Ready, set, go!

There is nothing like a broken leg to keep you in one spot, staring at the computer screen, and KNOWING with every fiber of your being that you should be WRITING. One of my biggest excuses for not getting that book on paper is "I'm so busy training, I just don't have time."

Now, it is gone, my bike is parked for the summer, and all I can do is stare at this computer, which reminds me every day that I should be putting words on "paper" and using this time wisely. I've always been a multitasker, juggling two or three to-do's at a time, always in the middle of a cleaning project, constantly taking on more volunteer or paid work than I actually have time for.

Now, my days -- especially when the family is gone and it's just me and the animals -- tick by agonizingly slow. I've watched movies in the middle of the day -- how absurd! -- devour books like candy (even the really bad ones), call long lost friends to see what's up. In my good moment, I'll hobble down to the kitchen to try to tidy up or crutch down to the basement to put a load of laundry in. But those chores are painstakingly slow on crutches, and eventually I retreat to the couch or bed or whereever it is I can put my foot up and ease the neverending throbbing.

But: Enough whining. The reality is (after watching "Wendy and Lucy" on pay-per-view, which I swear is my last daytime movie!) I knew I needed to get busy.

So I DID!

Officially opening a document, I started writing. It's likely all gibberish and will end up the victim of the delete button, but for one hour, I just sat down and considered the words. Pounding them out one after another, I still am not attached to the story, but it's a beginning. Maybe it will evolve into something that makes sense. Maybe it will be a small part of something completely different.

It's just that after sitting around for three-plus weeks reading books while I'm laid up, I'm finally bored. I look at the "About the Author" pages and peer at the pictures of these people who just made it happen. They all look normal enough -- why can't I do it too?

Anyway, this post is a bit dull -- I know, maybe my lively story-telling abilities can only last for an hour at a time. But this is a start, and I hope not a stop. You've got to begin somewhere and why not now, with a dead-end story and a laptop easy enough to haul around while on crutches?