{"id":1264,"date":"2016-09-23T06:05:57","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T13:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2016-09-22T20:08:54","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T03:08:54","slug":"tales-from-the-downfall-trail-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2016\/09\/23\/tales-from-the-downfall-trail-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales from the Downfall Trail, Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things that happens to authors on tour\u2014at least to THIS author on tour\u2014is that I end up in a time zone warp where my bodily clock is a long way from where my body is. \u00a0That means I don\u2019t want to sleep when I\u2019m supposed to sleep and I also don\u2019t want to wake up and be pleasant for early morning interviews. \u00a0But tonight was an entirely new experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

We stopped for dinner on our way to University Bookstore in Mill Creek. \u00a0The Happy Hour menu in the restaurant advertised Taco Tuesdays and Wings Wednesdays. \u00a0A Wings Wednesday menu sounded like it would be just the ticket, except today wasn\u2019t Wednesday. \u00a0It was Thursday\u2014all day long. \u00a0That meant that the blog that SHOULD have been \u00a0written yesterday is being written in the car, parked outside the bookstore. \u00a0This time I wasn\u2019t just clock-challenged, I was seriously calendar-challenged.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re doing Seattle area events right now. \u00a0That means we\u2019re staying at our house but still living out of our suitcases. \u00a0We have minimal groceries available and hence a limited at-home menu. \u00a0Oh, and Jojo and Bella aren\u2019t here, either. \u00a0They\u2019re still in Tucson. \u00a0That makes for a not-exactly-homey homecoming.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I love walking at home. \u00a0I went out this morning and got my ten, walking in my robe and jammies in the privacy of our own driveway. \u00a0And while I was walking, I was thinking about another walker.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s a neighbor of ours which is to say he lives somewhere nearby in the Cherry Crest neighborhood, but I can\u2019t tell you his name because I don\u2019t know it. \u00a0I noticed him a year and a half ago when we first started walking because he was walking, too. \u00a0More or less. \u00a0He was tall and thin and usually dressed from head to toe in bright yellow rain gear. \u00a0And he walked with a strange, stiff-legged gait that made him look like someone walking on a very ungainly pair of stilts. \u00a0I called him Stick Man.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I saw him out trudging up hill and down (We do have some very steep hills around here!) I was always struck by his determination and by the fact that he was out there walking every single day no matter what. \u00a0His good example was an inspiration to me and a prod as well. \u00a0As in, if he can walk, I sure as hell can walk, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a writer, so when I see something or someone of interest, I tell myself stories about them\u2014creating a back story of sorts where none existed. \u00a0I imagined that he was a once-fit man who had been felled by some serious medical catastrophe or another. \u00a0It seemed to me that his having suffered a stroke would go a long way toward accounting for that ungainly gait.<\/span><\/p>\n

This week, once we got home, the first thing I did was go down to the ponds in the back yard to check on the fish. \u00a0Thank God and Nerf Gun Whistling Bullets, the Big Guy still lives! \u00a0And so do all our other fish as well. \u00a0They\u2019re thriving, in fact. \u00a0Then yesterday, while running an errand in the neighborhood, who should we see but Stick Man, except he wasn\u2019t wearing his rain gear this time. \u00a0Nope, he was dressed in a white tee-shirt and a pair of red shorts doing a very good job of almost jogging.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wanted to jump out of the car and hug him. \u00a0I wanted to tell him GREAT JOB! \u00a0I didn\u2019t do either one, of course, but here\u2019s a guy who has fought his way back from what should have been crippling circumstances and who deserves a huge pat on the back. \u00a0I don\u2019t know him, but Stick Man is my hero.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll bet he\u2019s yours now, too.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things that happens to authors on tour\u2014at least to THIS author on tour\u2014is that I end up in a time zone warp where my bodily clock is a long way from where my body is. \u00a0That means I don\u2019t want to sleep when I\u2019m supposed to sleep and I also don\u2019t want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tour-2","category-traveling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-ko","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1265,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions\/1265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}