After the deluge

I had to update the PHP for this site today.

Evidently, I was using a version that was deprecated by my hosting service.

While preventing me from starting this piece when I wanted to, as with all things in life one has to be flexible enough to switch gears when priorities shift.

We received a nice downpour of rain today.

This was after oppressive heat yesterday and through the morning today.

We went from 90 to 69 in I want to say 12 hours.

Sixty-nine felt so cool I just needed to turn off the ceiling fan.

Cooler climes have me typing faster, or so I believe.

Maybe it was the PHP update, which, full disclosure, did promise to speed up the website so I’d rank higher on google searches.

I know what you’re thinking.

Being ranked higher on google searches is just what I need.

That would be incorrect, however.

What I really need is for the website to load faster on both mobile and desktop devices.

I will test that after finishing this piece as I am enjoying what I feel is the increased responsiveness since I updated the PHP version.

Before the deluge

I titled this piece “After the deluge” as I was expecting to sit down and write after the rain had slammed us with its first barrage.

Well, not to be disappointed, while it’s no longer actually raining, the clouds are still above and the forecast calls for more pain, I mean, rain.

My wife and I sat outside just before the rain started and after I mowed the lawn; that’s actually being kind as everyone who knows us understands there are more weeds than actual blades of grass. As I always used to say, you can either have a nice lawn or dogs. But I digress.

Jackson Browne penned “Before The Deluge,” which is an awesome song–arrangement-wise. The lyrics are beside the point (for me).

The songs I’ve written were composed in three different ways and rain can inspire creativity just like green tea can at times.

The first method I utilized was jotting lyrics down on paper and then adding music to them afterward. This was a very comfortable feeling for me.

The second way was identifying a melody and then fitting lyrics to suit the melody. This was not as comfortable a feeling for me.

And the third option for me was formulating both lyrics and melody simultaneously as I composed. This could be both a comfortable feeling and not so much depending on how nicely or not things were flowing.

Having an issue completing a song is like expecting rain and then being let down when it does not materialize.

Back to life

I know when I’ve put my seal on any of my stories. It can come early on in a piece or it might not reveal itself until closer to the end.

Sometimes my writing follows what I like to call a disjointedly friendly feel. It’s not quite streaming of consciousness, but it most definitely is at least blog-like.

The humidity seems to magnify at this point and my glasses begin to fog–for all the wrong reasons.

My wife and I enjoyed the time together before the deluge.

After the deluge, I was banished to the yard to write.

It was not the first time, nor would it be the last.

And as I await the next deluge, I understand I have taken this as far as it reasonably deserves to go.