“The Dog” Journal
Welcome to the Dog Journal, a blog where I periodically share my best finds for taming those puppies that gnaw at your planner.
Could be a quick time management tip, a smell-the-flowers moment, a comment overheard on the elevator. Whatever the inspiration, I hope you’ll blog right along with me by commenting and sharing your tips and stories for taming an overbooked life.
Next Balancing Act: Unpacking
There’s nothing like back-to-back summer vacations followed by two weeks in Central Europe followed by Covid (ugh) to throw life – and book promotions – off balance. Thanks to those who have continued to read – and recommend – Best of Balancing Act as a quick read for crazy times.
Anyone who’s working on a holiday gift list and knows someone who’d benefit from a break from the news (who wouldn’t?) can still find it here on Amazon.
Meanwhile, I’m excited now to start speaking and writing about how downsizing can unlock the important stories of your life, as it has mine. I hope you’ll learn more about searching for your own stories in those packing boxes by subscribing to my new Unpacking newsletter here on my web page. Welcome aboard!!
Calling All Morning People
OK. Here’s one more gripe about the heat. With apologies to those who put up with more intense temps or focus on more serious issues like climate change, let me just say: It’s tough to be a morning person when there’s so much to fit into a morning.
Even for the happily retired, there was already breakfast and journaling and reading the morning paper before 9 AM. But now there’s weeding before it’s too hot, walking or cycling before it’s too hot, and if there wasn’t a severe thunderstorm the night before, watering. This morning, one more thing. The no-wait time for an oil change at Valvoline was 8 AM, when they open.
The only solution seems to be rising at 5 AM and – if there’s not a power outage – starting with the inside stuff and then sneaking outdoors at sunrise.
Any other morning people with this problem? How are you dealing?
Small World in Book World
A real treat being out in the community with Best of Balancing Act has been running into column readers from way back, especially when they themselves are writers. One such person is Cindy May.
Cindy stopped by to say hi at the Columbus Book Festival. She first got in touch back in 2015 when I wrote a piece about being addicted to books. Cindy, it turned out, suffered from the same addiction – so much so that she framed the column back then and her husband took a picture. She says her book addiction set in after she got married and especially after she and her husband moved into their first house. In case you didn’t know – and like to learn something new every day – Cindy says there’s a Japanese word for our addiction: tsundoku.
Happily, the book addiction column (“Help! I’m A Biblioholic”) made it into the new book, along with another of her favorites, “Book Groups Divided Between Haves and Have Nots.” I’m honored to know that Best of Balancing Act will be going on vacation with Cindy to Cape Cod this summer.
Book Festival: Quite A Weekend!
I had no idea what to expect when I headed downtown Saturday for the Columbus Downtown Library’s first-ever book festival. The first day did not start well.
Before I left home, I had already scalded my right hand, testing my “leak-proof” coffee mug for the ride. Good thing, I reasoned. Otherwise, its loose latch might have ruined my entire inventory.
With my wares in a pull-cart, all I needed was to show up at Staples when it opened at 8, so I could make color copies of my newly designed “sign-up sheet”- a last-minute inspiration from a more experienced writer.
“For e-mail addresses,” she said.
Unfortunately, bright red metal bars covered the glass doors of Staples at 8 AM. Contrary to what I was sure I read online, Staples didn’t open till 9, and I’d heard there was construction on the way to the festival. I heard right. Orange-and-white barrels and barriers everywhere. But on the other side, a helpful librarian who made the color copies.
In fact, once I was there, the whole place was filled with helpful librarians who dispensed maps and cardboard fans and water even to us authors in the giant Indie Alley tent in the library’s topiary park.
You may think of librarians as book nerds, but I can’t think of a better group to cover details. I suspect they were behind the scenes quietly planning the Normandy Invasion and hopefully are hard at work on climate change.
I was no less inspired by the entrepreneurial instincts of my fellow authors. Some hung giant posters behind their tables and giant vases of flowers on top. One, who wrote a children’s book about a hedgehog, brought a live one along for show and tell.
(For a nano-second, I was tempted to recruit some child’s hamster on a wheel to help sell Best of Balancing Act. But remembering the coffee and Staples and the construction, I thought better of it.)
Still, after two days, I left the Festival with just one book remaining. And since a friend mentioned she’d hit a detour on the way to buying one – but still wanted a signed copy – I’m tempted to call it a sell-out.
In case you also hit a detour and would have liked to sign that color-copied Sign-Up sheet, you still can. There’s a newsletter sign-up on PatSnyderOnline, or just send me a Facebook message. And if you missed the chance to buy Best of Balancing Act in person, you can still get your copy on Amazon.
