Tag Archives: Truman Capote

Some Semblance of a Post on Slacker Saturday

Posted on May 31, 2025 by mohawkvalleygirl

My blogging woes continue as I missed making my Lame Post Friday post yesterday.  It is early(ish) Saturday morning and I thought I could type some semblance of a post before trying to get on with my day (as Truman Capote famously said, “That’s not writing, that’s typing”).

Is this cool or what?

I thought I would use the pictures I added to my Media Library a few days ago.  I saw this lovely dragon fly towards the end of a walk and paused to take a picture.  I don’t really know from dragon flies; I guess there are different kinds.  Perhaps I should research the matter and report back.

Preview of Coming Attractions?

I have been interested to see these signs on some of the (sadly) empty buildings downtown.  BOA stands for Brownfield Opportunity Area.  The signs are put up by the Herkimer Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI), which has been awarded grant money and has big plans.  This is another subject I should research and report back on.

More Pub than Grub these days.

I have talked about this place before, The End Zone, one of the businesses keeping Main Street from being a ghost town.  There are others, but I have not taken pictures of them recently.  I think I will do that on a future walk, just to give a shout-out to those businesses (preview of coming attractions).  Unfortunately, today it is raining.

I see I am over 200 words and have no excuse for not getting on with my Saturday.  Well, I guess I still have to eat breakfast.  In any case, I thank you for tuning in and will try for a better blog post tomorrow.

 

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A Blog Post Was Made By Me

Posted on April 19, 2025 by mohawkvalleygirl

So I didn’t make my Lame Post Friday post on Friday.  Saturday morning has never been considered too late to do such a thing.  That is, I have never considered it so.  Passive voice is sort of slimy, isn’t it?  I hate it when politicians use it.  However, Mohawk Valley Girl tries to stay off politics (talking about yourself in the third person is quite acceptable, although some find it pretentious) (you know who you are) (and dammit, I used passive voice again!)

Where was I?  Sometimes I get all bogged down in parenthetical comments.  Regular readers may have noticed.  Anyways, I am going to make a silly blog post and then get on with my day.  We’ll call that first paragraph a little half-baked philosophy about grammar.  But just to continue the point:  passive voice is not inherently slimy.  In an English textbook, an example might read, “The ball was kicked by the child.”  I call that awkward but not slimy.  “The ball was kicked,” now, that’s a little slimy.  Who kicked the ball? I’m thinking the little turd that said the sentence that way, because the ball went somewhere to was not supposed to go.

I think they’re cool.

I wanted to throw in a picture just then, because I was afraid others might not find the preceding paragraph as interesting as I did.  Of course I do not have a picture of a ball in my Media Library, nor one of an English Grammar textbook.  Then I saw these typewriters and was reminded of the line by Truman Capote that I often quote, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”  I say, it is at least closer to writing than what I did last night (unless you count the letter to my sister I worked on while I waited for my fish fry at the Elks).

In any case I am over 300 words.  Perfectly respectable for a Lame Post Friday post, according to my rules by me.  Will I have any Mohawk Valley Adventures today?  Will I even manage a Saturday Running Commentary?  Or even manage to go running?  A little uncertainty adds interest to my day.

 

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Will Making a Blog Post Help?

Posted on January 28, 2025 by mohawkvalleygirl

I am just going to admit it:  my depression is reaching epic proportions, and I must try to do more to combat it.  I took a walk of a full mile yesterday.  Exercise is a potent and often under-used anti-depressant.  I try to walk every day and have been managing to take at least short walks.  One can find other things to help (one being me, as usual).  I have read that doing virtually anything can relieve depression, and I have found that sometimes that works.  Not always, but often.

Tuesday has been a problematic day for me this month.

This by means of introduction to another Tired Tuesday post.  Writing has often worked as an anti-depressant for me.  Yesterday I finished a letter to a friend and walked with it to the post office (part of my mile).  By the end of the walk, I was feeling not too bad.  Oh dear, as I type this I begin fear today’s post qualifies for Truman Capote’s snide remark, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”  Then again, I can’t worry about dead critics.

Random picture to make the post more interesting.

