Pardes busy writing "road kill"

Howdy folks----it's been ages since I've posted. I took my first 9 day vacation in 23 years.

I've written 7 blogs and started a story named "Road Kill." I've been working on this story for a few months but it was such a downer I didn't want to work on it. It's about roadside markers that show the spot where someone was killed in a vehicular accident. I have great photos, interviews of a family who put up teddy bears for their deceased child....but gosh, how glum.

Obviously, the nine day vacation has left me deranged.

So I've decided to flip it around with a more upbeat hook about a a bicyclist killed on the highway who in their will wanted the space on her gravestone to be sold on Ebay.

When you live alone with two dogs and two bicycles, you can get very odd.....and talk in very small red letters.

And then I joined Twitter a few days ago (as threedogwrite) and wondered what the funniest tweet for a gravestone would be.

Yes, deranged.

So then, with sanity returning I ditched the story (for now) and I'm just having fun with making up gravestone tweets.

What would your gravestone tweet be?

Deranged, and I work at a morgue. So shoot me.

Oh yeah. The reason I posted this in the "commuting" section is that you know when you are a real commuter when you go to work and come home on your bike for over a week and you don't even think about it as being unusual. Actually you don't even think about it.You just do it. It just is what is.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pardes

What would your gravestone tweet be?

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Not quite a twitter, but...

Come blooming youths as you pass by
On these lines, do cast an eye.
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so must you be.
Prepare for death and follow me.

Allowing someone to add:

To follow you, I am not content.
How do I know which way you went?

Deranged? I'm quoting this from memory...I read it in The Peoples Almanac in the early 70's...and have remembered it since (Oh, I also recall the market was on Effie Mae Robinson's grave)

Wecome back!

PARDES: I just took a side trip to your blog. My, you are a wonderful writer. I just finished reading "Diagnosis". To write at all well is great, but to do it daily like that is really amazing. I am envious of the creativity, and the ability to relay it so beautifully. Heck, I even have trouble wriitng this posting!

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Originally Posted by jesvetmed

PARDES: I just took a side trip to your blog. My, you are a wonderful writer. I just finished reading "Diagnosis". To write at all well is great, but to do it daily like that is really amazing. I am envious of the creativity, and the ability to relay it so beautifully. Heck, I even have trouble wriitng this posting!

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Thank! Now if I could just figure out how to write while biking. I always get the best ideas while biking when I relaxed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pardes

Thank! Now if I could just figure out how to write while biking. I always get the best ideas while biking when I relaxed.

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How about just recording your voice in stream-of-consciousness thoughts while riding, like unorganized verbal notes, to be worked into written stuff later? Sort of like how people leave a dream journal next to their bed, because if they try to write it down later they have forgotten.

Call me old fashioned (or just plain simple-minded), but I have a hard time reading most blogs- most have so many visual elements going on- frames, links, scattered graphics, bright colors, various navigation lists, archive lists....
As basically a 'single tasking' person, I always have a hard time getting into the mood of what's written in blogs because there are so many things at once competing for my attention visually. For me it's like driving around a traffic circle with lots of signs (one of my worst driving scenarios). God forbid if sound bites or music clips are thrown into the mix as well! :eek:
I can never play music in the background while I work either. I even have a difficult time concentrating on what i need to buy at the store if they have Muzak on. :( Gee, I guess I sound 'old'! :o

What I like about the View From Pardes is that to me it doesn't seem to be so much about cycling, per se, when she is writing about riding.... but about her observations of the world when a bicycle is a part of it. I have no idea if that makes sense, but there is something quietly humble and spiritual, and normal. You actually get the sense that she is connected not only to the bike but to everything it encounters. It is not about getting more fit or getting more gear, or becoming faster, or any of that stuff. It is really nice storytelling. It is what cycling has finally become for me, after all these years, and I have never been able to put that into words, but she has.

Lisa, you can use your CTRL and + key (Command+ on my MacBook) to make the type larger, and then you will have scroll bars on the window. Align the scroll bar so you can only see the text, and you're set!

I do not like flashing things on screen when I'm trying to read. However, the crazyguyonabike travel journals give me the opposite problem. Often not enough pictures or detail in the journals. I understand why, but some of them really leave me wanting more.

Karen

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Originally Posted by Tuckervill

Lisa, you can use your CTRL and + key (Command+ on my MacBook) to make the type larger, and then you will have scroll bars on the window. Align the scroll bar so you can only see the text, and you're set!

I do not like flashing things on screen when I'm trying to read. However, the crazyguyonabike travel journals give me the opposite problem. Often not enough pictures or detail in the journals. I understand why, but some of them really leave me wanting more.

Karen

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Thanks Karen. :) The browser/scroll thing is not doing it for me- but I'm not going to fuss any more.
Hey do you have a link to crazy's blog? I couldn't find it in Google- I'd like to see an example of this 'minimalist' blog you're talking about!

Yes, I like the existential aspects of bike riding....riding as just part of our normal life and our personal identity....how we move around within our own life. I too am going through this evolution, though I started out partly in it already, especially with the inspiration my husband provides. He reaps the maximum rich harvest from even the humblest ride down to the corner to mail a letter. :)

Back to the original question though-
I have no idea what a 'tweet' or a 'twitter' is except concerning bird language, but if you are asking for favorites gravestone epitaphs, here's mine...
My mother and I used to joke about what inscriptions should be on people's gravestones. She and I had a lot of similar traits, but one big difference was in our energy levels. She seemed to make a career out of avoiding any kind of exertion or effort. She was fond of lying down and 'resting' even when she hadn't been doing a thing all day! So, I joked to her once that her epitaph would read:
"At last- no more Annoying Interruptions." She thought that was a real hoot, and we got a good laugh out of it! :D

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/

It's written by lots of different people. It's basically a portal for touring cyclists to document their travels. I'm sure when you see it, you'll remember you've been there before?

I love that epitaph! :)

Karen

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Originally Posted by lunacycles

It is really nice storytelling. It is what cycling has finally become for me, after all these years, and I have never been able to put that into words, but she has.

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Thank you for those very kind words! I'm on a roll....I posted another blog entry today that's related to biking....again....tangentially and mixed in with everything else.

I find you incredibly inspiring. You have such a good outlook on life -- you really are an excellent role model for other women. Keep blogging!