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Sometimes, despite one’s best effort, things don’t go as planned; well-intentioned lists of things to do end up like forgotten-to-tie shoelaces that can trip us unexpectedly.

Try as I may, I have to admit that my blogging habit runs in spurts, or more aptly, sprints. I write voraciously for a week or two, then like a distance runner who mysteriously hits the wall, I sit down on a curb to rest, only to come to my senses a week later and realize I forgot to get up and continue the race.

Continue reading “Tripping on Shoelaces” »

Picture the scene: nefarious men in determined chaos intent on inflicting damage and unspeakable horrors on the citizens of some nondescript country village. Just as they’re about to have their way with the women, run off with the goods, and kick a few dogs in the process, from the safety of the darkness gallops the masked rider to save the day. While the vermin flee, vowing to revenge their humiliation another day, our unselfish hero who’s modest to a fault, says nothing, tips his hat and disappears into the dark while villagers murmur among themselves, “who was that masked man”?

Continue reading “Masked Writers” »

“The road to hell is paved with works in progress.” – Philip Roth

Borrowing from the title of that 1969 movie, “If this is Tuesday this must be Belgium” I feel the equivalent this morning: “If this is Monday it must be blogging time.” Even though I’ve settled into a five-day blogging routine, each Monday morning I have to summon my internal Marine drill sergeant to get my mental troops marching. I just don’t jump up, raring to go at the start of the week, even though it’s gorgeous weather here, cool but a refreshing break from the early heat we’ve had for the last week. I take personal responsibility for bringing on this minor cold snap, since I performed the semi-annual changing-of-the-vents this weekend. Each year after I switch the vents for the home climate system we get a cold or hot spell, guaranteed. Doesn’t sound significant, except that if the upstairs vents are open and we have to run heat, wallpaper peels off the walls from the simulated Arabian desert created by our over-sized heat exchanger. Toasty, but not inhabitable.

Continue reading “Good Intentions” »