Hi-ho Austin! Away!

I have mentioned before that I have the utmost respect for daily bloggers, especially those who seem to come up with clever, meaningful, inspiring, entertaining (choose all that apply) blogs each and every day and sometimes weekends too. I just can't do it. I can hack out Monday Meanderings most weeks, and if we have been on a trip or something special is going on I can sometimes get a blog on Wednesday AND Friday, but it's hard. I'm just not that creative,

However, I have been thinking about that and I just may have a solution. I once took a creative writing course and part of the instruction was a presentation from a couple of professors from the University of Oklahoma. Now right here I should go off on the oxymoron-ness of professors from OU and creativity, But see? I'm just not that quick. But I digress.

The presentation was an explanation of how the writers of the old Lone Ranger radio program - one of the longest-running radio programs ever - approached their formidable task. I think it's hard coming up with a few paragraphs and a couple of pictures once or twice (or three times, on good weeks). They had to fill 30 minutes, twice a week, 52 weeks a year, for more than 20 years! That's 2,956 episodes!

They did it with a matrix. I once had a copy of the actual matrix, but that writing course was many, many years ago and the matrix, like my memory, is long gone. It was rather sophisticated in its layout and design, but the bottom line is that had a list of all the protagonists possible in the old west - the rich rancher, the rancher's wife, the rancher's daughter, the ranch hand, the poor farmer, the farmer's wife, the farmer's daughter, the store keeper, the blacksmith, the lovable town drunk, Little Nell, Ma Barker, etc., etc.

Then they had a list of antagonists: the gunfighter, the card shark, the greedy rancher, the crooked sheriff, the greedy mayor, the mean town drunk, the mine owner, the cartel back East, the bandidos, the Hells Angels (oops, wrong program). Add your favorite antagonist..

Then they would intersect protagonists and antagonists with situations: water rights, sheepherders vs cattlemen, stage robberies, train robberies, bank robberies, marauding Indians, marauding pisteleros, bank foreclosures, droughts, floods, railroad bridge outages, meanness because they could - oh, there was a fine, long list of situations!

Matrix in hand, they methodically picked one from each column, overlaid them with the Lone Ranger rules; among them:

• The Lone Ranger is never seen without his mask or a disguise.
• At all times, The Lone Ranger uses perfect grammar and precise speech completely devoid of slang and colloquial phrases.
• When he has to use guns, The Lone Ranger never shoots to kill, but rather only to disarm his opponent as painlessly as possible.
• The Lone Ranger does not drink or smoke, and saloon scenes are usually interpreted as cafes, with waiters and food instead of bartenders and liquor.

Okay there you have it. My new plan for blogging. I will simply make a matrix. I think mine should have -  

Places: The recliner, the patio, the back yard, the front yard, on the roof (remind me to tell you about nearly calling 911 to help get me off the roof), the attic (remind...never mind. I've used that one), Port A, Fresno, Lubbock, Monterey  (and all points in between), various foreign countries we have visited, Fran's, Chuy's, Tres Amigos, Central Market, Erwin Center.... oh, I think this list could be very long!  

People and critters: family, friends, people of Wal Mart, people of street corners, Leslie, Texas quarterbacks and wide receivers, Lady Longhorns, Bevo, birds, stray dogs and cats. This too, could go on a while.  

Events: OK, here I have a quandary. Do I limit myself to things that really happen or do I make stuff up? At this point every member of my family is saying to himself or herself "What! He makes stuff up all the time!"  I guess I have my answer.

And of course, I too have rules to blog by:

• Truth should never get in the way of a good blog.
• If it can't be funny, it should at least embarrass some family member.
• If I'm smart I will be careful about which family members I embarrass.

I'm sure there are others; I just can't think of any at the moment.

So that's the new bloggy plan. Let me know how you think it's working out. Better yet, what Places, People and Events can you contribute to the matrix? Send 'em in and I'll put them in the mix.