Robert

Bloganuary writing prompt
Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.

I’m American and I speak English. We generally don’t name our children based on the literal meaning of the word. It is more often based on how the name sounds when combined with the family name, and family history. My name is Robert because my father’s name is Robert and my parents wanted to name me after him. That’s it. My brother was named after our grandfather. My sister isn’t named after anyone directly, at least not that I know of, she got her name because my parents liked it. That’s it.

Having said all of that, I figured in the spirit of the daily prompt game I would Google the origin of the word Robert. What does it actually mean?

Robert is an old German name that means “bright fame.” It’s taken from the old German name Hrodebert. The name is made up of two elements: “Hrod” which means fame and “Beraht” which means bright. The name was introduced to the people of England by the Normans in the middle ages.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/robert-name-meaning-origin-popularity-5181543#:~:text=People%20Named%20Robert-,What%20Does%20Robert%20Mean%3F,Normans%20in%20the%20middle%20ages.

Bright Fame, eh? Okay. I guess. There’s no fame here, and there’s certainly no bright fame. It’s interesting to know, I guess. It may be what my name means, but it certainly doesn’t relate to me at all. Maybe if I had known the meaning when I was little I would have changed my life’s path a little. Of course I am not serious at all. I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I didn’t know it when I was young, but Jennifer (which The Google tells me means “fair one” which I will absolutely buy) was in my future and I wouldn’t change anything out of risk of not making that myspace.com appointment back in 2006, you know?

Leadership

Bloganuary writing prompt
What makes a good leader?

I have no idea. If I knew, I would be a better leader than I am. Granted at work I am only a leader of four people and they are all excellent at their jobs so it makes my job easy. Still, having said that, if I could be better I would be better. 

If I can’t give you something that makes you a good leader, I can give you something that makes you a friggin’ pain in the ass leader. Simple: Don’t micromanage. Ugh, working for a micromanager is infuriating. Seriously. I mean, I don’t know if this is true at all, but it’s what I heard, Jimmy Carter is a great man but he was a shitty President though. Why? Rumor has it he was a bit of a micromanager. If that’s true, it’s got to be the reason why his presidency went down the one-term crapper. 

If you want to be a good leader, don’t be a micromanager. 

No Nukes

Bloganuary writing prompt
If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

After the political events of the last 8-9 years I would like to say that if I could un-invent anything it would be social media, but if I did that I would never have met my wife (thanks, Myspace.com!) so I’m not going there.

Fascism could sure go for some un-inventing. If I could remove the very concept from history with a Thanos-like snap of my fingers I would, but that’s not where I’m going today.

If I could un-invent something it would be nuclear weapons. Yes that would have made the end of the second world war messier, and it would have changed the entire cold war, possibly for the worse, but there are two scientific breakthroughs from the 20th century that are probably the greatest achievements in human history. One was the moon landing. The other, unfortunately, was the bomb. I would remove the bomb. I would remove that horror from our world. 

I’m on the fence about nuclear power. If we could just figure out a safe way to dispose (or better yet, recycle) the waste I would be fully on board. Let the scientific advancements in nuclear energy go for humanity’s benefit instead of potential destruction, right?

No nukes. Simple.

Love

Bloganuary writing prompt
Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved?

I am not going to share too much on this topic (shockingly) but I will give a short answer.

One year ago my mother was coming to the end of her life. It was awful. She was in hospice and fighting hard for each second. The pain of knowing we were losing her and the guilt at not being able to do anything more to help her combined to pretty much crush me.

My wife was there for me. My wife was my support. My wife was my rock. My wife was my heart and soul. I have never felt more loved.

My two step kids were in Vermont through the whole ordeal, but they were there for me too. Remotely at first, but then after my mother passed away they came home and were there for me in person as well. Again, I have never felt more loved. 

My wife and my step kids. My family. I would not have made it through that experience without them. I am so thankful for the love they give to me and I will never be able to show them how much they mean to me. I love them all so much I cannot put it into words. I need to do an infinitely better job showing them how much I love them and how much they mean to me. My heart aches at the thought of it.

ClutterBug

Bloganuary writing prompt
Where can you reduce clutter in your life?

I’ve done a pretty good job of reducing clutter over the last 5-6 years or so. We’ve already cleaned out most of the books, CDs, DVDs and such. You know, the things that fill up a lot of space. We cleaned out most of the storage space in the cellar after some annoying flood experiences. Granted, we’ve filled a lot of that cleared space back up, but it isn’t enough to require any decluttering yet. 

The real pressing need is the cardboard collection. With most of the holiday season having been delivered by Amazon, we have tons of empty boxes in a huge pile in the cellar. That is the only pressing need as far as clutter is concerned. One of these weekends I’ll chop it all up and send it out with the recycling a piece at a time. 

Other than that? I suppose my desk(s) are a little cluttered, but I kinda like it that way. I like having various nick knacks and desk swag around me. My guitar and camera gear collections definitely qualify as cluttered. There’s no way I am reducing though. None at all. Quite the opposite. In fact, I want them to grow and possibly become more cluttered. Oh, hells yes I do.

That’s about all that comes to mind right now. Is that good enough? Bloganuary post is in the books, kids! Time to click that ol’ publish button and start perusing everyone else’s posts.

Love Must be Earned

Bloganuary writing prompt
What is your favorite animal?

You don’t have to look far to find my answer to this question. Literally the post before this spells it out nicely.

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It’s cats, of course. Obviously. Cats of all shapes and sizes.

There is none of that unconditional love crap with cats. You have to earn their love. You have to earn their respect. I mean, it’s not that hard to do… just keep their food and water bowls full and their litter box clean and you’re most of the way there. Still, it’s the effort that counts. It’s the process that makes it worthwhile, you know?

