You’ll Find Me On Instagram

Although I did some writing on the plane over, I’ve decided to give “Robert,” “Carolina,” “Henry,” and “Marie-Thérèse”, and the others a rest for a few days. They probably could use a short “break” from me, too. 😉 While it’s said you should write constantly, you do have to pause now and then and clear your head.

Moreover I don’t want to veer into “killing off” any characters accidentally because I’m feeling briefly somewhat “off” myself. With my mother’s one year death anniversary on the 26th, I’m trying to find a real-life “happy place.” I suppose these Catskills are one of them:

I snapped that photo yesterday afternoon. It doesn’t look like that outside now, I assure you:

As you see here, I have written that blog post.

By the way: Instagram? It’s a “happy place.” Isn’t it? People sharing photos of their trip to Rome, dog, back garden flowers, inspirational sayings, healthy breakfast, beach dunes, latest Top Shop outfit…

Twitter? Good grief. I just glance at my timeline lately and within moments I think, “I don’t need this.” Aside from my close friends on it, Twitter’s becoming a massive downer.

Increasingly it’s hyper-dominated by obnoxious and “know-it-all” “pundits” and snarking so-called journalists. And “eggs” troll them. Worse is the generalized name-calling, slurs (of all kinds – “You’re a neo-Nazi!” “No, you’re really a femini-Nazi!”), and overall ugliness (and that’s putting matters politely). It feels far too much like being in a high school bathroom and seeing the insults and vulgarities scribbled on the walls – including those directed at you.

This national dumpster fire of a U.S. presidential election certainly isn’t helping. What would George Washington think of us? However, I don’t care about it any longer. I voted already. I’m done. Next stop, January.

So back to “happy” Instagram. Speaking of “fire,” remember my firewood pile photo of yesterday? Well, eventually I stopped procrastinating and stacked the wood:

The garage yesterday afternoon. [Photo by me, 2016.]

Come to think of it, this might be an excellent photo for Instagram: a shot of some of the fridge magnets we collect whenever we visit somewhere new on holiday. Our refrigerator isn’t magnetic, so here in NY we attach them to the front of the dishwasher: