It is Father’s Day. I’m busy enjoying it, so this will be short. Let me just say that I can think of worse ways to burn a couple of hours than heading to woods with a minor arsenal and a hundred bucks or so worth of ammunition.
I hope your day is equally on target.
And now, time to start cleaning.
MBW and the HA gave me a unique Father’s Day gift this year: quiet time. MBW drove the HA to California for a week’s visit to visit grandparents. The HA will get some camping in, MBW will get some work done. And I get a week at home of quiet and sleeping in.
My family loves me.
View from my brother-in-law’s house.
Two blocks from the hotel on a Sunday morning and Monterrey is nearly unrecognizable. Kilometers of a major thoroughfare — the sort with a shady, tree-lined median and jogging path bisecting it — is closed. Bikers, joggers, walkers, dogs, and children pedaling four-wheelers crowd the street and the median. Not a single driver is plotting to commit vehicular homicide against me.
It’s rare I can step out onto a street in Monterrey without feeling my life threatened by every driver behind the wheel. Kind of nice, really.
But even at mid-morning the heat is sapping, merciless, and promising to grow worse. So, back inside to write today’s web log post.
I like writing in hotels. There is a sense of seriousness in the act of enclosing oneself in a room, curtains closed, and getting down to it, instead of being out, exploring what lies beyond the walls of the hotel. The implied sacrifice of unknown experience and fun suggests one is truly working and not merely playing at writing.
Not that I’m here in Monterrey for fun. When one considers vacation options in Mexico, Monterrey does not spring immediately to mind. I’m here for a wedding, and the reception on the terrace at Hotel Chipinque. My Beautiful Wife is taking advantage of the opportunity to visit clients and give a seminar. So I’m also here to assist MBW, looking after the Heir Apparent while MBW works.
View from Chipinque
I have gotten a bit of work done on Boss, writing a bit on the airplane, and writing a chapter over the last couple of days. Again, on the subject of writing in hotels, I’m for it.
So far we’ve visited family, spent some time in the hotel swimming pool until the sun drives us out, and eaten very well. Today being Father’s Day, I anticipate a memorable meal.
At the moment, however, it is enough to savor air conditioning. Sweet, sweet throat-desiccating hotel air conditioning.
And at last it can be revealed. Behold the Brad Fraunfelter awesomeness in full color. I’d buy that.
Of course, first I have to finish writing it. Or, more precisely, I need to finish editing it. The book is written. But I’m giving it another polish. Tweaking, emphasizing, clarifying, smoothing off any rough edges, refining any clunky phrasing.
I figure it will take me until late July to complete. That means setting aside the book I’d started writing a few weeks ago. I’d just passed the ten-thousand word mark. Well, it will still be waiting for me next month.
And now, as it is Father’s Day, and my daughter is currently sleeping, I’m going to give myself the present of a nap.
Happy Father’s Day to the rest of you dads.
Father’s Day has never ranked as a red letter day on the calendar for me. Today marks something of a shift in that perspective. Today is my first as an honoree. I received some lovely photographs, a professional shoot of my beautiful and talented wife along with my beautiful and talented daughter.
My Beautiful and Talented Daughter
I also played golf, poorly and in the pouring rain. So, yeah, terrific photos. I’m going with that gift as the memory.