It was a quiet week in the small town of St. Francis. Well, at least it staroldbike.JPGted off that way.That was until old man Phillips, slowly peddling his bicycle, noticed his back tire was flat. Being cautious in his old age, Mr. Phillips guided his bicycle off the road to a spot under the long branches of the weeping willow near Mirror Lake that he and Mrs. Phillips used to frequent in the early days of their marriage. He thought a lot about his wife since her passing a year ago; the thoughts of her seemed to only increase with the passing days — his longing for her becoming ever more painful. As Mr. Phillips leaned down to examine the bicycle tire, he heard a loud gurgle coming from the lake. He looked upwards towards the sound, squinting in the morning sun, barely making out the silhouette of an SUV sinking slowly beneath the water.

I wrote that two days ago, or at least every other line. A friend and I were playing the classic alternating sentence writing game. I think it turned out pretty good so far. I’ve been meaning to write a book of short stories and perhaps this latest amusement of mine will be just the impetus I need. The goal of writing (and publishing) such a book even made it onto my new year’s resolutions list, though admittedly, so too did “Develop a convincing English accent”, “Work at McDonalds for a week” and “Buy 1 acre of land and dig a 100 ft deep hole with a backhoe in one month.” It’s not that I wouldn’t like to do each of those, it’s just that, with life the way it is, 1/6th of the year has already elapsed with not a single goal accomplished. How are your goals coming along?