Old Friend Happenings – Last week, my primary alpha reader and very old friend got a hold of me that he was in town. After some messaging back and forth, we arranged to meet in between for dinner. The Wife came along because she had not met Alpha Reader. Heck, I hadn’t seen Alpha Reader in person for at least a decade. I warned The Wife that when the two of us got together, she may not get a whole lot of words in, and that bore out. Alpha Reader and I had a nice two-hour chat on a variety of subjects and memories. Politics, personal finance, and of course, writing, were among the subjects. It was a damned good night.

Tree Happenings – The old house where BIL and SIL live was having troubles with the big oak tree in the front yard. It was threatening sidewalks, driveway, and pipes. So, we decided it was time for the tree to come down. Manatee County requires us to replace it with something else, which is another decision. The Wife was a little sad to see the tree go, as it was part of her life for twenty years. I didn’t quite have the attachment, but I did my best to provide comfort.

On a side note, the removal caused a small kerfuffle on the neighborhood FB page. Apparently, one of the neighbors decided to complain, and there were a few others decided to chime in on how it was such a bad decision and a detriment to the neighborhood. The Wife wanted a response, so I helped craft the response.

The admins decided to remove the post since it was getting a bit spicy.