Scaling Mount Talent
I love you.
I hate you.
I love your wonderful words, spun out like thread, woven into intricate tapestries that are by turns gossamer light or substantial as a good, wool blanket. I love your glorious images; photos that capture my fancy and cartoons that tickle it.
I hate when your prolific bounty outruns my limited time. I hate the oppressive sense of obligation I feel towards those for whom I feel love in even greater measure.
Sometimes I dread your offerings at the same time I eagerly await them.
When woes and obligations weigh me down…
When joys and daily life claim all my attention…
When, whether by choice or necessity, I have been away from you for more than several days…
…my finger hovers hesitantly. I delay that tiny click, almost dreading the abundance that may result. The too-much-of-a-good-thing mountain I will have to scale, mental grappling hook and rope in hand.
I have chosen you. You are the best of the best. But it is a relief to discover that my WordPress Reader presents nothing new for me to digest today.
Thank you Blogs I Follow. Thanks for nothing.
Peg-o-Leg's Ramblings 
Ha! Nice. I feel the same way, at times. Sometimes Nothing is a fabulous gift. 🙂
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Funny how that happens.
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You’re welcome. I’ve been working hard not to post anything today or yesterday or last week or …
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I noticed your restraint. You are a true friend.
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so it is a perfect day to try something new! or not.
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Good point, good point.
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My heart pounds / stomach knots on days I can’t read all of my blog subscriptions. Like yesterday. I missed one of yours. What kind of a friend am I?!?!
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Exactly. You have my permission to skip when daily life is overwhelming. Except that my feelings will be hurt. Wha??? I know, I know.
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Well said! If you follow me, I’m glad I didn’t overwhelm you today!
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Thank you for your understanding. 😉
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Oh- Same Here! How do I keep up? How do I not hurt your feelings if I can’t?
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I’m soooo torn about this sometimes. Not enough hours in the day.
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Ok, I hate to be THAT guy who brings down the nice nood u set here by whining… But a lot of posts haven’t been showing up on readers over the past week – blogs I follow and my posts on others’ readers. But the good news is with a little clicking you’ll have ur full of great posts. And some junk.
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Oh, great; it’s THAT guy.
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What’s going on with posts not showing up? I am experiencing unusually low traffic. Maybe everyone is too busy to read!
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It’s a WordPress thing that happens every couple of months. Last time i had a doozy of a post I was particularly proud of, but it got zero visibility. I’ve reported it but by the time they respond (if they do) te problem is mysteriously fixed. 😦
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Oh! I am going to blame yesterday’s low visibility on a post I thought was good, on WordPress then. Or, it could be a sign that I should reconsider blogging. 🙂 Thanks for the tip.
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You’re so right, Mr. Hedonist. WordPRess DOES seem to go through these glitches every couple of months. Do you think it’s just to keep us on our toes?
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Please, Mr Hedonist was my father… (Always wanted to use that one). There’s gotta be some secret agenda there. They don’t acknowledge it happening at all. Like Area 51 or sonethjng like that.
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I sometimes think WordPress is just one big sociology experiment being run by U of M. May I call you by your first name, Thefoo?
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Love it!
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Thanks for giving me a giggle peg-a-leg. I’m new to blogging, so thankfully have not experienced the same anxieties. Such a lot to look forward to!
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If it’s whining you want, you’ve come to the right place.
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I had a feeling it was going to be my best post ever!
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Dang! I’ll catch it on your Greatest Hits album.
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Your words. Exactly. Aside from your post today, I don’t know the last time I read a post. Unlike the Rolling Stones, time is not on my side, at least from the leisurely reading standpoint. Gotta go! 🙂
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I think you shot yourself in the bloggy foot by taking on that photo-a-day challenge last year, Lenore. How could you NOT get overloaded?
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My sentiments exactly!
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Glad to know I’m not alone.
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No new blogs to read? You could always catch up on the latest celebrity gossip or something productive like that!
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Good point! I must find out when Jen and Brad are getting back together.
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Oh, man, Peg! You nailed another one. So, if we ALL feel this way, then we’ll ALL stop freaking when our viewer numbers dip. Right?
