Greetings Google Guys and Gals

Greetings Miss Betty Menace.  The Gatsby Boy wouldda dug ya, that’s fer sure!  Bit your bum he might of, yes he might of…

The hat is perfect for you Giselle. And Gatsby the dog is adorable, no wonder you felt such an affinity for him. 

Do you mind sharing how you broke that writer’s block? So much on my mind but simply can’t seem to get it together enough to make sense. 

“Woof” back to Gatsby across the Rainbow Bridge where, I hope, he has met our dear departed—a year ago this month—Henrietta. Her favorites were black labs after her very first friend. Now, as to the hat, I have three similar—one Harris. When we finally meet I must remember to bring it with me.

Have a super week-end and congratulations on getting characters on the page. PS: Henrietta is an Old English Sheepdog.

Colin Lucas-Mudd Henrietta and Gatsby are the best of friends.  Gregorio told me so.  Ahhhh….  You’re killin’ me here.  We have wine, dogs, hats and Gargoyles in common????  Next thing you know, you’ll have me moving to Calif.  We are going to Napa in January I’m fairly certain.  Will you and Silly drive up to meet us, please?  That is if her footsies are fine by then….Donna Lucas-Mudd????

Greetings, Grace O’Malley. Well, you might not be pleased with my answer but I forced myself to go back and stare at an essay I’d written about Gatsby but not finished because I knew it would make me sad and angry and it’s really hard not to write when angry rises up from your toes.  Suddenly you find yourself walking around talking out loud.  If that is not happening in my life I promise you I’m not writing anything.  I am not a silent person and not talking to myself is the kiss of death.  Happy things never make me write.  What’s wrong with me, I wonder?  How about you my dear?

Jennifer Tackman A very big heartfelt and Southern Horse Woof to Miss Savannah.  All dogs should wear hats.  I’m absolutely convinced of that!

Why would anyone who is happy all the time bother to write Jennifer Tackman?  Perennially happy people are a mystery to me.  Happy is to be distinguished from Content, however.  I can be miserable, but utterly content.  When I’m happy, I never want to write.  I’d rather be dancing or something…

I never understood the “Pollyanna” crowd, myself – I want to say, “Really, Mz Sunshine? You had another perfect day with a perfect omelet to post about?…yawn.  Gimme some dirt, dammit!”  So yes, I agree – one can be “miserable, but utterly content.”  Love it, and so true.  I’d rather go dancing or be active or laughing and social when feeling happy.  Writing feeds my soul during intensity of other emotions.

I remember whe I wrote my poems in the younger years that creativity was either sparked by a wonderful feeling of beauty and greatness when I fell in love, or…worst…when she decided to let me go, leaving me in total despair.

Writing is a cure, a theraphy but it is also the anchor we hang to when we need to go trough the tempest.

Not easy to write when things are falling all around you like big chunks of hail in a Summer’s T-storm.

i like the “spider web” theory Giselle. 

I found a great help into my “Orto” with my tomatoes, cucumbers, and (now) waiting for my cavolfiori to grow.

To clean out my spider webs I need my daily one hour walk or bike run, that helps a lot. Only when I feel the urge of translating my thoughts into the small B&W things that compose the writing stuff

I sit behind the PC and start writing till I cannot stop.

If I can’t write I usually try hanging out with Jack C Crawford  (he is inspiring )

Happy weekend to you Giselle Minoli 🙂

Matthew Graybosch It’s been a challenging summer.  Finding quiet and space.  I so admire JK Rowling and her writing in a coffee shop, wasn’t it?  I need much more quiet.  But I write in my head in the sky and when I’m up there everything changes.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be clear and so I’m going up and I’ll see what I discover!

Have a lovely weekend Giselle Minoli and hello to The Great Woof!

Marilyn Monroe – The Way You Wear Your Hat @ 00:56

It’s a lovely hat and woof to doggie Gatsby. Just don’t tell my kitty I said so.

Colin Lucas-Mudd , I’m glad to hear that +Donna Lucas-Mudd is on the mend.

Ah! Eve Aebi, in our corner of the San Lorenzo Valley, everything has a name—and a personality. It’s what keeps us sane on this isolated rock circling our local star.

I confess Colin Lucas-Mudd I had never thought of anthropomorphizing my hats!  But then, little more than a year ago I wasn’t on Google+ and didn’t know a gent named Colin Lucas-Mudd.  Harriet the Harris Tweed hat it is!  You do realize, don’t you, that this suggestion was a very foolish idea.  Because now I shall line up all the hats (that I have in Lousville) and take a pic and post it and you and She of the Named Technological Toys, a/k/a Silly, shall have to name each and every one of them.

