Tag Archives: not writing

About Blogging, About Writing

Yesterday I kind of snuck my late Monday post in under the radar (snuck isn’t a word, Chromebook?  what is it, sneaked? That sounds just as silly), making the post and not saying anything about when I made it.  Today is Wednesday and I am boldly making my Tired Tuesday post and telling you it is late.  For one thing, I am still too tired to write about other things.

That is an interesting thing about this blog.  When I started it, I wanted it to be about Something, not just me.  Well, it became a lot about me, and now it seems it has become a lot about itself.  Is that like a snake eating its own tail (another cliche but one not as often used)?  That is what fiction advisors say about people writing about their own experiences, just changing the names.  Sooner or later, they say, you run out of things to write about.  I quite frankly do not see where that is inevitable. You keep living, don’t you?  Incidentally, that is not my style when I write fiction:  I make almost everything up, characters, situations, events.

Well, the characters in my books sometimes drink wine.

I wanted to throw in a picture to pep things up but did not have one of me writing.  To continue:  a number of my friends have asked to be put into books.  I hesitate to do this, because what if they don’t like how they are portrayed?  “I’m not like that!”  “I would never say that!”  They would also like to be killed off, since I write murder mysteries.  I have thought of trying a horror novel, where lots of people get killed.  I could knock off all my friends and enemies at once.  Something to think about.

Full disclosure:  In my long life, I have only ever finished one novel.  I currently am not even working on one, but I am trying to get back into it.  These days I write my blog, my interactive murder mysteries, and articles for Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  That reminds me:  I have a magazine deadline coming up.  Yikes!

 

I Cut Myself a Little More Slack

Here I sit, trying to make my Slacker Saturday blog post early Sunday morning.  At least, it is not early for me, but as Sunday mornings go for other people…  Not that I know that much about other people, but I have heard.

I put off making this blog post while I had some coffee, scrolled Facebook, played Solitaire, then read another blogger’s weekly post.  Oh, and I re-read one of my posts from 2012 which I had been thinking about.  I have been writing this blog for a long time, haven’t I?  Or, as Truman Capote famously said, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”  I fear that lately my blog has become me rambling on, not saying much of any substance, much less sharing Mohawk Valley adventures as I intended to do when I began the blog.

Like KO Grainger at the Herkimer Downtown Chowdown.

I sometimes mention one I am going to write about, then when I sit down with the Chromebook… not so much.  What, I ask once again, is my problem?  More to the point, what is the solution? I confess I do not know.  I am not having much luck with the Do It Anyways method.

Am I too chicken to write?

Yesterday, by the way, was in fact a Slacker Saturday.  I went running, as I mentioned in my late Lame Post Friday post.  I puttered around, doing a little bit of cleaning here and there.  My house, as I have also mentioned, is quite the disaster area.  I express great determination to get it clean one way or another, then wander around, feeling ridiculous for not knowing where to start.  Then I put some things away and hope I have made some progress. Yesterday I discovered the Columbo method of cleaning:  I cleaned for a set amount of time, then when time was up, I said to myself, “Oh, one more thing!”

I am obsessed with Columbo, you may have noticed.

Eventually I wrote a few postcards and walked them to the post office.  It had stopped raining by then.  Returning home, I made some popcorn and watched, you guessed it, a couple episodes of Columbo.  I crocheted while I watched (after I had eaten some popcorn and washed the butter off my hands) (I’m not a barbarian, after all), so I could feel a little productive.

Once again, I have rattled on for an appreciable amount of words (just over 400!).  I shall end with a random picture, so that my Saturday post can be Scattered as well as Slacker.

Will the curtain rise on a new act for the play of my life?

Too dark, but I feel a picture of a closed curtain is always evocative.  It is the Capitol Theatre in Rome, NY, a good place to visit for future Mohawk Valley adventures.

