Writer's Noose

I am a lousy blogger

Okay, I admit it. I got this blog all set up for me and I had every intention to use it but every time I tried to blog something it just didn't work. Not the MT - I mean me. Everything I wrote just seemed trite and stupid and I'd either not post it or I'd delete it after I reread it because it was so stupid. I think it was because I just wasn't into it. The subjects weren't mine and I'm just so sick of punditing (I do it for a living, why the hell did I think I'd enjoy doing it for a hobby?)

But all that has changed. I've got some interesting stuff to write on now. My own little mystery that I'm living right now. I owe you a bit of background from the past week and then I'll get into the good stuff:

So I was here for a week with no constructive writing, got the blog set up and was struggling to do something with it. I figured I was just too tense. I had to relax, let the spirit of the place infect me, ya know? I took the boat out each morning for a cruise around the lake. It’s a little 14 foot open fishing boat with a little outboard in the back. I had to rent it to get to the cabin since there’s no road coming anywhere near the place. No phone or electricity lines either, did I mention that? Yeah, I guess I told you about the phone but there’s no juice either. There’s a bank of deep cycling marine batteries and a generator. That’s mostly for the water pump; house water comes from the lake and you have to fill the reservoir early in the morning before the boats on the lake kick up too much silt and crap. While the generator’s going you can run a couple of appliances and still charge the big batteries. Those will hold a decent enough charge to keep the satellite receiver and one or two lights going throughout the night. I charge up the laptop batteries while I’m filling the reservoir.

Damn, I’m doing it again. I get on these freaking tangents and don’t even realize it. Yesterday I was grilling up pancakes and ran some trash out to the compost pile. I ended up shooting the bow for like 15 minutes until I noticed the huge gouts of smoke coming out of the kitchen window. Anyway, I decided to take a week off – no writing. More correctly that would be no attempting to write ‘cause I sure as hell wasn’t writing anything anyway. So I started taking the boat out in the morning. Early. I kept it slow and quiet (it’s a little engine but those two strokes can get freaking loud) whenever I came near one of the other cabins. I let the place seep into me and just enjoyed the lake, the forest, the mountains, the sunsets, the sunrises. The whole place.

It was really tempting to go native. Just say “screw you, world” and walk off into the woods. My sanity was saved by that annoying voice of reason in the back of my head that reminded me of my total and complete lack of survival skills. Still, it was tempting.

I started fishing in the afternoons. I know, I know. That’s not the best time to fish. I wasn’t fishing to catch fish, I was fishing to relax. Actual fish would have been a distraction. So I’d take the boat back out, drop an anchor, drown a few worms, replenish the lake with some thoroughly bioprocessed Labatt’s. Yeah, I know it sounds gross. I was pumping my house water out of the lake and I was pissing into the lake. Do you honestly think a couple bladder-fulls of my urine made a difference? You’ve got a million birds, fish and critters pissing and crapping in there. Besides, I never fished anywhere near the cabin and the tap water is filtered.

Anyway, that’s when the weirdness started; when I started to fish. More later - must go run the pumps or I won't be having a shower today.

Posted by Charles at October 21, 2003 07:25 AM