Quite the Ha-Ha Moment

Last Wednesday evening I stopped by an office supply store to pick up a few things before I left for New York the following morning. When I got home that evening I realized I had left my cane at the store. I called them and asked them to look for it and I would come by and pick it up Monday morning.

My MS does not require me to always use a cane.  I need it only on certain days when I am unsteady and experience trouble standing and walking. This condition changes more often than daily, almost by the minute. Often I will go into a store or restaurant and after sitting stand or standing still for awhile my legs feel better and I end up walking out and forgetting the cane.

I went to the office supply store today and asked about my cane. The clerk asked the manager who went into his office and walked out carrying two canes and asked "Which one is yours?" I looked at him and chuckled "they are both mine." Apparently when I had gone to that store earlier on Wednesday I had been unaware I had left my silver cane there. When I got ready to return to the store that evening I couldn't find my silver one (which is my favorite) anywhere in my home and took another cane.

Not AWOL, really.

I have been involved in a move the last few weeks. In trying to downsize I sure had a lot of stuff to look through, throw away, or set aside for a garage sale. Even the city said I was throwing away too much stuff because there was more trash than my one can would hold.  The company we chose to move us realized they would need two trucks instead of one. My back and knees are screaming that they bent and carried far more boxes then they felt were necessary. Hopefully I will not move again for many years.

I won't be writing for several more days because I will be in New York at the Writer's Digest Eastern Conference April 5-7. Then the week of April 8th, the stuff set aside for the garage sale must be sorted, priced, and displayed.  Will write when I get out of the quicksand of stuff.  

WHAT I KNOW

I suppose many of you wonder why I titled this blog “Gayle T Reece on duty”.  The novel I recently wrote, and am hoping to get published, primary characters are a police sergeant, a state fire investigator and a retired sheriff’s department captain. I hope to write more books in that series.

My current project concerns a Fish and Game officer. They say when you start writing – write about what you know.  First responders are my area of familiarity and experience. Those folks work is most often described as their duty, their duty hours, when at work they are on duty

WHERE ARE ALL THE PAY PHONES?

As I was walking, out of the grocery store yesterday, limping might be a better term because walking up and down the store aisles encourages the MS in my leg muscles to rebel and try to quit working, but back to my story.  I saw a black metal object in front of the store, was it a sculpture. No, it was where two pay phones were once mounted.

Was I asleep or in hibernation the last ten or twenty years? When did we quit using pay phones? I remember as a young girl being asked before leaving the house two important questions…was I wearing clean underwear and did I have money for the payphone. It was a dime in my younger years, but did go up to a quarter sometime or other. Then came those glorious calling cards. We thought those were the ultimate deal because we could spend every last cent we had on our activities whether legal or not. What do you expect I went to high school in the 60’s? Now, where are the pay phones?

I started my cell phone journey with the cumbersome bag phone when it first came out. Gee did I think that was hot stuff, even though two tin cans on a string provided more clarity.  Then I got the smaller more convenient phone that I’d need to park the car and get out and walk around the car to find a spot for any somewhat decent reception. About a dozen or more cell phones later I am using an iPhone, that talks back to me, tells me where to go and how to get there and I never noticed our old friend the payphone disappearing one by one.

THE FORGOTTEN HEREOS

We have numerous TV shows and movies about  police in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago and other large cities. Granted they are dedicated, work hard and are brave, but what about the fine officers in our smaller towns and cities. These officers are trained to handle anything, but spend most their time working car accidents, domestics, dog calls and other rather mundane tasks. They need to be ready and prepared when serious crimes do happen in their cities and they do.

They experience the politics and challenges of the job just as the officers in the big cities. They also are flawed human beings and are challenged by family issues.

I want to be the voice for these officers. I  am trying to develop fictional characters that have several of the traits and attributes I saw in other officers and myself. I also want to create characters who develop disabilities and must reluctantly take off their badges.  I especially want to address the Multiple Sclerosis disease because it is so unpredictable and doesn't usually effect one every minute of their life, but does limit their employment options. Because of my MS I had to leave the career I so loved -protecting and serving the people who lived and visited where I worked and lived.

I will introduce you to some of my characters in upcoming posts.