I have a Borsolino that I’ve never named, I’m now rather ashamed to admit.  And a Spanish Fedora I bought in Sevilla, begs to have a name that is at least five names long.

On another note, I’m afraid to ask…do you go so far as to name the furnishings?

As to the Fedora Giselle Minoli, may I suggest: Florentina Esperanza Delores Octavia Rosalina Amelia Naturally, upon other than formal occasions, and when the servants aren’t in earshot, Fedora will do fine for a private tête-à-tête. 

Happy weekend, Giselle Minoli ~ Love your new hat, and my, what a beautiful Labrador!  Welcome back :).

My Mini Cooper is named Greta…

I also don’t trust people who don’t get Monty Python, the movie “Babe,” (more anthropomorphizing, Colin Lucas-Mudd), Absolutely Fabulous, dancing, and Bob Dylan, no matter how weird the record. Close your ears Matthew Graybosch.

This is torture.  How in Hell can I open the door to my garage, Colin Lucas-Mudd tomorrow morning and break the news to “Greta” that I have decided to call her “Carlotta” from now on.  Do they have car shrinks?  For she will surely need one.  Good grief I am never going to name anything without consulting you first.  Every single thing I own is now pitched full frontal into a major identity crisis!

I’m so sorry Giselle Minoli. G+ is refreshing slowly and I had not seen your comment when I wrote mine. Greta is a perfect name. And, finally, thank you for the first real out-loud, tear inducing laugh of the day. Your 4:58 PST comment was just perfect. Good night and thank you.

I have one up on you Matthew Graybosch about Judas and Blue.  I worked “on” their albums when I was with CBS Records.  And so I get it.  It was an incredible time in the music business.  I just haven’t listened to this music in a long time.  I should fix that.

Greetings Donna Lucas-Mudd I hate to say it but husband probably doesn’t recognize Penny the Prius as a life form.  He would, however, be curious to now whether she would be interested in dating his Beamer, whose name is Bertrand.  Brian is used to me by now, but fears I’m getting worse…

Bertrand has a sweet underbelly.  He’s misinformed and thinks that Hybrids don’t go fast.  Perhaps Penny is just what he needs to realize that speed isn’t everything… Donna Lucas-Mudd.  Some boys take a long time to grow up.

Hey Giselle Minoli love the hat. I agree that sometimes you just have to write and hope for the best. That’s what rewrite is for. I thought I had nothing to say this morning and 2,400 words later I realized I was just being a stubborn pain in the ass bemoaning my block. Of course, it could suck, and that’s okay.

I hate most of what I write as soon as I hit “publish”. It’s the self-critique in me going hyperdrive. 

Giselle Minoli I agree. It’s troublesome to me to see word count matter so much. When I used it in a prior post it wasn’t in the manner I’m seeing over and over lately. I don’t consider the day lost if I don’t write 1,000 words. 

Sometimes “I love you” is the perfect amount for the day. 

Giselle Minoli I write just for myself, but I am in the throes of writer’s block , and have been for quite a long time.  I’ve finally set writing aside until the words return.  When I am not blocked, everything flows, as if I were a channel.  Right now, I simply have nothing to say. 

I can’t begin to imagine the frustration, the misery, for those of you who are serious writers!

I do love my fountain pen, and Rhodia makes a great notebook.  I love the way my pen flows across its pages.

Thank you, Jack C Crawford ~

Duly noted and considered prior to my comment.  However, one offense is punishable by public recognition.  At least we don’t use the stocks anymore.

YAY to emerging from writer’s block…adorable Gatsby;both the hat and of course the doggie!

Thank you Ellie Kennard.  And I didn’t see your comment until just now!  Better late than never is always better, I say.  Cheers to you!

Is it perhaps some setting that Giselle Minoli has that prevents people subscribing to her posts? Others seem to work for me (but then how would I know if they didn’t for some other people?)

This is a mystery to me, Giselle Minoli as well. I have just checked my own Account settings and can see no reference to stopping or permitting followers from subscribing to your feed. I have moved you out of that circle and then moved you back in. I have seen no further notification of posts since then. Now that I check your feed I see that you have made posts and I have not been notified. What to do?