 

About Those Blog Posts…

So I put off making Wednesday’s post till Thursday morning, then Thursday was a Blogger’s Sick Day with all capital letters.  I spent the whole day in bed, unable to do anything but lie there and try not to toss and turn.  I tried to get up in the late afternoon, thinking I would never sleep at night.  I thought, I’ll eat something, I’ll call my Mom and Dad (which I try to do every day), I’ll make a blog post at least saying why I am not making a blog post.  I walked downstairs.  No food looked or sounded the least bit appetizing.  I walked back upstairs.

What a dull, boring, whiny paragraph.  It is just as well I did not attempt to make a blog post yesterday.  Quick, throw in a picture to pep things up.

Aren’t they pretty?

Here are some flowers I used to have on one side of the front porch.  They stopped coming up, but I do not rule out planting more.  Still, if I want to plant anything, I had better get moving on it or it will not happen this year either.  Just to continue whining, everything is so much effort these days.  Maybe I need to eat my Wheaties.  Too bad I hate Wheaties.

Doesn’t this picture look like it was taken by accident?

I still have these sneakers and wear them sometimes, although I have more recently acquired running shoes.  I had planned to go running Tuesday, then put it off till Wednesday, then till Thursday.  Let that be a lesson to me.  In my defense, I was dreadfully tired on Tuesday and busy on Wednesday (not that I got much done) (see previous paragraph about everything being too much effort).  And now I am back to whining.

I guess I’ll bill this as a Non-Sequitur Thursday post.  Full disclosure:  I am still feeling a bit woozy but think I can make it through the day at work.  Then we’ll see if I can manage a Lame Post Friday post.  As always, I hope you’ll stay tuned.

 

More Writing About Not Writing

It is well known that good habits are difficult to establish while one falls back into bad habits with ease and sometimes a sense of comfort.  Thus I continue late posts, making my Tired Tuesday post early Wednesday morning.  I have a very good Mohawk Valley adventure to write about, because I attended the Herkimer Downtown Chowdown with some friends on Monday.  However, I am letting that marinade in what is left of my brain.  A wise woman told me you can’t rush into these things (“these things” being any number of chores and tasks that arise) (by the way, the wise woman was my mother, the same wise woman who also said, “Oh well, what the hell”) (I know she was not the first so say it, but she may have been the first to say, “As a wise woman once said,” etc) (I stand by my story).

Where was I?

I guess it isn’t Tuesday any more.

This meme is now late, but is my favorite one to use in a Tired Tuesday post.  As you may have guessed, this will be another post where I rattle on for 200 words or so, hit Publish, and hope for the best.  I am so dreadfully tired all the time lately.  Perhaps I do not eat enough vegetables.

Me, questioning my path as a writer, or at least as a daily blogger.  

Of course this is not me.  It is Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys, a movie about writers, among other things.  He plays a blocked writer.  At least, not exactly blocked, because he has written over a thousand pages on his next book, but, well, it is complicated.  I have not written over a thousand pages of anything lately, and I have never written a thousand pages on one project.  That might be a good challenge for me:  write a thousand pages on something, anything.  They say anything that gets your pen moving is a good thing (as usual, no idea who “they” are).

No blockage of daisies.

I leave you with a picture of my prolific daisies.  They are symbolic of two things: spring, as in “hope springs eternal,” and sheer number.  May my writing flourish as my daisies!

 

Musings and Mummies

I am quite tired this evening but determined to make some semblance of a blog post.  I was thinking of doing a Monstrous Monday, despite my lack of new monster pictures, but then remembered I had re-instituted the feature Middle-Aged Musings Monday.  Only I am not sure I have any particular musings to share.  For one reason, the temperature went above 80 degrees today.  I am one of those people who melt in the heat.  I must haul out my fans and turn them on.

Me not be dramatic? Never happen!

I know, some people have no sympathy for those who do not like their favorite weather.  Some people have no sympathy for anybody for any reason.  Is that a nice way to be?  I think not.  If anybody wants to complain about any weather to me, I will listen.  Until you have gone on for an inordinately long period of time.  Then I might find an excuse to leave the room.

He’s all bundled up.

I wanted to throw in a monster I haven’t used too many times and found this cute little mummy.  I don’t remember where we got him, but I think we added the orange yard around his neck.  It is nice to have a well-dressed mummy in the house.

