NO END IN SIGHT

9-12-16
I am creating a more author-friendly blog on another website Wordpress.com. You can expect a redirect to be placed here within 2 weeks.

To read the story, in 5 parts, start with the earliest post and go backward by date.


I wrote a short story, a lousy one, in fact, in college, and the professor told the class,  "An author owes a certain responsibility to her readers. If people give up their time to read an author's work, the author is indebted to give her readers a clear understanding of the plot and the characters, especially at the end."  My disgruntled readers argued over the ending until I broke it up giving my lame explanation of the denouement. My fellow students sat around our conference table eyeing me with disgust casting a shadow over my end of the table.  I really screwed up.

Of course, I keep thinking about this blog, I screwed up again, didn't I?  See, I started this blog here, paused in the middle of the story - for two years, mind you - before I returned to finish it. 

I had some vision problems that got in the way.  Diplopia, exotropia, my eye disorders sound more like fancy foreign cars.  If only.  Then, besides astigmatism, I have a couple more issues that do not have any name at all, and that only makes them harder to explain.  They are best demonstrated by my tripping, walking into walls, and getting lost in a McDonald's. 

Some other issues, too, coupled with my age, were becoming unmanageable. I gave up a number of things I thought were important including driving, making out a grocery list, and typing. But here I am, with even more problems than before, and I am busting the keyboard, this time for the better.  

A few weeks ago, in a moment of serendipity, I found myself talking with someone I had not seen in over 25 years.  After a few days, I felt compelled to write him a letter.  He was someone had looked up to for several years until we lost touch.  I was disappointed, so much was left unsaid in our brief conversation, but I was unable to write a note, much less a letter.  

Maybe, I wondered, I could buy some new computer tech equipment and try some apps for the vision impaired.    I could, and I did.  I struggled with all this newfangled stuff for 2 weeks, writing a very long letter to my friend.  After I sent the letter, I did not stop typing.  I just kept rambling on with no end in sight.  I am back to write as long as I am able.  

Even after all my efforts, I still felt I had a debt I owed my readers, and that is why the whole story "Braised Carp ~ Add Salt to Taste" was posted to this blog within days.  This typing process is so slow, timeliness may be an issue for me and my readers.  I have to reconsider everything I have done here.  Until next time, friends.

Links I Like

Funny How Time Slips Away

Joe Hinton's, 1964 hit single, "Funny How Time Slips Away."   Joe had the most incredible voice, hitting notes so high I would need a ladder to get there. 

Time in a Bottle
Jim Croce's 1973 hit single from the album of the same name.  Jim died in the same year, 1973.  The video is very touching.

A Long, Long Time    
Billy Joel in 1972, do you recognize him?  This is my favorite portrait of Billy, pre-Christie, for sure.  He and his band are playing a cut from his first ever solo album, "Cold Sag Harbor."   Seen here, the piano man wears a motorcycle jacket.  He always rode motorcycles and now owns a motorcycle shop in NYC. Later he switched to a dark suit jacket.  In one shot is a clear view of his cute little pudgy hands. He was playing the piano with spunk, certainly not those fingers. This was surely before he had his teeth fixed, too.  I love these little slices from the early life of someone I think I know so well.  Seeing him before he polished his performing persona, I like Billy more.  He seems more like me and less like that other Billy, polished and clean.