Followers

Tuesday 25 November 2014

WordPress Daily Prompt: Calling Uncle Bob

Have you ever faced a difficult situation when you had to choose between sorting it out yourself, or asking someone else for an easy fix? What did you choose — and would you make the same choice today?


Armoury, Solothurn

Just a couple of bombs I borrowed from the Swiss Army, used probably in World War 1 and now kept in the Arsenal museum in our local town of Solothurn. You never know, they might come in handy in a difficult situation. Unfortunately I do not have an Uncle Bob. I had an Uncle Jim, he was the only uncle that went to work in a white shirt and tie. Now and again he even worked in the Bank of England, he was a bookbinder, but not just a bookbinder. He was entrusted with the noble books of the London establishment. I had an Uncle Harry and an Uncle Arthur. They did not wear a white shirt or a tie. They wore docker’s boots, the ones with the steel caps at the front. Yes, they were dockers, working in the Port of London and unloading shipments of oranges, bananas and guano from the cargo ships. You know what guano is? That is the result of thousands of birds using the rock surfaces in certain places as a toilet. It is very useful as fertiliser when collected, it can be many feet deep. The problem is that when the dockers unload it from the ships all day a certain aroma attaches to their clothes and docker’s boots. No problem, when they are home. They can wash. Unfortunately the docks were not equipped with showers, One of my uncles always got a seat on the train because no-one wanted to sit next to him. The other uncle road a bicycle so he had no problem. I am digressing.

Back to the bombs and their use. First of all I would like to show a link to a little topic I started yesterday in the WordPress forum. No big deal, not really important, just one of my misery gut days where I feel like complaining. Unfortunately the person dealing with my complaint somehow lost the thread, I corrected her - politely of course, and the problem has still not been solved, but who cares. It now belongs to the past, it is extinct, disappeared in the ashes of the graveyard of forgotten and neglected prompts. We have all survived and return today fresh and ready to go. Who needs an Uncle Bob, Jim, Harry or Arthur. We have our people working hard in the Daily Prompt WordPress offices that look to our needs. Oh, here is the link you are all waiting for. My Little Complaint - need I say more?

So I had a difficult situation. I wrote a prompt and had nowhere to go with it. The prompt was showing “0 Responses” and 24 hours later it is still showing “0 Responses”. I was lost, even my faithful Wordy did not answer the phone, I think there was a recording saying “this number does not exist”. Poor little Wordy, he is extinct, thrown into the recycling plant of lost Wordies.

I asked someone for an easy fix, and am still waiting for an answer. Would I make the same choice today? I do not think so, as I discovered it would have been easier to get a fix in the darker parts of the town where they make a living out of supplying fixes, although that has its price and I only drink tea or take tablets for my diabetes, my cholesterol and my giddy spells.

I now have to make my own decision, fellow daily prompters. I really do not want to acquire the reputation of a trouble maker, nor do I wish to spread rumours about the incompetence of certain people. I was a working lady most of my life and know that we can all make mistakes. The clever part of making mistakes is correcting them as quickly as possible or, when that does not work, talk your way out of it and invent something, even an explanation would suffice. There is the possibility of hoping everyone will forget the mistake. The problem with social blogging sites where many thousands hang onto their keyboards with quivering fingers is that the mistake does not go unnoticed and a reputation may be at stake. However on the other hand, there are always newcomers eager to get to a good start and do not know what happened in the past.


Let us not let our blogging heads hang, it can only get better. It may seem to most of us that regularly the subjects of the prompts repeat themselves. For us regulars this is so, but for the newcomers everything is new, invigorating, exciting and impressive. Who am I to spoil it? However, I am thinking things over, what shall I do in the future. Shall I desert my faithful disciples or shall I continue regardless? Perhaps I have a mean streak, a death wish, but at the moment I will remain until someone finds a better idea.


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