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Ummmm…..no. Doesn’t work that way, Sandy, as you know.
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Sigh. That’s what I thought.
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My Reader is cluttered and may need a good cleaning, but there’s always the blogs I can’t NOT read. Yours is one of them, Peg!
And you’re welcome – I haven’t posted this week. Yet.
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Rache, you always know just the right thing to say.
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SSSOOOOO glad I’m not the only one! I so enjoy your blog, Peg!
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WHy, thanks so much, Society!
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Hahaha!
I tried to explain the pressure of this to my husband last night. He said I should give myself a break, since I suddenly have a whole new time suck on my hands. But here I am!
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…and I’m so glad you came. But nonbloggers just can’t understand this, can they? (shakes head in wonderment and adopts condescending smile at the innocence of the unblogged)
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After reading this to my husband he said, “She is funny!” He tries…. 🙂
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I KNEW I liked your husband.
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You have permission to not read my posts when you get behind. I will understand. Does that help?
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Yes and no. I know you THINK you mean it but, if you’re anything like me, you secretly DON’T mean it and don’t understand why everybody doesn’t read you every day. Makes no sense, I know.
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You’re welcome. Blog post to follow soon. 🙂
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Nooooooo! (pressure, pressure, pressure….)
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I am glad you appreciated my radio silence!
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I miss you, Katy. (sticking bottom lip out)
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No, I missed you too, Katy! (grabs Darla’s stuck-out bottom lip, gives it a good tug and snaps it back like a rubber band.)
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Dang!
That hurt.
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I sooooo understand this. Sometimes it is a relief to see that empty reader. You are the bomb, Peg.
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It’s never empty for long, is it, Renee? Not that that’s a bad thing when we’re talking quality blogs like yours.
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Maybe we need a National Post-Free DayYou know, to give us hard-working bloggers a well-deserved day-off.
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That wouldn’t be a bad idea…do you think WordPRess would think it was a strike? Would all of our readers desert us and subscribe to a bunch of scab-bloggers?
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And yet I wonder how you would have felt, poised to sit for hours at your computer absorbing the written goodness, to find the same emptiness before you? Such a double-edged sword.
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I’m never poised to sit for hours. I’m perched to dash in for minutes, then I get sucked into the goodness-vortex for years like a cyber Rip Van Winkle.
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Oh, yeah! People need to stop with the posts, it’s too much. And yet here I am, faced with yet another gem of a Paint drawing of you scaling WordPress Mountain (now one of my new favorites by you, Pegcasso) and I had to click and see what’s what. Why, Peg? Why do you do this to me?
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Pegcasso….hmmm, has a nice ring to it, Darlwhineiac. Why do YOU do that voodoo that you do so well?
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I think someone else mentioned it but lots of posts aren’t showing up in the Reader. I know that I’ve missed plenty and though my Reader was low. So I started individually clicking and realized people were posting, it just wasn’t showing up on my Reader.
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Killjoy.
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Guilty. I also go by as “Wet Blanket” and “who invited her?!”
Take your pick.
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When my reader is empty, it gives me more time to watch Duck Dynasty! 🙂
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Oh no, I think I got hooked on that show! I didn’t mean for it to happen, but I watched 3 episodes last night. Save me!
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MK is a huge fan of that show. I got to watch it with the Chasers Sunday night and a few weeks back, on a TH night. It’s silly, but better than most of the reality shows. Still, I don’t think I want to get hooked on it!
Loved the post today, by the way. Keep on blogging, Peg and fellow blogstars. I’m too busy reading to write my own posts. Le Sigh…
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But that will all change this summer, right Tar? Right?
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What? There must be something wrong with your WP reader! Mine is never ever empty, even after I have spent an entire morning reading and responding. There is always someone in another time zone pushing that darned “Publish” button…
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This post was inspired by a once-in-a-lifetime, midday check that turned up empty so….yeah.
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I feel so much better for me, and, well, not so much better for you. Catching up (like I’m doing now) seems like a full-time job!
