Inspiration comes where you find it, but it helps if you look for it. If you find something without looking, that's just luck, and it could happen to anybody. If you look, then find, you're an active participant. It's still kind of lucky if you find something when you don't start out knowing what it is you're looking for. I was just looking for something that I could turn into a journal entry, so I read the comments from previous entries.

As you know, I read all comments, always, and I almost always respond. But my responses are in the comments area, and I've grown to accept that most people won't go back and look at previous comments, no matter how eloquently I wax in them. And I wax more eloquently in some of those comments than I do in most entries. That's because I'm inspired by the fact that people actually read (and comment on) what I've written.

It's not that I feel I've wasted my time responding in the comments section. After all, the writing process is what gets me going here, and the reading is the gravy. It's an added reward for publishing my writing in an open forum and not caring (much) whether I've offended (or bored) anyone. I kept a private pen-and-ink journal for many years, long before I started doing anything on line. Long before there was a line to be on, in fact.

However, my writing has evolved over the years into something that I wouldn't have recognized those many years ago. Now that I know I have an audience, it doesn't even matter how small it is. You are an elite group, so it is pretty small. But the fact that most of the people I know of who read my journal have certain expectations has made me less willing to write about certain topics.

We've been here before, I know. But in the interest of writing more often, I might be more willing to consider topics that could create a little distance between us. I hope that isn't the case, and I don't take your indifference lightly, but I just have to go there every now and then. Let's just hope the Giants are worth writing about this summer, as they were two years ago. And in 1987, when I wrote about them nearly every day (and I still enjoy reading those private entries).

In response to questions about yesterday's entry (and questions nobody asked, but that came to mind while I was thinking about questions that were asked), I have no trouble getting my hair cut the way I want it, because all I want is for it to be hacked off to the point where I don't have to comb it for a couple of weeks. The salon has me on file, and they know what to do, and I've promised never to tell them they've taken too much off. Plus, added bonus: Yesterday my stylist knew enough to trim my eyebrows without my having to ask. Someone must have put that on the computer, too.
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Young oak, old oak.
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Naturally, I can't get a haircut every day to improve my mood. In fact, it's been something I do only half a dozen times a year for a long time now. Today I got my car serviced, which got me out into the world. The fact that I sat in the waiting room reading a book on the Kindle app on my phone shouldn't count against the fact that I was out in the world. They told me when I made the appointment it would take about an hour, so I was willing to wait.

When I got there, the guy said it would be an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I was there for two hours in all. If I'd known ahead of time, I probably would have taken advantage of their shuttle service and come home to get some work done. But I did get a couple of chapters read (and only nodded off twice, and not so anyone else in the waiting room would notice, as far as I could tell). And they always give my car a thorough washing when they're done, which is worth all the time and money of taking it there and waiting so long for it.

That got today off to another good start, and I did my best to keep it going from there. A good start helps, for sure.