I Am Still Alive

I hope you all had a happy Labor Day; Good food and family.

An overbearing authoritarian local government has caused me to absolutely forget my August post deadline.

Actually, I did remember but for those last three days of the month, and then I experienced sudden recall after the fact.

Devastation!

Sorry for my tardiness. But I am still alive. Please stop worrying.

This post is for August.

I will be changing my West Allis Farmer’s Market schedule. Rather than Tuesdays I will be doing Thursdays. It appears Thursday are becoming the day vendors who do only one weekday favor. Not sure if they were directed that direction… but it sure makes me feel special. Me doing just Tuesdays.

One Family Urban Gardens: find us on Facebook.

At the Oak Creek Farmer’s Market, just on a whim, I decided to look for a free WiFi network; I do not have a data plan for my phone.

So I see a network among the many. It begins with a universally recognized acronym followed by: “_surveillance_van_89”.

That was good for some laughs and giggles. It was seeing the “van_89” after I clicked on the network; a network that seemed to appear and disappear randomly in the list, that furrowed my brow.

So I had been trying to get some legal help for my troubles. The Wisconsin Bar Association was a disappointment. You never know when someone else is listening.

This is our garage. In the words of a supervisor from Neighborhood Services; “I don’t care about your garage.”

So I paint and stain surfaces and bought some new windows rather than doing the work that really needs to be done; on my garage. Is it any wonder I called the city “incompetent, malicious and depraved”.

I had all the materials for repairing the garage, after closing a raze permit for the adjoining structure, was working on the drawings for a new permit when the city demanded I do what they say or else.

That was over two years ago. My plan was to rebuild the garage (materials already purchased), landscape the yard, raising the central walkway, because when the ground freezes our backyard is a lake for several weeks in the spring, and then remodel the whole house.

Something I told the city from the beginning… do what we say or else was their response. All instigated by our Alderman.

The purpose of this drive to refurbish and modernize our entire home is that we still hope to adopt, and I would like a really really nice home to raise a child in. And if left to my own devices the plan was to be into the remodeling this year.

We haven’t been blessed with children ourselves.

But the city is not the only problem in regard to modernization. There is a growing list of contractors who will not work for us, who will even make appointments to come to create an estimate and just not show, not just once but even up to three times.

This goes back long before our Alderman set his forces against us. I have been thinking lately that this may go back all the way to my days working in Architecture, professionally for some ten years.

“If the Lord is with me, who can stand against me?” so the Bible goes.

Apparently… everyone.

It is what happens next that is the exciting part, and if our mind is right, all for the glory of God.

And hopefully for the betterment of all.

But why do I burden you with my personal troubles? So sorry.

This blog is about writing, writing fiction to be more specific

But we can always draw from fact, stranger than fiction they say, to gain some inspiration for storylines and character building.

Add a bit of imagination and…

So let us take a hypothetical that a professional Architect is blacklisted from his profession, for reasons nefarious but not unheard of in modern society. Always treated well by their employers and the educational institution they exceeded in, the professional finds themself wrapped in a mystery.

As this professional works upon advancing their personal design dreams they find themselves closed off from the services of local contractors, leaving them to do the work themselves; a slow meticulous task as they are very knowledgeable but unpracticed in the various building arts.

This could be extremely challenging if your character is a woman.

The protagonists church could also be a back drop for intrigue.

Drawing again from reality we see that some of the richest families in Wisconsin reign over material supply empires.

We can extrapolate new angles.

How deep does the conspiracy go?

Follow the money, or in other words, the politics.

Seeking legal council our character runs into a he said she said issue with the local Bar Association and within a week of the controversy our hero starts receiving mail from let us say an organization like; SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration).

You can see that with a bit of imagination you can make quite an intricate and compelling storyline. Mix in a bit of Bigfoot or extraterrestrials and you have a guaranteed movie contract.

Hmmm. Extraterrestrial Bigfeet.

Kapow!

It is all about what happens next.

An extraordinary life we all dream of living, at least through a good book.

Thank you for reading.

I missed my deadline… Sorry again.