And Then, For No Particular Reason....

I watch "Forrest Gump" just about every time it's on. Sure, it's a sappy portrayal of silly and sillier coincidences and staged improbabilities, but....

It makes me think every time I see it. And I need an infusion of Gumpian logic today.

Let me count my blessings: I have a job. I have a uniquely wonderful family who loves and cares about me. I get to write as an avocation. And within my aging body I feel younger as each year blows past.

But that same job, while providing the means to operate the home (don't I sound like the prototypical Capricorn?) has exhausted me as it keeps me from trails, from writing, from all those escapes I enjoy so much. It's not the job's fault - I enjoy what I do, and month after month I keep proving I'm damn good at managing numbers as well as personalities.

I miss my time with the birds and animals, though. If I'm lucky I have time to take a drive somewhere to listen to the owls and slithering night things. And that's a drive, not a hike. Solutions are just not there, work close to home in my specialty is just not there, and that sets me into a funk.

I'm lucky enough to share my night excursions with The Kid or The Gina, sometimes both. Those drives are good for me, allowing me to explore possibilities I can't explore on someone else's time. And the time to pull the trigger on change may be now - it may be time to take The 4wheelbob Story public.

I so enjoy speaking to groups, to schools, Scouts, to anyone who'll listen. Do I have something to say? A lot of folks have told me so. Then there's the $100,000 question - could I support my family as a writer and speaker? Hmmm....well, I think so, if all the dots connect. It'll take finding someone to represent me, as I have a decided lack of ego which doesn't allow me to ask for money for an hour during which I'll try to motivate. Finding an agent should be easy, right?

Not so much. As a newbie, it's hard to get anyone's attention. But I'll keep plugging, hoping to find a representative with a few yards of vision, one who might be able to understand that when 4wheelbob talks, people listen.....most of the time.

Just a few short words on frustration, and the ideas that can spring from it. I'm so ready. Is there an agent in the house? Now I'm off to calm those critters in my head with the Arroyo Mocho Trail for a bit. Take care, and Happy Trails!