Writer’s block leads to wandering thoughts

Sigh, it’s one those days. A slow day where nothing appears to be going on. Ever had one of those? I’m sure you have, everybody has one or two every year or so. But for a columnist it means Dullsville, U.S.A. for a story. For the last few hours I have been scanning the newspapers, cable news networks, the internet and the radio. Nothing much happening. Well there is the passing of Nancy Reagan at the age of 94. I mean there could be a story there but it would be an obituary in reality. I’m not into obits. Don’t get me wrong I’m saddened by this loss to our nation just as anyone with a heart. I just don’t have much to say that hasn’t been said already. No, there has to be something else.

The Iditarod? Hmmm the restart is on for today and I’m stuck doing the laundry. Yesterday’s official start was plainly an embarrassment of epic scale due the fact that tons of snow had to be transported down from Fairbanks via train to line the bare streets of Anchorage and the ceremonial course was shortened to something less than three miles. Our bare winter in Anchorage and the Valley have now made national news thanks to all this. The winter wonderland of the north has been a brown patch for the last three years. Heck even as I write this it is currently 41 degrees. Winter my eye! Sigh..since I put out more than a few articles on our whacked weather cycles I should to move on.

Donald Trump? Good Lord don’t get me started on that personage. I need to take a break from the likes of him. Besides my head is rather sore from beating it against the wall in regards to that man from the deep end of the Twilight Zone. No, there just has to be something else, there has got to be. But just what it should be escapes me.

Hey a rhyme! (Drops head on desk.)

Oh God I need help don’t I?

My latest project on the radio? Hmm. While I’m very excited about my new radio show, somehow it feels like it would be a shameless act of self promotion. That doesn’t seem right in my mind. There may be a story there, I just have to find a way to make it sound better than a promo piece. Time to move on yet again.

The latest book I’m reading? I’m not even close to finishing it. Frankly it is a little more than a depressing history of the conquest of the Aztecs by the Conquistadors. While I do find it fascinating, since it was written by one who rode with Hernando Cortes, it’s not enough for a story. At least not yet. Slow days, yuck. What I really need is a story I can really sink my teeth into writing wise. It will come I know it will. The timing is a little off that’s all.

This is something of a first for me, being at a loss for words. Ask anyone in my circle of friends and family and they will all tell you that not only do I have the gift of the gab, I go a little farther to make it a curse of gab. Only one person is better at it than little old me. That honor goes to my older sister, Debbi, and boy she can go at it for hours — and that’s just a long distance phone call. If a person could get a speeding ticket for talking it up, she’d get written up for going 95 MPH in a 30 MPH zone.

I guess I have to chalk this up as lack of operator headspace for a story. Save it, submit it and forget it. Another issue or story will come along and hit me upside the head really soon. Let’s hope it doesn’t knock me out in the process. I have doubts about that though — I have a very hard head.

Right now I see a “Warehouse 13” marathon coming up on DVD tonight so I’m calling it done.

Daniel D. Grota is a retired U.S. Army veteran with over 21 years in service. He is also a Tuesday morning co-host on KVRF 89.5 FM, Radio Free Palmer. Write to him at news@frontiersman.com.