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Shopping and Other Fun

Headed Out Shopping Today...

The one big trip out of the week. Walmart for things we need for the new office, then got gas, then on to the grocery store. You know, standard stuff.

I had a pull-0ver mask (regular ones don’t seem to want to stay on my ears) and gloves. Yes, I know I really don’t need gloves, but I have them soaked in anti-bacterial spray before I leave the car each time. And besides, gloves keep me from touching my face and constantly adjusting my face mask.

Masks were the normal now in both stores. Very few without them. Social distancing was also well done. Had zero issue anywhere, even with the heat wave coming in.

And then tonight our Governor announced we are going to stage two. And the testing is going nuts here. One site alone can test over 10,000 people a day. There are now at leasts eight public testing sites and anyone who wants to be tested can be, and that’s not counting all the private testing going on with casinos and other businesses.

So gyms, movie theaters, and so on can open on Friday, and casinos and the Strip will open back up on the 4th. But wow is all of it going to be different.

From everything they are doing and the gaming commission and Governor are mandating, I think the safest place in the city will be in a casino. All employees tested all the time, temperature scans for everyone entering, high speed air-flow, required masks of everyone period, (no exceptions) and social distancing.  Casinos are not going to risk their licenses or getting shut down again by being careless at this point.

Kris and I will just keep on doing what we are doing. Take out to support our favorite restaurants, masks, and so on. I will add in the gym as I ramp back up my running. But that’s about it.

Going to be interesting to see if people actually get on planes to come here anytime soon. Got a hunch not much of that is going to happen until after a vaccine.

Stay safe out there. This is a long ways from being over.

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And speaking of ending, you are about to miss your chance to get the Storybundle Write Stuff. Only just over a day left. This has four brand new, exclusive to the bundle writing books, plus five others, plus a $50 lecture. You can get it all for $15. And one of the exclusive books is Kris’s new Rethinking the Writing Business and another is a bundle of four writing books on craft. Including two of mine.

You do not want to miss this one. Just a day left!!

8 Comments

  • Mark Kuhn

    Glad to see things are getting better out there. Sadly, there is yet another divide between people as to what they will accept and what they dismiss as folly. I’m not going there right now. Trying to stay positive. Here in New Jersey, we’re still in a strict lockdown, which is fine with me because I’m not planning on doing anything. In some ways all of us are in some kind of mourning for the way things used to be and for the 100,000 souls no longer with us. I really miss bowling and will NOT be going back until I have a vaccine running through my blood.

    In the interest of staying positive, I have a writing question.

    My first readers are reporting that my stories written in first person flow better and are smoother to read than those I’ve written in third person.

    Can the Classic Point of View workshop help me with this?

    • dwsmith

      Nope… There should be no difference in first or third. So that is just a comfort level. First person is a distancing viewpoint, holding readers just slightly away. But past that, there is no real difference in the two viewpoints.

      Now your real issue is that you listen to first readers and care what they think. That is a problem you need to get past.

  • Bonnie

    Just in case you get tired of pullover masks there is something called a mask extender. Instead of the elastic bands going around your ears, they fit on the extender which goes around the back of your head. My ears are at different enough levels that masks won’t stay on even for a minute so I went with the extenders.

  • Thomas Bennett

    Hey Dean,

    I ran across a new myth to me. Apparently it’s undignified to sell your books on your website. The silliest thing I’ve heard in 4 years.

    • dwsmith

      Yup, wonder who made them the police of dignity? Head-shaking and stupid and considering how much we are selling and we just started selling books on http://www.wmgpublishinginc.com just a desire to not find readers I guess. Fear of readers, maybe?

  • Mark Kuhn

    Dean, I was just watching the Ideas Into Story workshop.
    Did you ever write that Poker Boy vampire story idea you jotted down?

  • Mark Kuhn

    I came SO close to finishing a short story in one day today, but it’s 11pm here on the East Coast and I’m out of gas.
    I got halfway into it and it made a U turn from a dark and scary tale into a cute and fuzzy one. So lots of cycling back.
    A total win-win for Creative Voice.