Once a long time ago when we were looking for a movie to watch, my husband Steve started reading to me a description of a Vincent Price movie coming up on TCM. An adaptation of a story by Edgar Allen Poe, directed by Roger Corman, also starring etc etc
“You had me at Vincent Price,” I interrupted. I thought I was pretty cute to say it, but perhaps I flatter myself.
We recently watched two Price/Corman/Poe collaborations (if Poe can be said to collaborate when he is dead and all they did was use his story, taking considerable liberties with it). I would like to do real movie write-ups on them, as I have done with other cheesy horror movies, but that will not happen this morning. For one reason, I remember very little about The Tomb of Ligeia. For another, I am typing in this Monstrous Monday Post on Tuesday morning (regular readers knew I was not entirely done with late blog posts). I do not have a lot of time.
Dramatic, yes?
The above is an image from The Tomb of Ligeia, which we watched last Sunday. I finally managed to copy it from Facebook but could not figure out how to make it larger.
Creepy movie, yes.
Oh crap, I did not realize the image had “THEMONSTERCHANNEL.COM” printed over it. There may be a way to get rid of it, or I could look for another image. But look at the time. I need to get a few other things done before I leave for work. Additionally, I am over 200 words. That is better than I have been doing lately. This must do for my Monstrous Monday Post. Bring on the rest of Tuesday!
Do I have to keep apologizing for making late posts? Am I just calling attention to my own deficiencies? Perhaps a better question would be why do I keep making late posts? Or posting at all? This is getting too deep for me. Let us continue with a Throwback Thursday Post.
For those of us who can’t let go of Halloween.
This was our front porch in 2016. Look how small Frankentree is! But even then he had his unusual hybrid quality.
Spooky, yes?
I’m not sure how long ago this was. I went to my Tablet’s pictures and the was where I got tired of scrolling (it just seems to take so long!). It is a neighborhood house. It looked a little different this year.
See? I let people borrow my clothes!
One more Halloween Throwback picture. Santa did not wear that shirt this year. Our Halloween decorations this year did not measure up to previous years, but you’ll have that.
My ambition now is to make my Lame Post Friday post ON Friday. Will I succeed? A little suspense adds interest to my day.
Here I am on Thursday morning pecking in Wednesday’s post (one letter at a time with the stylus; I really need to get a new laptop). What can I say? I’m still tired.
He’s cool.
Last night we enjoyed some great music with Mark Nanni at Fratello’s Pizzeria in Frankfort, NY. We also enjoyed yummy food and saw our favorite bartender, Toni.
Nanni plays keyboard, guitar and accordian. Another patron was especially delighted with the accordian. He said his grandfather used to play it every night, but he had not heard it in 16 years.
I like the accordian, too!
It was a lovely evening, but I felt too tired to write about it last night. I read a book instead. It was the Ron Chernow biography of Alexander Hamilton. Good book, too.
Aaaand here is my Lame Post Friday post, being pecked in one letter at a time on my Tablet early Saturday morning. Ah, my wonderful husband, Steven, just brought me a cup of coffee. Soon those brain cells will start moving.
OK, I don’t really have much this morning, but I swiped a cool picture off Facebook to share.
Things that might have been.
I don’t know about coimetromania, but the picture is Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in a publicity shot for Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Joan was later replaced by Olivia de Havilland. I love that movie, but I also would have loved to see it with Joan in the part.
Incidentally, I know that by proper rules, I should be referring to Joan as “Crawford” or possibly “Ms. Crawford.” Those just don’t feel right to me. “Miss Crawford” would be more correct to the period the movie was made, but I don’t much like that either. Have I had this discussion before? Sorry to repeat myself.
So this is my Late Friday Lame Post: cool picture, dither paragraph regarding usage. Let’s see if I can make my Saturday post (Saturday Evening Post?) On time.
This is a late, short post, and I will indulge in Throwback Thursday. Since it the beginning of Halloween weekend, how about some of my old Halloween pictures?
Check out the spooky sky!
Here is a shot of a rainy Halloween. We are hoping the rain clears up in time for trick or treating on Sunday.
I wonder where that skeleton and those ghosts are.
Here is our porch for a few years ago. Witchy is out there now, but we don’t have the hanging things. I guess this is a rebuilding year for our Halloween decorations.
Bonita and friends.
This is one of my favorite pictures of our skeleton Bonita. I love how Darling Duck and Santa Claus are photobombing.
Perhaps tonight I can get a few pictures of this year’s decor. After all, we have not completely dropped the ball.
I am not even going to apologize for making my Lame Post Friday post on Saturday morning. I have been missing a day here and there, and I feel bad about that. Apparently not bad enough to go ahead and post every day, but these things happen.
This morning I feel drained. We had a full day yesterday. We plan more shenanigans today. I am just now taking my first sips of coffee. I feel a glimmering of life returning to my body if not my mind.
The fact is, I have once again been having the damnedest time writing. I just squeezed that second paragraph out, wringing it from my brain drip by painful drip (side note: autocorrect made (“brain drip” be “raindrop.” I hate officious editors!). It also took some effort to make that a metaphor instead of a simile. I prefer metaphor.
Speaking of metaphor, here is a longtime saying of mine. When somebody says, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar,” I say, “You catch the most flies of all with a pile of shit.” After they stop laughing, I say, “And who wants to catch flies?” Also, “Give me a metaphor, I’ll beat it till it screams.”
Well, that’s 200 words. Autocorrect made “200” be “00.” Everybody’s a critic!
