Tag Archives: blogging

Timing Is Everything

Posted on December 7, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

This is unusual. I just sat here for

Oh dear. I was about to write “at least five minutes,” when I looked at my watch and knew that it had only been three minutes. “Almost five minutes”? Lie and say that it was five minutes? We call that literary license in this business. Sometimes we call it fiction.

At any rate, I was paralyzed. Then I had to laugh at myself for being paralyzed. And naturally I started to write about it. Well, it got the pen moving at any rate.

Perhaps for the rest of the post I could ponder my obsession with time. I may have mentioned it before, in which case, sorry for repeating myself. A roommate in the army noticed my obsession. She pointed out that I knew it took seven minutes to walk to the chow hall. A “normal” person, I suppose, would say “five” or “ten” or even “five-ten.”

I’m sorry to be didactic (not real sorry, because, you know, go with your strengths), but five minutes and ten minutes are two different lengths of time. These things are important when one dare not be as much as .1 (yes, I said point one) seconds late for formation. And they are important for time-obsessed neurotics like me.

A junior high health teacher (or was it high school?) (was it even Health?) (what is with this accuracy obsession?) said we all have our little neuroses. Sometimes we call it a quirk or a Thing or a pet peeve (no, I am not looking in a thesaurus as I write this).

My main Thing right now (ooh, I just flashed on Thing One and Thing Two from The Cat in the Hat) is that I must publish a blog post every day, no matter how foolish. This has been today’s. I hope you enjoyed it.

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A Weary Wuss

Posted on December 5, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

Wuss-out Wednesday is getting to be a habit. In my defense, I’m tired.

Yesterday I avoided writing a post about Why I Can’t Write a Post by going for a run and writing about that. Today I’m too tired to run.

My husband, Steven, has spent the first half of this week fighting a cold. At last it seems he is victorious. And now it looks like my turn to suffer. So my lovely blog readers have that to look forward to: me kvetching about my symptoms. So far the main symptom is I’m TIRED!

Other people can write when they are tired. I bet some people are reading this with a smug look, saying, “I can write when I’m tired. It’s not that hard.” Well, THAT’S NICE FOR YOU!

We were at the laundromat earlier this evening, where I wrote a page on my novel. It was not a very good page, perhaps, but at least I wrote it. I’m tempted to use that as my reason: I used up all my words for the day on that! How can I be expected to write a blog post as well?

I know, it doesn’t work like that. It’s not a bucket, where you take stuff out and then it’s gone. It’s more a river: as you take stuff out even more flows in to take its place. Well, my river today is full of sediment (give me a metaphor, I’ll beat it till it screams).

I think the best thing to do is to take my weary body to bed and hope it’s only bluffing about coming down with a cold. I hope to come up with something more amusing for Non-Sequitur Thursday.

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Running Out Of Excuses

Posted on December 4, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

I sat at work today and pondered whether I would run. My husband, Steven, has a cold and I think I am catching it (he can say, “Don’t say I never gave you nuthin’!”). And I’m tired.

Then I thought about my blog post. I don’t want to write a blog post, I decided. I don’t have anything to write a blog post about. I can’t even write a blog post about why I can’t write a blog post. I’m going to post two sentences saying so and that’s all.

As I drove home, I thought a Running Commentary was my best chance for a post of longer than two sentences. For another reason, the temperature was in the upper 30s and it seemed a pity to waste it.

I found some leggings and a long-sleeved ARMY t-shirt, which has a reflective patch on the back. The sun wasn’t down yet, but it was gloomy. Cars would have their headlights on. I say, give yourself every advantage. I put on a headband to cover my ears instead of my knitted toque, in honor of it being almost 40.

Off I went. Sloshing through puddles and slush. Gloomy day, 4 p.m. traffic, I kept to the sidewalk. Don’t judge.

Some people had their Christmas lights turned on. Pretty. I tripped on an uneven bit of sidewalk while admiring one house. I didn’t fall, and I paid more attention after that.

About seven or eight minutes into the run, I decided I could rock this. For how long? I pondered. I went for 20 minutes on the mini-tramp Friday. Ran outdoors for 24 minutes on Sunday. Point and laugh if you must; I am beginning again, I have to start somewhere. No reason to increase my time till the weekend. Also, I didn’t want to run too far and be too tired to do anything else for the evening.

