Sadly, there's a double meaning to this entry title, but I'll stick to the good one. I cannot find the words to thank you all for your kindness over these last weeks while I was (and to a certain extent still am) stuck in a gloomy spot with no idea how to find a way out. You folks are aces. Special shoutout to Stiiv, and also his massive partner in crime Mongo.
I don't know what to do about the blog. I was taking my books off Amazon, but perhaps I should put them back up. I'm out of ideas. Suggestions are welcome.
I guess I'm still lost in the woods, but that doesn't mean the sunshine hasn't reached me.
You guys are aces. (And PLW, that means you ought to be dealt with.) (Ba dum dum.)
Thanks a million and a half.
Very happy to see you back! Hang in there - there are a lot of folks who care and support you. Looking forward to whatever you post. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSo very glad to see you, Fred! Now you have one more stop to make today...c'mon, Fred, Bleat Bleat Bleat!
ReplyDeleteFlangepart here.
ReplyDeleteYou inspired a lot of fun art for me Fredrick. I appreciate that. And I always look forward to your comments about The Trio.
We miss you and want you back. I a mood like yours, you may... no do need our help to crawl out. We're here for you.
I know how much my Church family has helped me keep going. The Barbara and I do so for each other. We understand.
Stay strong friend. Come back home.
Stay with it. All of us, your incorporeal friends, wish you the best. I don't know if you have ever thought of it this way, but your presence in the Bleat comments and on here means a few seconds of amusement for hundreds, every day. It does not sound like much, but those good feelings linger and build on themselves for years. You mean a lot to a lot of folks, and we have missed you.
ReplyDeleteAnd as someone pointed out yesterday, Fredcoin rallied on the news.
We miss miss you. You are very much valued. Hang in there and this will pass.
ReplyDeleteYay, Fred's back!
ReplyDeleterbj13
Well, Hey Fred! Been missin' ya at the bleat. -Mark Ingram
ReplyDeleteHang in there Fred. I've been in a curled up-on-the-couch-crying spot in my life. You just have to keep going and give things a chance to improve. It took a while for me, but eventually life lightened up. I look forward to seeing you at the Bleat, where Fredcoin is the currency of Champions!
ReplyDeleteHizzoner the Judge said it well. It's a funny thing, this incorporeal acquaintanceship business, but it's meaningful nonetheless. You may be a pill, but like most pills, you are good for us. I continue to wish the best for you. -- 993Dave
ReplyDeleteO, Fred:
ReplyDeleteBeen there, felt that -- or something similar. I have the woe-iz-mees right now because through no fault of my own (according to the HR director, my supervisor, and apparently, the company president who said nothing but looked sad) my job was "eliminated."
So, I'm no longer a proofreader. (Got a severance package, though.)
I wonder -- was it my obsession with commas and apostrophes? After all, I was being paid to be a pain in the ass. No?
Well, I'm trying to take it out on the weeds, of which I have an abundance. (Because murder is wrong.)
My next door neighbors are in a panic. They have a swarm of honeybees in their ornamental cherry tree. If it was me, I'd start a business -- have you SEEN the price of honey?
I found them the telephone number of the Lancaster County Beekeeper's Association.
My late father kept bees when he was a young man, courting my mother. He would take honey in the comb to sweeten his future mother-in-law. (It worked.)
I gather you can send for bees through the mail. True story: he was still teaching high school, when he was told that there was "an urgent phone call" for him. He ran to the office, imagination in high gear, to find that it was a phone call from the local postmaster, who said (frostily) "PLEASE COME GET YOUR BEES."
Apparently, the parcel containing the bees had broken, the bees were all over the post office, and neither the postmaster nor the people wanting stamps would enter the building until every last bee was removed.
The principal took over my father's classes; sighing, my father went home, got his smoker and his bee suit and un-bee'd the postoffice.
(aka Cleo Victory)
Words fail me also; any attempt at originality would fail miserably. I can only echo the sentiments of everyone above.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see you recovering. You don't have to be clever all the time; feel free to come here and whine. I promise to commiserate.
Consider this your happy place, or at least your less-meaningless place.
Or something. I know I am not a frequent commenter, but I (and no doubt others) am a regular lurker. I missed you.
We've never met, in person, but the Online Fred is someone I'm glad to have an acquaintance with. Count me in as one of those who wants to help pull you up from, or push you out of, whatever is bogging you down. The more Fred, the better.
ReplyDeleteVery glad to see you're still around, Fred! Most of us may be random Internet people (or dogs) but we still care and want to help out
ReplyDeleteHiya Fred!
ReplyDeleteI bought all your books off of Amazon, so it may be good to leave them up. I'm praying that things level out for you. I was ecstatic to see this post (a la Stiiv)! We miss you over at the Bleat. {{{{{}}}}}
There you are! Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteYour return has sparked happiness in me.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, welcome home.
