San Jose Airport Musings

San Jose, CA Airport, 5:06 AM.

I hadn't planned to start my next writing project until I return from the vacation that I am starting now.  I was working on backstory materials, and the outline, but one thing I've learned over the years is that inspiration won't be denied.

As such, I've written the first two chapters of my new novel.   As always, the characters, once they set out on their journey, surprise me with their actions as the book unfolds.

I have a fabulous vacation to look forward to this week, enjoying the Oregon Coast with my brothers.  I might get some more writing done, but if I don't, I know my characters will be waiting when I'm done.  Who knows, I might work on it now.

Or I might watch some cartoons...

Happy Saturday from Silicon Valley.

Sleeping In

I don't.  I haven't been able to since I was quite young.  Sleeping in, for me, is getting up around sunrise, and usually came after I woke up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night.

I used to say I was an insomniac, but looking at it objectively, I don't think that is actually true.  Yes, I'm tired sometimes, but mostly I feel fine through the day.  I might doze in my chair in the living room in the evening, but the five to six hours of interrupted sleep that I get each night is usually more than enough.  The four-or-less-hour nights are another matter, but they aren't the norm.

Anyway, among my strange sleeping habits is a tendency to do the "reverse sleep in."  Most sane and sensible people luxuriate on Saturday, sleeping in after a full week of work.  I get up earlier.

This is a more recent condition.  I think it relates to creative activities.  Throughout the week, I will write a bit each morning, but I view Saturday as a time for dedicated writing.  My mind turns over ideas I have worked on through the week, and often my Saturday morning is spent writing for hours before anyone else is up.

There are also times I like to catch the sunrise, such as I did in the accompanying photo, taken one October morning on the Oregon coast a couple of years ago.  I have been taking occasional early morning photo excursions for about 25 years on an occasional basis.

There are times where I feel like it would be kind of nice to be able to sleep in.  Sometimes I do that on Monday.  I mean, if you consider getting up at 5:30 AM sleeping in.

Happy Early-Weekend from Silicon Valley.

Under Construction

Photo:  Google Cloud Bldg Under Construction Nov 2014

As much as I love writing, I have to say the last couple of weeks where I have not written have been good for me.

I say "not written," but that's not really accurate.  I have been journal writing, and occasionally blogging, which is a form of writing.  I've played with some poetry too.

Anyway, I have not been working on any fiction projects.  I say "not working on any fiction projects," but that's not really accurate.  I've been working on a project I started after about a year of living in Silicon Valley.  That project is the inspiration for the name of this blog, "Midlife Startup."  I did some character studies, and wrote a synopsis and some outline work, and I have been reviewing those materials.

So, I have been writing, and have been working on fiction projects.  Gee, this break from writing has been great...

Happy Saturday from Silicon Valley!

Independence Day

Photo:  Sunrise Near Stanley Lake, Idaho, October 2016

Though I grew up in a small town in Idaho, and will always feel at ease in quiet solitude, I have become surprisingly at home in Silicon Valley, despite its many quirks.  I also have discovered that I can enjoy almost any environment, at least all that I have lived in so far.  I have not ever really accepted any particular place as home.  I'm a tumbleweed, by nature, and the fence that impedes my rolling is a good enough for me for as long as it can hold me.

I don't see any destination as sacred, but rather see that there is sacred in all things and all places.  Looking on the meaning of this day, the celebration of the birth of a nation, I see more meaning behind the spirit of independence, than I do about the place where this independence occurred.

One of the things I love about Silicon Valley is its pervasive energy, and the spirit of the people a place like this draws.  I'm fortunate that I work with a lot of folks who are spirited and independent, and diverse.  To look in the eyes of someone, on the sunrise of their own life adventure, reminds me of my journey so far.  Such a fabulous journey, and I look forward to the miles ahead.

Today, as I celebrate the day that a group of rebels split off from an empire, I also celebrate the deeper spirit of independence.  As I get older, the word takes on deeper and deeper meaning.

I hope you find time to think of the things in life that are special to you on this perfect Wednesday.

Happy Independence Day from Silicon Valley.

The Building Chipper Shredder

I live in the heart of Silicon Valley.  I've been here since July of 2012, so it's coming up on six years now.

