Meandering Monday

Monday.

Here's a strange thing for you all to consider: even Mondays don't seem quite as bad since I had my internal overhaul. Oh, I'm still no big fan of getting up early, leaving the family, and starting the weekly grind but this day seems to have lost its demonic conotations for me.

Great . . . now WTF am I supposed to blog about for the first day of the week???

Ah well, I'll figger something . . . lack of words has never been an issue for me (As The Wife will surely tell you!) It's one of the benefits of having a blog that isn't tightly focused on any one thing. Sure, I'm primarily dealing with my writing career (or lack of!) here but it's also about me, my life and my thoughts in general so I can just free form it. That keeps me from ever suffering "blog burnout". I try to chat with you folks who are brave (or foolish) enough to stop by here on a regular basis just as if we were sitting at a pub somewhere over a beer (ya' know - minus the slurred words, bad singing, and penis jokes!) I actually keep that mental image in my mind as I write this blog: me sitting and talking to a faceless someone (that would be you!) at a bar table. Oddly, there's always a nice fire burning in a large stone hearth just over your right shoulder and the place is done up in dark oak paneling. don't know why . . . just is! That image helps me feel comfortable throwing out personal observations. Like most males, I avoid discussing personal and emotional subjects unless I'm drinking with friends; hence the visualization. Sad, I know: but it works for me! :-)

The weekend was very busy. Did some running Saturday morning and put some new furniture together, then we were off to a family gathering that afternoon. It was my family this time around. I had fun: we don't get to see my family as much as we should so when we do get together I enjoy it. I had an oddly melancholy moment there though. I was talking to my oldest brother, John, and I noted how gray his hair was (what little bit he still has anyway!) and I realized that he's going to turn fifty this year. Christ! Fifty??? One of my chuckle-headed brothers is going to be fifty? Hardly seems possible. I remember Johnny being a skinny seventeen-year-old basketball god who used to take me to Dairy Queen in his Buick after my pop-warner football practices. I always sat in the back while his girlfiend-of-the-week sat next to him up front. A lot of the girls got annoyed at him having to pick me up and then stopping at the DQ with the little dink in the back. Johnny never minded though. He took me there and he bought me whatever I wanted. He was very cool that way. It's strange to think of him as being fifty. He's been married for twenty-five years, has five great kids, and hasn't been skinny in God-Only-Knows how long . . . but in my head he's always been that young kid who I looked up to. Strange, no?

I spent Sunday working on the yard (and it wasWAAAAAYYYY too hot here for that!) Between working inside the house and being on vacation, etc. , the yard was looking pretty bad. The Wife was afraid the neighbors might start calling us "The Clampetts" so I made a point of making us look presentable. The landscaping still needs to be trimmed and the sidewalks edged, but at least the rest of the place looks decent now. At the end of the day we were all whooped and ready for an early bed but then TCM put on "The Godfather" UNCUT last night. I made the mistake of putting it on and all of us were up late watching. The boy and I bailed after it was over but they were also showing Part II right after that and The Wife stayed up to watch ". . . just the beginning!" of it . . . I have no idea what time she went to sleep last night!

No writing over the weekend but I'm pretty sure I'll get some done today. I have that "writerly" feeling working inside me today! :-) Stop back in tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes!

Later!