It was a mixed week with a final resolution to the on-going issue of increasing funding for the museum we have been trying for since 2022. This will allow us to have one more part-time individual and perhaps a full-time instead depending on the end budget that will be decided within two weeks. There will be some transition tasks for a few months, then I should be able to cut back on at least certain things that have consumed a lot of my time.

And now on to the less pleasant which is having to start a multi-stage dental procedure due to one of my teeth breaking which caused my lower bridge to come out. I have terrible teeth thanks to my mother and I went through some really bad problems a number of years ago. It has been a while, but something like this was likely to happen at some point. My dentist retired and I procrastinated finding one. The new one was recommended by a friend and I like his approach. We discussed options and even though I’m not thrilled, a partial denture (the removable kind) is the most practical solution. Sigh! And of course insurance covers barely one-third the cost. We begin on Tuesday and if there are no complications, I hope we’re done by the end of October although it might go into November because there has to be a “healing gap” on one stage. Guess I’ll have to read up on how to take care of dentures once those are fitted in. Allegedly, if I follow proper care, this should last me 20 years or so.

Okay, all who follow the blog are aware I have previously discussed not having a commercial breakthrough in the decades of writing. I have tried campaigns that should have worked, might have worked, and probably-won’t-but-give-it-a-try. I stopped for some time, then in 2024 was lured into a very expensive one that absolutely should have worked. It didn’t. Then came a few with some new approaches that dealt with analytically-based “adjusting algorithms”, “targeted readers groups”, etc. Nothing there either.

Slight gap and an absolute flood of things, many of which seem to be generated with AI. A few are easily identifiable as scams; others not so much. As I said to my husband, if I had only 10% of these offers as new readers, I would be happy. Anyway, late among them is having me set up on Substack for the Chris Green books. I have never ventured into Substack although Hubby has a few he follows and a couple he even subscribes to. It is a site initially developed for writers and seems to have expanded beyond into other aspects.

The way this will work is the individual running the campaign will do twice-weekly serialization of Deadly Doubloons, then False Front over a period of some weeks to get me established. She will develop chapter summations rather than word-for-word (kind of like the old Readers Digest Condensed Books).  The idea is to bring in readers who want a good sense of my books which will hopefully lead to a new audience. While that is the ideal outcome, I have such a large body of work, if nothing else, it gives me a new platform to share portions of my work once I get into the pattern. We’ll see how this goes.

Yes, the gap in posting is due to a number of extra tasks and deadlines thrown into the already busy mix as soon as we returned.

One of those tasks, I can’t post about yet, but led me to a quick discussion about the “Good enough is enough” at times. I did a post not long ago explaining, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”. However, there is another reality that is important to teach. “Doing the best you can,” is a worthy measure. On the flip side of the coin is, “A man’s grasp should exceed his reach”. One of the quick lessons learned in Officer Basic was the initial, “I can’t do that”, with “well, you have to”, followed by, “Oh, I guess I can.” With that said, there are times when no matter how hard one tries and no matter how much one wishes to be able to do something, the ability may be lacking. “A man has to know his limitations” is where reality meets trying.

A long time ago I posted about taking flying lessons and going as far as my first cross-country flight. I realized I probably wasn’t good enough to continue through to getting my license. I enjoyed what I’d learned and was among a number of people who had their own licenses. I had to admit to myself that even though I could probably do well enough to get a license with some extra training, that wasn’t the same as having the degree of comfort needed doing something that can, and does, result in a fatality.

There is no question every day some individuals are out there “doing the seemingly impossible”, but for most things in life, doing our best is good enough.

Notwithstanding the “noise” about whether one can become a billionaire without being a horrible person/entity, when friends were approaching retirement from the military and asked me about transition, I was able to provide good information. I will back-track a bit as my retirement coincided with my 40th birthday and for longtime followers, they know my wonderfully supportive husband insisted I take time to “write that novel”. An important factor here is he was being assigned to the Pentagon in the usual fashion for his rank and time in service. There are myriad opportunities for retired Army lieutenant colonels in the area with defense-related contractors, so my intense desire to be a writer instead had a back-up if needed. As most know, I have yet to make a commercial success as a writer and while I was holding out hope for later, I did reach out for my back-up within ten months.

In discussion with a couple of former bosses, I knew I didn’t want to be a “road warrior” spending 100+ days a year traveling. Since Hubby was still on active duty and I had my pension, salary and extensive benefits were not primary concerns. That meant I could stay away from the Fortune 500 culture of being one of thousands of employees.

The company I found was small; I think I was like the 143rd person they hired. Salary was mid-range and virtually no benefits. Veterans made up 80+ percent of the employees and the owners knew everyone by name and often their spouses’ names. There were either five or seven original employees and they shared a strong sense of camaraderie. Another aspect of the culture I admired was forthrightness from the leadership. The owner would hold periodic meetings with employees and act on what recommendations they could. For example, as the business grew, they added a benefit of continuing education in your related field. Yes, it was on a reimbursement basis, but 100% if made an A in a course; 80% for a B, and 70% if a C. Granted the benefit wasn’t useful for everyone, yet good for others.

A particularly important point was the clear understanding that employees might need to seek a higher salary with another company. In the private sector if you plan to do so, you literally “sneak around” so if a better offer isn’t available, you don’t risk losing your job for “being disloyal”. The owners were sincere when they explained it was okay to seek more. Their only request was to let them know if a new offer was made by another company. In most cases they couldn’t match the increase and wished the employee all the best. More unusual than such openness, in those occasions when an former employee discovered “the grass in not always greener”, they would be welcomed back if a position was open. That’s rare in the corporate world.