The face of the valley is constantly changing.  The area I live in, the area I work in, are subject to cycles of demolition and development.  I've posted a couple of pictures along the way that have shown different sides of this.  I like to go for occasional walks when I'm at work, and these walks have given me "snapshots" of these cycles.  Two blocks from the office I work in, they have leveled eight or nine buildings.  I watched as the different buildings, which were not all that old, were emptied out, and came down.

Today there are steel skeletons stretching up four stories.  They are cropping up like pines on scorched black earth, toward the skies.

I am fascinated by the process.

One of the most interesting phases of this development was after the existing buildings were leveled.  All of the buildings had stone and concrete outer structures, leaving huge chunks of these outer shells scattered about.  As these buildings came down, a large contraption was placed on the former site of two of them.  Essentially, it was a chipper-shredder of doom, chomping down on these big chunks, and leaving an impromptu mountain of rubble on the other side.

The mountain grew pretty damned high.

Then it disappeared.  A sort of ebb and flow of stone that would take many millennia to shape in nature.

I've watched as the monoliths of technology, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Linkedin, and others, have gobbled up land and sprung up new, sleek and shiny buildings.  It's a fascinating process, but I can't help but wonder if the need behind the growth supports the level of that growth.

Since I was a boy, I loved to watch things grow.  Plants, trees, buildings, animals, people.  As I have gotten older, and stopped growing myself, I more deeply understand the nature of growth, and the inevitability of decay.  I see potentials, both positive and negative, in rapid growth.

I have no idea what to expect from the growth that seems to be encircling me, but it is fascinating to watch it.

Happy Saturday from Silicon Valley.

It has been a year and three months since I posted to this blog.  Blogging is so last decade!  But I find the terse style of Facebook, with it's focus on memes and images and strange interactions to be largely unsatisfying.  I like things which are composed and thought through.

That said, this entry is going to be far from thought through. 

This is just a moment in time, maybe good Facebook fodder, but it will be too long.

A stream of consciousness meandering down a mountainside.

I am in a space in the year that is both difficult and joyous.  My birthday is near, the anniversary of my marriage just passed a few days ago, and the anniversary of DeDe leaving this plane of existence is on the horizon.

I just finished a final draft of a novel I have been working on since the 1980s.  I have passed this along to be edited, and am just enjoying the act of not writing for a few days.

Celebrating it by writing a blog.  Okay, there's a message in there, somewhere.

I have been working on a project since not long before DeDe passed in 2014.  It was the inspiration for the title of this blog.

So maybe that's what drove me here today.

Life changes, past and present.  Pursuit of creative writing.  Placing things into perspective.  Moving forward, looking backward.

Rambling on in the void of an ancient place called Blogland.

Happy Humpday from Silicon Valley.

The Journal

In early 2016 I started a journal.

I had never been one to keep journals.  I'd tried many times, but it never caught traction.  But now I faithfully keep writing a journal, not exactly daily, but frequently.  The vast majority of my writing before was fiction, or related to my work, and sometimes poetry.

While fiction is a very personal endeavor, and one must dig deep into oneself to write it, there is something very special about the self-examination that goes on in a journal.  There is something special about being about the ideas, without the worry that the reader will not get what is being said.

This journal has been an increasing joy for me.  It has been a key element in learning more about myself.  In the bargain, I'm learning about myself as a writer too.  I'm looking back at fiction that I wrote in the past and seeing where I was not being true to myself in what I wrote, and where I was being true.

And the same can be said of me in general.  I'm getting to know myself better, and I'm learning how to peel away the parts of me that I don't think fit, and to grow those parts of me that I have suppressed or neglected.

The act of writing for myself, thousands of words written in journals, has helped me learn to spend less time trying to perfect what I say, and more time getting ideas out.

I am coming to view this blog as a means to write in a public setting without editing so heavily.  When I kept a blog "back in the day" I was really deliberate and edited my work the way that I would a story I was writing.

I will certainly edit my blog, but I'm hoping to just share some of my thoughts on life, maybe some of my photographs and poems.  My goal is to spend no more than 20 minutes on a post, and let the chips fall where they may.

In my blog before, I was concerned with trying to get a few readers.  And I did get a few readers.  Very few...

Now, inspired by fulfilling act of writing a journal, I'm going to try my hand at writing a public journal.  And if my readership improves over the journal, big win.

Hey, if one person reads this blog, my readership has DOUBLED!

Happy Saturday from Silicon Valley