This Is A Test. This Is Only A Test.
In the unlikely event of a water landing…

Many people on Medium post every day, and some people post twice. I’m sure some, but not all, of these people have another job to sustain them until they make it big on here.
I, for one, do, albeit part-time. I work around noon and am home by 5:00 pm, if not 4.
It’s 11:00, and I have roughly one-half hour to write something. I wanted to see if I could do it.
Most of my stories involve some amount of research. I can’t do that and write a story in 30 minutes.
Or can I?
First, let’s see where my head was last night based on the open tabs.
- There are eight open tabs about water (or the lack thereof) for a series I write on the megadrought in the Southwest. It’s been a while since I’ve written an installment, so I have to sort through dozens of bookmarks that will contribute to the article. But I get lost.
- I often switch over to email in the middle of anything. I have my personal inbox and my Medium inbox. Rarely do I get through both.
- As a former aviation professional, I am very interested in that business. So, three tabs are open for those stories, mostly about new airline routes.
- “Which States Pay Teachers the Most and the Least:” My state, New Mexico, is usually at or near the bottom of every list, so I wanted to see where we stood. Mississippi is last again, and they wonder why they have an educational crisis.
- Similarly, I had “The 2022 Annual Homelessness Report” open. Surprisingly, we’re at number twenty-one on that list, and our position has improved from 2021. But drive around Albuquerque, and you’ll see this is probably a mistake.
- Yahoo News: A man removes a boa constrictor from a busy road. Why? It’ll probably just be euthanized because they’re out of control in Florida.
- Three Medium tabs open. That’s the status quo.
- Wikimedia Commons: searching for images for a story.
- Copyright Law: Always check to see if the images I use on Medium won’t get me in a heap of trouble.
- I close my hookup site tabs after using them. I don’t want people to think I’m available all the time!
- Not a tab, but my hair is getting very long, and I’m noticing it’s everywhere—it’s time to do something about that.
So now it’s 11:25. I have exactly five minutes left to find an image, integrate my postscripts, and edit this. Gotta go!
More from Arthur Keith:
Author’s Note: I have a 270-plus story back catalog of articles dealing with subjects I like to write about, and I hope you’ll find something that piques your interest. They include aviation, music, geography, gardening, pop culture, LGBTQ culture, The Southwest/Megadrought/The Colorado River, and my late son. I often weave my journey into each. It’s worth $5/month or $50/year to read stories from all the great writers on Medium.com. Consider it like your own magazine!