A dog barked at me. It sounded like a big dog, “Rowf! Rowf!” Then a smaller dog made a kind of a counterpoint: “Ruf-Ruf! Ruf-Ruf!” I couldn’t see either dog, but their barks gave me a mental picture. I have not made a study of the subject, but I believe dogs usually sound about how you would expect. In fact, I never even thought about it till today. Any observations from readers? Feel free to comment.

I eventually ran for 22 minutes. I felt that was a reasonable compromise. My schnoodle, Tabby, nicely walked my cool-down with me (10 minutes). I do enjoy my cool-down walk. I made note of some of the prettiest houses. When Steven is feeling better, perhaps we can take a walk after dark and admire them. That might be worth another blog post.

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Tabby Knows Best

Posted on December 3, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

I had this whole elaborate Monday Middle-aged Musing going on. Oh, I was getting deep. Then I realized I was in too deep. I didn’t know what I wanted to say. What to do? I thought I’d take my dog, Tabby, for a walk and do another pedestrian post. I know I do a lot of those, but I thought I might see some new things tonight.

It was dark by the time we started, making it all the easier to admire our neighbors’ Christmas lights. There is a kind I hadn’t seen before: they are shaped like an icicle and the light kind of runs down them. Very cool.

Tabby had a little indecision as to where to go when we reached the corner but resolved that and we continued down Church. She was stopping every two feet to sniff attentively. That made it easier for me to check out the decorations. I noted a large tree in a window not yet decorated and a staircase with lights running up the bannister. I regretted that we don’t have an open staircase. I like the lights on the bannister look. I reminded myself one can’t have everything and walked on.

Tabby stopped and looked at me.

“Let’s keep going,” I encouraged. She acquiesced. Then stopped again. Then deigned to walk some more.

We had gone a total of a block and a half when she stopped the last time, turned around and headed back home. I followed. She walked faster. She did not stop to sniff. What’s going on, I wondered. When she didn’t even stop to sniff the fire hydrant, I became a little concerned.

Being a woman of vivid imagination (as regular readers know), I began to ask myself if Tabby knew something that I did not. After all, animals have instincts. There have been stories. My husband was at home, nursing a cold. Could it be he needed us? I knew I was being silly. Then again, wouldn’t that make a tremendous blog post?

It did not take long to get home. Steven was fine. I turned on the computer and hoped I had enough for a blog post. Looks like I did.

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To Encourage? Or Just to Blog?

Posted on November 25, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook, “To blog or not to blog, that is the question.” I replied, “To blog! Always to blog!”

The sad part to me is that I seem to be the only one to have said to. Perhaps she does not have enough Writing Friends on Facebook. I count on my writing friends to encourage me. Sometimes my non-writing friends encourage me as well.

Oh dear, I feel a bout of half-baked philosophy coming on. That is for Lame Post Friday and today is Wrist to Forehead Sunday. Oh well, as I often observe, sometimes I can only write what I do. So I’ll just get on with it.

We all need encouragement at one time or another (don’t pretend you don’t; we won’t believe you). However, there is a school of thought that encouragement is not always the best thing. Some people, this school of thought goes, should cut their losses and stop striving for what they will never achieve. An example they point to is Zelda Fitzgerald, who apparently drove herself crazy with the physical demands of her quest to become a prima ballerina at the age of thirty-something.

I say this is too complicated a question to get into on Wrist to Forehead Sunday. I’m going to cut to the chase, answer the original question with “To blog,” and hit publish. Anybody got a problem with that?

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Writing About Not Running

Posted on November 24, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

No, running commentary isn’t back yet; stop pursing your lips at me.

I thought about running as we walked to the post office this morning. We consisted of me; my friend Tracy, visiting from out of town; and of course my schnoodle, Tabby. My husband, Steven, was at work. I explained to Tracy how I had not really started running again yet, but intended to (if anybody mentions intentions paving a road anywhere, I’ll scream).

I was sorry I had not started running again while the weather was good. I had my reasons. Maybe they weren’t very good reasons, but these things happen. The weather was not awful this morning, but it was cold. A fairly still cold, not a whipping wind. Still, it felt good to walk. I love to walk. I pointed out places of interest to Tracy. Tabby sniffed places that were of interest to her.

I had thought I might run at some point, but after all, I had to entertain my out-of-town guest. So instead of running anywhere, I found myself driving to Little Falls (preview of coming attractions: we went to the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts). I was wearing a nice cape that was recently given to me. As I was putting gas in my vehicle, I realized I needed a good ten degrees warmer of temperature to wear that cape. Well, suffer to be beautiful.