Once again I throw in a picture to pep up the post.  It is Vincent Price in House of Wax, rather a fun old horror movie.  I wonder if there is a stage version of it.  Or at least a play about a wax museum where the figures come alive and terrorize the other actors and the audience.  Perhaps I should write one.  That  would have to be more than mere typing.

In any case, I am over 250 words.  After missing two days (why do I feel the need to call attention to my failings?), I say OK.  I am off to do more to combat my depression!

 

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Maybe I Should Write About Monsters

Posted on November 26, 2024 by mohawkvalleygirl

Yes, it is a Monstrous Monday post, and I am mostly happy that I am making it on Monday.  I had thought to do a Running Commentary post, and narrated in my head during most of my run this morning.  Then I neglected to make the post until now, Monday evening.  Judge me if you want to be that way.

Poor guy. What if his nose itches?

The first monster picture I found in my Media Library was this shot of Frankenstein’s Monster.  I say “Frankenstein’s Monster” for purists who don’t like to shorten it to just “Frankenstein.”  But if Dr. Frankenstein was his father, wouldn’t the Monster’s name be Frankenstein too?  We could argue this for days, but I am no hand at argument.

Are you calling me a monster?

Thanks a lot, Franz, for the compliment!  In fact, I am writing, if you can count a Monstrous Monday blog post.  I suppose Truman Capote would say, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”  I did write some notes on a novel earlier, and did some reading on what might turn out to be a play.  Also I wrote a letter.  I like to write snail mail letters.

I’ve been called worse.

To conclude:  there are various kinds of monsters.  Some are created by mad scientists out of spare body parts.  Some we create ourselves by not fulfilling our destiny.  Ooh, didn’t that sound profound?  I should save such half-baked philosophy for Lame Post Friday.  Or is that more of a Monday Middle-aged Musing? Discuss amongst yourselves.

 

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A Late Post Concerning Coffee and Procrastination

Posted on October 7, 2024 by mohawkvalleygirl

I did not have a particularly Wrist to Forehead Sunday. I had a pretty good Sunday with a good rehearsal for Curtains for Frangelica.  To make my late Sunday post a little happier, I just figured out what I did to make my post look so odd as I type it.  I went from “Visual” to “Text.”  Let me try to add a picture to see if I really solved the problem.

My delightful cast.

The picture also denoted passage of time while I went and got more coffee.  I actually put on coffee last night instead of waiting till morning to do it, as I have regrettably been doing lately.  It is interesting how often one can say, “Oh, I’ll do it later,” then later be annoyed one did not do it at the time.  And yet one never learns.  One being me, of course.  I am sure any number of you have learned that lesson and are feeling rather smug right now (you know who you are). But I digress.

I had thought this blog might become All Curtains for Frangelica All the Time, with our performance set for this Saturday, Oct. 12, but apparently I am more into typing inanities about coffee and procrastination.

Still one writes what one can, even if one fears that, as Truman Capote once said, That’s not writing, that’s typing.  Once again, one being me.

 

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Tired But On Time!

Posted on June 26, 2024 by mohawkvalleygirl

At least it is the end of the day Tuesday.

I promised myself I could use this picture if I made my Tired Tuesday post on Tuesday.  Bribery often works with me.  Unfortunately, just because I log onto WordPress and start typing does not mean I have anything to say.  I know, when has that ever stopped me?

I typed that in (I once again quote Truman Capote: “That’s not writing that’s typing”) then could not think of another word to type.  Perhaps I should not have put both the play and dinner in the same blog post for Sunday.  Perhaps I should be having more Mohawk Valley adventures to write (type) about.

They were pretty.

I threw in a picture before I got any more bogged down in “shoulds.”   This is a shot of my Black-Eyed Susans from August 2018.  The patch has since overgrown with weeds and stuff.  Not a yellow bloom to be seen. I plan to cut the whole thing down and start over again.  Not today, of course, but possibly by the weekend.  Then I can have another Lawn Order post.

 

Where will the road lead me?

Another kind of post I have not made lately is a Running Commentary.  For one reason, I have not been running.  I hope to begin again soon.  In the meantime I have been walking every morning.  Perhaps a Pedestrian Post is in order.