Even mummies need love.

Here is a less well-dressed mummy, but he apparently goes to all the best places.  I’m thinking this was not an actual episode of The Love Boat.  I used to watch it every week (I never had a Saturday night date in those days), although I did lose track of it the last couple of seasons.

I see I am over 250 words.  Score! I hope to return to posting about Mohawk Valley Adventures soon, and of course I hope you will stay tuned.

 

Another Placeholder Post

Once again I am running out of morning in which to make yesterday’s blog post.  And I have very little brain to work with.  How is my brain vanishing so quickly and thoroughly?  I am not that old, and any evidence of senility or dementia can be explained away with, “Oh, everybody does that sometimes,” or, “Hell, I’ve been doing that for years.”  Now I am fighting the dreaded type-it-in-backspace-it-out disease.

I went running both yesterday and today, so I could make a Running Commentary post, couldn’t I?  You would think so, wouldn’t you?

Not where I ran.

I also had a delightful lunch at Salvatore’s in Herkimer, NY yesterday.  That would make a nice blog post, too. Oh dear, am I doing another post about Why I Can’t Make a Blog Post?  I think I have to blame it on my sinuses.  Allergy season is kicking my butt, as it seems to do with increasing violence each year.  I do not have a sinus headache, which I am quite grateful for, but I have that lightheaded feeling which makes doing anything difficult.

THERE’S that brain!

I was looking for a picture of flowers to brighten up the post when I found the Brain from the Planet Arous, which regular readers know I like to show when I am feeling particularly brain dead (yes, yes, I know that is most of the time lately), only I can never find it.  In fact, this is what I was looking for when I saw the picture of Salvatore’s and decided to mention my lunch with friends.

And here are some flowers.

These flowers have been coming up every year since I planted them, which is nice.  Other things I have planted have been less successful, although the Black-Eyed Susans usually go great guns.  Once again, I fear my blog post is merely a placeholder.  I hope a placeholder post (should I add that as a category?) is better than none.

 

There’s No Place Like Lame

I am almost entirely through Saturday morning as I sit down to make my Lame Post Friday blog post.  I am once again ten-finger typing, because I successfully remembered my Chromebook password.  I think I mentioned how I locked myself out, goodness knows how.  I finished one post and made another on the Tablet, which I used to always do.  But nobody needs to hear about my computer trials and tribulations, least of all me.  On with the post!

Ah, the theatre!

I wanted to throw in a picture to pep things up and came across this gem in my Media Library.  It is my friends Kim and Jim in a play at Ilion Little Theatre.  The young lady in the background is a friend, too, of course.  I am meeting Kim, Jim, and Jim’s daughter Kelly for lunch at Salvatore’s in Herkimer, NY for lunch in — yikes, little more than an hour!

It has not been a real good week for me, blog-wise or health-wise (or come to think of it getting-my-house-clean-wise), but you’ll have that.  Yesterday I was asking people if it was really Friday, because I just wasn’t feeling it.  This you will also have.  But never mind that.  I hope to have  (continue to have; it is almost noon on Saturday, for heavens’ sake) a good weekend.  I went for a run of over 2 miles (not much over, but I must celebrate every small win).  I guess this post is in the nature of a place-holder, so I have made a post for every day (if not on every day).  Will I manage to make Saturday’s blog post on Saturday?  A little uncertainty adds interest to my day.

 

The Blog Will Go On

Oh dear, will I have another week of late posts?  They say better late than never (one Saturday I said, “Better Lame Than Never,” and thought I was pretty clever) (but perhaps I flattered myself).  If only I was not too brain dead to make a decent blog post, and that is becoming a chronic condition.  Could it be my age?  SAY IT AIN’T SO !!!  But I must not obsess over that.  I talked about being old yesterday; if I keep doing it, it will become, you should pardon the expression, old (although we did establish yesterday that old people repeat themselves).

She is awesome, yes!

One reason I have been feeling extra down lately is that my bestie, Kim, is moving across the country to Colorado.  It may be a very good move for her, but who will I go on Mohawk Valley adventures with?  I know, I have gone on many by myself, and some with my family.  The blog will survive.  So will I, I am sure, but sometimes you have to allow yourself space to say, and feel, that this is a real bummer.

