Keeping a tiny notebook and pen nearby at all times (at least around the house) is a new habit. A good one, as it’s making it easy to capture all the various things I want to blog about, a not so good thing in that I’m easily jotting down one to five topics a day. Memories. Ideas. Observations. Frustrations. You name it. My mind has always been ablaze with ideas and they’re trying to find life outside the confines of this flesh and blood prison.

The challenge, as you’ve probably guessed, is making the time to put them into words consumable by you, dear reader. Would have been easier when I was younger, had all the time in the world to write, and my body didn’t mind sitting at a desk for hours at a time. Now–not so much. But that’s a poor excuse. I only need to devote fifteen to thirty mintues a day. On weekdays it could be a solid break during work (especially given I don’t tend to take lunch and likewise am no longer taking smoke breaks). On weekends it could be a connecting point between my reading, which I try to spend a few hours engaged in on Saturday and/or Sunday, and doing others things like going out on errands, working on the house, cleaning, etc. Plenty of opporunities. But oh, it’s so easy to turn the tele and get engrossed in another episode of Nova or a documentary about Michael J. Fox.

Now, as I’ve noted, I’m not being particularly careful about spelling and grammar–this is especially true of the former if and when I’m writing on my linux machine in a basic text editor, as I am now. But I’ve realized it’s not just that. I want to let loose, to just let my hair down, so to speak, and practice writing off the cuff instead of editing the hell out of each and every entry. Sure, that’ll be a thing too, but one of my toxic traits (to my own mental and emotional well being, at least) is that I lean towards perfectionism in my vocational and avocational pursuits. Fuck, I’m still editing short stories I wrote over two decades ago because I want to self publish them in e-book form. They’re not perfect, but there’s a point where I have to stop and present what I have to the world. I digress. What I am getting at is that I need to practice writing for the sake of writing, getting my thoughts and ideas out there, but not spending too much time judging every word and phrase. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll still have my entries written in some form in my mind. As a visual-spacial-conceptual thinker that’s just how my brain works. My best writing usually happens when I have the beginning, middle, and ending, and all the intermediate pieces, flowing in a cohesive picture in my brain. Once I do that it’s just a matter of sitting down and putting pen to paper (or finger tips to keyboard). So the trick is getting back into the habit of doing that while at the same time allowing myself the slack not to be a goddamn perfectionist. There’s no time for that anymore. Too much to do. Too much to share. Only one life to do it in.

On an unrelated note, I visted the grave site of the woman who Nellie Olson, of Little House on the Prarie fame, was based on. She was really named Nellie Owens and she was buried in Forest Grove, Oregon. While the character portrayed on the television program of the 70’s and 80’s is loved (and reviled) world wide, she was based on only a handful of lines from one of Laura Ingles books. I decided to find her final resting place after doing some record and antique shopping with my wife since it was on the way home anyway. Great day. Perfect weather. We visited Music Millenium in downtown Portland, our first time, and now my fav music store, a pile of new vinyls to listen to while I work, then headed to McMinneville to check out an antique store where I finally found a crystal decanter I fell in love with (soon to be filled with liquid of a Scottish variety). We ate at a really amazing Spanish restaurant. Tapas: something I’ve never had before. Best restaurant I’ve been in since COVID hit (which also says a lot since most places have, in my humble opinion, gotten shittier in nearly every respect–but more on that another time too!).

Okay, you’re right, I need to post a rant sometime this week and it should be about restaurant quality since COVID hit. Topics will include but not be limited to:

• Smaller portions
• Lower quality ingredients
• Worse service
• Eating off of plastic or metal trays like at a picnic or BBQ instead of real plates and glass, etc.

You feel me, right?

So ranting for another day, maybe tomorrow after I get my reading and hopefully some lawn maintenance done.

Cheers and goodnight.

…asm…