Blogs have more fun.

I've given myself permission to be a complete slacker for the next six weeks of summer.

Not that I'm not already a slacker.

But usually I'm conflicted about it.

**********

Linda had a funny conversation with my 89 year old Dad. He has coffee twice a week with other retired doctors at Jake's Diner. He lives for it, and they treat him really nicely.

Anyway, he's a bit deaf.

He asked my wife how I happened to know the guy at Jake's.

"You mean Lyle?"

"Yeah."

"Duncan knows him through his blog."

"He knows him through a blond?"

"No, George. They both have blogs!"

"They both have blonds?"

"Blogs! They both have blogs!"

"Blonds?"

"Blogs! Blogs!" She spelled it out. "B......L.....O......G!"

"Oh.............what's a blog?"

**********

Linda says she doesn't have anything for her blog.

"Sure you do," I said. "In fact, I just stole the contents to a blog with your story about Dad."

"I'm not going to write about just nothing," she says.

"Why not?"

I approach my blog differently.

It should be fun. One should be allowed to fail. To write a nonsense blog, or a joke that doesn't go over, or a stupid observation, or....well, anything.

Blogs may already be old news to some people, but I think they can be played with and experimented with yet.

You can't take yourself too seriously. I quit monitoring who was reading this, and how many were reading this, about a year ago or so. I didn't like worrying about it. It's not like anyone is going to be reading this in a year --- or a month --- or a week --- or tomorrow -- or today....

I try to be coherent and thoughtful, but not too hard. Trying too hard would make this blog, well, work. A column. An essay. A homework assignment. A... oh, shit....a term paper....

Not that I'm not trying to dig as deep as I can get on some subjects -- but even then I'm trying to dig deep as I can for my own sake, and if it happens to emerge here, great.

To me, life is full of incidences that could become blog fodder. It's choosing which ones that's hard. And changing it up, and making it different, and mulling about it for a few days before I commit to words. But not finding things to write about?

Not for me.

Just stringing words together is fun for me. Changing them around, adding or cutting, looking for a different slant. Trying to find the 'telling' detail. Just doing stream of consciousness. Seeing what emerges, and being surprised.

It's play.

I figure in the end, I'll be doing this in a vacuum.

But that's alright.

As long as I'm having fun.