Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clark, scotts and rogers)
Driving from Pawcatuck, Connecticut into downtown Westerly, Rhode Island.
Thats the Washington Trust Bank on the right and in the distance, the rather attractive Westerly Library.
Union St. Westerly. That’s the Town Hall on the right and the library straight ahead.
Approaching the intersection of Broad Street and Elm Street.
This the first annual-manual (as in: written on a phone*) TToT post. Kristi is the host/housemother and beat cop of the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop. She has the daunting, and always unenviable task of keeping the lights on and rhetoric police off our trail. This week, I’m grateful for:
1) Kristi for all her efforts that contribute to this bloghop being here each and every weekend
2) Phyllis
3) Una
4) an established reputation as one who looks at most social and cultural rules and requirements as possessing the moral power and force of those little warnings at the bottom of tv commercials that inform us that: a) the man or woman rope-free-climbing the side of El Capitan is a professional and 2) we should not jump up from the couch and try to free-climb…well, anything. As a result l have complete confidence in my use of this, Item Four, in such cavalier fashion.
5) Open Houses. Because that is where all the fun writing is happening these days. Interlude is the serial flash story and I’m becoming concerned that l might sell the house (where the Muse, at least in this case, apparently lives) before l can complete the story. (Talk about your Virtual World problems! Lol)
6) Almira I’m getting more and more entangled in the fairly intimidating, (to me, at any rate), task of editing the book. For now, I’m going light on the re-writes and simply getting to know the story and it’s characters, the better to be a position to write stronger POV(s). An encouraging thing about the process is the story is still awfully good! No, serially! (You know how sometimes, as a young person, you’d be at breakfast, after the clubs have closed, and the girl you were falling for all night is sitting across from you in an all night diner? Then, out of nowhere, her flawless tan complexion begins to suffer for fluorescent overhead lights, clearly she suffers from a ‘strobe and colored spotlights deficiency’. You accept that no one is perfect and begin a conversation, except, this time it’s at a normal volume, across the formica table and you hear the double negatives and indiscriminate cursing show themselves, like middle fingers in a Junior High School class picture. That the majority of other patrons are over-the-road-truckers and they give every appearance of being offended, doesn’t help and you begin to suspect that your conversations of the evening had been, somehow, transformed by the fact that your repartee involved speaking so close to the other’s ear that a successful joke would be rewarded by laughter that could be felt in the hair around your ear. But her eyes are as beautiful as you remember and so you stay, shifting your attention, much to the relief of your libido, to other aspects of the person across from you. …Kinda like that.)
The best part about editing? The moments when you stop and, in all sincerity, ask yourself, “I wrote this?” lol
7) (Hypograt Item): the seemingly certain end of summer.
8) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE (If you like the idea of this bloghop and would love to participate but are hesitant for any reason, say no more. Send in one of the items you’ve written as a Comment and I’ll gladly post it here. That way you can see how it looks on ‘the big screen’ before hitting send on your post.
9) Sunday Supplement This week’s Sunday Supplement is a little different. (I know! I agree!) So last night, Una and I are sitting around surfing the cable at around 10:00 pm. The temperature outdoors was comfortable, so I had the door to the deck open. Here is what we heard:
The audio is a bit low, which is unfortunate, as the sound that would make you think, “oh, thats an owl!” loses something in the recording. It had a slightly corkscrewed howl at the end of each vocalization. Really rather interesting. Then this afternoon we came across some tracks in the woods that look a lot like deer tracks, provide the deer had prominent claws. lol
10) Secret Rule 1.3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s36eQwgPNSE
* one might be tempted to characterize this as a digital finger-painting, but that would be mean. Say what you will about a five-year-old’s level of sophistication in the appreciation of art and such, but l tell me you ever again saw the color blue as blue as the paint you used in your first effort with the small, squat jars of paint in a noisy room that smelled like brushes, paste and peanut-and-butter sandwiches.
About clarkscottroger
Wonderful grats, and Interlude has me speechless.
Thanks, M!
Tell me you’d like to ‘put on a character’ an join in on the imaginary fun at the Ross family reunion! lol It’ll be fun!
Most excellent post title!
Very nice, small town. Good pictures.
Better back off the concern about selling the “muse” house as that’s a surefire way to insure it will sell lol
Love those pictures of Connecticut (and do you know how long it took me to learn how to spell that correctly? I mean I was a great speller until I learned Spanish and all, but geez…a silent “C”!?). The unique style of buildings and houses in the northeast is distinct from those in the south, or those out west, and especially those in the southwest. Haha.
I’m also very grateful to live in western North Carolina, and not eastern…I once thought about moving out that way – to the beach! I think I’ll stick with the mountains. I’ve always said that I belong in a mountain range (doesn’t really matter where). The ocean? It’s nice to visit but the smell of it is kind of…fishy. And since I don’t eat fish (I never really have), I don’t really care about the smell of it, either. Now, to have the experience of listening to waves crashing on sand or rocks, or watching the tide come in and then recede, well, those are rather calming-to-the-mind activities. I love to just sit and stare at these things when I go camping at the beach. Oh, and the turtles. Turtles capture my heart. They manage to live their awesome green lives at a turtle’s pace and still manage to get everything done. We could learn a lot from a turtle.
In any case, I’m glad for the Doctrine, glad for the call-in, glad for Phyllis and Una…and a John and a Vinny…a Ralphie and a Pepe. lol
Yeah, I’m a total fan of the architecture up here, not so much the (really old) colonial, but of the later 19th C designs and such. Couldn’t be without access to ocean. (Just got back here the long way from the office, i.e. drive down to the beach first. Stormy but warm weather, my favorite.)
Enjoyed the conversation Saturday, as always.
I’m impressed with anyone who can compose a post on their phone. I mean, it’s possible, but it seems like so much more work than using a computer. Kudos to you!
I liked the photo tour. While western states have dinosaur bones and petroglyph sites, eastern states have older buildings (older than those in western states, not older than dinosaurs). Old buildings fascinate me.
Its mostly a matter of squinting (which messes my vision up for, like, an hour afterword). I doubt I’ll be giving up the desktop anytime soon.
(As I was saying to Cynthia, the medium old homes and buildings of the late 19th into 20th century are my favorite. Go way back, to early colonial and you really see the effect of the time, the scale of everything reflected the challenges faced by builders, low ceilings, doorways, light natural light and giant fireplaces.)
That was no owl! lol
If the library is the building with the turret, what a cool building. If that isn’t the library, it is still a really cool building!
That line about editing and thinking “I wrote this?” could be taken two ways. One of amazement about the excellent skill of the writer, or one of being dumbfounded at what one considers a huge blunder in the area of writing skills. LOL
What an interesting bird sound! It does sounds kind of like an owl, sorta…maybe and alien owl.
It is, kinda red tile semi-moroccan looking thing, no? I’ll try to get better photos next time. The park in the center of town is quite attractive. As towns go, Westerly has faired better in terms of modern development. The old, center of town has been left un-scathed. The giant drugstores are up the hill in a different part of time.
lol there is that