Tag Archives: lame post

Last Summer Walk?

Here’s a random observation for Lame Post Friday: “Lullaby and Good Night” does not seem to me an appropriate song for the ice cream truck (don’t know the real name of that song, sorry). But how was that for a lead sentence? I’m sitting in my living room, my little Acer in my lap, hoping to come up with something, and the silly ice cream truck is driving by.

I’m not up for any half-baked philosophy (the other component of Lame Post Friday), but I did take a nice walk with my schnoodle, Tabby, during which I made a few more observations which I will share. Summer seems to be making a farewell appearance in the Mohawk Valley. It is sunny and warm and supposed to be even better all weekend. I wore shorts, sunglasses (prescription), and my crazy old lady hat.

Tabby pulled me down East German Street for a couple of blocks. I thought it might be nice to go down Prospect, but she pulled me across the street to where the Pugnacious Pug was sitting in front of a house with his peeps. I call him the Pugnacious Pug because it seems he is always barking up a storm at something. Today he was barking at some people getting into a truck, then he turned around and barked at us. Tabby pretty much ignored him, finding several interesting places to sniff in the grass. At last I convinced her to go on.

We saw kids riding their bicycles and people sitting on front porches. We said hello to anybody who looked up. I noted some mums and other flowers still in bloom. My favorite sight was Halloween decorations. I saw one porch with a black and orange garland, small skeletons and one giant furry spider. Steven and I better get going on our decorations.

The walk was not long, but we enjoyed it. When we got home I took the laundry down off the clothesline. Astute readers may remember I wrote my Wednesday post while in the laundromat. Yes, those clothes having been hanging on my line for two days. Let’s hear it for no rain!

So I’ve walked my dog, taken down laundry, and typed in my blog post. Once I hit publish, I’m starting my weekend. Hope your Friday is fun.

What Is This Thing You Call Subtance?

And what’s wrong with Wrist to Forehead Sunday anyways, I’d like to know. Why shouldn’t I spend one day distressing over the fact that I can’t write a post? Oh, I know. In the first place, I know that there are many days when I have a hard time writing a post, not just once a week. And I know that SOME bloggers are able to write posts of substance every time they choose to sit down at the keyboard (and I would be happy to be directed to any of those lucky bums’ websites) (I don’t imagine I would be able to follow their good example, but I would SO admire to see it).

I can’t say it is a really distressful day, actually. I woke up with a headache, which of course is never pleasant. However, I took my dog for a walk, did the dishes and made two salads. How’s that for productive? I’ve been re-reading an Agatha Christie murder mystery. That is pleasant and educational. You can learn a lot about plotting and hiding clues by re-reading the masters.

Have I done any writing this weekend? Um, that is kind of an awkward question. Have I had any Mohawk Valley adventures that I could write posts about in the upcoming week? Mmmmm… still awkward. Can I offer any justification to my continued use of oxygen on this planet? Ah, a half-baked philosophical question worthy of Lame Post Friday!

In fact, it seems I cling to my Wrist to Forehead Sunday even more than my Lame Post Friday. Is the angst of the end of the weekend more powerful than the exuberance of the beginning of same? More half-baked philosophy to consider.

However, I see than I am over 200 words. I shall return to enjoying the end of my weekend (really, I strive to savor every minute) (I get some enjoyment out of the week, too, never fear). I look forward to a delightful upcoming week when PERHAPS I will come up with more posts of this so-called substance.

I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday.

Where Are You, Juan Valdez?

I am a dingbat. Not just a dingbat. A ding. Bat. A dingy bat. The dingiest bat. The dingiest AND the battiest. Not your ordinary, run of the mill, common or garden dingbat.

I wanted to do a good post today, since yesterday’s was pretty bad (still, it got four likes; perhaps I should not disparage the tastes of my readers) (four of them, anyways). I was unable to write one at work. I had time when I got home, but I had a lot of stuff to do. Steven and I were to attend a dinner meeting of the Ilion Little Theatre. I had a dog to walk, chip dip to make, a shower to take and an outfit to figure out. I was swamped.

I got all my stuff done before turning on the computer. I still had time to write the post. And I was JUST TOO TIRED!!! I thought to myself, “I can’t do it. I just can’t do it.” I was pretty sure there would be decaf coffee at the meeting. I couldn’t dare drink the caffeinated stuff after 6 p.m. or I’d be up all night. But decaf still has a little bit of caffeine plus placebo effect. I would come home from the meeting and write a GREAT blog post.

Why do I even think these things MIGHT happen? I’m never good for ANYTHING after 8 o’clock at night! And now it’s after nine. I want to go to bed. Whatever will I do about my blog post? I know, it’s Non-Sequitur Thursday. Just think up a silly title and hit publish.

Foggy Wednesday

I apologize for having a Wuss-out Wednesday after my rather silly post on Monday. Um, and Sunday. Oh, I’m not going back and looking at how many lame posts I’ve had recently; the fact is today I haven’t written anything yet and I don’t have much to write about.

