on writing

crazy, crazy thoughts this a.m. Thinking about Hemingway and other great writers and it dawned on me that they could not blog. Who did they get to read their daily dribble. No one. They wrote and wrote and wrote and hoped they could get someone to publish anything. Did they get depressed? Maybe, maybe not. But the point is, they continued to write without a pat on the back. I think the writers that really are good paid their dues. Years of writing without pay or that pat on the back. They had courage and conviction.

Why do I bring this up? How does this relate to writers in the world of blogging?   Maybe it doesn't to others, but for me blogging takes to much time and interferes with my story writing. Maybe I use the blogging as a procrastination tool. It is difficult to keep a story line moving. It is easy to write a short snippet in response to a prompt, post it and then pay my dues by commenting on other blogger's snippets, hoping they will drop in and say a few words.

Is my writing any good? Hard for me to judge. I have never been published but I haven't submitted that many stories. I certainly haven't paid any dues. However, I do enjoy blogging and it does give me writing practice. Maybe we bloggers are lucky because we can write and have someone read us.

I do think I need to find someplace to submit short stories for a critique. We bloggers are to nice. Every one pats the other on the back. No criticism of any kind. Maybe we could figure out a way to send each other money.

I wonder if Hemingway could have blogged, would he have become the great writer he turned out to be?

handicapped parking

One of my pet peeves is the abuse of "handicapped parking". It galls me when I see someone using the space and they obviously are not handicapped in any way unless you count "mentally handicapped". But the worst of the abusers are the people who some how get the "handicapped" card or sticker and in no way need it. They use their "parent's" card or car and take advantage of the system. I have often thought of various ways to "teach a lesson" but since I am not a "handicapped parking" officer it is not my place to issue punishment. I just boil over silently when I see it happen. One time a friend of mine screamed at an abuser, "how do you qualify as handicapped, no brains?" The person just walked on without looking or responding. I wanted to flatten her tire but I didn't. Just recently I came across an interesting situation. What qualifies a person to be handicapped enough to get the parking pass? You would think that a heart transplant patient might qualify and to be sure, he or she does. However, if that person has recovered from the operation, does he or she still qualify? I have a friend that had a heart transplant. He has recovered nicely and in fact plays golf. We both played in a tournament in Palm Springs last summer and shared the same room. It was an interesting weekend. He had a ton of pills he had to take. He was well organized and took them exactly the same time each day. All of this information is really secondary and is just to show that he is handicapped but yet he can play golf. He does have the "handicapped parking" pass and used it where ever he went. I became confused. Who could deny a heart transplant patient "handicapped parking"? Why does anyone who can play 36 holes of golf in 3 days deserve a "handicapped parking" pass? You tell me. What do you think?

god and the body

Last week I wrote about faster horses. This week I thought I was going to discuss younger women and in a way I am. My original idea was to write about "men" and "younger women" but I spent a few days on the Colorado River with one of my children and her teenage daughter which of course is my granddaughter. She (the granddaughter) bought two friends with her, All three were 15, giggly and into boys big time. All three are very beautiful girls with awesome bodies. They spent the entire time in bikinis. Spending time with them caused me to ponder about religion,God and human development. My thoughts are very simple. Their bodies are fully developed and ready for business but their minds are obviously very immature and need a lot of developing before they are ready to go into business. I know this is the way of the world. We all went through it. Our bodies pushing us to find a mate and reproduce, our minds not knowing the first thing about how and when to mate. Today society makes it even more difficult for the young. Sex is everywhere. The shows on TV are just short of "R" rated. The results are lots and lots of premarital sex, children born to single mothers, a high rate of divorce, the list goes on and on and the resulting problems are horrific. On the other side of the coin we do not educated our children properly. We teach them basic language, math and science but we do not help their minds grow. We do not teach them how to cope and deal with their basic desires. We (the U.S.) are a nation of animals when it comes to reproduction. If it feels good, do it. Anytime, Any place, any person. I read in the paper last week that the Poet Laureate of the United States is only paid $35,000 dollars and someone said that is to much because no one reads poetry. Actually that person has a point, "no one reads poetry". I thought, how sad. Poetry is so beautiful and powerful but it takes some thinking and reasoning to get the full power of the writing. Another thing I have noticed is that very few people understand "Logic". They do not know how to think for them selves. They do not know how to look for the right information to make decisions with. Today's issue in the U.S. is health care. There is so much bad information coming from both sides of the issue that it is impossible for a honest decision to be made. Yet, people are screaming at each other. They do not have the slightest idea of how to have an intelligent debate. And then the big question slammed my mind. Why? If God designed us and we are made in his image why did he put reproduction on the front burner and mind development later, if at all? Why didn't he create a body that couldn't reproduce until the mind was smart enough to control the body? This is not a slam dunk question. In Southern California we have a large Hispanic population that reproduces very prolifically. Their customs lead to large families and the women have children early in the lives. The babies have few problems and are quite healthy. On the other hand, the white population is waiting longer to have children. Women are putting careers first and children later. They are using fertility drugs to aid them in getting pregnant. The result is more multiple births, more premature births and more problems with the babies. Maybe God knew what he was doing after all.

faster horse pucky

Old Grizz, my super 3D alter ego, or as those who know me say "the only part of me that can write" (that's a long way around the bush) says.....can you remember where I started?. Oh yea, Old Grizz says "the only Philosophy that is worth a dam is from the song by Tom T Hall where the skinny cowboy says the best things in life are "faster horses. younger women, stronger whiskey and more money". Whew, that's a mouth full. Well I happen to know that at least the horse part is a bunch of hooey. You may get the faster horses but you have to know how to bet em. (if you don't bet em what does it matter if they are fast or not?). So as the old saying goes, "if you got em (fast horses) bet em or something like that. So I did. An old track tout gave me 9 horses at Santa Anita and said if you want to make money "Parlay, young man, Parlay". Don't get excited. I didn't say, "party, party", I said , "parlay, parlay. So, knowing good advice when I hear it, I rushed right down to the corner phone booth and called a bookie I knew. Gimmy $200 on "old john in the first, parlay that to "old Mary" in the 2nd, old Henry in the third, old pud nuts in the 4th and old Ginny in the 5th and make it for every dam horse to win. You notice how I go for the "old" horses. Well, john won, Mary won. Henry won, pud nuts won and my heart was about to burst, but what burst instead was my ego, Ginny lost. Lesson learned? Not me! I went for the last four. Gimmy $200 on Big Dan in the 6th and (of course parlay, I had only parlayed once and parlay, parlay means twice), Big Bubba in the 7th, Big Horace in the 8th and finally Big Donald (playing my Trump horse) in the 9th and every every dam horse to win. Did you notice I changed to "Big" horses. OK, here we go again. Dan won, Bubba won and Horace won, but my "Trump" horse was a true "Beetle Bomb". The point of this whole story? Faster horses is not the answer to a better life. I had 7 winners and 2 seconds and lost $400 bucks. Next week I'll get into the younger women thing. That otta be a hooter.

what do you think

a beautiful day, sun shinning, gentle breeze cleansing the mid-day air college quad a buzz with the young girls a twittter boys agog two as if they are on a log one boy muses what do you think of the oriental girls the other his eyes big and round breathes a sigh of concern oh, I think they're wonderful so sweet and nice yes replied the oriental young man but don't you really think some are sour and some are nice good words to live by the round eye thought some people are worthy of your love and some are not