Oy, The Pressure

You know, Tuesdays are a funny thing. Tuesdays are the one day I feel like I have to blog. This is because of Acrowinners. I have to have an Olympic Update to name the acrowinners, ergo I have to have a blog to stick an Olympic Update at the bottom of. If I'm allowed to end a sentence with a preposition, as I do, because I see nothing wrong with it. Take that, linguists.

And so, normally the pressure starts around Tuesday morning. I spend the morning at work, and sometimes into the afternoon, thinking about a good blog topic, and then when I'm back home at the end of the day I let fly with whatever latched onto my brain and wouldn't let go. Sometimes the idea works, sometimes it doesn't.

We were, after being closed yesterday, very busy today at TheCompanyIWorkFor. During lunch I paid bills, and, well, I just didn't come up with a single blog topic. Oh, Mike? Calling Dr Blog Topic!

Anyway, it's Tuesday, and I just don't have a single intelligent thought in my brain. So I thought I'd just tell you a little story. It's not exciting, it's not really much of anything, just something I figured I could type about.

I did something for my dad for Christmas. I had him a gift, but wasn't really that wowed with it, and wanted to do a little something extra. My dad, who as you know is pretty much sightless at this point in his life, used to love to read. And now he listens to the occasional book on tape.

Now, for years and years my dad has thought of my spending so much time at the old computer as, well, not to put too fine a point on it, loafing. Chatting, surfing, goofing off - well, he thought it was all time much better spent somewhere else.

Until about 3 years ago, when I read him one of my blogs. (I'm still not sure he understands blogs, btw. He just goes with it.) It was my blog about my favorite radio station of all time, WMMT. The look on his face when I read this blog was priceless. It may have been the first time I felt like my dad was actually proud of me. Validation from the old man. Later on I read him one of the blogs I ended up reading on the radio, the one about the old restaurant that was our family haunt for years. I got compliments.

So, I came up with a half-baked idea for Christmas that I figured could either be brilliant or the lamest idea I've ever had. And that was to make him a book on tape, of some of my blogs. A blog on tape. I checked the idea with a couple of people, just to see if it wasn't the lamest idea I've ever had, and got two positive responses. So the Friday before Christmas, I got out my tape recorder and a bunch of blogs, and had at it. I ended up with about 3 hours worth of stuff, and I bundled it up into a present and put it under the tree.

I put the WMMT blog on it, and its sequel, the How To Speak Bet blog, some work-related stuff, the "Burned and Broken" story (which I was sure my folks would hate me forever for writing), the two blogs about my grandmothers, the three-part "Mr M and I Making Each Other Laugh," (including my review of "Robinson Crusoe on Mars"), and then some incredibly silly stuff. Mr M made a guest appearance, and we ended everything up with the PeekABoo blog.

When my dad opened his gift on Christmas morning and I read the letter I'd included with it, about how I knew I was the one in our family who never really talked, and how maybe this would give him some insight into what goes on in my head as well as giving him a chance to hear my voice now and then when he's down in Florida (where he is now), well, he cried. He cried and thanked me. I didn't know - was he incredibly touched, or was this is the lamest idea I'd ever had? I wouldn't know, at least till this weekend.

Mom called me on Sunday, to say hello, and put Dad on the phone. He told me he'd just finished listening to the last of my tapes, and how much he'd enjoyed them. He laughed at the radio blogs, which he said I should read "on the stage or something." (The Stage? I told him Vaudeville had been dead many years.) He said he and mom had cried over the grandmothers blogs, and they were especially chuffed at the PeekABoo, which was good, as we'd had to censor ourselves of the "Jesus Christ"s and "goddammit"s on the spot as we were taping. (My folks are quite fond of Mr M, btw. I'm sure they enjoyed his ranting and raving at me on tape.)

So, I guess it worked. And that was good. All you bloggers remember that next Christmas when you're stuck for gift ideas.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* And now it is that very bewitching time of night. Yes, we have Acrowinners.
- Honorable Mention goes to Kellie, with her "Toothbrush. Incredibly Enjoyable Windup Animal. Amusing."
- Runner-up goes to LilyG, with her "Tired, I expel wilted apples, asparagus."
- And this week's winner is Flipsycab, with her "Taking inventory eventually warrants an analysis." It's so true....
- Thanks to all who played - you've all done very well!