Department of Disgruntlement

I think I'm in a dormant period. Another summer...

Oscar Emmons,Untitled (acrylic and marker on canvas)

I spent some of my time re-routing furniture in my study. I thought it would help.

My desk is still messy. But that is not what’s bothering me.

**okay, I spent a bunch of time rerouting so I could look at this painting whenever I turned my head. My son painted it a few years ago. And it’s sort of hiding a few favorite books, including Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Andersen’s Fairy Tales, and Sex and Broadcasting.

It JUST THIS VERY MOMENT (3:50 pm CDT, 9/9/25) occurred to me that maybe I shouldn’t be hiding these books. They might inspire me. It was just a convenient way to display the painting without drilling a hole in the wall.

I no longer have my laptop on my desk, it’s on its own standing/sitting mobile desk, and being mobile, It’s facing one window with my back to another.

MESS IS GOOD…

…I have decided.

It’s my mess and I can live with a lot of it. There are two things I’m having problems with: one is a file hanger that’s supposed to be in a file cabinet, only it won’t fit without me being seriously invested in working with it, so I’ve said what the hell and it’s just sitting on the floor waiting for me to get rid of it.

Thanks for listening. Okay, it’s going in the trash this week, tonight I mean.

The other thing is a small file cabinet from IKEA. It’s heavy as fuck. I’ve been putting off asking for help in moving it downstairs and out of the house for the donation pickup people.

There. I’ve put what’s irking me out there. Now it’s time to take action.

As it turns out, things I want to write and sort of plan to write, I’m not as invested in as the stuff that I’m going through right now. Note the “sort of.”

I think when the stuff I plan to write is more immediate and irksome to me, I’ll write about that then.

In the meantime, I’ve been rereading the last 3 Harry Potter books (the big ones). The 5th book is my favorite, when the youngsters start up the D.A. There’s just something inspiring about the kids rebelling against Umbridge, the school’s tyrant and Inquisitor.

Also, Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. It’s slow going for me, but also really good: so many sleazy and weird characters, and then of course, I worry about the young daughter in search of her mother… yup, that’s what’s hooking me.

And I’m sad because it’s September and I have not been to as many baseball games as I’ve wanted.

But here are some cheering things I’ve found on Substack: Beth Spencer’s Introvert Drawing Club:

She led a drawing session during a BATWRITE last month and that was so much fun.

Oh BATWRITE! That is one of the sparks in the world. With Alex Dobrenko, author-publisher of Both Are True, we meet for a couple of hours to write/draw/clean our rooms and desks/clean our brains of clutter/get rid of negative beliefs that are holding us back. With great music in the background.

So, having written today during the BATWRITE, I think it might be time to hit the old publish button.

Now, I feel gruntled.
But does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? About time?

Heard today at BATWRITE, Grant Green covering:

Thank you for reading Z Words.

So if you’re more gruntled than disgruntled now than before, tap my little heart, comment, and subscribe. It is absolutely free!

Or if you want, there are options for supporting my work. You can subscribe for $5/ month, $50/ year, or even more…

Or you can buy me a cup of coffee on Ko-fi. A one-time gift you can make as often and as randomly as you like.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash