveling then. Either time in Vermont could be nasty. If any of you have an opinion as to which day I should pick, PLEASE let me know. I would like to book the flights in the next week or so, but that may not happen. In the meantime, I’m going to keep checking the sites to see when a good deal comes up or if a better deal would be for her to fly up after Thanksgiving and back down before spring break. (The current rate for the original dates I wanted is between $450 - $600, so that’s not going to happen!) Either way, if she flies in, she’ll be coming into LaGuardia and not Newark, but it will still be better than driving to VT!

 

OK, I have to go clip coupons and make my grocery list. My daughter should be home from school in about half an hour and when she gets home, I want to do the shopping and then swing by my mom’s to pick up our dog.

 

I hope you enjoy the remainder of your day, and happy writing!

 

 

 

 

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

 

I know he’s in there. Don’t ask me how. I just know. I’ve been dreaming about this place for weeks; the dreams started several days before the little boy was abducted. Each night the dream got clearer, I could see more and more details. Then last night I actually saw Tommy’s tearstained face, heard his calls for help, and I woke crying myself.

 

I couldn’t tell anyone about my dreams. Who would believe me? Heck, I didn’t even believe me. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. But then when things I dreamt about started showing up on the six o’clock news, I couldn’t deny what was happening.

 

It all started with just your run of the mill nightmare; shadowy figures and just a general sense of dread. Then the figures became more solid, their plan more concrete. The next dreams started rather pleasant, kids playing in the park. I didn’t even make the connection until I saw the shadowy figure lurking in the trees. I saw it lure a little boy to it and then they were gone. Two days later, local tv was plastered with stories of six year old Tommy Adams being abducted. The only witness was another six year old. She described the person who took Tommy as really tall and dressed all in black.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

A song on the radio triggers a strong memory.

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.

September 29th

Hi it’s Christina –

Greetings from Burlington, VT.

Due to an erroneous 4:45 wake-up call, I’m awake. It is going to be a LONG day!! I started with checking my emails and there was one from a new group I was invited to join on LinkedIn. This group has you submitting an excerpt of a book (yours or another book you’ve read) and the link to where the book can be purchased. Hey, just one more avenue to advertise my book, so I was all for it. I went to upload an excerpt from A Second Chance, and I found ANOTHER typo. ARGH!! How many hundreds of times going over it and how many editors will it take until this dang thing is error free?

So this started me going in and fixing all the various places where A Second Chance was loaded and making the correction. (grown/groan – which I SWEAR was fixed on the first editing run.) I started with Kindle, and Kindle has now changed their program and the book cover file was no long valid, so I had to deal with that as well. Finally got that taken care of (only took an hour) and I uploaded the new content file with the correction. It will be available sometime in the next 12 – 24 hours.

Next I tried to tackle the file for the hard copy of the book on CreateSpace. The file is NOT loading! After it finally loads, I have to go through the whole review process again, so it may be a week before it is available. I still have to fix the Nook version, but I am dreading whatever obstacle that may throw in my path, so I decided to take a break and do the blog instead.

One of the surprises for my daughter that I couldn’t blog about yesterday  was, we brought her cousin up with us for the visit. The squeal my daughter let out when my niece popped out of the car was probably heard for miles! Needless to say, it made her day.

 

 

 

We did take the girls out apple picking as planned, and we went out for dinner last night. Can you guess where we went?

The girls stayed in the dorm with my daughter last night instead of with my husband and me at the hotel. I can’t wait to hear the stories when we go pick everyone up for breakfast! I can only imagine…
 

 

In a couple of hours we will be picking up the girls for breakfast and then we will be spending the day along Church Street. I figure if we leave between two and three, we should get home at a reasonable hour.

 

All these trips up here, the directions sent us around Lake George. If you have never been to Lake George, the roads are twisting and winding, going up and down some crazy hills. I was dreading having to traverse these roads when the weather turned sour, so I went hunting for an alternate route. While I drove, I kept seeing signs which pointed to Route 87, the road I took to the turnoff for Lake George. That lead me to believe there should be a spot further up Route 87 I could take to avoid the Lake George loop. Low and Behold, I found an alternate route! Route 87 meets up to Route 22 which links me to Route 7. Route 7 takes me directly to my daughter’s front door. Want to know the best part? Not only does this route simplify my trek to four roads, it also shaves almost an hour off of my travel time. I am looking forward to trying this new path on our way home!

Oh well, enough playing. I am going to try and get the uploads to work so my book will be available again. Say a little prayer for me that it goes better than it did earlier. I’m convinced technology and I will never be on friendly terms!

I hope you enjoy this glorious fall day, and happy writing!