Category Archives: Wrist to Forehead Sunday

Is It Really the Size of Manhattan?

You knew I was going to have another Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

At least, perhaps not every reader thought that. Perhaps some expected better of me. Perhaps some merely hoped. And perhaps it is the height of egotism to believe that anybody thinks about me at all. Well, I often say, there are worse things than having an ego the size of Manhattan.

Where was I?

I had a weekend away. I believe I mentioned it. I may have mentioned that I cleverly wrote blog posts in advance and used that handy function the nice WordPress people provide to set them to be published with no further effort on my part (cue unkind remarks on how little effort I seemed to have put into the posts up to that point). I have spent the last few hours asking myself why, or why, did I not write, type in and schedule to be published one more itty bitty post?

The answer is not far to seek. Posts are not that easy to come by, even some of the ridiculous crap I write. Some mental effort is needed, even for today’s self-indulgent folly. And you know what, a cup of coffee is not always the miracle cure I’m hoping for.

So, preview of coming attractions: I went to Vermont. I hit a couple of attractions. I went running a couple of times. I made a few observations on two three-hour long car rides. The material is there somewhere.

In the meantime, I just thought I’d make one more silly post about Why I Can’t Write a Post. As always, I crave your indulgence.

Wrist to Forehead to Movies

Welcome to Wrist to Forehead Sunday. I’m your host, Mohawk Valley Girl.

I think I ended yesterday’s post with a promise to talk more about the Superhero Sprint. In fact, I started to write that post yesterday. Today I pulled it out and wrote a little more on it. And then… Can’t call it Writer’s Blank, because I could think of a few more things to say. Can’t call it Writer’s Block, because, well, it didn’t feel blocked exactly. It was more along the lines of… Writer’s Petering Out.

Oh, it is SO much easier to write a post about Why I Can’t Write a Post!

I tell myself that I have all day to get the post written and typed in. However, I want to get it out of the way so I can get on to the movie watching portion of my Sunday. Perhaps I could say a few words about Movie Watching in October.

It’s no secret that I love Halloween movies all year long. My blog posts on cheesy horror movies prove that. It works, because, unlike Christmas movies, Halloween movies are not always about the holiday for which they are named (I said “not always.” Anybody taking a deep breath to holler at me about the Halloween series, just don’t bother). However, watching scary movies in the autumn has a particular feeling of being the Right Thing To Do.

I say “autumn” instead of “October,” because Steven and I start Halloween season after Labor Day.

We began our 2013 Halloween Movie Watching a few weeks ago with The Blair Witch Project, preceded by Curse of the Blair Witch. It is a perennial favorite of mine. I especially enjoy the alternate narrative technique. And I think it’s a terrific story about how the filmmakers used the Internet to make people believe, for a short time anyways, that the shit really happened.

Last Sunday we satisfied my yen for a monster movie with Tremors. The original, good movie. I never saw any of the sequels, which I heard were quite pathetic, and I never checked out the TV series either.

I had thought to do a full write up on those movies. For one reason, I think about doing a full write up on just about everything I do and see (hey, come on, give me a break, I like to post every day!). I may yet do it.

However, today is Wrist to Forehead Sunday and my brain is just not where I want it to be. Still, I’m over 400 words. How did that happen?

I Do Not Despair

After writing yesterday’s post, I felt indefinably better and thought I would go write something else to see if it made me feel better yet. I thought I could report any results today, on Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

Some of you are probably saying, “We know: she didn’t write anything, and now she’s sitting there with her wrist on her forehead, typing with one hand to tell us about it.”

Well, the joke’s on you, because I am typing with two hands. Still, the writing something else did not go as well as hoped. My brain still felt fuzzy. I thought I could watch a cheesy movie and write about it in the TV Journal. This is a technique that has served me well in the past. Yesterday, not so much.

I would start to write stuff, then the damn movie would go into a long sequence with no dialogue. I can’t keep my eyes on the screen and write in a notebook. My handwriting is messy enough when I can look at it! As dialogue returned, I thought of a number of things I could write in the TV Journal, but my fuzzy brain betrayed me. I knitted instead.

Today, I thought instead of Wrist to Forehead Sunday, I would try for a pedestrian post, so went for a walk with Steven and Tabby. This seemed like a fruitful idea: the weather was drop dead gorgeous. There might be fall/Halloween decorations to observe. Other people might be out walking that I could interact with or at least describe.

