The Blind Man Society

This was originally supposed to be a blog on English Springer Spaniels. I mean, really – how many times have you woken up from a nap, only to turn and see THIS face, in your face.

Instead, I’m pulling a Midnight’s Children move with the sheet and bits of a story being revealed to tell this one slowly. I don’t know how to post a link yet with Air Supply’s song “Can’t fight this feeling anymore” but learning that too right now… Also, and most importantly, this is the last goofy, clown post for awhile. Harlequins may be the smartest person in the room in literature and real life, but I don’t think I’m ever going to top the Doghouse blog. Those were some of the highest numbers in analytics I’ve ever gotten. Instead, we are going to be tackling some serious topics in the very near future, and I think its going to be really good. So, please stay tuned!

I’m also sitting here excited because there are three guest bloggers that will be showing their work soon, and I’m currently ahead of the curve in terms of working on the website. In presentations, they say if you have a weak delivery, you had better have very strong content. Now that things are better web-wise, we also have a strong vehicle for our content.

People often ask why I only write at a coffee shop.  Answer? The coffee shop is kind of like a John Lee Hooker song – he wrote incredible songs that were only one chord. And, the orchestra and musicians filled in everything around them. Me discussing and writing about the coffee shop is using this idea. Though, that is the wonderful people in this story, and I was thinking about this today – its also finite. Kind of like writing advertisements for tacos after awhile.  How many ways can you write entertainingly about meat, shells, cheese and lettuce.  HOW MANY!?!?!? So, I’m taking it easy on shop talk from this point forward.

Except for this last thought which is really a shout out to the coffee shops out there that have hosted me in the past. I love these places because at them, I feel a bit like the character Max from Leslie Marmon Silko’s book Almanac of the Dead. Max was a big city gangster, that retired to a golf course in Arizona. Everybody came to see him, to play a couple rounds, talk shop and ideas, and were totally out of their element, while he was drunk and totally IN his. Both sides never went away empty handed, and the visits were very popular.

Tragically, Max eventually met his end because he played through storms – against the weatherman’s advice. He still went out on the course and eventually got struck by lighting and welded to his putter. The coffee shop comparison swiftly ends just before the lightning strike. 🙂

On a tangential side note for all the taco fans out there – I just saw THE best shirt for the Great Taco Challenge of 2024. On one side, was El Contender. On the other was El Champion. Its highly interpretive as to who out-ate-who, but the shirt was fabulous and for awhile after I referred to myself as El Champion in passing conversation. Personally, I think anybody who consumed the tacos in this modern day Clash of the Titans….won.

Finally, I was going to write about Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa, and artists mingling, along with the ideas of creativity and where I think it really comes from (its hiding in simplicity and scribbling notes on bar napkins) but I think I’ll leave things here for now…

Hope everyone has a great day out there, and please feel free as always to leave comments in the box below!