It was on the way home from Little Falls that the weather got interesting. I saw a few flakes in the sky as we walked to my vehicle. They were joined by more as we drove out of town. Soon the sky was white and I was driving slowly.

“Are you glad now or sorry that I drove?” I asked Tracy. She admitted to pondering that very question before I asked.

The pick up truck in front of me wasn’t moving much faster than I was, and the car behind was not catching up. I discussed my speed choices, and we speculated on if and when the road might get slippery. My feeling is: when in doubt, go slow, because mid-skid is too late to slow down.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes, or drive five miles.” It was six back to Herkimer.

Sure enough, the snow has stopped now, although there is some white stuff on the ground. No, I am not going running today. I walked, I drove in the snow, I wrote a blog post. I’m done.

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Suitable for Wuss-out Wednesday

Posted on November 21, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

My life has been thin of Mohawk Valley adventures lately. On perusing the TV Journal, I find I am out of cheesy movies to write about as well. What’s a blogger to do?

Well, I was about to stop writing entirely, because my pen was beginning to seriously irritate my middle finger (cue jokes about that being my most often used digit). Then I remembered I had a pen with a built-in spongy thing in my pocket. I don’t usually leave the house without at least two or three pens plus paper. That’s how I roll.

So, spongy thing in place, what can I possibly write about? I suppose I could give another shout-out to Colonial Laundromat in Ilion, NY. That’s why I had no adventures Monday night; we had to do laundry. There isn’t much to say about that, except that it is a pleasure to at least have a clean place to do a tiresome chore, especially given my regrettable tendency to drop my brand-clean laundry on the floor.

Getting back to What Shall I Write About, I feel disinclined to do another Preview of Coming Attractions. For one reason, sometimes I don’t make it to the thing I previewed and then I feel silly or guilty.

That is as far as I wrote. Full disclosure: I wrote it on Tuesday, then remembered I had been to Ilion Little Theatre on Friday. However, on finding it in my notebook today, I deem it suitable for Wuss-out Wednesday. Hmm, that’s not a bad headline either. Waste not, want not!

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Another Dull Post

Posted on November 18, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

It’s been another Wrist to Forehead Sunday. A dark, dull, gloomy day. I read a romance novel and watched movies. Good movies, not the cheesy kind I like to write about.

In short, I got nuthin’.

Usually I can expound upon the fact that I got nuthin’, basically making something out of nothing. Writing is kind of cool that way. Only it doesn’t always work.

Today it ain’t working.

Or should I have said “workin'”?

And what is with the bad grammar of “got nuthin'”? I know better than that. I’m such a grammar prig most of the time, it is really unbecoming when I don’t use proper English myself.

OK: I have nothing of interest to post.

Doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?

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To the Play!

Posted on November 16, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

There I was at work (on a break, that is), writing my Friday Lame Post, and I thought it was going rather well. Then I realized I had written something extremely similar already. I was mortified.

And then I couldn’t really think of anything better to write, because I got a headache. Not a bad one, but I didn’t like it. So instead of thinking about my blog, I plotted how I could get out of going to the play at Ilion Little Theatre, which Steven and I had planned to attend. We can’t go on Saturday, because we have been invited to a party. We will probably be too tired on Sunday.

At the end of the day, I told my co-worker (who had earlier that day heard my weekend plans) that I would go to the play on Sunday.

“You will not. You’ll be too hungover from the party. You won’t go see that play at all!” He felt quite confident in his prediction.

Long story short (I know: too late): here I sit, showered, dressed and ready to go. Play tonight. Party tomorrow. Blog post in between.

Short post for now.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend.

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Yes, Another Damn Headache

Posted on November 8, 2013 by mohawkvalleygirl

Dear Reader,

Please excuse Mohawk Valley Girl from making a blog post today. She has a very bad headache.

Sincerely,
Mohawk Valley Girl

OK, that was really lame, and it is not Lame Post Friday yet. I would like to spout out some half-baked philosophy regarding the contention that a foolish blog post is better than no blog post at all. But, again, half-baked philosophy is for Lame Post Friday. What I am really hoping for, however, is I Don’t Have a Headache Friday.

Interesting phenomenon: I dragged myself from my sickbed to write just a couple of lines so that I’ve posted something, and I can’t seem to stop typing.

OK, now I can.

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