Notes – Mental and Otherwise
Believe or not, kiddies, when this post publishes, it will be my 1,350th post. I say when because in spite of the fact that I am sitting down with only the vaguest notion of a topic in mind, I’ll find 400-600 words that I can string together into some semblance of a post. I find that as I get older, I’m less talkative but more writative. I wonder why. Perhaps it’s because it’s easier to imagine someone out there in the blogosphere actually enjoying what I write than watching someone sneak glances at their watch when I say the very same thing in person. Six hundred words makes a long soliloquy. Nope. Having enough words is never a problem. Ideas for topic? Well, that’s another story.
Whether I was talking about creative writing or developing new products, I’ve often told people that Ideas are a dime a dozen, that the difference between success and daydreaming is executing those ideas. Well, I may have to retreat on that stance a bit, at least when it comes to writing, because after posting over 800,000 words, I frequently come to the keyboard empty. Oh, I have lots of ideas during the day. I’m walking through Target and a forty something Mom goes by in a full Hello Kitty, while her eight year old daughter is dressed as if she’s ready for the street corner. Some bozo lets loose his rat
dog in the park to chase a gaggle of goslings. And I make a mental note – that would make a good post, especially for Top Sites Tuesday when I let my Inner Curmudgeon run wild with Two Thoughts on Tuesday. Then, the time comes to post and … nada. Which leads me to Thought Number One, a saying I invented that pretty much describes how things have been since reaching sixty-five: I made a mental note then lost it.
My wife, Muri, is a Master of the Yellow Sticky Note. On any given day, there are three or four distributed around the house in strategic places. Since at least 75% of the notes are things for me to do, I always assumed they were for
me. You know those notes bug me, I’d say. Why don’t you just tell me what you want? According to Muri, they are to remind her to tell me what she wants. Why then, are they on my half of the vanity? But as I’ve lost my own mental notes more frequently, I have to confess, I’ve resorted to notes of my own. Not yellow stickies. Never. But I began to write short reminders in the margins of my morning journal, or if I was out and about, I’d stop and enter an idea in a memo app on my smartphone. Something like hello kitty Moms or rat dogs and geese. Then, when I sat down at my keyboard … empty … I’d shuffle through my journal and search through my smartphone for the gems I’d stored away for later. And for years 65 through 68 of this old curmudgeon’s life, it worked just fine. Lately, though, there’s a new problem. I go back to my notes and find, say, a little more, a little less. And instead of being inspired, I say, What the hell? I see one of those guys written in a margin and say, One of what guys? I’ve reached a new level of forgetfulness requiring a new motto, Thought Number Two: I made a written note then lost my mind. Shit.
What do I do? I sit down and ramble about it and before I can forget what I was writing about, there are 600 words on the page. Isn’t getting old great? So, if you enjoyed this senior ramble, please click my button … gently … to make me Number One on Top Sites Tuesday #228. And if you didn’t, don’t worry. By tomorrow, I’ll forget all about it.
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Tags: blogging, curmudgeonly rants, humor, marriage, memes, postaday, senior moments, Top Sites Tuesday
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Older Eyes 
November 5, 2013 at 10:30 am
I thoroughly enjoyed your senior ramble. Very funny and so relatable. I, too, make little notes on my smartphone as possible ideas for future posts but every once in awhile, the note makes no sense to me.
I can’t even imagine having more than 1300 posts. In the next week or so, I will have 400 and I am already thinking I have nothing interesting or fun left to say. Come to think of it…maybe I never did.
Interesting comment that you are less talkative and more writeative.as you age. Now this is just my thought but writing for most of us is harder than talking, as it deals with a one way narrative. Talking is easy in the sense that you are constantly fed prompts for your next line. In writing your are out there on your own for each and every line. No prompts, no alternate points of view,….no counter points to your point. I would say that your writing has become so skillful that it doesn’t feel difficult when in fact good writing is hard.
November 5, 2013 at 10:47 pm
You are entirely too modest about your blog. I particularly enjoy your takes on the peculiar news of the week on Friday. And my alter ego, Older Eyes, is getting quite fond of yours, Crabby Pants 🙂 Regarding writative (which I thought was a made up word until another commenter pointed out it was really a word), I think it just comes from twenty years of regular stream-of-consciousness writing in my journal. I can write almost as I’d talk, without considering every word. Thank you for the compliment, by the way.
November 5, 2013 at 12:28 pm
Good post . I love the line “I’m less talkative but more writative.”… I thought you made the word writative up until I looked it up in the dictionary!
November 5, 2013 at 2:16 pm
That’s funny. I thought I did make it up and was feeling pretty clever. Oh, well.
November 5, 2013 at 6:08 pm
Congratulations on 1350 posts! And don’t feel bad about your forgetfulness. I’m in my later forties and have the same problem. I carry a small notebook in my purse and either neglect to use it or lose the excitement over whatever it was I bothered to write down. I put reminders on my smart phone and dismiss the alert, only to forget completely what it was I was supposed to remember.
November 5, 2013 at 10:50 pm
Funny that here you are congratulating me on 1,350 posts when only four years ago, I was asking you how you post so much and so well back in your Terri,Terri days. Must have been good advice you gave me !
November 5, 2013 at 7:44 pm
Ramble On!
Isn’t that how the song goes? LOL Anyway after 1350 posts, you are entitled to ramble quite a bit, I think 🙂
I tried the yellow sticky notes, they just aren’t big enough most times. I switched to yellow legal pads.
Clicks!
-Trina
November 5, 2013 at 10:52 pm
Indeed, you don’t get that many posts without some serious rambling. And as the song says, “I was born a rambling man.”
November 5, 2013 at 7:48 pm
Hi Bud,
1350 posts, Congratulations!
Trina makes lists, not notes. I think notes would be less overwhelming. I make notes on my iPad about work, I like the idea of taking not of a topic to write about!
Clicks for you!
Wolf
November 5, 2013 at 10:53 pm
It’s fun starting out with very little and seeing where it goes, although sometimes, it goes nowhere.
November 7, 2013 at 6:21 pm
I don’t know if this is good for you or bad for me, but I have the same problems and I’m (not going to say how many) years younger than you!