Gloomy but hot today. I rode my bike about 10 miles one way to deliver a couple of my books to a woman who is trying to open a brick and mortar book shop. At the moment Leah sells books online and has a popup store. She has a rack for local authors and a gig at a farmers market this weekend, where my books will travel to. I’m going to sell signed copies through her online store (if anyone is interested) in my never-ending effort to support local businesses. Leah also asked whether I’d be interested in doing a book signing event when you new book launches in June. I love this idea of book shops supporting local authors. It seems like a no-brainer, but some shops around here tend to turn their noses up at indie authors. Their loss. Sales of my memoir are taking off—not as much as I’d like, but decently. I also just heard from a farm and garden store in St. Charles, IL, who wants to sell copies of my memoir. Maybe I should be marketing myself to farmers and gardeners?

On my bike ride I noted more and more forests and fields being mowed down and plowed under along the trail. Dozens of new data centers have gone up in the past couple of years along the trail, many of them—I suspect—owned by my former employer. (I can spot one of their data centers a mile away.) Sadly our trail rides will have less greenery and more data centers in the next few years.

Talked to Mama tonight. She’s marginally better in that she doesn’t seem to get too wound up about her predicament, or maybe more accurately, she has less fight in her and is easily swayed to conversation that is more pleasing. She also says, “Tell me something good.” And we talk about the flowers in Hubby’s garden and the abundance of vegetables and bike rides in the country, all of which make us both happy.