Um, no. It was a very pleasant walk, but quite uneventful. I know, that doesn’t usually stop me. Come to think of it, it hasn’t stopped me today. Two paragraphs about the walk after four paragraphs about me trying to write. My word count is higher than yesterday! Woohoo!

Regarding future plans, I do not despair of writing a post about the cheesy movie I saw yesterday. And I’m going downstairs right now to watch another monster flick. And, who knows, as the week progresses, perhaps my head with unfuzz, and I will be back to having Mohawk Valley Adventures.

Stay tuned!

Not Writing

It is Wrist to Forehead Sunday, and there is nothing I can do but let it continue to be Wrist to Forehead Sunday and hope that Monday is better.

And yet I still must compose a blog post.

However, another blogger once pointed out (or maybe it was somebody who commented on another blog) (or maybe it was me) that writing about not writing is still writing. Some weeks I spend a lot of time writing about why I’m not writing. I imagine it gets tiresome to some people.

What can I say? If you’re tired of reading it, QUIT READING! Oh dear, I do hope nobody did. I’m thinking this gives some people a chance to feel that delicious wave of superiority: “If I wrote a blog every day, I would make damn sure I had something to say.” Maybe there are even some readers who do write a blog every day, and do find something to say. That would be cool.

OK, so here is my assignment for the rest of the week: to write extra blog posts so that the next time I hit a wrist to forehead kind of day, I can just find one in my Draft section and hit Publish.

Won’t that be nice?

I do hope tomorrow is not Wrist to Forehead Monday.

Oh, Just Write It!

Is cooking conducive to writing? Discuss amongst yourselves.

I am not exactly cooking as I write this (by hand in a notebook, standing at my kitchen counter). I am popping popcorn (on the stove in oil, as God intended) (it’s JUST an EXPRESSION! Sheesh!).

I wrote that much and got stuck. Still, I got the urge to open the notebook and start writing as soon as I got the oil in the pot. I thought that was interesting.

You know, I think Wrist to Forehead Sunday is becoming even more deeply ingrained into my schedule than Lame Post Friday. Actually, this morning, I am more inclined to put the palm of my hand or my cold fingers on my forehead, because I have a dreadful headache. Partying too heartily on Saturday night, you ask? Well, I don’t know about that, but I did stay up later than normal.

Be all that as it may, what is a blogger to do when a post must be written (according to my rules, anyways) but her head is aching and she wants nothing better than to retreat into the TV watching and crocheting portion of the day (I got some new yarn especially for the purpose)? What I did do was eat the popcorn and think about it (Steven was hogging the computer anyways), then pour myself some blue Gatorade (for some reason good for headaches) and get onto the computer to Write The Damn Thing Anyways.

We did go for a most enjoyable walk with Tabby earlier (before the headache had kicked in). It was still cool out, not too sunny, which was good since I had forgotten my Crazy Old Lady hat. We stopped and chatted with some neighbors who were having a garage sale (didn’t buy anything for once). We discussed our respective flood experiences, what we’d heard about who lost what, and had anybody gotten any money from insurance or the government yet. We concluded that we had been more fortunate than some others.

Well, look at that, word count over 300. I call that respectable. Don’t worry (if you even were), I won’t be too lame in the coming days. We saw an awesomely cheesy movie last night (when I may or may not have been partying too heartily), and I hope to do some bloggable cooking today. As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

Wrist to Forehead Cooking

So there I was, happily cooking with wine, when I realized — I haven’t done my blog post yet! Talk about Wrist to Forehead Sunday!

What’s a blogger to do? I search for a notebook with blank pages, grab a pen (I recently bought a bunch on sale at Rite Aid) and write while I cooked.

To set the scene: The rice is simmering, the chicken strips are frying, the garlic is breathing, I am debating peeling an onion. I could throw it in with the chicken. It might not have time to carmelize. Lately I have a minor obsession with carmelized onions.

I peeled and chopped an onion and added it to the chicken. Now will the chicken overcook before the onions are done? I did mention this is Wrist to Forehead Sunday, didn’t I?

And what about the garlic?

I should perhaps at this point mention that I began cooking with no recipe or plan in mind. I put on rice because Steven expressed an interest in eating rice. I put on chicken because you can cook this kind from frozen. I put in garlic and onions because that is what I do.

If anyone is interested, I added to the chicken some Roasted Garlic Olive Oil from gusto della vita (it is all lowercase on the bottle). I see they don’t have an address on their bottle, but it is a local or at least an area company.