I drove through a lovely thick fog on my way to work today and thought I would write about that. We’ve had a lot of fog recently. I like fog. It is usually thicker in Ilion (where I work) than it is in Herkimer (where I live). This morning as I went out to my vehicle, I saw that the fog was pretty thick in Herkimer. I thought, “Awesome! It’ll be really thick in Ilion.”

Steven and I got lost in the fog on Higby Road once, but that is a big hill out in the country. I felt it was doubtful that I would get lost on my eight-minute commute to work. I drove at a careful speed (slower, but not too slow), looking around. The irony was not lost on me that I was enjoying looking at what I was not able to see. I took extra care as I went out German Street by the cemetery. I’ve often seen deer in that area. I would not care to hit a deer.

It was not too hard to see even once I got to Ilion. Walking from my vehicle to my place of employment, I continued to enjoy looking around, where I usually see buildings but this morning could only see streetlights.

Then I was at work, the sun came up, and the fog was over. I thought, “Huh. That wasn’t such a much.” So I didn’t write a blog post about it. And now I just did.

Sufficiently wussy, I trust.

SCORE!

Here I am on Lame Post Friday. I started to write something earlier, heavy on the half-baked philosophy. Didn’t finish it. I took my dog, Tabby, for a walk. I thought, this’ll be great; I’ll make lots of random observations. Not so much. And that’s supposed to be my Friday Lame Post: random observations and half-baked philosophy. So why is it that lately my Friday posts are merely lame?

Ooh, that sounds like a philosophical question (half-baked, of course). Maybe I’m back in business. Let us consider that question. In the first place, what makes a lame post? Perhaps my posts are in reality not so lame. It’s a judgement call after all. Why am I being so hard on myself anyways? Is it such a disaster if I do make a lame post or two (or ten or all of them, I KNOW, you don’t have to point that out)?

To answer those last two questions in reverse order: no, it is not a disaster, and because it is what I do. Well, today I am going to do something different. I am NOT going to give myself a hard time. I am making a nothing post and that is all there is to it.

I was about to say I’m not even going to worry if it is under 200 words, but I see I am over that, so SCORE!

Post from a Melted Brain

Unofficial end of summer, my ass. We’ve had two warm, humid days, the second REALLY warm and humid. What little brain I had has melted. Luckily for me it is Lame Post Friday.

I did write some today. Not a lot. But some. I don’t think it was very good, but one can’t be brilliant 24/7 (I know, some of you are maintaining that YOU certainly can while the others are snarking that I probably can’t be brilliant 1/1. What sarcastic imaginary readers I have).

I didn’t do anything besides go to work and come home. Nothing exciting happened on either ride. And I could not make myself go for a run on this hot, humid day. My God, I am PATHETIC! I’ve got to get a grip on myself!

These things happen in the writing life. We try to write, we find we cannot think of anything to say. Some of us sensibly put the computer away and clean the house or play solitaire. Some of us press on, determined to make that blog post every day. And we all know which group I fall into.

I fear I do too many of these I Can’t Write a Post Today posts. Could it be time for me to stop trying to post every day? Maybe try for three times a week? No, I can’t do that. I’ll just try to write more better posts (YES, I mean “more better,” let it go). I’ll start tomorrow. Happy Friday, everyone.

I Hope Your Sunday is Good, Too

I did mention yesterday that this would be Wrist to Forehead Sunday, didn’t I? In fact, I ran this morning and had the vague idea in my head that I would do a Sunday Running Commentary. I may yet write about that run, but, um, not today.

I went adventuring with some family members later in the day. We went to the antique shops in Little Falls, an excellent topic for me to write about. I hope to write that post later in the week.

In between the run and the adventure (doesn’t “adventure” sound better than “shopping trip”?) I cleaned the house. I achieved more of a fast tidy than in-depth cleanliness, but I could have come up with a post about it. Would the post have been less lame than my usual Wrist to Forehead Sunday? Perhaps I will write it later in the week and we can judge.

Now I am home with my husband and my dog, watching old movies. Nothing particularly cheesy thus far. I have written about non-cheesy movies on occasion. I will no doubt do so again. But not today.

In short, this is what I’m publishing today. A kind of a This Has Been My Day/Preview of Coming Attractions. I hope my readers are having an enjoyable Sunday.

I Confess to Some Distress

Is it Lame Post Friday or Wrist to Forehead Friday? I confess to feeling some distress. But here’s some half-baked philosophy, in which I delight to indulge on Lame Post Friday: it rarely works to think “I ought to feel happy!”

Sometimes you can really jinx yourself earlier in the week by thinking, “I am going to be so happy on Friday.” It doesn’t have to be Friday. “I will be so happy when BLANK happens.” “When I am thin.” “When I finish that novel” (like that one’s going to happen any time soon). “When I am married.”

Wait a minute. I am married and in fact I am rather foolishly happy about it. Strike that last one.

