gator!
I always talk about animals in my blog. Usually it is Milo, Zailey, and/or Jynx as they are my current animals. I've also talked about fish, horses, and the departed Rosco. Today I saw something that was a little different.
Picture a Kansan driving through Florida's Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge after just leaving Kennedy Space Center (which was awesome, by the way). Since this is a wildlife refuge and the state is known for its gators, my head is on a swivel looking for one. Water stood on both sides of the highway, so it isn't inconceivable that one would be hanging out. Sure enough, there was one swimming through the water. Due to this highway's proximity to several awesome things (a refuge, scenic water, rockets, launch pads, some vehicle assembly building), the highway had signs saying "no stopping on shoulder except for emergencies." Stopping to take a picture of a gator wouldn't have constituted an emergency. Well at least not in the eyes of the law. Besides, my phone battery was dead from taking all of the pictures at the Space Center (did I mention it was awesome?).
As a writer, I appreciate it when someone offers encouragement. Today, I met an American hero, Astronaut John Herrington. When I mentioned that I was an author, he said that he was trying to write a memoir and it was a lot of hard work and he had new found respect for people that had accomplished it. I just shrugged and tried to down play the effort I put into my books (I didn't tell him that I wrote four).
Hard work. Writing a book is hard work, but if you have a story worth telling, the feeling of accomplishment is a reward that is worth all of the pain and suffering. I have a feeling that Herrington has a story worth telling.
Today I saw my first gator in the wild. I also got to talk to an astronaut about writing (and a few other things). Is it just me, or is that not just the coolest (geekiest) set of accomplishments to complete in a single day?
Picture a Kansan driving through Florida's Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge after just leaving Kennedy Space Center (which was awesome, by the way). Since this is a wildlife refuge and the state is known for its gators, my head is on a swivel looking for one. Water stood on both sides of the highway, so it isn't inconceivable that one would be hanging out. Sure enough, there was one swimming through the water. Due to this highway's proximity to several awesome things (a refuge, scenic water, rockets, launch pads, some vehicle assembly building), the highway had signs saying "no stopping on shoulder except for emergencies." Stopping to take a picture of a gator wouldn't have constituted an emergency. Well at least not in the eyes of the law. Besides, my phone battery was dead from taking all of the pictures at the Space Center (did I mention it was awesome?).
As a writer, I appreciate it when someone offers encouragement. Today, I met an American hero, Astronaut John Herrington. When I mentioned that I was an author, he said that he was trying to write a memoir and it was a lot of hard work and he had new found respect for people that had accomplished it. I just shrugged and tried to down play the effort I put into my books (I didn't tell him that I wrote four).
Hard work. Writing a book is hard work, but if you have a story worth telling, the feeling of accomplishment is a reward that is worth all of the pain and suffering. I have a feeling that Herrington has a story worth telling.
Today I saw my first gator in the wild. I also got to talk to an astronaut about writing (and a few other things). Is it just me, or is that not just the coolest (geekiest) set of accomplishments to complete in a single day?
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