When the garlic was done breathing I added it to the rice, which still has at least ten more minutes to cook, I think. We will eat this improvised mess — uh, I mean meal with a tossed salad I made yesterday. Won’t that be nice?

Note: As I typed this in, I realized my tenses were all messed up, because I was writing as I went along. I started to change it all to past tense, since it is now, in fact, past, then thought I would leave it as written and see if I liked it. Which I did.

Further note: The website for the oil company is www.gustodellavita.com.

Better Chop Some More Vegetables

I was all set to have another Wrist to Forehead Sunday. Then I spent some time in the kitchen working on tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s lunch. The therapeutic benefits of chopping vegetables are not to be denied.

If the above paragraph made any readers look forward to a cooking post, sorry. I wasn’t really doing anything more distinctive than chopping vegetables. I thought I would write about a Joan Crawford movie we just watched. I started to write it.

Soon my wrist was back on my forehead, because the post got, let’s be honest, boring. I actually thought the movie was kind of boring, but I wanted to know what happened. I don’t despair of writing something about it eventually. Sometimes you have to let these things marinade in your brain for a few days.

In the meantime, I need something for today. My husband, Steven, and I took our schnoodle, Tabby, for a walk earlier. It was perfect walking weather. Not too hot, not too humid and not too sunny. We walked by a big garage sale we had seen signs for yesterday. A nice man there petted Tabby and said they were definitely dog friendly. We bought a glass with Abraham Lincoln painted on it. I wanted to buy something since they were dog friendly.

Well, that wasn’t very distinctive either, but it got me over 200 words. What, oh what will the week ahead bring? I am so thin on Mohawk Valley adventures these days! (My wrist is still on my forehead, can you tell?)

Jim the Plumber to the Rescue

My only regret is that I don’t retain hydration enough to cry. I’m sure many people are reaching the saturation point of my litany of woes, but it is Wrist to Forehead Sunday, and it is not for the faint of heart (I, personally, am not faint of heart, but it is two sizes too small).

This morning, after sleeping in to a leisurely six o’clock, I thought I heard it raining. No, it couldn’t be raining. Too sunny out. Good. Don’t want the basement flooding again; we’ve got fans down there.

Yes, it was raining. IN MY BATHROOM!!! A strong stream of water was shooting out from a pipe on the side of the toilet. I hollered to Steven while trying to turn that little thing he showed me how to turn when the toilet backs up. Righty tighty! Righty tighty! It wouldn’t budge.

Steven tried, and it wouldn’t budge for him either. In a panic, I called our plumber, the wonderful Jim Montague from Jim’s Home Improvement (I don’t know why I didn’t give him a shout out after he snaked our toilet on Saturday). He told me to shut off the water main.

“Where’s that!” I must have sounded ridiculous, but I submit that at this point, anybody would. I found it, but could not budge that either. On the way to the main I noted with dismay that the water was pouring through our kitchen and into our basement. At least I hadn’t put the sump pump away. I quickly moved the fans, so they at least would not get ruined.

I reported back to Steven. He had given up on the other and was trying to stem the flood with a towel. I took over the towel (didn’t stop the water, but at least it wasn’t squirting into our cabinet now). He got the main shut off. Good grief!

Jim soon showed up. The man is a prince, and he even likes our dog. He found the crack in the pipe, removed the pipe and was off to TruValue in Ilion to purchase another. TruValue in Ilion by the way, is open at 6 a.m. on Sunday. In the future I may have to divide my hardware dollars between Aubucon and them.

Of course I needed to use the toilet. I did what I had done Saturday: I went to FasTrac. It was, in fact, raining by this time. Did I say raining? It was a deluge! I had the wipers on high and I still couldn’t see. I got soppingly wet just going from the house to the car and the car to the store.

Once in the store I looked out and saw that I had parked in a completely ridiculous way. Well, what a surprise! I couldn’t see the damn lines in the parking lot or anything else for that matter! I just waited for somebody to say something, but nobody did.

The same lady I had dealt with on Saturday was there. I told her of my new woes and she was suitably sympathetic. I purchased some donuts (I felt to offer Jim coffee and donuts was the least we could do) and bottled water. It had stopped raining by the time I got home. Go figure!

To come to the end of my lament, Jim got our toilet fixed and it even has better pressure than it had before. And we found out he does hot water heaters, so he may soon be replacing ours. It’s only a little more mess to clean up than before. Really, as disasters go, this one was Not So Bad.

