The holidays are over. I suppose that means it’s safe for David and I to stay home, but what fun would that be? We’re continuing our tradition of checking out the bar each Saturday, tracking inflation through the cost of adult beverages. Interestingly enough, bourbon and beer prices haven’t changed much since last year. Oh well, here we sit – eat – drink and work Linda’s prompt.
Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 4th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in front/behind.” Use “in front,” use “behind,” or use them both in your post for bonus points! Enjoy!
SoCS by Linda G. Hill
If we were having a beer, you’d be wondering about something.
“I saw your blog earlier, Dan. I guess you took that foggy flag photo early in the week.”
“Because it’s at full staff?”
“Yes.”
“I did, but I liked the fog, but I felt it was appropriate to show the one at half-staff, especially given the connection to my books.”
“Your books? What connection?”
“One of my characters has a name connection with Jimmy Carter.”
“Billy? It’s Billy, isn’t it? You named him after Carter’s brother – Billy, of Billy Beer fame.”
“Billy Beer? Is that what you guys are hoping to drink today?”
“No, Cheryl. A John Howell’s Bourbon Special and a Modelo will do nicely. Dan was just telling me about his character connection to Jimmy Carter.”
“Billy? Are you kidding me?”
“No, not Bily!”
“Then who?”
“Carter.”
“Oh, the guy at O’Malley’s. I get it. I figured he just had the same last name.”
“Actually, his name is James Traub.”
“Huh?”
“He used to go by Jimmy. He was in the Marines when Carter was President. Some guys started calling him Carter as a way of teasing him, but he liked it, so he let it stick.”
“Here you go boys. Did I hear you mention pizza?”
“Yeah, Cheryl. Give us a few minutes and then put an order in for a large meat lovers.”
“I’ll put it in now. The party in the lounge ordered twelve pies. It’s gonna be a while.”
“Dan, I think you have some explaining to do.”
“Why? What?”
“I’ve read your books. You never mentioned ‘Carter’ being a nickname. You said he was in the Marines, but nothing about his name.”
“You’re right, David. I forgot. That fact is revealed in the next book.”
“Another Rascal Todd Mystery?”
“Yes, but light on Rascal Todd — she’s not the main sleuth.”
“She’s in the book though…right? And Bonkers? Bonkers is in the book…right?”
“Yes, Rascal’s in the book, just kinda-sorta in the background.”
“And Bonkers?”
“Yes, Bonkers is in the book.”
“What’s the name of this book?”
“Right now, it’s Book Six After Box Mess.”
“I hope you’re going to work on that.”
“I am.”
“Why is ‘After Box Mess’ important, anyway?”
“In front of the catastrophe when my Cloud storage with Box went kerflooey, this was called Book Six. I started putting backup copies all over the place. Once the mess with Box was behind me, I actually lost track of which one was the most recent for a few days.”
“But you got that sorted out?”
“I did. When I found the most recent copy, I added the ‘Box Mess’ to the name and moved it to OneDrive.”
“One Drive? That’s also in the Cloud. Why not just keep it on your computer? You know, like we did in the old days.”
“I work off of two laptops. Having things in the Cloud means I always have access to the current version.”
“Until you don’t.”
“Precisely, until I don’t.”
“Did you lose track of your other books?”
“None of them had any edits after Box when on the fritz, but in moving the files to a safe place, they all ended up with the same creation date.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“Well, they all had slightly different version names, and I know which one I uploaded to Amazon, so it still works.”
“Do you ever think that all this technology is bringing along too much baggage?”
“It does create a few new adventures, David.”
“Adventures are things we choose, Dan. This is like having a pop-quiz in math class.”
“I usually did pretty well on those.”
“Yeah, well you’re weird.”
“Hey guys. Your pizza’s almost ready. Another round?”
“Of course!”
No Facilities 
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