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Guns, God, and a Superb Chicken-Fried Steak
Father’s Day weekend in Mayberry
It’s been a fairly laid-back Father’s Day weekend here in Mayberry (the first “holiday” since my move). Various logistical issues have prevented my kids from coming out until next weekend, so for the most part my stepdad and I have been keeping to our regular schedule. This has made me realize something: I now have a regular schedule.
Since embarking on the perilous journey of writing full-time more than three years ago, the word “schedule” has been a fluid one for me. Before my move to East Texas, the goal was to write from around 8 am to 3 pm every day; I hit that goal maybe half the time, and it depended heavily on what YouTube rabbit hole I fell into that morning, whether there was a John Wayne movie on TCM, and if I felt like a nap would spark creativity.
That all changed when I moved here; because I’m not going to change the habits of an 87-year-old man (and should not try), I have rearranged when I write around the schedule my mom and stepdad have had for the past 25 years. Now, I get up around 6:30 every morning, make coffee, make sure he takes his insulin, and then write until we leave at 9:00 for the gas station to get more coffee and solve the world’s problems with three other guys born when FDR was president.
