Rant #2,452: Bang-Shang-A-Lang

Hot, hot, hot.

Yes, I am hot.

I am warm.

I am perspiring as I write this blog entry.

But it is summer, so what else could I expect? Snow?

Yes, it was hot this weekend in my neck of the woods, and it will continue to be hot today.

We are not only right smack dab in the middle of a pandemic, but we are also right smack dab in the middle of a heat wave, with a couple of days of 90-degree weather behind us, with today and tomorrow probably adding to that wave of very warm weather.

And today is going to be the worst of it, with highs predicted of about 95 degrees or so.

So what is my family to do to combat this heat?

We could stay in the air conditioning, which we did for a good part of the heat wave, but yesterday, we ventured into our backyard pool once again, and let me tell you, it was really, really good.

The water was just perfect, and really, it is the only place to be if you are outside in such heat.

We are very lucky. We have had this pool for decades, but this was the year we were going to close it down for good.

But then the pandemic struck, and we had some great vision, I have to admit, to the virtues of having a pool during such a crisis.

We thought, "We have the pool right there, we aren't going to be able to do anything, why not use it to our advantage?"

And that is exactly what we did.

My wife and I have been in the pool at least a half dozen times or more, my son has even been in there a few times, and it has given us something refreshing--and safe--to do during the pandemic.

We can socially distance from others, and be refreshed at the same time.

Honestly, if we did not have the pool, I do not think we would venture out into public pools or the beach. We personally don't know if it is safe to do right now, but whatever the case, we are luckier than others, and we know it.

We have had a few barbecues to go with our pool days, and we even bought an outside refrigerator to store drinks and other things that need to be refrigerated while we are outside.

It is a fun thing to do, and with our radio playing music, it makes for a comfortable day at home, rather than staying inside with the air conditioning and watching TV, where quite frankly there hasn't been anything on to watch anyway.

(However, with that being said, there were two things on TV this weekend that my son and I watched: Impact Wrestling's "Slammiversary" on Saturday night, and WWE's "Extreme Rules" on Sunday night, and both extravaganza's were quite well done and fun to watch.)

So we spent a quiet and restful Sunday in our pool, and on Saturday, I made a little bit of a major decision related to my novel.

I decided to put it up online, chapter by chapter, so anyone can read it--for free.

I set up a blog site--https://ratfaceabrahamlincolnpanim.blogspot.com--and it is right there for the reading.

I decided to do this because even though my novel has received some decent reviews from a few prospective publishers, not one of them that I have contacted has yet to take on the book, and rather than have it lingering on my desktop, I thought I would put it up for everyone to enjoy.

So far, response has been OK. It has been up for two days, which means two chapters are up, and I will put up Chapter 3 later today.

Just to reiterate, it is about a fellow who does not fit in, and this is not of his own doing. Then, miraculously, he does fit in, but runs into numerous challenges, to the point that he wishes he didn't fit in anymore.

The story is a metaphor for our society, which strives for perfection where that goal is truly unattainable.

But within that message is what I believe to be a nice story, perfect for young adults 12 to 15 years old or so. It is G-rated, with no curse words, no sex, and there is nothing in the story to offend anyone.

There is also no mention of modern devices like computers and cell phones; I wanted to keep those things out of the story so the focus is on the story, not these conveniences that somewhat overtake our lives and our way of doing things.

By putting it up on a blog and making it available to all, maybe somebody will see it, somebody who has a foot in the door in the publishing world, and can help me get this thing published.

Like finding a job, it is easier to do so if you know someone who can help you. And like finding a job, I know no one in the publishing business who can help me, so maybe, this might be a way of interesting someone in my story.

And even if not, it might help me get a leg up in self publishing, and area that is leaps and bounds beyond what it once was and is thought of as much more legitimate today than it has been in years past.

So please take a few moments a day and read my story. A few people already have--I sent out the entire manuscript to a few friends and associates over the past few weeks--and most people seem to like it.

So that is what I did during the past weekend, swimming and moving to the next step of promoting my novel.

What did you do this weekend?

Whatever you did, I hope you stayed cool, calm and collected doing it.