Keep'n Up

The title of this blog is one I used on a car license plate for a new 1998 Pontiac Firebird I bought. It looked like a deep dark sea green surf board. In it I felt about fifty years younger than I was. I'd see people glance my way and do a double-take. They probably wondered why a white-haired granny would be driving such a car. Then they'd read the license plate: KEEPNUP.

Yes, I'd like to think I'm keeping up in many ways although with people like the late Steve Jobs spilling out new devices all the time I'm not doing such a good job of it these days. I do own a Mac, however, and with the help of the younger generation I can use it for a few things. What a far cry it is to write this blog on it compared to the old Underwood typewriter in my dad's office that I played with as a kid! Or the ones I struggled with in typing class when making a correction took forever. Then White-Out was a leap forward. I'm still getting used to this blogging business. Writing the first draft, giving it a once-over,  publishing it minutes afterwards, going back in to edit and correct the typos after publication, if necessary. When I wrote my book, Claudia's Home, I had a PC and it took me two years to get it published! But that was about fifteen years ago.

It's been less than two weeks since someone in our writing class suggested I do a blog. I had not even read a blog then. I'd heard about blogging but it was just one more thing I couldn't take time to wonder about. Now it's still such a new world to me that I can't explain it to myself. All I know is that I'm having a ball doing it. I'll have to confer with Robin, my daughter, who set this thing up for me, however, because I can see very little sign of anyone reading it. Isn't that what a blog is all about? I don't wonder though. The modern world is so full of reading these days that they say hand held books and magazines are apt to go completely out. How would anyone find my blog in the oceans of stuff on the Internet?

Now, much as I enjoy reading and holding a book or newspaper or magazine in my hands, I could really appreciate not having to dig my way out of all the printed stuff I find in my mailbox. When credit cards offer free magazine subscriptions I can't help myself. And I get the Wall Street Journal (though I'm way over my head in that!). Still, I love to see it there on my doorstep mornings. I scan it with my morning cup of coffee and feel so smug! I can't count the number of books I've put markers in that are waiting to be finished. And I own more books than any single grandma should. I love going to the library, but have had to curtail that too because I feel lost amidst the shelves and can't decide what to choose. Often I go out with nothing because the books I have at home that I want to read haunt my conscience.

You wouldn't believe all the neat boxes and baskets I've bought to handle the excess reading materials I've accumulated. Trouble is, once they get stored I forget what's in them and I wonder when the day will come that I will get to their contents. Frankly, I'm ashamed at this moment to see lying around the house the number of papers, magazines, books, mail items, catalogues, etc. that need to be filed away in those wicker baskets and handsome boxes I've bought at Pier One and World Market and TJMax. I've run out of room for them all. Under the desk, under tables, in night stands, in the hall closet, oh my! I can't even remember what's in them. I'm not "Keep'n up" at all!

You see, by the time I've tidied the house, walked the dog, watched the news on TV, and maybe a movie in the evening, besides going out to shop, to my writing class, the Friday afternoon bridge game, checking my e-mail and Facebook page, playing the piano, doing a little sculpting, tending the patio garden, going to church on Sundays, having an occasional lunch out, a movie now and then, and all the other things I do, I marvel that I ever was able to run a household, raise three kids, hold down a job, and read?.....whew! The bottom line is, I love to read but daytimes I'm too active so I look forward to bedtime when I can settle down under the covers with a good book. You can guess how that goes. The next thing I know it's time to get up and take in the morning paper!

Keep'n up is not a thing I've mastered, but these days I've managed to take time to write a blog and I'm rather proud of myself for even trying.