{"id":2854,"date":"2017-01-13T13:58:45","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T21:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/?p=2854"},"modified":"2017-01-24T21:53:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T05:53:23","slug":"personal-2016-round-up-forecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.castaliapub.com\/williamscottmorrison\/personal-2016-round-up-forecast\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal\u20132016 Round-up & Forecast"},"content":{"rendered":"

(This annual update <\/strong>{edited here for general readership}<\/strong> accompanied my note to my personal Christmas card list {see previous blog post}.)<\/strong>
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My wife and I are both doing well, just the usual growing pains. She spins at the gym or does Pilates five days a week and tap dances. She teaches one course per semester, sees clients one day a week, and is working on the 3rd edition of her textbook.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
At the NeCaHi Class of 1966 50th Reunion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for me, my knees won\u2019t let me jog any more, but I go to the gym 2\u20133 times\/week, and that seems to be working to keep me pretty much in the same shape I\u2019ve always been. Posters ain\u2019t what they used to be, but I keep the business going, partly because it lets me write and publish as if I were Simon & Shuster. Our big trip this year was back to Trump country for the 50th reunion of the NeCaHi class of \u201866 (blog post: \u201c50 Years and Counting\u201d)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As many of you know, I came out with my second novel, Luck of the Draw<\/em>, and will continue to market both novels forever. More blogging, tweeting, perhaps a podcast, I dunno. For those of you who said you\u2019d be happy to write an Amazon reader review but have somehow not found the time\u2013get on the stick!<\/strong><\/em> It should take you all of fifteen minutes.<\/p>\n

As for my new dilemma: It was about this time last year that Trump came on the scene, \u201cbigly,\u201d as he so eloquently likes to say. It was just as I was trying to come up with a gimmick to make the novel stand out from the 2,000 other books published in the U.S. every day. I\u2019ve always had an oddball mentality for graphics and slogans, and I was struck with the idea for Don\u2019t Be a TRUMPiE! bumperstickers. It seemed like a fun way to contribute to his defeat while simultaneously drawing attention to the novel.<\/p>\n

I asked my wife to draw a caricature, and she came up with the flying hair. He had been such a TFA (Total F…ing A..hole) for over forty years that it seemed incomprehensible to me that any reasonable person could ever vote for him.<\/p>\n

In the spring I took a course in social media at the JC, and as the semester trumped along I learned enough to be able to post blogs and have a little fun mocking TRUMPiEs with designs for bumperstickers, buttons, T-shirts, and coffee mugs. I despise self-promotion and am lousy at it, but simultaneously mocking trumpies made promoting the novel as part the same website tolerable. I figured the novelty would vanish once Trump lost in the primaries. Oh well.<\/p>\n

Election day was exactly twenty years to the day that my wife and I met (the story of our anniversary \u201ccelebration\u201d is at the blog post: \u201cThe Mourning After\u201d)<\/a>. The gloom since the election has been pervasive, and at a party last week people were talking about how Trump will be coming after Muslims and Mexicans, and I jokingly said guys with ponytails won\u2019t be far behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d somebody said. \u201cYou\u2019re safe. You pay taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

People at the party were of our era, and many discussions were about retirement and travel to exotic locales and crossing items off bucket lists. I don\u2019t really have that type of list. My goals consist of getting my novels \u201cout there\u201d and now, unfortunately, doing what I can to thwart Trump\u2019s agenda any way I can. It wasn\u2019t part of the plan, but by adapting the NoTrump graphics and slogans to the new reality (as with the enclosed stickers) I\u2019ve got a four-year head start toward defeating him next time around. I wish I could just work on the next novel, but fear of the alt-right\u2019s fascistic dream coming true are too distracting for a political junkie like me.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
View of “our” vinyard in early spring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps I should look at this as an opportunity to do something worthwhile in my late youth. I feel no great need to climb Everest or canoe up the Amazon or take an Aegean cruise or hang-glide off of Half-Dome in Yosemite. As those of you who have visited here know, we have a modest house that just happens to be plopped down on one of the sweetest spots on the planet. Why go anywhere? Everything I need or want is right here.<\/p>\n

My wife thinks differently. She\u2019s already been almost everywhere, but still wants to travel. In 2015 she fulfilled a lifelong ambition to go to Madagascar to check out the lemurs. Did I want to tag along and spend three weeks in the bush with the lemurs? Are you kidding? Still, I\u2019m sure she\u2019ll convince me to go somewhere this coming year.<\/p>\n

Best of luck as the trumpies take over. We are all going to need it. Bigly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This annual update {edited here for general readership} accompanied my note to my personal Christmas card list {see previous blog post}.) My wife and I are both doing well, just the usual growing pains. She spins at the gym or does Pilates five days a week and tap dances. She teaches one course per semester,
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