Late posts. It has been a thing for a while now. Who knew getting back into daily blogging would be so hard for me (oh, YOU probably knew)(you know who you are)? At any rate, here I sit Friday morning, typing in (pecking one letter at a time with the stylus) (as Turman Capote once said, that’s not writing, that’s typing) what I believe will qualify as a Non-Sequitur Thursday Post.
I woke this morning with a raging headache. Seriously, in a lifetime of headaches big and small, this one was in the top ten for sheer pain. However, I knew I could not call in to work or I will not get paid for the Monday holiday, and, you know, money. Coffee, Gatorade, and a few neck stretches helped.
My niece is No. 8
One reason I did not post last night is that I traipsed off to Little Falls, NY, for another field hockey game. It did not rain, but the wind was cold! I’m all, “Bring on fall!” but I wish I had dressed a little more warmly.
Where’s the ball?
Having very little else to say, I throw in another picture.
And I just had a minor crisis trying to italicize my captions. I feel quite traumatized, and my headache is back. On the brighter side, I am over 200 words. Score! I will strive to make my Lame Post Friday post later today, when it is still actually Friday.
So I went to bed on Sunday without making a blog post and I don’t feel up to making one this morning. I’m just going to come out and say it: I am depressed and under stress, and blog posts may become sporadic for a while.
Hey, “depressed” and “stressed” rhyme. Maybe I could make this a poetry blog.
To start with I was quite depressed
And then I got a little stressed
It’s hard to write
When under blight
As life becomes more messed.
That was the best I could come up with prior to 5 a.m. But it will have to do.
Late Lame Post. It’s a thing. Without going into details (as I often say, explanations are so tiresome), I am going through a stressful time, and I do not seem to be handling it well. I may even be falling apart. Come on, Cindy, pull yourself together! Sometimes that sort of exhortation works.
Last night I indulged myself by going for a bite to eat at Jamo’s in Herkimer, NY (where I live). The angel on one shoulder said, “Don’t do it! Eat at home and save money!” The devil on the other shoulder said, “It’s called self care.” Come to think about it, perhaps I have that backwards and it was the devil urging the more depressing option. Additionally (although I did not think of this at the time), I was supporting the local economy and a very nice local business.
What the hell is it with not being able to add captions? Damn it!
I sat at the bar and ordered a glass of wine. I told the bartender about how the last time I was there, I had leaned my purse against the wall, it had fallen over, knocking down my wine glass, and I had burst into tears.
“I was feeling emotional,” I said. “I am kind of emotional today.” Actually, once I had made up my mind and was at Jamo’s, I felt better. Incidentally, I wrote a blog post about the bursting into tears incident, which I would link to if I could remember the title (I can’t).
I was delighted to find nachos on the menu. I immediately ordered them. The bartender told me that favorites come and go. I will remember that and not feel too bad the next time I don’t see nachos available.
Of course I had brought a notebook, but I did not have anything to write. Then I saw a partial scene from a long-ago novel. I started this novel back in the early 00’s, and this snippet of a scene I had written maybe a year ago. I wrote the next sentence. Then a page more! It was great!
The bartender asked if I was writing down all my stress. I explained it was a snippet of a novel and that I had a problem with finishing novels.
“My sister has four novels on Amazon and I haven’t got any!”
She asked what sort of novels I wrote, and we talked about that which led to me telling her about the murder mystery dinner theatre scripts I write. I felt happy to tell her I actually finish something!
Later on a young man sat at the other end of the bar and ordered a beer. The three of us chatted about beer, church youth groups retreats, and all manner of things. It was fun! When I got ready to leave, I told them how much I had enjoyed myself and hoped to meet them again sometime. They echoed the thought.
“Maybe at Heelpath Brewing,” the bartender said, since that was one of the things we chatted about.
Back home, I took a picture of my burgeoning peonies, just to further cheer myself up.
I was happy I had gone to Jamo’s, although my stomach wished I had ordered something lighter. In my defense, YUM! I am feeling cheerier this morning, especially having written this blog post (over 500 words! Wow!) (for me, I know other bloggers write much more on a regular basis). I almost feel I should delete the first paragraph. The post can stand perfectly well, perhaps better, without it. Yet I will let it stand. There is no shame in admitting one is having problems. But I hope everyone reads to the end when I say: I will be fine. Nachos and conversation are excellent medicine!
I actually started writing a real post yesterday while I was at work. You see, I had a stern talk with myself about Writing More. To that end, I did NOT bring a puzzle book to work but only a notebook (the paper, spiral-bound kind) and pen (um, and my lunch, safety glasses, phone, purse, etc.). And my meager brain. It was not enough to get the job done.
Oh, I wrote a page of my usual breezy stuff, concerning Kim’s and my visit to The Saalty Dog Saloon. I probably could have finished it. However, right now, I am ten-finger typing on my laptop. The pictures from the saloon are on my Tablet, which is upstairs. Me, go upstairs again? Wait for the laptop to turn on, have trouble logging in (it has this thing when you first power it up), and one-letter-peck with the stylus (if I have not lost the pen again)? I suppose I could, but right now I am enjoying to ten-finger type. I really must get a new laptop so I can do this more often.
In the meantime, since this blog is also a kind of a record of my Writing Endeavors (which may or may not deserve the capitalization), I will record that I am once again having the damnedest time. I have said it before and I will say it again: Sometimes you cannot just put yourself in front of a blank page and say, “Write! Write, damn you!” Oh well, perhaps some of you can. I cannot.
What can I do? That seems a better approach than lamenting what I cannot. To begin with, it seems I am very adept at writing about Not Writing. I don’t imagine I can get a novel out of that. Or can I? I close the blog and begin to brainstorm this promising start.
Mohawk Valley Girl 