My point is, I don’t think things necessarily MAKE us happy. Oh, I can hear the rude people saying now, “Well, DUH, everybody knows THINGS can’t make us happy.” Is that so? Then why did I see YOU wheeling around the local big box store with a cartload of crap?

Anyways, I’m not talking about objects. I thought I would be ecstatically happy on Friday because I have a three day weekend. Instead, I felt happy on Monday, because I knew that the three-day weekend was coming. That feeling lasted till the end of the work day, when I thought, “Crap! I still have four more days to get through!” Then I laughed at myself.

And that brings us to a philosophy of life which I have held for a while now: It is quite possible that nothing good will ever happen. BUT something funny will happen to make you laugh. Put another way: you can laugh or you can cry. Might as well laugh.

I think I’m in a better mood now. I’m going to get on with my weekend.

Do You Feel Like Reading a Silly Post?

So there I was, writing about the DARE 5K. It was the third day I’d been working on it. My brain and my pen slowly came to a stop. Does anybody really want to read a blow by blow, er, step by step account of me running? Do I even feel like writing it?

Yes, yes, I know, don’t wait till you “feel like” writing. On the other hand, sometimes you don’t feel like writing something because it isn’t very good. As the saying goes, if it’s boring to you to write it, it will probably be boring to someone else to read it.

That is what I wrote before beginning work this morning. I did not get back to writing till lunch, at which time I could not think of anything to add to it, so I wrote another page on the DARE run. That post is getting pretty long. I think it will need some big time editing before I can publish it.

Now here’s the funny thing. Earlier this afternoon I came home from work and felt just awful. Mentally, I mean. I could not conceive of typing in ANYTHING for this blog. I could not type in things already written. I could not come up with something new. Whatever would I do?

I did what many of us do at times like these. I stalled. I piddled around on Facebook, I tried to take my dog for a walk (pre-empted by thunder), I took my shower. Finally I thought, I can at least type in the silliness I wrote earlier about not writing. It’ll fly for Non-Sequitur Thursday.

I typed it in. I should perhaps mention that I am on my desktop, which I have not been on in a couple of weeks. I have been making my posts on the little Acer netbook my sister nicely gave me (Full disclosure: she nicely gave me the desktop too). It may be the effect of the larger, more typewriterish keyboard, but I feel pretty darn good. I feel like I can so think of something to say for a post. I could probably even type in previously written stuff, long or not. In short, I can rock this blog!

I can’t really. For one reason, I think I am getting arthritis in my fingers and it is not so easy to type as it used to be. For another reason, my brain is not as spry and agile as I would like to think.

No matter. I see that I am over 400 words. Are they good words? Are they worth reading? I don’t know. Who am I to judge anyways? All I can do is hit Publish and hope for the best, as I always do.

I am so ready for Lame Post Friday.

Hard Core Dithering

I knew I was going to run on Thursday. It was a foregone conclusion. I thought I would do a hard core run up the hill to Herkimer County Community College (HCCC) then do a short run or a long walk on Friday. My only worry was that it would rain. I could always jog in place on the mini-tramp, but there is nothing hard core about that.

As the end of my work day approached, I began to second-guess myself. As many of you know, that is pretty much what I do. Perhaps hard core was not the way to go. Perhaps I should be taking it easy even two days before the race. Then again, I would have a full day to recover. Maybe something in between hard core and taking it easy was the way to go. Yes, I am a hard core ditherer.

“Hey, who here runs?” I asked my co-worker who, I believe, knows everybody in the plant. He gave me a couple of names, but there was nobody I could seek out in the next hour. I explained my dilemma.

“So I don’t know if I should work out hard core or soft core or medium core,” I finished.

“Medium,” he advised. He further advised me to not merely walk my dog on Friday but to power walk, leaving the dog home if she does not like to power walk, which in fact she does not. He used to be a high school athletic coach, so his advice was no doubt good.

I confess I don’t know why I’m getting so exercised (so to speak) about a mere 5K. It’s not as if I think I’m going to win. While I pride myself on not walking, I do not hesitate to waste breath making silly jokes for the amusement of other runners, spectators and myself (at least somebody’s going to be amused). I run because I ENJOY running. There is no reason I should put myself under such stress.

The rain cleared up and it became quite the lovely afternoon. The sun shone, a breeze blew, it was unseasonably cool. A perfect afternoon for a run. My husband was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, my most favorite outfit to see him in.

I got ready to run, still dithering. Just before I went out the door, I looked in my running journal (I have a journal for everything) (I don’t really, but wouldn’t it be cool if I did?). The other two times I ran the DARE 5K I spent the week before running way shorter times than I am running now. I was going up the hill to HCCC, but my longest run was 33 minutes, not 47.

Well! It turns out I’m in GREAT shape for the DARE 5K, no matter which core I decided to run on Thursday! In fact, it turned out being between medium and hard. Perhaps I will write about it tomorrow. Today is Lame Post Friday, so I felt free to write about dithering.