One must write blog posts on Wrist to Forehead Sunday, after all. But as a special favor to me, please, could nobody ask, “What next?”

Jim’s Home Improvements is based on Frankfort, NY. His phone number is 315-868-4083.

Walk after Wine

I hope nobody thought I was going to have anything more strenuous than a Wrist to Forehead Sunday after a day of wine tasting in the Finger Lakes with some rather rowdy members of my family. If anyone did, I can only say, Why in the world would you think that? However, I did manage to take a nice walk with my schnoodle, Tabby, and I don’t despair of typing a few words about that.

Um, I put typing because I am composing at the keyboard as opposed to hand-writing it on paper first, as I often do. I suppose one could think it has something to do with the snide Truman Capote quote about another writer, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.” Well, anybody can feel free to quote Truman Capote at me. At least it’s a change of pace from pointing and laughing.

It was afternoon before I found my running shoes and got myself ready to get out the door. As usual, Tabby guessed my purpose and started running at the door, jumping and barking long before I was ready to actually fasten on the leash and go. I knew it was not as warm as one might hope, but thought I could get away with my crazy old lady hat rather than knitted toque. I also put on the large windbreaker with the huge pockets. Put two poop bags in the pockets (she very rarely poops twice in one walk, but one likes to be prepared). Found my sunglasses, because I thought the sun had come out.

I didn’t need the sunglasses after all, but that was where the large pockets came in handy. I only had to listen to them ka-thunk in the case and against my thigh for the whole walk. Well, one makes these sacrifices in order to be prepared. We started down Bellinger Street in Herkimer, NY (for the benefit for anybody just tuning in).

It was really not a bad temperature out at all. I understand it had snowed some places around here, but I saw no evidence of it where I was. Nice dry, bare sidewalks. A little muddy in the yards, but you’ll have that.

We saw two boys walking two beautiful setter-looking dogs up the opposite side of the street (it would really be nice if I learned to reliably recognize breeds). The dogs were pulling quite energetically on the leashes, but they did not seem interested in Tabby. I told Tabby to never mind about them, and no barks were exchanged.

Tabby pooped before we walked through Meyers Park, which was nice. That way I can throw the poop into a trash can as we walk by (see, that’s why I like to have two poop bags). Nobody was in the park. There was even very little traffic as we crossed Prospect Street and headed towards the downtown area.

The tribute to Ape was still up in front of Basloe Library, across from the former Glory Days. Ape was the police dog who lost his life helping take down that guy who shot people in Mohawk and Herkimer recently. I looked sadly at the plywood where windows used to be in the old Glory Days building. Perhaps somebody will buy that building and put in something cheerful.

On up Main Street, past the Historic Four Corners. I admired some of the large old buildings. I think most of them are cut up into apartments now. I saw a lovely patch of crocuses in front of a house further down the street. I really must put more crocus bulbs in my own yard this fall.

It was a pleasant walk, though I see now a little uneventful. I must say it exactly suited my mood, after my strenuous weekend. Now I’m off to watch a cheesy horror movie or two, and I shall hope for more energy later in the week so I can write about them.

Dog Day Sunday

There were at least three previews of coming attractions in yesterday’s post. Well, they’re still to come. Today is Wrist to Forehead Sunday.

I normally go to the grocery store on Sunday. However, today I stayed home with a sick dog. Poor pooch. She did not want to go for a long walk, so I can’t make a pedestrian post. She’s feeling better now, but rain looks imminent. My dog does not like to go for a walk in the rain.

I spent some time this morning cleaning and doing laundry. I know I did a cleaning post once, after previously threatening to do so. Alas, my adventures in housework today were less than blogworthy.

Eventually my headache and nausea (did I mention the dog wasn’t the only one feeling ill?) got the better of me. I sat down in front of the television with my knitting. Unfortunately, it was not to watch a cheesy horror movie. I don’t have the mental energy to write a post about a cheesy horror movie anyways (I did mention it is Wrist to Forehead Sunday).

One memorable event: When Steven came home from work, we went to the Stables, home of Ilion Little Theatre, to check out the progress on his set. In case anyone forgot or never knew, Steven is directing Dirty Work at the Crossroads, although he is incapable of building his own set. So far so good. Tabby liked it. I’m only sorry I don’t know how to post a photo. And that I don’t have the right kind of camera to take a photo. Future improvements to work towards.

I see that I am over 250 words. A respectable length for a Wrist to Forehead Sunday, I think. I’ll work on some of those coming attractions.