The Vultures are Gathering

I think that means it’s time to leave! These two turkey vultures have been spending mornings sunning themselves on the electric pole next to my trailer. Every morning I wake up to their subliminal message: Are you dead yet?

Turkey Vultures sitting on the power pole next to my trailer.

I didn’t see any of these birds last year. That’s one of the many reasons I chose not to go back to Florida for the winter. I thought I’d outrun them. In Florida, the turkey vultures line the rooftops, hop from pole to pole, and sit on abandoned playground equipment. Are you dead yet?

This is the territory the turkey vulture roams in North America. At least with the temperature where it is today, maybe they'll be hibernating or something.

Signs in the Everglades warn that vultures will eat the rubber off your car or trailer. Really? Just the kind of place I want to spend my waning years. Not that my years are waning. I’m not dead yet.

Which is more than I can say for seventeen students and teachers at Parkland. Rest in peace.

You know what really got to me when I saw the pictures of the murdered victims? That one guy who was wearing a UIndy swim team T-shirt. The kid was going to attend my alma mater. Cut down.

I don’t have any solutions to that situation. Every solution I hear is a bad one. Like banning porn. To my knowledge, no one has ever committed a mass murder while fapping.

They say we should arm teachers. Well, that would solve one of the terrible dilemmas that terrorists face: Who to shoot first.

Me? I write. I ridicule other people’s solutions, hoping they’ll come up with something better, though I sincerely doubt it. We’re all caught up in our own agendas. Whether you are pro-gun-ownership or against it, you won’t give up your solution. Note, I didn’t say 2nd Amendment. The issue has nothing to do with that. It’s all about me and what I want. Hell with the Constitution. We’d fight for or against gun ownership no matter what the Constitution said. We just use that as an excuse for our opinions.

I'm ahead of my writing goals for the year. But it represents four stories I'm currently actively developing! Can't do just one.

So, I write about characters and people who are concerned for the well-being of others and I try to simply turn a mirror on the world so we can look at ourselves through the eyes of others. My big project at the moment is City Limits, a literary fiction that I hope to release in late spring or early summer. I’m tracking well and the ‘final’ draft has entered the editing cycle with generally good comments coming back from my team. I don’t actually have a cover picture for the small city of Rosebud Falls somewhere in the eastern part of the country (not Indiana). I suppose, though, that my image of Main Street is heavily influenced by North Manchester, Indiana. I’ve seen several other towns with similar atmospheres, but this is unquestionably the scene in my mind when I write about Main Street in Rosebud Falls.

Main Street in North Manchester, Indiana

So, as the vultures circle my camp, it’s a sure sign that I’ve been sitting in one place for too long. Next Thursday, I pull up stakes and move. I suppose that before then, I should wash the dishes and sweep the floor. And write another couple thousand words each day.