I have the same problem with Kim Crawford M.D. – Anti-Aging Doctor Florida where I have a LIST;no a circle of people who ASKED for notifications and when I bring up their circle I can’t check the box and it’s not that I’m “over limit”…I just can’t notify!

I feel the same Giselle….

I created a new circle I called “Top Notify People” (don’t mind me and my silly circle names). I then added you and 8 other people to this circle. I viewed this circle in my feed (by choosing it at the top where currently it says “All … etc.”. Once I am in the circle, at the top right I can use a slider to show more or less of these postings in my stream. If I move the slider to the far right, it shows me that I am ‘subscribing’ to the postings of the people in that circle. So I will be notified of any and all postings that they make. In theory. I have similar settings for my ‘family’ circle – should they ever make a posting I would want to be sure to see it and be encouraging, as well as for my  ‘friends’ circle. Try it. And let me know if it works for you. Giselle Minoli – but be careful not to put too many frequent posters in there or you will be inundated with email notifications.

But I can’t do that for everyone who is important to me, Matthew Graybosch – as I can’t rely on my memory. Even when I have a ‘check frequently’ circle I don’t. I don’t look in my diary either. I have to have an alarm ring to remember to do almost anything. So an email works where my memory fails me.

Wow, my friends, I am learning a lot today.  For what it’s worth to ALL of you, who matter to me very much, I struggle constantly (which some of you I think know) with the demands of a full time job and missing interesting posts on G+.  Because I simply can’t follow everything, I have been trusting people to notify me, but obviously I can’t follow all of those either.  But there ARE people who have DM’d me and asked me if I’d seen something and not only is the answer No, but when I look for it I can’t find it.  Because I blame myself first, I assume it’s my inability to fine tune my experience here (Jack C Crawford is my guru in that regard).  But now I am thinking that there is some “interface” between the slider thingy (with which I have not experimented I confess) that Daniela Huguet Taylor and Ellie Kennard use and G+’s “ability” to make it all work.

Jeez… and James Barraford you are a good example because when you DM me I listen.  And you, too, Matthew Graybosch.  The “stream” makes me “scream,” if you get my drift.  How many people have I inadvertently snubbed?  I’m horrified.

Giselle Minoli I’m sure I’m missing a lot of good posts from terrific people. That’s why certain times I’m DM’ing now depending on the post and the person. I hate the thought of tagging many people, but might have to do that more often.

It’s a tough call James Barraford and Kim Crawford M.D. – Anti-Aging Doctor Florida. I spent almost as long debating with myself on with whom, if anyone, I should tag/share a post on Romney’s assault on women’s rights and US healthcare that I wrote this morning than I did writing the post. There has to be a better way.

S#$*T Colin Lucas-Mudd I missed your post on Mr. Botox himself?  I gagged all the way through the debate last night.  My husband ran off to bed.  I think he thought I was going to start throwing things at the TV and I was pretty darned close to it for sure.  Women’s rights?  To do what?  Have so much Botox in your face that you and your husband look like 65 year old Barbie and Ken Dolls?  Now look here Colin Lucas-Mudd THOU SHALT threadjack this post and I am happy for it.  Running to your page…

Thank you James Barraford, I shall certainly take you up on the offer to tag you with posts that I believe will be of interest. Thank you Giselle Minoli also. As you, I only post two or three times weekly and, I hope, each is of value. Yours, Giselle, certainly are and I would be delighted to be tagged when you post.

As to the debate, I was cooking and listening. Silly came upstairs and after five minutes could stand it no more. She asked me politely, but forcefully, to save her from the agony. I donned my headphones and connected my iPhone tuned to my favorite NPR station. Grrrrr…

It’s just sad that we had fresh trout the night before. I may have enjoyed the gutting and head removal followed by the grilling as a form of stress relief. As it was I made do with wine and very finely chopped kale and spinach.

My problem Daniela Huguet Taylor is that my interpretation of “subscribe” means a little button you click on.  Quite the opposite of Block it rather means, “Come on in.  Take your shoes off.  Set a spell.”  It’s a Beverly Hillbillies Thing…

Subscribe should mean that, Giselle Minoli – but your own postings seem to be a fly in the ointment. I will send out a request for assistance, mentioning my Google employee circle. That usually gets some response. Might help solve the problem. I will be mentioning you in that posting as they like a concrete example to help them pinpoint a failure in the system.

Surely less is more is more than enough to get you noticed, Giselle Minoli? No, we must get to the bottom of this. Just must finish my project first.