That’s the advice of a fellow blogger. Rather than abandoning a regular post for lack of ideas just start talking, who cares what you say.

I have a little trouble with the who-cares part.

Anyway, I decided to start talking and just see where it would go. At the very least, I thought I would tell you a quick story. One where I made a choice and got away with it, until I didn’t. It has to happen to all of us sometime, right?

So I was writing this inspired version of the story, including pictures to illustrate the point. The trouble was, one of the pictures was in a weird format and no matter what I did nothing changed. It was irritating because one picture was big and beautiful and the other was not.

The trouble escalated when I explored, trying to find something in this new editing format that would help me out.

I clicked on the Wrong button.

It was something called enhanced format or some such thing. I did not want to go there but it would not let me leave. There was no close or cancel button that I could see. No matter what I did it wouldn’t go away.

So I did the only thing I could do.

I trashed the whole thing.

I’m starting over with a scaled back version of my story…which is probably better anyway.

The law of averages says you can keep taking a chance but sooner or later something will backfire and get you.

I’ve been doing a bunch of pruning in my yard this fall.

I have a nice sharp pair of clippers. If I twist just the right way with grit and determination, I can muscle through some good sized branches. By good sized I mean about twice as big as one of my fingers.

Anything bigger I’m out of luck. Usually.

Last fall while my teenage grandsons were over I borrowed a long handled pruner from my neighbor and they whistled through the bigger branches. The ones I couldn’t cut with my clippers. They weren’t huge. Maybe an inch and a half thick.

This fall, I still had those long handled clippers. I looked at them, looked at my small trees and thought, why not? I bet I can cut something with them.

Sure enough, it worked and I was thrilled.

It was easy to move on to bigger and bigger branches until it was almost impossible to have the strength to squeeze the handles together enough to get the job done.

Where there’s a will there’s a way. Get creative.

With lots of whole body contortions I discovered I could rest one handle against my left side, grip the other handle with both hands and squeeze with everything I had. It worked. Sometimes I had to finish the last little bit with my small clippers, but it worked.

I was down to the second last tree and it was awkward up against the fence, so close to another tree. Somehow I just couldn’t seem to get the usual angles happening. My left side normally worked better for this chore but not this time. So I decided to give my right side another try.

Bad move.

Something popped. I was Ow, Ow, Ow, THAT hurt. Hmmm. Let’s go back to the left side.

I’ve never cracked a rib before.

It’s been about four weeks and things are starting to feel better. If I behave I can forget it’s even happened.

The trick is to know when to hold and when to fold. I gambled and lost 🙂

So, like my guy in the Sunday story prompt…. I have one more story to tell the grandkids.