Howdy,

I published my second book, Boy Who Wore Dimple Marks: A Jake Jones Story, on Amazon last year on my late grandmother’s birthday: November 18th. Waited a few weeks, in honor of her: Grammabel. Isabel West.

Hadn’t worked on the blog in awhile, so just posting here now. Sorry.

I guess, at least if I don’t post again in 6 or 7 months, this “news release” will only be 6 or 7 months old and not way back from November … November two thousand … eight … teen…

Today, in 2019, is a big day for billyhawes.com, as I also — just this very hour! (so up-to-date! Right?!) — added Boy Who Wore Dimple Marks: A Jake Jones Story to my Recommended Reading page. Two things: should make podcasting partner Matt Garman happy & I should have done it a long time ago.

Hope you read my newish book — my latest book — and enjoy…

—Billy

Reading. Writing. Living.

Howdy,

Welcome all TNC Podcast listeners!

Matt Garman and I thank you for following the “Thursday Night Conversations.”

—Billy

Reading. Writing. Living.

Howdy,

Three (scheduled) days I don’t write: Christmas, the date Sarah and I celebrate our November 3^rd wedding anniversary, and my birthday.

When this is in place, I’ll get my words. In fact, the last year’s 200,000 goal … DONE!

Happy birthday, Papa!

—Billy

Reading. Writing. Living.

Word Count: 200,000+ / On Pace: 200,000 / Year’s Goal: 200,000

Howdy,

A little extra for good measure …

Always part of the plan, due to the 550-a-day average taking the top up over 200,000.

200,750 to be exact.

So much for blowing it out of the water, but, hey, I made it! And out is out when it comes to knocking it out of the park, even if scraping the paint on the backside of the wall. Home run!

Trot the bases.

I can take tomorrow off—not to bask, to celebrate, for my birthday (a post already scheduled to publish)—this year of 200,000 words written in the books, and then get back at it on Wednesday.

Writer-Author, shifting back to books.

Thanks for reading along on this journey to 200K, or checking in from time to time as we went. There’s a grab bag now—300 posts!—some good, some so-so, some a start of an idea, some written to an end, some surprising me someway and making me smile while bringing me hope you’d smile too, all drafted and published, and counted.

Today, it was a little extra, to make the mark.

And now I’m … DONE!

—Billy

Reading. Writing. Living.

Word Count: 200,750 / On Pace: 200,750 / Year’s Goal: 200,000

Howdy,

I’m finding it pretty cool that I get to cross 200,000 words with a Sunday Scripture series post. I like these and am glad it’s happening here.

The Scripture reference for today’s special day: Revelation 7:17.

Jumped down to Revelation in my iPhone ESV Bible app “FAVORITES. Seemed fitting for a type of ending, but I didn’t want to go all the way to the last chapters of the last book, as “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more,” (Rev. 21:1) struck me as a little heady as comparison.

I’m not saying 200K is all that. It’s big for me, and I celebrate, but there are bigger things. Much bigger. In fact I’m looking forward to getting off that word count track, though today it’s quite the thing: I get to hit the crux of my blogging goal for the year. (Just one more to round out the year and 550-a-day pace.)

It was a good year that way, but Eternity will be better. Much better.

Look at Revelation 7:17. It’s just great, as God is great and greatly to be praised. He is great to us, to me. “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Continue reading

Howdy,

I’m getting so close now that I won’t even need a lot of words in the last few posts to hit my word count goal!

I’m at 199,415 as I start this post.

Giddy is the wrong word, but it’s like being physically overly-caffeinated. Excitement. Excitement, with anticipation. Two hundred thousand words is a lot of words, and I’m almost there.

I recently took a moment for Ti and Riah at a McDonald’s PlayPlace in the morning because the three of us had taken Jasper to school. It’s not often that I have the boys there in the morning running around like it’s the afternoon.

It felt like the afternoon when a young, pre-school girl at the table next to us was enjoying a sucker. I thought, Wow, that’s not good: not for the teeth, not for such a young child, so first-thing-in-the-morning.