I hope to see again your prose here, and at the Bleat, and even Insty, regularly. I enjoy your commentary.
OldFert
Fred, it's good to see you post again! As of others have said, there's no need to feel like you have to maintain a certain mood or persona - just be you. We're all just a bunch of people muddling through life, even if an online relationship doesn't always show the flaws. Glad you're around, and I'll keep you in my daily prayers.
ReplyDeleteWOW! The FredCoin market was in the dumper for a while, but suddenly, it's going crazy!
ReplyDeleteFredCoin: The Crypto with BahZow!!
(So good to read you post - and all the best to you!)
Fred,
ReplyDeleteNice to see you posting again. I have no words to beguile the doldrums and depression that have beset you. I will share a quote I found that helps me when I think I should quit writing and remove all my books. It helps me remember that sometimes I may only be writing for a few or the one, but if it means enough to the few or the one, it is enough.
“I have wrought my simple plan
If I give one hour of joy
To the boy who’s half a man,
Or the man who’s half a boy.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World
Hey Fred--a bit late to this party (wasn't really online this morn). So marvelous to see you. [Pulls out Websters. Looks up. Yes. That word will do.] I do miss your little avatar at the Bleat--and you, too of course! When life gets a bit stormy, remember Coleridge's words, "Online friendship is a virtual sheltering tree." (Unless there's lightning.) Marica
ReplyDeleteSo good to see you posting here at the Dose once again, but I'd steer clear of the Bleat if I were you. Some Mexican guy in a mask has taken over and he really gives me the creeps!
ReplyDeleteSo glad to see an update here.
ReplyDeletePlease do leave the books up on Amazon, though I think I've bought most of them.
Let us know if there's anything else we can help with.
I hope you keep posting here, even if it's once a month! I need my Fred fix! Thank you for doing it. Thanks for coming back.
ReplyDeleteHi Fred,
ReplyDeleteLots of encouraging comments here and I hope they gave you a lift. I had an ongoing problem with depression in my youth, along with social anxiety which was at times an even worse difficulty. I seriously attempted to kill myself when I was 24, although I had considered it as an option for some time by then. I was an atheist and assumed suicide would end my unhappy existence for good.
As you can see I survived the attempt—perhaps God had mercy on me. At any rate, 2 years later when I was 26, I discovered there is a God and here I am almost 50 years later, alive and (more or less) alert. Not long after that, I became a follower of Jesus, and although I could have done a lot better at it, he's never cast me aside.
My life hasn't been trouble free—I'd be the first person to ever accomplish that—but I'm grateful to God for the help he's given me in overcoming some of my neurotic tendencies, particularly anxiety and depression.
I'm praying for you, Fred. I'm not sure what the answer will be for you, but it will come from God. We are all very different so the solutions to our dilemmas will differ but the source of all that is good is God.
Here's Andrew Klavan telling how he was set free from depression, which he described as like a bola (throwing weapon) that used to wrap itself around his neck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ARO7ZaeT1E
As I say everyone's unique but I pray the same God who helped Andrew and me with depression will also help you.
Peace in Christ,
GregW
And there was much rejoicing among the many Johnsons of Rock Ridge.
ReplyDeleteGosh, Fred, it sure is good to hear from you, I think of you often, as an invisible friend who has been shouldering a burden that is all too familiar to me.
ReplyDeleteI say, teach that black dog some tricks. Make it roll over, and fetch, and sit up and beg!
Also Psalm 34:17-22. Hope to see you at the Bleat soon.
Jim T. aka PLW
Sir Fred,
ReplyDeleteThey say that the world is darkest just before the dawn (which goes to prove that "they" never sat up all night and watched the dawn arrive, like the fog, "on little cat feet") - but it works as a metaphor - it Sure seems like all & sundry (lots of "sundry" on the Bleat!) are staNding with you!
Hartley
It's a lovely day. I hope you're enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI am not a robot. Do robots drink coffee? Or Tullamore Dew (at bedtime)?
I wish I had magic advice to give you, in re the hideous and seemingly implacable mental blockage that prevents feeling hope, joy, interest, etc. Right now, I'm trying to figure out a way to make FRIENDS. My brother called me and asked if I was missing the job. I said "I got along with the people, but they're not going to be missed, the job was drudgery -- I really only miss the insurance benefits." (Hell of a note.)
What's weird (to me) about the Bleat is that I've joined an invisible neighborhood of people whom I will likely never meet. (And I have to say, I disagree with most of the political views expressed by the Bleatniks, but I don't challenge them because political debate is NOT one of my superpowers.)
Still -- if invisible neighbors can give you any solace, then it's a Good Think as M. Stewart would say. I am sending you an XXXL size bundle of good wishes.