My computer broke and I stopped writing this blog.
It took almost a week to fix my machine. Maybe that was because I did it myself, but I had to do it myself because I thought it was too important to leave to a technician.
Maybe it was because my job has morphed into a daily descent to hell and I am still on fire by the time I get home each night.
I wrote one post from a different location, but it was lame. You can see for yourself. It didn’t feel right, and I saw myself behind the curtain, trying to seem clever and important, which I don’t feel any more.
I found myself cringing at the daily news. Could these outrages really be happening? I stopped listening.
I stopped reading my favorite blogs, because I couldn’t concentrate on them. Or maybe I just thought I wouldn’t be able to think of clever enough comments, that would make me seem mysterious and witty and prescient, or something. I watched the number of unread posts climb. After a little more than a week, there are hundreds. I’m hopelessly behind, and I feel bad about it. I’ve made friends, and now I am leaving them.
I feel gray. The anniversary of Hurricane Katrina reminds me that we have lost a city, while Nero fiddled. New Orleans, that magical city, hasn’t recovered, and neither have I. The venality and corruption of the people I work with and the politicians who “lead” us are so close to the surface these days that I expect the pustules to burst any minute. My pathetic political rants are juvenile, boring and useless. We don’t live under a right-wing dicatorship, but the similarities are scary, and I am helpless to persuade.
I’m planning to have fifty or so real-life people over for a Labor Day barbecue and jam session (Email me if you want to come. My email address is on the “About Jones” page. It’s this Sunday - sorry for the short notice.). I’m cleaning up the back yard, planning food, stringing lights in trees, fixing some plumbing, building a bandstand, inviting folks, circling the wagons.
I’m playing guitar again, and this time I don’t ever want to stop. My chops are coming back. My left-hand fingertips have grown hard callouses. This may seem creepy to you, but it is the guitarist’s badge, proof that you really play, armor against wimping out in pain after only an hour or so. When the last song is played, sometime after midnight, it’ll be played by me.
Real life. Real fun. People I can’t fool. No talk of Jonbenet or IED’s manufactured in Iran to exacting specifications.
I’ll write when I can.
August 28th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Hey! Wish I could come to the big party!! Too bad I’m all the way in the Windy City
Important, witty, prescient? You seem to be all those things! Sometimes it helps me write when I don’t try so hard to come off as anything, but rather just to write what I feel/believe/think. Ya know?
August 29th, 2006 at 8:49 am
I don’t know. i figured it was something. If it takes a party to spur you or make you feel good, why not?
August 29th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Have a great Labor Day party, Larry!
August 29th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Please cheer up, Larry. I always think you come across witty. I was just saying to my husband the other night…
You know who’s really witty?
Who?
Larry.
Yeah, that Larry. He’s pretty witty.
See?
Here are some jokes to make you laugh. Of course, I can’t be considered a *real person* like the *real life people* who will be having *real fun* at your *real party*, but, what the heck…
Q. What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
A. Frostbite.
***
Q. How do crazy people go through the forest?
A. They take the psycho path.
***
Q. What do prisoners use to call each other?
A. Cell phones.
***
Of course, my jokes are nowhere near as funny as yours, Larry — but, I’m trying. Oh, yes. I’m trying.
I won’t give up!
:)
August 29th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Hey man, you’re the best. You’re the top/you’re a turkey dinner…
Have a great party. That’s what the world needs: more love, more community, more music. You’re right on, I say.
August 29th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
PS Great jokes, Blue Girl!
August 29th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
Thanks kStyle.
Where’s Larry? He hasn’t even checked in.
Must be out building that bandstand…
August 29th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
Thank you my friends. The bandstand is built and I do feel the love.
August 30th, 2006 at 5:34 am
You throw a great party, Larry. Wish I could be there.
Have a great time.
August 31st, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Larry! I wanna come to your party! I can’t, of course, because I’ll be sitting in my underwear, copyediting (though I’m hoping for a little fun before the weekend’s over), but I am so glad you’re throwing a party!! It’ll be fun, and it’ll make you feel better, and, hey, it’s the right thing to do.
September 4th, 2006 at 6:16 am
Well? How was the party??
September 4th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
The party was a huge success. Noise, food, alcohol and noise. Just the thing to lift my heart. I am Don Lorenzo de Long Beach. I went to bed at 3 AM. There will be some days of cleanup and recuperation, and then there will be pictures.
September 8th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
I know you feel your writing’s juvenile, boring and useless, but what about ME. Whos going to entertain ME? Have you no sense of civic responsibility? If I’m not entertained, I may go berserk! You’ve leaving it to a mere handful of Bloggers to keep me going? What’s the matter? Did one of your partiers spill beer in the computer? Things happen, I guess…