I do love flowers.

I thought I would put in a more cheerful picture, to end today’s post on an optimistic note.  I am determined to have a container garden on my deck this year.  Perhaps before Kim leaves town she will have time to wander around The Flower Barn in Ilion, NY with me, choosing blooms and herbs (sticking in a shout-out to a local business).

I see I am over 250 words.  I am going to bill this as a Tired Tuesday and drive on.  I hope today will not turn out to be a Wuss-out Wednesday.

 

I Guess Old People Repeat Themselves

Does anybody remember a feature I used to have called Monday Middle-aged Musings?  I have been told I am no longer middle-aged but old (59 + 59 = 118, an age I am unlikely to attain, was the logic, but I rarely do the math) (I am 60 now, but I was 59 when the unkind remark was made to me).  Still, I love my alliteration, and I really feel I have overdone Monstrous Monday, at least until I get some new monster pictures into my Media Library.

Full disclosure:  It is early Tuesday morning.  I was tired last night, and lazy.  The fact is, all I require of myself on Monday is to get through the day.  However, yesterday I… oh never mind what all I did, but I accomplished several chores and errands. They may not have been enough to exhaust the average person, but give me a break.  I’m old.

Why do I feel such relief that it is no longer Monday?  I first wrote that as a parenthetical comment in the last paragraph then thought it was a musing as well as a comment.  I have reflected before on the rhythm of a Monday through Friday schedule, how to many people the week sucks progressively less as it wends slowly toward Friday and the weekend.  I rebel against this thinking on principle, and I have said this before:  why would we pack all our happiness into two days and be miserable for the remaining five?  Sorry to repeat myself.

Why do I always dive right back into redundancy?

I went to my Media Library, to find a picture to distract myself from saying the same thing yet again.  I thought this was appropriate.  Do Not Enter!  Do Not Keep Making the Same Stupid Blog Post!  Do Not Pass Go!  Do Not Collect $200!  Now I am getting silly.  Anyways, as regular readers know, when I see a sign like the above while running or walking, I do not hesitate to enter.

In any case, this nonsense has gotten me over 300 words, and I do not have time to come up with anything else if I want to take a walk this morning (full disclosure:  I do not particularly want to but know it would be a good idea).  Once again, I thank you for tuning in.

 

Oh, What’s Wrong With Another Vampire Post?

I sip just a little more wine while I make my Wrist to Forehead Sunday post.  Oh, don’t shake your finger or your head at me (or your booty, for that matter)!  I haven’t had that much, just a glass or two to end my weekend on a relaxing note.  Earlier I relaxed by watching the rest of the vampire movie I started watching Friday night, Dracula  A.D. 1972. I dug that groovy soundtrack.

He looks a little worried, and somebody needs to hand him a napkin.

Christopher Lee was the Dracula in the movie, as I probably mentioned in my Lame Post Friday post.  He is a fine vampire, but not as dapper as Bela Lugosi.  Never mind, though, I did not mean to make another vampire post.

But if I did, I would include this little cutie.

I had meant to make a blog post about purchasing my mother’s birthday present, which I did on Saturday.  I still intend to make that post, a shout-out to Weisser’s Jewelers, a local business of note.

“Are you sure you don’t want to make a post about vampires?”

That being said, I do not have a whole lot to blog about, nor a whole lot of brain to blog with.  I just now added today’s headline.  I hope no vampires read it and are triggered by the word “post.”  When you think about it (and I always think about these things), a post is practically the same thing as a stake.  Some even have a pointy end, and many of them are wooden.

See what I mean? Dapper.

I close with the quintessential Count Dracula, Bela Lugosi.  Some may disagree, but I say in general you can’t go wrong with a classic.

In the meantime, I am approaching 300 words.  I hope they have been at least mildly entertaining.  I rather enjoy these foolish posts, but I will try for better ones in the future.  No promises about tomorrow, though.  Monstrous Monday, you know.