Riah thought, I want that. A he made a one-year-old’s fuss for it. Unfortunately for me, but to the little girl’s credit, she made a motion of offering her sucker to Riah. I shook it off. Then the mom lifted a whole bag for me to see, another offer. I raised my hand as a thank you (anyway) and to hold it off again. The mom stood up and walked the bag over and fished out a fist of three Blow Pops. As she laid them on our table, I changed my thank you anyway to a thanks, and Riah snatched and held one high.

Nine o’clock in the morning: Blow Pop suckers. For my one year old.

Continue reading

Howdy,

I don’t know how many people in the world will have had this experience. But I have, so it comes to mind.

Covering an ostrich’s head with a hood.

Yes, putting a hood over an ostrich’s head—and neck, but only part of that neck—to “calm” it down, to transport it, or treat it, or whatever you have to do as a crazy owner of an ostrich.

We used to—when I was a junior high/high school kid—have a “fancy” drawstring hood for the job (I think, unless that was another visiting rancher’s), but I more so remember the cutoff sweatshirt sleeves. No, not wearing a sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off, which first strikes as kind of pointless but then the vision of a vest comes to mind and I’m left as confused, as this sentence amid the ostrich-talk is likely to do to the reader. Point was going to be that we cut off sleeves to use as the hood, slipping them over an ostrich’s head and down the neck a ways, which worked quite well: the size and length held it in place, which was over those gigantic and mesmerizing eyes that ostriches have.

That’s what settled those big, insane, oddball birds somewhat: not being able to see. Running 40 miles per hour in zigzags isn’t as effective if you can’t see, I suppose.

Continue reading

Howdy,

You know those movie scenes or “Want to get away?” commercials in which someone (you know it’s you) is snooping around someone else’s bathroom and something crashes or breaks?

I’m calling it the guest bathroom freak-out.

And we had one of those very recently.

I say “we” not as the generic plural to protect myself, because it wasn’t me. Honest.

But I became a part of it. And it made me smile when I thought of that old “Want to get away?” commercial, which had a lady, if I remember correctly, peaking behind a medicine cabinet door, maybe even picking up and holding a prescription bottle, when a shelving collapsed out of the wall cabinet and onto the sink counter.

I thought of it when I saw the racing panic on Titus’ face. Poor Titus. But it was pretty funny, as apparently the snooping and the panic are universal, even for a three year old.

Continue reading

Howdy,

Only 2,000 words to go! Look at that pace at the bottom of the post: a clean 198K.

198,000.

Incredible. I’m incredibly close.

200,000, here we come.

What am I going to do when I’m done …?

Hah, that’s funny.

Maybe I’ll spend my time flying a drone. Jasper got a perfect starter for his birthday, and we’ve enjoyed the introduction to RC flying. AKA, launching and landing inside the living room. Well, I don’t want to sell us short: launching, hovering, landing.

There’s an auto launch/land button which is great for the kids, as well as a training mode and training attachment (safety cage) around the whole small drone itself.

Also to be fair, Jasper’s learned to spin and turn to go with some forward and back, but you never quite know yet which way you should bob and weave when it’s coming your way. Sarah particularly enjoys being on edge in the kitchen, having to duck when the hovering buzz drifts from the living room. She’s game, but she stays on her toes.

Continue reading

Howdy,

I need to get a new pool/spa thermometer to know what I’m up against.

Yesterday I swam in our outdoor pool for the first time in October. We’ve been busy, and I’ve just not gotten out there. The last day of September (Jasper’s birthday) we were on the lake, and the water wasn’t too bad.

I’d say that Lake McClure was warmer—less cold—than our swimming pool. Smaller body of water fluctuates more quickly, it would reason. Actually, the lake was still nice—amazing how warm even the full lake got this summer.

I wish I’d swam outside every day of the month so far, and I’d like to do that going forward, taking freestyle strokes right into winter, cutting through the water hardly noticing the incremental changes in dropping temps. But I don’t think it quite works that way. In my experience (because I’ve always tried to keep swimming season going as long into the end of the year as possible) you get a couple consecutive cold nights and the outdoor pool temperature reflects it: retains it.

But it felt good yesterday late afternoon, to be back in the pool, in the cool water not yet freezing cold. When it gets even colder I imagine it an ice bath, good for my back. And shivering exercise is good for burning extra calories, which holds the enticing promise of shedding an extra sliver of extra extras of weight.

Continue reading