A Year in Review - Part 2

One of the things I like about driving truck across this country, are the photo opportunities. I've always like taking pictures, even back in the day when it was on film and you have to wait for them to come back from the developer. I'm pretty sure I have some old film floating around somewhere that's probably too old to be developed.

One thing I dislike about driving truck, is driving in winter weather. Although I have to admit that it can lead to just as impressive photo ops.

This first photo is from December 2019. Mr. Janney and I were trying to get a load to Utah, and the weather was not cooperating. We had tried avoiding going through Wyoming on 80, but there were also issues with 70 in Colorado. After a little pressure from dispatch, we rerouted through Wyoming and had to shut down again. Visibility was crap, and Mr. Janney had lost track of how many accidents he'd passed. It took two of us to find a parking spot, only to be kicked out of it because it was a reserved spot. So we had to back track until we found a parking only pull off with an opening. The weather had lifted by sunrise, as you can see in the photo.

When we have to sit for weather related reasons, one thing we both do is catch up on sleep. And I prefer to wait until daylight when it's snowing or raining. I don't always, but it is my preference. This time, I did sleep, especially since I had woke up to help find the parking spot. I was up in time for the Wyoming sunrise. Not only did I snag that pretty sunrise pic, but I managed to snap this pic of an early bird.

There were quite a few of these birds flitting about in the early morning light, but this one was in the best spot for a picture. I don't remember now if I managed to get it in one shot, or if I had to grab it from a short video. My hands aren't quite as steady as they used to be when it comes to picture taking anymore. I believe it was Mr. Janney's suggestion that I take short videos and then grab a picture from it that way.

I know that's how I grabbed this shot of a bird just two days later. It was at a rest area in an area without snow. I'm not sure if I had made it to Arizona yet or if I was still in Utah. Wherever it was, it was southern enough for there to be cacti. I'll post that picture just below.

At the time of composing this post, the worst problem we've run into this season has been high wind. We've had to sit more than a few times because either our load was too light to risk it or we had an empty trailer. I'm hoping we manage to miss the worst of it when we go back out after Thanksgiving.

One other thing I don't like about truck driving, is the inability to take pictures while I drive! Oh, the sights I have stored in my memory!

There was one morning, I was heading west. It was actually not too far from the same Wyoming parking area in the above picture, though not the same day. The sun was rising behind me, and the full moon was still above the western horizon. The misty clouds glowed pink around the setting moon. It was beautiful.

Going to sign off now with the picture of the cactus at the other rest area. See you around Christmas-time!

P.S. - I'm experimenting with fonts...leave a comment and tell me what you think of this one!

The Thing About Depression

The thing about depression is: it's different for everyone. And yet, the same.

I recently said to someone, "I don't know why, but I'm really struggling with depression right now." His reply, "Why?"

My internal scream echoed in the heavens. Ok, that's a bit dramatic, but I wasn't impressed. It was asked in dead seriousness too, it wasn't a joke. Coming from Mr. Janney, it could have been a joke. Kind of like the lame, "huh?" we toss back and forth when we joke about not being able to hear something. But it wasn't. I love him, but he's not always the most...sensitive.

Why am I depressed? Damned if I know. It's not like depression announces itself and says, "I'm here for a visit, hope you don't mind but you've been far too happy recently."

My precious

It may be chemical. Something is off with my meds or my diet or the lack of exercise that comes with the job. On strictly driving days, I can log over 600 miles even with my bathroom breaks. That's a lot of sitting in one position!

It may be circumstantial. The stress of the pandemic even though it effects me differently than others (my job means I don't get a lot of time at home even in the best of times!) The stress of the winter weather we've had to deal with so far. The stress of not being able to write recently - which is a symptom of depression for me, which only makes the depression worse. The stress of: this, that, and everything in between!

It may be the time change. Or Seasonal Affective Disorder. It may be a combination of everything!

When I'm depressed, I watch a lot of television and movies. Especially ones that don't require a lot of thinking, namely reruns. When at home, I'll binge watch whatever is on...Criminal Minds, NCIS, Star Trek. There's less stress knowing what's coming ahead of time. 