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haha…so true, so true. So I’m out visiting daughter and haven’t posted since last week and yesterday, Wednesday I received as many views as if I had just posted! Go figure!
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What does it all mean, Georgette????
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What a perfect depiction of my love/hate relationship with blogging.
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It seems to be a common complaint, Lisa.
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Glad to be of service! In my case your reader would be accurate but I can’t imagine no one posting. I have way too many every day and I can’t resist a one. Which, just happens to be one of the reasons I never get around to writing myself. To busy wallowing in everyone else’s genius.
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Oh my, but you speak truth. And reading and blogging keeps me from writing that best-seller that is bursting to come out of me for an adoring public!
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I love that completely caught up feeling.
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Yeah, me too. Except when I’m too busy for it.
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Thankfully you don’t have any posts from the blogs you are following, because that gives you plenty of opportunity to check out mine. haha. Or just go outside and enjoy the sun, or something… 😉
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So many wonderful, fabulous blogs (like yours), so little time!
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😉
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THE PRESSURE! THE PRESSURE!…
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Ain’t THAT the truth!
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“I hate when your prolific bounty outruns my limited time. ”
Oh, I needed this post – the past couple of days have been manic – so many blogs getting depressed from my lack of attention.
Love the red climbing shoes! Cheered me right up.
Have a great weekend!
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I don’t get very good traction in them, but that’s the price you pay for high fashion.
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HA! Hilarious, Peg!
It’s what I do best, you know!
🙂
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It’s not easy to do nothing well, SIG. It’s an art form.
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The fact that you are not following my blog (to the best of my knowledge) actually makes me feel much better now, because my posts don’t contribute to that maddening pressure on you to read everything your favorite bloggers keep posting (and posting, and posting, and posting… slow down already!). And boy, do I feel that pressure myself – some of the blogs I follow post 5-10 times on a good day…
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Wha??? You must be joking about the 5-10 times per day.
I have a little confession to make. I subscribe to very few blogs because of the situation I describe in this post. Clicking on the Reader and finding a ton of unread stuff just piles on the pressure for me. I prefer to meander about as the winds take me. Don’t hate me!
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I am not at all joking about 5-10 posts a day. I read a number of political blogs, and some of them are pretty prolific, or reblog/repost stuff from elsewhere. I counted, and there were 18 posts from just 4 blogs on Friday morning by 10:30am. I feel guilty skipping some of these posts (mainly reblogs and re-posts are the ones I tend to miss), but I have to, if I still want to do some work.
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Don’t you hate how real life interfers with blogging?
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Absolutely. My work part of real life even made up a policy that I’m not supposed to post, comment or like blogs while at work. Luckily, my sleep part of real life is much more flexible.
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I know blogs have been posted, and wonder why the Reader hasn’t been informed! Since you’re not reading, I guess you have plenty of time to WRITE. 🙂
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Yeah, and that’s a good thing because I am not a “Dash off a masterpiece” kind of writer. Everything is painstakingly written, rewritten, edited, marinated, crossed off, etc, etc until the topic is way past its freshness date.
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Lol love it!
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My feelings exactly, Peg! I’ve been dreading the morning visits to my virtual mailbox– so many new posts (from other people… clearly not from me) and so little time. I like to think that I’m with everyone I follow in spirit, even if I’m not visible in their comment sections. And to clarify: I’m with everyone in spirit, not in a creepy, stalker way, but in an angelic, comforting way. (Still sound creepy? Ah, nuts.)
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No, no, it IS in the angelic, comforting way. I always knew you’d look good in a halo.
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If only blogger guilt resulted in weight loss…
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People who are living the life of MY DREAMS in Italy have every excuse not to read anything. I hate you.
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Kiss, kiss.
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makes me feel so much better about being an intermittent blogger 🙂
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It just means you’re busy having a life, right?
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Absolutely! if I don’t then there is nothing interesting to blog about!
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My thoughts (feelings) exactly. I think sometimes I will catch up, then I know I won’t and guilt eats at my brain. Those swiss cheese holes are growing larger, it is a terrible thing.
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Ha! A Swiss cheese mind is a terrible thing to waste.
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