Monday 28 October 2013

the rain floods gutters

(James - Sometimes)

The storm that was predicted didn't ever hit in our part of the country, although I'm not sure it was ever thought that it would. Even so, there has been a sense of foreboding about the day, as though the wind might pick up speed at any moment. The clouds overhead have seemed heavy with threat, and although the storm never came, the rain did. I had to do quite a lot of driving today, and the journey this morning was dismal. The rain was heavy and the cars on the motorway appeared to be driving on water, each set of tires leaving small waves in their wake. Through the spray, the red lights of the vehicles in front became a guide, mapping the contours of the road ahead.

Despite the grey it has been a successful day all in all. I have submitted final copies of my dissertation for binding to a man who appears to live under the stairs in a bookshop. The Harry Potter of the bookbinding world perhaps, maybe the Kindle is his Voldemort. He was proud of his gold-embossed lettering and sewn cloth covers. He only takes cash which he keeps in one of those lockable money boxes. I like to think he will take as much care of my dissertation as I did.




On the drive from the University I saw a pram outside a pub. It was eleven in the morning and there was nobody around. It was a jarring sight, an empty pram outside an empty pub, and I haven't been able to forget it. The pram was modern, brightly coloured, and difficult to miss, perhaps that is why it caught my eye. Although empty, it did not seem discarded, it looked too new for that. I can't help wonder if there is a story, and wonder if anyone else walked by and stopped, if it registered with them as out of the ordinary, as it did for me. I have the remnants of a passage from a book about empty prams and bad luck swirling in my head, but I can't pull it together or remember where it would be from.

I am writing this post on a word counting website for the first time. Since my laptop died a few weeks ago I tried to write posts on a tablet using the app version of this website, but the posting and formatting wasn't the most intuitive process. However, having resurrected the old desktop PC, or should I say, The Husband having resurrected the old desktop PC, I am enjoying working, and writing, at a desk again. Perhaps that is why I have managed two posts in two nights, although no promises that it will continue at quite the same rate.

What I like about this website is that, as well as counting the words, it also analyses the frequency of keywords in the writing, and works out which words are occurring most commonly within the post. I can see this becoming interesting in the future, particularly on days like this when I'm writing without a real sense of where the content might be going. I'm sure some psychoanalysis beckons based on my most used terminology, at the very least some version of a word association game could be construed. My top three words at the moment are:

although empty writing

Make of that what you will, although (there I go again with that one) I have to say it isn't the most auspicious summary for a blog post. Not exactly sounding like a riveting read based on that. I have half written so many posts and often feel like they don't quite amount to enough to justify a post, particularly one that has to be seven hundred words long. I think perhaps all I really wanted to write about today was that pram. I wanted to record it, share it, remember it. It seemed so poignant as I passed it, yet I'm not sure why, maybe it was the incongruence of it, or the sense of abandonment. It isn't on my normal route, I'm not even sure I could find my way back there. I hope it isn't still there.

9 comments:

  1. The empty pram kind of reminds me of Peter Pan for some reason!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thank you for comment joanne! hope you are well. I had to google Peter Pan & prams, makes me realise I don't think I have ever read it!

      Delete
  2. No, it wasn't just you bothered by the weather! I was sort of on tenterhooks all last Sunday night, even though I knew it wasn't going to reach us up North. The empty pram is sad, and strange, but there is probably a really normal and boring explanation to it somewhere! x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for your comment! This Sunday has been less tense for us - although our new puppy is not a fan of the fireworks so I think she might not agree!

      Delete
  3. This is my favourite sort of post - it starts somewhere and then meanders off somewhere else taking in all sorts of interesting views on the way - about all of which I want to say something.

    So I'll just say - thank you for visiting me and hooray for you being today's new blog I'm reading.

    And the rain flooded our gutters - not that night (the storm missed us too) but in August. It came through the smoke detectors in the end. Not fun...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. if you like meandering posts you are in the right place! they appear to be my specialty!

      Thank you very much for visiting, it is very much appreciated. and forget what I said about a misplaced sense of duty - you have to keep blogging now or I will see it as a direct reflection on the unsatisfactory experience you had reading new blogs!!

      sorry about the rain through the smoke detectors that sounds particularly bad, (especially in August!) hope the damage was repairable.

      Delete
  4. Congratulations on getting to that point with your dissertation. Worth celebrating each step of completion I think! Jean

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. many thanks! I went to read your blog and couldn't spot one? How did you find this blog?

      Delete
    2. No I tend to put my energies into photos on Redbubble and haven't started a blog, though I enjoy reading ones in the opposite hemisphere. I probably wandered here from another blogger listing you or from your comment on someone else's blog. Jean

      Delete