Beautiful...
But that fog is thick enough to hide a mountain

M*A*S*H always makes me feel - makes me laugh and makes me cry. Sometimes both in the same episode.

Part of me is frustrated because I know Mr. Janney has had his own struggles with depression. But like I said in the beginning, no matter how alike it is, it is different for each of us.

When I was discussing this with one of my doctors, she pointed out that not only is depression different from person to person, but depressive episodes for an individual can vary each time. I was complaining to her how frustrated I was because it's not like this is the first time I've ever had a major depressive episode. She encouraged me to do exactly this, write things down in my blog, even if I don't publish it.

Just writing this releases something in me. Heck, even the last post I did and working on the next one I have scheduled was enough to crack the sorrow in me. Although I am cynical enough to wonder how long it will last. I've already swung up and down a couple times during this home time. I'm not even sure if I'll post this (if you're reading this, I decided to and was too lazy to take this sentence out).

I also sleep a lot when I'm depressed. A common enough ailment. But hey, I'm on home time and there's no where to go so why not? And I'm making up for all that lost sleep from being on the road. America really needs to fix their roads!

All that to say I'm wrapping this up and heading to bed. I'll even light my candles for a few minutes because they make me happy. Even though they make me sneeze too.

Peace!

p.s. - playing around with different fonts. thoughts on this one? I've also changed the color scheme. thoughts?

is anyone out there? lol

The New Updated Cover for "The Ring of Fire"

I have been stressing for months over the cover for the revised Ring of Fire, the second book in the Dragon Dream series. I absolutely love the designer of the cover for Farmer's Daughter, but her beautiful covers are a bit beyond my means right now. There's a few areas financially that Mr. Janney and I need to work on, but that's neither here nor there.

There's nothing really wrong with the old cover, it just doesn't have the same feel. If you know what you're looking for, you can tell that it's a generic cover made through the design program for KDP. Which again, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm sure a person who knew what they're doing could design a fabulous cover.

So when I saw an ad on Facebook for book covers at a lower price, I checked them out. And I liked what they designed for me. 

Thank you GetCoverDesign team!

With no further ado, here is the new cover for "The Ring of Fire" - 

For the Ebook

For the Paperback

Release of the novel is soon to follow.

A Year In Review - Part 1

Snug as a bug

A year ago I posted a poem expressing my depression and then I ghosted my blog. It's not the first time and it probably won't be the last time. Life is unpredictable.

Also just over a year ago I started medication for my depression. It seems to help. I'm not always jubilant, but neither am I experiencing as frequent 'end of the world' lows. That alone is worth it.

According to my pictures, just over a year ago Mr. Janney and I were in southern California. Our truck was in the shop because the city horn wasn't working, something we need to be considered legal. We spent a few days in a pet-friendly hotel. When word came that the truck was done, we checked out and returned to the terminal...only to discover that the shop never actually fixed the horn. So it was back to the terminal. We were there just one more night.

To get more active on my blog, I'm going to chose a picture or two from the past months and go from there. This posts first picture up above is my beloved dog Jaclyn, snuggled up on the hotel bed with me last November.

The second photo to the right is the view outside our hotel window. Well, I took it standing outside on the walkway, but it's all the same thing really.

Last year, we spent Thanksgiving out on the road. I'm not sure which state we had our turkey dinner at, because there aren't any pictures in Photos.

We came home for Thanksgiving this year, even though we didn't go anywhere or have anyone over. I fixed us a ham dinner that will probably be feeding us for the rest of our home time. I guess there's nothing wrong with that, it'll save me a lot of cooking the next few days!

I have my novel The Farmer's Daughter for Kindle on a countdown sale all this weekend. Catch it while you can!

I'm almost ready to re-release the second in the series. I'd like to hold out long enough to update the cover, but I might have to wait until later to do that. I'll keep you all updated.

Book three is nearing completion, just not fast enough.

To not overwhelm myself, I'm going to commit to posting every other week. So, see you then!