Mancunian

Gary, I hope you don't mind me hijacking the room temporarily to make an announcement. I just want to tell as many people as possible. I promise not to post on Mondays, I could never compete with Bearpaw Monday. I have been working hard and writing a new story to add to The Boot World with the help and support of a great editor/beta reader and hope that the following announcement will be received well. The new story will start to be posted very soon, and the proposed posting for the first chapter is to be within the next 7 to 10 days. The working title is being kept as the story title, What Happened To The Baxter Boys. Charlie and Michael Baxter lost their father at a young age. They have been brought up by a hard-working mother who loved and treasured her boys. Unfortunately, she passed away before they finished college and through no fault of their own, they found themselves homeless. This is their story. I hope you will all enjoy the story. My editor/beta reader has worked hard and still is, to help me bring their story to you. I hope that you will appreciate the hard work and support that @raven1 has invested in this story as much as I do.

I am sure that those who are following this thread, and those who pop in from time to time, are wondering what is happening with the new story. Well, I have the news that you have been patiently waiting for. The new story will start to be posted very soon, and the proposed posting for the first chapter is to be within the next 7 to 10 days. The working title is being kept as the story title, What Happened To The Baxter Boys. Charlie and Michael Baxter lost their father at a young age. They have been brought up by a hard-working mother who loved and treasured her boys. Unfortunately, she passed away before they finished college and through no fault of their own, they found themselves homeless. This is their story. I hope you will all enjoy the story. My editor/beta reader has worked hard and still is, to help me bring their story to you. I hope that you will appreciate the hard work and support that @raven1 has invested in this story as much as I do.

To survive a child's birthday party is a feat in itself, you deserve a medal, lol.

Well, I've got to the end of one contract with a happy client, yippee. His shops will open Monday morning and each one will have three golden balls hanging outside. On the same day, my contract with them becomes a regular consulting/maintenance contract and the work is then easier.

Hi everyone, I hope you are all keeping yourselves warm/cool depending on where you are.

Hi Gary, I hope you're looking after yourself

Things are not too bad thanks, I hope all is well with you and Aod. I've just replied to the PM.

Written with skill, thank you for an interesting story.

Yep, it's that time of the year. What time? I hear you ask. It is the time when we are either thinking about or trying not to think about Christmas. It's also the time when many charitable organisations get the begging bowl out. I've already had my begging bowl out, been around the usual local companies and a few more. I've been lucky and received donations and promises of help from all that I have approached, and I am grateful for everything that has been received and promised. Now I've got the begging bowl out again. But I'm not asking anyone here for anything and I do not want any of you to send, or enquire about sending anything. I'm rattling the bowl on behalf of the charitable organisations local to you. Yes, local to you. As many know, I do what many others do and try to help people who find themselves homeless. What I'm asking is, what can you do? Can you afford to dig deep in your pockets and make a donation to a charity or shelter for homeless people near where you live? If you can then please give what you can afford, even if it's just the loose change in your pocket, they will be grateful for it and will use it wisely. Can you afford to give up some of your time? If you can then please volunteer to help them, they will be grateful for that too. Whatever you can give will be gratefully received, so please look up your local charities and organisations that help homeless people and donate to them whatever you can afford, whether it be time, money or both and if you can please continue to give throughout the year, homeless people need our help throughout the year, not just at Christmas time. I thank you in advance on their behalf and wish you all a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, whichever applies to you and your beliefs. I'll put the begging bowl away now, until next year, and thank you.

I honestly thought this feature had been forgotten so it's good to find out I was wrong. I always find it interesting, but never have a clue as to who it is, so it's always fun finding out who it is.

There is only one thing that I/we don't like about your stories, and that is that like all stories they come to an end when we would love them to continue. What we take heart in is that when another story comes to you, you write it and draw us into another great experience.

As you promised, Gary, the re-read of this chapter makes things even more clear, and I thank you for that. I don't want to dwell on the posting error but I will say this then no more. None of us are perfect and we can all make mistakes, none of us like to be reminded of them, so let's not dwell on the mistakes of others and move on from them, especially under current circumstances. Jubal is exhausted, both physically and emotionally. He is running on empty as most of us would be. I think that the only things keeping Jubal going right now are - hope that Lucas will pull through - an obligation that he feels to the animals in his care - anger at the man responsible for all of the recent bad events and shooting Lucas - and simply put this has set him on auto-pilot which is seeing him through the tasks that need to be performed. When he stops, which isn't happening yet, he is likely to completely flee out, but I'm guessing that Jubal will fight against that. It looks like Reid not only sees but also accepts and understands the bond that has been forged between Jubal and Lucas. Reid's concern and support for Jubal could be the start of a good friendship if Jubal can relax enough to accept it. At this moment in time being on auto-pilot is a good thing for Jubal as his heart isn't in the tasks he is carrying out, his heart lays in the bed next to Lucas. Dr Vance comes across as a good and competent Dr for the time, I think, and I hope, he realises that he has two lives in his hands and both need looking after. Thank you Gary for your brilliant story-telling skills

I hope you're not going outside to get the temperature, stay inside and drink some hot coffee or hot chocolate, preferably with marshmallows 😀

Aloha Albert make sure you and Steve wrap up warm and stay out of the cold

DREWTH!

Well, I overdid it with the baking and ended up with 24 crusty white rolls and a dozen multi-seeded wholemeal ones. I've kept half a dozen for myself, the rest have gone where they will be eaten tonight with bowls of hot soup by people who will enjoy them. I feel tired, but it's a good tired, and my mind feels clear to get back to writing.

Aloha my friend. How are you and Steve today? And what are you up to today? I've decided to bake bread, crusty white and wholemeal seeded.

Maybe

Unless Mama Espinosa is giving them, or he gets a clip around the ear lol

First, there is no need to apologise for the error in chapter postings. Considering what has happened recently, like others, I'm surprised that you haven't taken a break from posting, but we are grateful that you haven't. Trying to keep things normal is a crutch that many of us use to help us through our grief, but remember my friend, you still need to take the time to grieve and allow yourself time to adapt to the new normal. Second, this chapter is a hard read but It's easy to see that it is crucial to the story. The way you have written it conveys the tension in the doctor's surgery and how it is affecting Jubal and Reid, luckily the doctor is calm and confident in his actions which gives us hope. We don't know yet if Jubal's actions have saved Lucas, but we do know that those actions have given him a fighting chance and one thing we know about Lucas is that he is a fighter. I hope that Lucas can keep the faith as that is crucial to Lucas maintaining his will to fight. I'm picturing a lot of hard work for Jubal while Lucas takes time to heal and regain his strength. During this time I see Jubal and Lucas' relationship becoming closer and stronger for the men, hopefully, with a brighter future that will include lots more hard, but rewarding, work. Am I right?

Hi Terry The cold and rain are inconsequential (wow, that's a big word for me, lol) at the moment. I'm more frustrated trying to write the end of the current chapter, I know what I want to write but I'm having trouble figuring out putting it into legible words. 🤔

Everything? 😳

Luckily it missed The North West, it went North East and is now fizzling out over The North Sea. On the news they are showing the damage to houses and cars in The Channel Islands and the south of England. Some houses have had the roof ripped off by the storm, windows have been blown out in houses and cars, and chimneys have been toppled and trees have been uprooted, some landing on houses and cars causing major damage. 😧

I'm sure that's a typo, I'm sure Albert intended to say plants. I hope so because I wouldn't want someones old pants eww

Southern England and The Channel Islands have had the full force of it, recording the same wind speeds. I'm hoping that it's less severe when it gets to the north. It's due to hit The North West, where I am, sometime in the morning. 🤞