Rambling on Literary Pursuits

Okay, it's time to get my rear in gear and write something. One thing I've learned in my experience with internet writing, you don't make much money if you don't produce. And in that frame of mind, here goes.

Why can't someone read a newspaper and leave it in some semblance of the order it was when it arrived? The hubby is the worst about folding here and there, and by the time I read it, it's difficult to just turn the pages. Then he sits in "his" spot on the couch and works the crossword puzzle and asks me questions that he knows I can't answer.

Speaking of crossword puzzles, when did phrases become the norm in a puzzle? Back in the day when I enjoyed a good crossword puzzle, if there were ten blanks in a spot, the answer was going to be a ten-letter word. Now, it's liable to be a three-word phrase. I tell the hubby the reason I have trouble with the puzzle is because I can't think simple enough as they now create them for a lower form of intelligence.

My electricity went off today. I once had someone ask me if I would rather be without power during hot weather or cold weather. I replied that I would rather not be without power during any type of weather but if I had to choose, it would be cold weather. After putting on all the clothes and blankets I can find, if I still can't get warm, I'm not above burning the lawn furniture in a nice bonfire. How weather, you don't do anything but sweat.

Actually, I'm very fortunate in that my power seldom goes off, and if it does, it's usually fixed quickly. We did have one outage a few weeks ago and that was the pits because it was after dark. You don't realize how much you depend on TV, lights and air conditioning until they disappear. I tried going to bed early, but since I've become a bit of a night owl, I soon found that pointless. I decided I would see if I could figure out a way to read because once upon a time I read a great deal.

I soon learned that candles weren't the answer because not only was there little light, the heat kept flashing me in the face. I tried the flashlight, but it only showed small sections of the page, so I had to keep moving it. I knew somewhere in that dark office there was one of those small book lights, so I rummaged around with the flashlight until I found it. Of course, the batteries were dead, so I had to rumble through another dark room to find extra batteries.

I finally loaded the sucker up and light shone in the dark, so I thought, hey, this might work after all. I pointed it toward my book and plopped down in a chair to read. You guessed it, I was almost through the first page when the electricity came back on. It aggravated me so much that I didn't even flip on the light, but instead just sat there in the dark reading by my little book light.

After a while I relented and decided to watch TV anyway. I did learn one important fact, though. I could understand why poor Mary Ingalls went blind on "Little House on the Prairie" because if I had to read by the light of an oil lamp, I'd be blind, too.