March 20, 2024Potholes ...

On the highway of life, I have hit a pothole.

Not a grab-your-coffee-and-grandma-in-the-front-seat kind of pothole. It’s a pop-your-tires-and-bend-the-axle-while-swallowing-the-whole-front-end-of-your-car kind of pothole. Not funny.

Most pony-riding creatives feel a bit out of place in the world and I’m no different. All that raw emotion and creativity flowing through our veins needs an outlet. The need to express/release all that energy is what keeps creatives painting, writing, sculpting, etc.

Most creatives like to talk about their creativity, too. But conversations with normal folks usually center around practical stuff like politics or baseball or the cost of living or the new restaurant they tried last night. Creatives talk about that stuff, too, but they also like to go off on tangents where they get philosophical and daydream and discuss ideas and lots of touchy-feely stuff. Most people we talk to are interested for a while, but it’s not practical at all, and after a while it all seems a little pointless …

So when I got my website 5-6 years ago I was in hog heaven. Now I could “talk” all the time about anything I wanted! I could play and experiment and ponder out loud …. all on my own site! No platform administrator to sensor me or shut me down! I’d like to think the articles I put up are helpful to other artists, writers and self publishers, and I get the occasional feedback that confirms it. But for me personally it was liberating … coming out of dark isolation and into a bright, sunlit new world! For some creatives – ME! – everyday living can be draining. Part of the creative process is recharging the batteries. For the lucky creatives who can find a way to weave their creativity into everyday living, well, that’s just the best of all worlds! So it’s never mattered one bit whether I have 5 readers or 5,000,000 … I’m having a grand ol’ time, and I’m not planning on going anywhere.

But the highway of life is full of twists and turns, and sometimes a really bad curve can slow things down. And my life slowed down a whole lot when my elderly mom came to live with us almost 2 years ago.

Everything re-adjusted … my sister and I got Guardianship, so now we handle all of mom’s financial and medical needs, and transporting her back and forth to doctor’s appointments. My sister took care of finding homes for 7 cats and got mom’s house cleaned out and ready to sell. She keeps up with the yard and making the house look not abandoned while we wait and wait and wait and wait some more for that county to PLEASE finalize the probate … almost 2 years! (I’d name the county, but we don’t want to make them mad and really ignore us. Local readers wouldn’t be surprised at all to find out which county it is. Thankfully our lawyer managed to get the Guardianship in our own county, so when we finally one day get the house sold, we’ll be done with the bad guys! Thank you, Mr. Lawyer!!!)

Meanwhile at our house, daily routines for meals, work and bedtime had to adjust. More responsibilities includes 2 cats, one of which recently had some minor surgery. Keeping a cat still and quiet so it can heal isn’t a problem … the real problem is the tender-hearted elderly lady who keeps removing the cones, suits and whatever else is on the cat to protect sensitive areas, because the poor cat just looks so uncomfortable … oh, boy … one day down, 2 weeks to go! Hang on. We’re gonna’ make it …

So naturally when all of this got set in motion, I had less time for my website. Because I’m childless and older myself, I’m a bit spoiled and used to doing whatever I want with my time. Now all that time is taken up with other important priorities, and I started running behind on my regular web updates. For years I’ve changed out my homepage and added a new article every 2 months. Now I’m lucky if I can get new updates every 4-6 months! Yikes!

Well … at least I have the weekly blogs … but I began to get behind on them, too. I started turning them into my web company later and later every month until finally, in February I failed to get any blogs up at all. This blog is the first I’ve had in 6 weeks!

So this is an apology and an explanation to my readers, some of whom have been asking me where I’ve been lately. This is where!

So I came around this huge curve in life’s highway and ended up in some unfamiliar territory. Then, while trying to find a detour to get me back on the right road, I fell into this big pothole. My frame’s bent, my tire’s are blown, and I’m not going to be able to get out on my own.

Time to call for some help …