Here’s to cats. Also, here’s to easy to answer daily writing prompts that I’m pretty sure are repeats of old prompts that don’t really inspire a lot of… writing.

Meow, brothers and sisters. Meow.

Online Communication

Bloganuary writing prompt
In what ways do you communicate online?

The simple answer is that I don’t. Outside of this blog, that is.

I stopped using facebook. I stopped using twitter. I’ve been trying to find an app to replace them both but nothing really gets there. Threads is okay, even though it’s another evil zuckerberg product. Mastodon is okay. So is bluesky. Unfortunately few if anyone from my actual social network is on any of those social networks so I end up just responding to guitar and photography (and sometimes political) posts from other people and it’s like I am talking to the void… which I sort of am.

At work there is Google’s chat and Google Meet and Zoom and other things like that, but that is work communication, not online communication. It’s the same but very different, you know? Within the family we use FaceTime and I love every call, as well as group texts. Again though, that’s sort of different. I think it is at least. 

This little blog gets a pretty healthy amount of engagement. Not compared to real blogs, but for a 52 year old introverted doofus in Massachusetts, it feels pretty engaged. At the same time, none of my actual social network, apart from one or two people, follows this at all so there isn’t any real world tie in. Mostly, at least. I had a few real world friends and family members following when I first started posting publicly back in 2008, but I doubt any of them are still coming around. 

It’s kinda sad, really, you know, when you stop and look at it objectively the way this daily writing prompt is forcing me to do. I often think about stopping all together, which given that I post about 6-8 times a day doesn’t quite seem possible. Still, it is like shouting at the void… but maybe deep down I enjoy shouting at the void? I don’t know.

Road Trip

Bloganuary writing prompt
Think back on your most memorable road trip.

There have been so very many road trips. Road trips to New York, NY, Washington DC, the mountains in NH, various Canadian destinations, Vermont, western Massachusetts, One crazy drive home from Indiana, and multiple epic drives to Florida and back. 

So many road trips, but unlike most of these “pick one” sort of prompts, I am actually going to only pick one to focus on. It was fourth of July weekend in 2008 and Jen and I had tickets to see Rush in Saratoga Springs, NY. A road trip was required. It was our first venture into Vermont together as well as our first visit to upstate New York. We made a bunch of noteworthy stops including one extra special landmark on the way.

First was Quechee Gorge which is on Route 4 in Vermont, not far from the New Hampshire state line. The view was fantastic and we’ve been back a few times just to check in and make sure the sites are still glorious. They are.

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Just a ways down route 4 you come to the second notable landmark. This one is super important. Woodstock, VT. We were so taken with this little town that we agreed we would move there when we retired (we probably won’t, but I’m still game if Jen is), and it ended up being the first stop on our honeymoon. We spent our wedding night in a bed in breakfast in town and it was everything we hoped it would be. I absolutely love this town, and every time we drive up to see the kids I want to stop and visit even if we just drive through. I love Woodstock, VT.

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One other important spot from this drive was in New York. It’s a place we talked about revisiting at the time but still haven’t managed to return to yet. Lake George. We had one spot overlooking the lake that was just spectacular and put it on our vacation to-do list. Maybe this summer? What do you think, Jen?

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Eventually we made it to Lake Champlain which, while maybe not as scenic as Lake George, offered us one touristy spot that we’ve actually gone back to at least once. Fort Ticonderoga. The fort played a role in both the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and the American Revolution (1775-1783). The fort is a great place to visit (including the public gardens attached to it) and the views are pretty amazing. I am willing to stop there any time we’re in the neighborhood.

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The final noteworthy landmark on this road trip, apart from the simple fact that road tripping through rural Vermont is just freakin’ gorgeous, was taking a ferry across Lake Champlain. We’ve done this for fun a couple of times since. It sounds silly, but I’ll do it every time we’re nearby. 

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Finally, there was that Rush concert I mentioned. It was on the second leg of the Snakes and Arrows tour and it was an amazing show. We sat in the back of the balcony (it was either the back row or the second to last row… I think it was second to last) and it didn’t matter that we were nine miles away from the stage. It was perfect.

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Look at those crazy kids.

And there you have it, kids. Highlights from one particular road trip. I could have focused on a dozen others as we tend to road trip a lot. This one was special though as it was the inspiration for our wedding night location and I will always love it for that reason.

Snack Irony

Bloganuary writing prompt
What snack would you eat right now?

A day late and a dollar short. Sounds like me.

I had every intention of answering Friday’s writing prompt question on Friday, but I woke up sick and my whole day went down the toilet (literally and figuratively) and I never got around to it. That means that you get Friday and Saturday’s writing prompts on Saturday. I can see how amazed you are.

I will keep this one short and painful and hyper focused on the goings on in my stomach yesterday. The answer to the question at it’s basic level was I couldn’t eat a snack if I tried.

I woke up a little late and my stomach was a little sore. As I started to go about my morning routine that soreness became major pain. I tried to have some water, as I always do at the start of my morning, and had to stop after a small amount. I got my first round of vitamins in at least. I was curious if the pain was due to hunger, which sometimes happens, even though I knew it wasn’t. I tried to eat a protein bar but had to stop after a few bites. 

That was it. I had another little bit of water later in the day but that went badly too. All in all I finished the day with about eight ounces of water (the goal is 64) and maybe five grams of protein (the goal is 80). I couldn’t have had any more if I tried. The very thought of food made me feel nauseous. 

So the literal answer to the question of what snack I could have eaten at any given moment yesterday was none. Today might be a different answer, but I am going to take it as easy as I can. I probably will stick to protein bars until dinner just to make certain that everything is okay now.

I’m sure I will let you all know how it goes as the day rolls on. stay tuned?