I'm typically laid back; a southern thang. Oddly when I moved to the beach in 2005 and got my physical before starting work at new job, the doc put me on a pill a day blood pressure medicine. Move to beach = high blood pressure, go figure. Not to worry, slight elevated blood pressure would not be of much concern, laid back, not going to let it.

2014, Friday, laid back week begins. Smoke detectors, necessary evil...life savers right? Only when working properly. We've been in house for almost a year. The beeping began last night. I removed the culprits and placed them in the laundry room, would purchase 9 volt batteries today and did. Ex-owners, sneaky and underhanded, had disconnected five of eight detectors and removed batteries. I replaced and hook all of them up. Beeping persisted. I unplugged the five figuring these were defective, the other three beeped on. I trouble shot those three up and down the ladder more times than I dare count. Beeping still, blood pressure testing the power of the single pill.

I'm pounding on the keys to the none stop peeping. Enough is enough. Going to go get the ladder and remove all of them and place them in the garage until I can figure this thing out. Heck, I grew up without them, I can sure do without them for a while. Nothing is ever easy in the world of modern technological wonders; wonder who thought these pieces of crap up...probably an insomniac or an idiot with a peeping fetish.

Next book, Smoke Detector Rage...murder and mayhem, room by room, with a baseball bat...smoking them, one peep at a time...

Insanity creeps closer, must go get the ladder now...if I don't return...%#&@&

ALL SMOKE DETECTORS HAVE BEEN REMOVED AND PLACED IN THE GARAGE. PEEPING CONTINUES FROM THE HOLE IN THE WALL...HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? I'M A TAD PISSED NOW. NO, I'M A LOT PISSED!!!

author T. Allen Winn: Okay, I admit it. I've been taking a blogging nap ...

author T. Allen Winn: Okay, I admit it. I've been taking a blogging nap ...: Okay, I admit it. I've been taking a blogging nap so sue me. Sometimes life comes at you so blogging fast and furious. I'm juggling ...

Okay, I admit it. I've been taking a blogging nap so sue me. Sometimes life comes at you so blogging fast and furious. I'm juggling a tad too many projects possibly. I leap frog from one to the other, progressing all forward. Here's my writing life in a nut shell.

1. I've completed a non fiction novel; well the content from start to finish. It has been by far my toughest writing project. True stories take focus; especially those that are tragic and just a tad too close to home, literally. There are still many more details to iron out before this will be ready for the real world but the main part is history.
2. I've stumbled into another potentially major project. A classmate and I are entertaining the idea of collaborating and merging our self taught talents. We'll announce this one as it develops.
3. Beach Author Network has their first major event coming up June 1st, Books to the Beat, to benefit Jason's House. Check out my Face Book page for details.
4. I'm currently over 160 pages into another novel based on actual events in Bucksport, S.C., tentatively titled The Hardwood Walker of Ports Harrelson Road.
5. Two books are currently being proof read: The Perfect Spook House, and Buttermilk and Cornbread, Good Ole Home Cooked Nostalgic Nonsense.  
6. Somewhere along the way I completed two other books (1) Bully on Board, short stories about bullying (2) Fostering Four: my memoir on being a foster parent. That brings my total of completed books to 18, 4 of which have been published
7. Others books in various stages of completion are"
• Just Who the Heck are the Joneses (mystery)
• Raw Ride (zombies take over the wild west)
• Love Stories from the Man Cave (four stories)
• Whomping the Golf Ball (short stories as experienced by the Original Whomper)
• Second memoir to follow Buttermilk and Cornbread (Pass the Hash Please, More Nostalgic Nonsense in a Pot)
• Drum Stick and Jack-O-Lantern ( a kid's book)   

As Paul Harvey would say, and now you know the rest of the story.

Views from the 10th floor balcony @ Garden City Beach:

1. Surfers wait patiently to ride three and four foot waves. Watching them offered up a redo intro to my novel, Last Stand on the Grand Strand.
2. Big dogs love to walk on the beach, pulling their human counter parts along. Little canines have to be dragged along, not embracing the experience.
3. Pelicans, geese, ducks, crows, seagulls and everything feathered, flies below us.
4. The South Carolina State Bird, the dreaded mosquito, apparently doesn't like heights or can't fly ten stories upward. Same goes for flies...
5. There are two types of beach goers right now; old farts or very young poots, not much in between.
6. Elevators work better this time of year; no people, no waiting.
7. Golf carts exist year round and are there to ruin my life...inspired my novel Road Rage, just check the cover
8. Beach solitude offers opportunities to recharge the creative juices...150 pages completed of a new novel, The Hardwood Walker of Ports Harrelson Road, based on true events of a haunting in Bucksports, S.C.
9. My live in proofer is working her way through Buttermilk and Cornbread, Good Ole Home Cooked Nostalgic Nonsense.
10. The ocean waves are just as noisy and soothing from ten floors up.
11. People with metal detectors will spend hours waving that thing around.
12. Jellyfish are the possums of the beach.
13. Not having expanded cable doesn't make me appreciate regular programming.
14. I'm thinking less about work, more about retirement.
15. Fridays are shorter when they aren't workdays.
16. People are still mesmerized by any sort of shell washed up on the beach
17. It's a far peace to the other side of the ocean.
18. We didn't order new condo den furniture soon enough. It won't be delivered for another three to four weeks. Try getting out of furniture.
19. It's a one person kitchen at best in the condo.
20. Breakfast tastes better on a beach balcony; even blackened cheese toast.
21. We sure can junk up a place.
22. A two mile walk on the beach beats anytime spent on an elliptical or treadmill.
23. I'm one of those old farts; just saying.
24. A VCR for DVR is not an even swap.
25. VCR's are like using a television without a remote by comparison.
26. One week is not nearly long enough.
27. Thank goodness we have internet.
28. I'll need a DVD with recordings of ocean waves to play during my morning commutes to work.
29. Getting my footsies wet in the ocean is just as satisfying as body surfing at my age
30. We should do this more often. After all we live less than ten minutes from the beach.