Curse You, Tom Botts!

Why am I so angry with Tom? He's actually a great guy. Tom is the author of the always entertaining and often inspiring Wilderness Blues blog. He is also the author of a book by the same title.

And that is where the problem lies... You see, yesterday I received an autographed copy of said book. It's published by the great people at Good Catch Publishing. I was giddy at the prospect of enjoying the book over the next few weeks as time would allow.

Tom is the father of one of my best friends when I lived in Hoonah as a teen. He and his family had been a part of a Christian commune of sorts not far from the logging camp where I grew up. It was near one of the best fishing streams and remember checking it out one time. Everyone called it "the farm". In the interest of being self sufficient they grew their own food and raised livestock. The farm was made up of buildings built from rough cut lumber connected by a network of boardwalks over the damp ground. Tom's book chronicles his time living at the farm and the struggle of dealing with the strict rules and ultra-conservative atmosphere.

It was Monday when the book arrived in the mail. The night before I had been up way later than normal. The boilers at the church were having issues and with temperatures dropping I helped Pastor Josh in his attempt to get them running. (And by helping I mean I stood around while Josh did all the work...) So I was operating on about 5 1/2 hours of sleep instead of my normal 7 or 8. The plan for Monday night then was to definitely be in bed by my bedtime of 10pm.

Amazingly enough, it was 9:43pm when I crawled into bed. The plan was to read a chapter or two if I could keep my tired eyes open that long. So I start reading. And reading. And reading.

A few times I had the thought that I should put the book down and go to sleep. But it would need to be after this page. Or after the next. Or the next. Or after a few more...

The conclusion of this long and pointless account: I finished the book at 12:34am. Stupid Tom. If you had wrote a book that sucked I could've gotten some sleep. Instead, I got less sleep last night then the night before.

So, curse you Tom. Curse you to heck. You are the reason I'm so tired today! The next book you write had better be a lot less engaging and entertaining. Oh, and it better be soon. Darn soon.

Wilderness Blues

I want to make a recommendation for a great blog. It's Wilderness Blues, by Tom Botts.

Tom is the father of a friend of mine when I was growing up in Hoonah. He's a great guy, and turns out he's a pretty good writer too.

I've enjoyed his blog. Not only does it give a window into life in Hoonah, he's funny.

Tom is a published author. I hear great things about his book, but have not read it yet. A certain person keeps promising to loan it to me so I can read it, but they've yet to deliver on the promise. You know who you are...

His latest post proposes a new diet that could be the newest weight loss fad. And his idea of the Taco Bell apron is genius... pure genius.

Thanks Tom for the fun. Keep it up!

Despite my claims to become more consistent in my blogging, this is the first post in a while, and I'm really only posting so I can get this image on a website so I can link to it in a forum post.
There's quite a bit of stuff I could be blogging about... My parents came up this summer and we spent some time exploring Alaska with a trip to Valdez. My nephew & niece are both here locally now, so we spent a weekend with them and took them to the fair.
I've started another round of the Financial Peace class and this weekend I get to share on personal finance at a young adult retreat.
So, there's plenty I could talk about. Lack of content is not the issue. Lack of time has a lot to do with it. And lack of an audience. I'm pretty sure my mom (hi mom...) is the only one that actually reads this. And let's face it, she's my mom. She pretty much has to read it.