I was talking to my daughter yesterday and she said, "You haven't updated your blog recently." I had a flashback to high school with mom saying, "I haven't seen much homework getting done lately."
I didn't have an excuse in High School and for the blog, still no excuse.
What I said to my daughter was, " I don't know, just not feeling it." And that part is true.
Am I running out of things to say?
I know one thing that has had an impact on my blogging is my company's new policy about sharing anything company related on line. No pictures of the boats allowed. No pictures of fellow workers allowed. No information is to be shared on social media about where the boat is or where it is going, even though there are various websites on line that track ALL vessel movements in the world. Type in the name of the boat, and, there you have it.
I believe I shared this news in a post on here a while back, but I've been so inactive as a blogger that I don't even remember what I said if I did. Anyway, since 1/2 of my life is spent on a boat, that's 50% of possible blog posts that I AM NOT ALLOWED to write about. I turned 60 recently, and I'm really getting tired of "not being allowed" to do stuff. Actually when I was 59 I felt the same way.
I also think that Facebook plays some small part in my blogger inactivity. I can't really explain why. Just a hunch. But I think there is a trend. As I got more active on updating my FB status with very important must read information like, "Chris Christy for President....REALLY," the more inactive I got posting on my blog.
So anyway, today I was standing on the back deck of our boat today and I spent a half hour watching this little guy piddle around.
What was strange was he didn't seem too excited that I was nearby. Unlike my feathered friends who visit my feeders in the back yard at home, I could get really close to this guy, say about 3 or 4 feet away, and he would just sort of hop away a little. At home all I have to do is start to open the door to the deck to have all the birds scatter in a panicked frenzy, as if I were attacking them with a semi-automatic.
This guys movements aren't panicked. It's more like he's stepping aside to let me by. The only thing missing would be him saying, "Oh, excuse me."
The other strange thing is, he seems to be eating anything small enough that fits in his beak. And let me be clear, there isn't one edible thing on the stern of this boat.
So I wondered, is he actually eating the rust and the dirt he is picking up or does he pick it up and quickly drop it, like I do when eating brussels sprouts.
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me that this is normal behavior for this particular bird who hangs out on boats near Port Arthur Texas?
I'm also wondering if anyone is reading this?
So that's it for todays excitement. Now, to figure out what to do with this blog. Can't post much about the boat, and even I'm tired of me complaining about this and that in the news, so I know you're sick of it. So, what does that leave? A food blog? A blog of nothing but good news? A travel blog?
Food and travel and good news, ....Oh my.
My friend Karen over at This Old House and once brainstormed about doing a blog with only good news. The bitching and complaining would have to be done elsewhere we concluded. We would have guest bloggers who were like minded. Anyway, just thinking out loud.
We'll see what happens.
Hope you have a great Memorial Day Weekend.
8 comments:
I've sort of become a non-blogging blogger myself. I'm not sure why. I suppose I don't have anything to say that I feel anyone would be interested in hearing. *shrugs* Carry on.
Mark,
I too used to Blog, mostly about how things looked to me - my point of view. But then my activities became so curtailed due to having MS. Then I had to give up my home, everything I had worked all my life for, just so that I could be covered by Medicaid. (I dunno, I suppose the government program wants to treat everyone equally. Doesn't matter that I've worked all my life, or that house was paid for, or that I had finished a Doctorate degree. No, friends that part of your life doesn't matter) What matters now is that I live in nursing care and they know what's best for me - just ask 'em.
The outside doors are locked, when I can get out, my wheelchair cannot convey my past the front entrance (this facility is built on a hillside, the gradient is greater than my arm power will provide to go up or down), there is no garden, outside is mostly a bad joke, indoors the activities are mostly Bingo. I can hardly get the staff to listen to me. Whatever I say, they already know better. I am being cared for to death by inadvertent ignorance.
But they're doing okay because they pass State inspections. The State also certifies drivers too, and look how many poor drivers we run into. That's just Bad logic!
When you announced that your employer came up with that new rule, I thought "This will be a challenge". It also shows that your employer is afraid - over industrial espionage, potential law suits or some other issue that makes them react so strongly.
I've never been on a boat much bigger than the Sunfish my family had when I was growing up. I have always enjoyed reading your posts, and learning what life can be on a tug boat in the merchant marine. Reading that you are precluded from writing or picturing anything to do with your employment is yet one more withdrawal of interesting things that have added color to my life.
I miss reading of your work world, it enriched so much of mine. Now as a result I can add this loss to the many others that I have had to sustain as a result of this form of being cared for. I may be out of the elements, have poor food prepared for me and have 24 hr help, but there is so much more that has not been considered. They have deleted all of the little things that really matter.
Somewhere the is a marine engineer who used to share his work life on a tug boat with all of us.
John
Oh mark! I love your blog! And John sorry that sound like hell! John you should blog!
Thank you
Shaon521
Sharon,
I used to blog, but the minimal feedback that I got was just not quite enough for me. It feels so isolated here, more like being warehoused than anything else. I write in order to ventilate, many of the old methods of dealing with frustration are no longer available to me. (Taking a long walk in the woods, splitting wood for my wood stove, working in the garden, these days its all mental) I now mostly put my experiences on my Facebook account https://www.facebook.com/john.whiting.712
I try not to be too negative. But I do write of my experiences, and those just happen to be mostly negative. The tone of voice that I write from is ironic humor, which is easily construed as just plain negative. Still it helps me to give my woes voice on a somewhat regular basis.
If I write often enough I can write of memories of the many things i used to do, which still seem much more attractive to me. Not every day around here is so terrible, but at times they seem to stack up, one against the next on a daily basis.
I have found that most people have no idea of the limitations that are experienced in nursing care. Many friends tell me their mother was in a place similar to this, but she only lived there for a few months before dying. I've been in theis kind of care for 5 years now, other than MS I am fairly healthy, robust even. There are times when I'm not so sure that is such a good thing.I hope I don't turn wretched and sour before i become one of the elderly demented ( a large segment of the population here).
Perhaps I may compile my missives and publish a book, who knows?
Thanks for your comments.
you crack me up and what? you don't like brussel sprouts? oh sheesh, i make some mean and by mean i mean incredibly yummy brussel sprouts…..i bet you'd eat them :)
roasting…that's the answer!!!
and don't get me started about the non-blogging going on overall…and everywhere….by everyone...personally it ticks me off. i miss the good old days before FB took over.
but i digress.
our birds are like your birds…a tiny movement and they're gone…except the grackles like to give us a run for our money…stupid bird. next up, safflower seeds since i just read they hate that feed.
and now, papa murphy's spicy fennel sausage pizza for dinner and i'm drinking malibu with pineapple juice :)
Non blogging? Guilty! I believe I have things to say but no time to say them anymore. 3 teens took care of THAT! Perhaps in another chapter of my life...I DO miss your chitchat though!
I've been a non-blogger lately too - like you, just not feeling it. But I have to tell you I miss your wit, and I do appreciate when you give us something to chuckle over.
Now that I'm an editor again, I have less time to focus on things that are recreational writing, but the Good News Review would be awesome in your hands - just sayin!
That does not look like a shore bird.. maybe even looks like a road runner of some sort? Odd. Let us know if you figure out what it is exactly.
Hope your Memorial weekend was a good one. I think we all think about quitting blogging at one time or the other. And brussel sprouts, I can skip them too. I keep reminding myself to only post the positive and most of the time I succeed. Then there are just some glimmers of frustration that come across sometimes, after all it is hard to hold it all inside.
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