I have always enjoyed creative writing. In the late '80's/early 90's I wrote for one of Kiwiland's two fishing magazines. For much of that time I also wrote the fishing column for a boating magazine from the same publisher and helped write a fishing book. Actually I wrote almost all of the section on small boat fishing and even received a royalty cheque.
In the mid 90's I wrote and edited the bi-monthly magazine for a shooting association I helped form and in the 2000's I wrote a number of original songs.
Since 2010, along with starting a rather large number of short stories that I never seem to get around to finishing, I wrote rules and procedure manuals for a national community group I belonged to. More recently I have had three articles published in the Pistol New Zealand magazine The Bullshooter.
Before our road trip last year, which many of you followed, I spoke to one of my cousins about writing a book of our experiences. For the last few months I have been doing just that. I doubt that it will ever be accepted for publishing by a mainstream publisher, although internet publishing is a possibility. Even if it is never published at least there will be a record of our adventures in the US.
In writing this book I have come to realise just how much our time in the US changed both Karen and myself.
Karen's health, which had taken an upturn in the month before and during our travels, continued to improve to the point that she is now saying she is back to before illness normal. She is now running the house again (after several years of being barley able to do more than take care of her personal hygiene), much to my relief after four years of being both a full time worker and housekeeper.
Couples get to know how to push the buttons of the other party and can do so unconsciously. Even a regular lung transplant puts strain on a relationship. The long illness, the wait for a transplant donor and the recovery can put cracks in the strongest relationship. Karen's recovery was far from normal. There were times when I would seek a quiet place and wonder when, or even if, our lives would ever get back to normal. And I know there were times during her rehab when Karen would almost hate me, usually when I pushed her for "a few more reps", "another 25 meters distance" or "another 30 seconds" on an exercise machine.
Under those recent stresses travelling over 8,000 miles to a country where we knew no-one, other than some of the members of this forum, where health treatment is expensive and with no insurance cover for Karens lungs or respiratory system, to spend almost 24 hours a day for over 5 weeks in each other's company could have been a recipe for disaster.
In fact during our trip we had only one big disagreement (which was my fault and I immediately apologised to Karen) and the number of "minor" disagreements can be counted on one hand. Our experience in the US made our relationship stronger. We now both tend to just shrug, roll our eyes and move on when one of us does something annoying to the other.
For myself I no longer wear running shoes almost everywhere except work. I still wear them around the house but if going into town I reach for the cowboy boots I bought almost unused, second hand, in Kansas City.
And my music playlists are almost completely made up of country music instead of the rock'n'roll and 60's/70's pop songs I grew up with.
In the mid 90's I wrote and edited the bi-monthly magazine for a shooting association I helped form and in the 2000's I wrote a number of original songs.
Since 2010, along with starting a rather large number of short stories that I never seem to get around to finishing, I wrote rules and procedure manuals for a national community group I belonged to. More recently I have had three articles published in the Pistol New Zealand magazine The Bullshooter.
Before our road trip last year, which many of you followed, I spoke to one of my cousins about writing a book of our experiences. For the last few months I have been doing just that. I doubt that it will ever be accepted for publishing by a mainstream publisher, although internet publishing is a possibility. Even if it is never published at least there will be a record of our adventures in the US.
In writing this book I have come to realise just how much our time in the US changed both Karen and myself.
Karen's health, which had taken an upturn in the month before and during our travels, continued to improve to the point that she is now saying she is back to before illness normal. She is now running the house again (after several years of being barley able to do more than take care of her personal hygiene), much to my relief after four years of being both a full time worker and housekeeper.
Couples get to know how to push the buttons of the other party and can do so unconsciously. Even a regular lung transplant puts strain on a relationship. The long illness, the wait for a transplant donor and the recovery can put cracks in the strongest relationship. Karen's recovery was far from normal. There were times when I would seek a quiet place and wonder when, or even if, our lives would ever get back to normal. And I know there were times during her rehab when Karen would almost hate me, usually when I pushed her for "a few more reps", "another 25 meters distance" or "another 30 seconds" on an exercise machine.
Under those recent stresses travelling over 8,000 miles to a country where we knew no-one, other than some of the members of this forum, where health treatment is expensive and with no insurance cover for Karens lungs or respiratory system, to spend almost 24 hours a day for over 5 weeks in each other's company could have been a recipe for disaster.
In fact during our trip we had only one big disagreement (which was my fault and I immediately apologised to Karen) and the number of "minor" disagreements can be counted on one hand. Our experience in the US made our relationship stronger. We now both tend to just shrug, roll our eyes and move on when one of us does something annoying to the other.
For myself I no longer wear running shoes almost everywhere except work. I still wear them around the house but if going into town I reach for the cowboy boots I bought almost unused, second hand, in Kansas City.
And my music playlists are almost completely made up of country music instead of the rock'n'roll and 60's/70's pop songs I grew up with.
