From a corner room of the 12th floor of the Concourse Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin, I greet you. There's a thunderstorm moving in & Lake Mendota (or is it Monona?) is looking frisky. The Wiscon crew has begun to trickle in. By tonight it will be a bluster & Friday it will be a flood. Sweet, sweet Wiscon! How I missed you last year.
A giant Mouat family reunion pre-empted Wiscon 30. I had a tremendously wonderful time. There were 54 family members & assorted & sundry neighbors & friends. Music galore. At one point, in Grandma Arla & Grandpa Jimmy's little old house, there were 5 guitars, a banjo, a mandolin, a piano, a saxophone & 3 fiddles. Not all being played at the same time, but most of them most of the time. It rocked--& countried & gospelled... It was not to be missed & worth missing Wiscon for, but I did put the family on alert that Memorial Day weekend was NOT the time to be scheduling future reunions, if they wanted to assure my continued attendance. (I gave enough shoulder rubs & energy treatments & was just generally my shining wonderful self that I'm sure they do want me around. Grin.)
But, here I am, at Wiscon 31. Over--& after--breakfast in the Governor's Club this morning a smattering of us Wiscon-ites had fabulous discussions on living in online communities vs. getting out of the house, political savvy vs. clogging your soul's arteries with the woes of the world, Franco's train (plus a brass band) to celebrate writers in Spain, graceful ways to review/blurb or leave the door open to get out of doing so, & many other wonderful things I am too lazy to remember.
I need to "egress" the blog & try to deprogram the alarm clock, which thought we ought to get up at 6:50 a.m. & would not shut up about it. Generally I speak clock radio quite well, but this one has an obscure dialect, so it could take a while.
Blog alternative turns 50!
50. Think about all the lakes you've been to & pick one to remember fondly. Go to a lake. Or a pond. Or a puddle. If you don't have a puddle, put a bowl of water in the middle of the living room (or some other room that could use a body of water) & sit down next to your micro lake for a picnic.