For today, however, I am over 200 words.  It will have to do.  Full disclosure:  I have been fighting a vague headache most of the day, and I think it is winning.  However, it is the end of the day.  We shall see what tomorrow will bring.  I hope you will stay tuned.

 

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I Cut Myself a Little More Slack

Posted on June 9, 2024 by mohawkvalleygirl

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.

 

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Blame it on the Rain

Posted on March 7, 2024 by mohawkvalleygirl

Sporadic posting.  It’s a thing now, at least with me.  As a matter of fact, I would not be posting right now, except that it is raining, and I do not want to walk in the rain.  I have walked a mile (but not in somebody else’s shoes) Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week before breakfast (today being Thursday, despite what my WordPress timestamp may say).  I believe it has made a positive difference in my mental if not physical health, although I am sure it has not hurt me physically, either.  So my usual morning blogging time has at least been positively spent.

In the meantime, I allow precious time to escape when I would like to be writing. Whatever happened to me writing after work?  For that matter, whatever happened to me writing on breaks at work?  These days I obsessively work on pencil puzzles such as crosswords and cryptograms.  I struggle to finish a letter to a friend, and I totally owe my last two sisters in law letters

So here I am in the middle of a blog post about not making blog posts, and about not writing in general.  A fellow writer once pointed out that writing about not writing is still writing.  Truman Capote once pointed out, that’s not writing, that’s typing, not about me, of course, but I think it may apply here.  Then again, ten finger typing is fun (I am on my Chromebook, in case you were wondering).

Me, pondering my fate.

I threw in a picture to pep things up.  This is from a visit to the Arc Park in Herkimer, NY, with my sister Cheryl and her grandkids, Sheppy and Evie.  I wrote an article about it for Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  Evie made the cover.  I need to work on my article for next month.

The thing about writing, as with many things in life, is you just have to do it.  I observe this and have mentioned it about my MVL articles:  I can’t write the article, I can’t write the article, I can’t write the article, I sit down and I write the article.  I just have to figure out how to get to the last clause sooner.  Likewise with my blog posts.  Thank you for tuning in while I blather on for,wow, over 350 words.  Let’s hear it for the rain!

 

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I Hate Late

Posted on April 2, 2023 by mohawkvalleygirl

I read a quote from a writer, I forget who or even the whole quote, but it started, “One must be pitiless in the matter of mood…”

He is right, of course.  But it doesn’t really help me right now.  I am sitting here with my Tablet (the laptop-come-dining-room-tabletop is dying a slow painful death, as it gets slower and more painful to do anything on it), feeling it would be a good idea to make Saturday’s blog post even at this late hour.  Yet I also feel paralyzed by indecision and resistance.

I’m also a little hungry, although I did have some scrambled eggs earlier.

Lately I feel overwhelmed by all I need and want to do, with the vicious circle result that I do not do any of it.  Well, sometimes I do some of it.  For example, yesterday I worked on paying bills.  This is one chore my late husband Steve always did, and I was SO grateful that he did.  So naturally,  I am not only not very good at it, it is doubly painful, because it emphasizes once again that Steve is not here.

I guess this is another thing to be pitiless about.  I keep telling myself I have to learn to be alone.  So yesterday I sat down with the checkbook and a stack of bills and told myself, “Just pay one bill.”  This was me applying my method of Just Do One Thing.  I started by putting the bills in order of due date.  I hate to be late (blog posts notwithstanding).

Somewhere in the midst paying one bill online, one by phone, and writing a couple of checks, I felt a surge of… not quite happiness, but of not depression.  “I’m doing this,”  I thought.  Of course I have a lot more to do, but maybe I will be able to do it.

Hmmm… I guess the quote I referenced earlier did help me, because, look, I have blogged over 300 words.  I say “blogged” instead of “written” in deference to the Truman Capote line, “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”  Do you suppose if he were still around, he would sniff at my blog, “That’s not writing, that’s pecking in one letter at a time with the stylus”?

 

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Truman Capote Applies

Posted on September 3, 2021 by mohawkvalleygirl

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.

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