10 October 2006

Blockage

Outside our house there's a storm drain. Two or three times a year I have to remember to lift the little grate, and with a plastic bag up to my elbow, scoop out the evil-smelling black gunge that has settled there. It's just nature's debris - rotting leaves and twigs and suchlike. Lord knows why it stinks so much but once or twice I have managed to get this sludge on my hands only to find that the pong remains even when I've washed up thoroughly. Yeuurghh!
If only it was so easy to cure "writer's block" or "blogger's block" - lift a little lid on top of your head and scoop out the blockage, allowing the ideas and the words to flow freely again. Some blogs I have enjoyed reading have occasionally ground to a halt, including some of those listed in my Planet Blog. I'm wondering if Kara, author of "Hanging Hope on a Heads Up 1973 Penny" has been kidnapped by aliens as she hasn't blogged since early July. My fellow atheist Krip ("Aaargh! Stop the World I Want to Get Off!") and even Vlad the Gorilla, Madame Friday and Arthur Clueless have all suffered from blogger's block.
So I came to this keyboard tonight after the latest episode of "EastEnders" - come on Jake! - and I'm ready to tap away at the keyboard but there's nothing to say. It's like there's a big doo-doo in my head and it won't flush away. So I'm left rambling on about blockages.
June06
I had part of a letter printed in the Sheffield "Star" this evening. It was in response to Saturday's front page story about a ten year old boy who "found" a workman's tools in his school. The mother was incensed - not bothering to consider her son's thievery but instead blaming the contractor who had left his tool box in a cordoned off part of the school. Apparently she was so mad that as she drove her sweet little darling home, she threw a knife he'd "found" out of the window.
I can't understand why they edited out my description of this lad as an "Artful Dodger" or why they missed out the bit about the bad example his mother was setting by throwing things out of her car window - especially knives dammit!
Ah well... those last two paragraphs helped to unblock the pipes. Maybe October in the northern hemisphere is to blame for blogger's block. Summer's gone and ahead are dark nights, frosts, clothes on the radiators, the cat miaowing to come in rather than to go out. It could make you feel a little depressed if you let it.

13 comments:

  1. God, don't I know those blockages, both the unlcogging grids and drains (did you find worms wriggling amidst the slime?) and the blogging kind.

    Fully agree with you about the mother and child. Yet another example of people going out of their way to be offended.

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  2. Eastenders???? Get a life!!

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  3. Christ - I can NOT believe some people, and that mother and son are right up there in that unbelievable category.

    As for Eastenders, I saw it for the first time in ages the other week and Jake was the only one I knew - but I thought he left ages ago? Who are all those other people? It is all very confusing.

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  4. That child does look like the Artful Dodger. Maybe he's a child actor in disguise and the whole event was filmed.

    Alas, no.

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  5. P.S. I am not kissing my brother! Bleck!

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  6. Blogger's Block...we should offer prompts to one another from time to time. I used to belong to a writer's community where we regularly offered prompts to work from. It was quite fun to see how people would run with the tagline.

    Pesky, unresolvable odors...as our shower drain does this on ocassion (hard water, nearly inescapable soap films and...I shed really long hair a LOT), I've found an odd remedy for removing the foul odors from hands (don't forget, I also have strange foliage, a dog who likes to bring us odd "presents", and lots of rangy critters who ocassionally require a swift kick or gentle transplant into another area) : wash hands thoroughly with clothes detergent AND fabric softener, combined; wash hands again with Dawn dish soap; wash hands yet again with Dial soap; slather on the lotion. If that fails, I just rub my hands on lemons or oranges.

    That mother should be arrested for disposing of a lethal weapon in a dangerous manner...or something like that. Master Dodger should have his artful ass spanked.

    I used to watch Eastenders faithfully, at 1am each weeknight, when I worked late evening hours. It's been years since I've seen it, though. I wish it came on at a reasonable hour, here.

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  7. I don't get blogger blog YP, I just get cut off by the the power company fairly often

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  8. RESPONSES TO VISITORS & THANKS FOR DROPPING BY EVERYONE:-
    Mr Parrots > Ah yes those wiggly worms. Just like the fellows who make spaghetti worm orgies in my compost bin.
    Ms Jennyta > EastEnders is life dear! Poor Old Minty and damned Australians!
    JJ> Losing track of EastEnders is like losing track of life itself. Mind you sounds like you and Reidski are making your own soap opera these days...
    Alkelda > Sorry for mixing up Ulric and Bede but incest can be fun according to most citizens of West Virginia!
    Friday > Thanks for the odour elimination tips. Of course washing one's mitts in concentrated sulphuric acid would also do the trick I think!

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  9. YP, I'm going to send a spanking your way. Besides, it's not the citizens of WVa whom I think have as much fun as our European royals. Talk about kissing cousins (Victoria and Albert). Eeeeew.

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  10. Eastenders is NOT life, YP. Emmerdale and Coronation Street is life. (Alas poor Fred and all that)

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  11. it's alright for you jenny, I live in f***g Emmerdale

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  12. Arthur > Are you the village idiot?

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  13. yes, I just got promoted

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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