MediocreMan

My Mountain Goat Niece · 1 August 2026

One of my nieces, Valentina, must be part mountain goat.

Now, I am not going to talk about genetics here or anything like that. After all, it would be absurd to think that one of my niece’s parents is actuallhy a mountain goat. No. I just want to talk about her ability to walk and run.

My brother and his daughters were visiting last week. We had a great time with them all. We ate and had fun and ate a lot more and had a lot more fun. Like I said, it was a great time together. But Valentina had work to do too. She had to keep up her training. She had to run. So naturally, I ran with her. One day. Thankfully, we only ran one day.

Valentina was supposed to run five miles on their first full day with us. So I told her that I would run with her, even though it might not be the whole way. We got up early and ran a while. Then I told her to run ahead to the top of a hill that we could not see yet. I walked a bit more, then waited for her to run back to me. Then, we ran some more and I had her run down a street to the end where there was a cul-de-sac a quarter mile down. I waited at the end of the street for her to return. Then, when we got back to the house, I told her that the loop around the house (which we had run in segments) was just under a mile. So I told her to run it one more time to get at least close to her five-mile target. She did and made her target. (It turned out that I ran about half of it. But that is a different story.)

Now running at the same pace forever does not make somebody a mountain goat. In fact, it was merely a preview of how much of a mountain goat Valentina really is.

The next day, we had planned on going on a hike. It turned out that not everybody went on the hike to Wallace Falls, but four of us did. Now, if you want to take an easy hike in Western Washington, pick somewhere other than Wallace Falls. (I had done it before, but did not remember it being so rigorous.) It is about three miles straight up to get to the top of the falls. Do not get me wrong, it is a wonderful view. (Actually, many wonderful views.) But the price of admission is steep. Very steep. (Please pardon the pun.) Well, my niece wanted to continue the hike to Wallace Lake. Her sister did not. And she probably saved my brother. (Which is another completely different story.) So Valentina and I continued our walk. Thankfully, it was mostly flat to the lake.

Getting to the lake was a bit anticlimactic. Oh sure, it was a nice lake, but there was not really much access to the shore. And the shore we did access was muddy. I, for one, do not need to see Wallace Lake again. Too much work to just see a lake and not really enjoy it. Still, we had lunch at the lake. (There was a picnic table.) Then, we walked back to the parking lot. Which was still a long way off. Longer than I thought. Much longer.

I forgot to mention that the day we hiked up to Wallace Falls and Wallace Lake might have been the hottest day ever. Okay. Probably not ever, but it was surely in the nineties during the hottest part of the day when we were in the sun. Not really your optimal hiking weather. Fortunately, we had the shade of the trees for most of the hike. Unfortunately, going downhill was hard on my body. Especially my feet. (Whoever thought that 5/8 minus rock for trails is a good thing does not know any barefoot or minimalist walkers or runners. Which is still another completely different story.)

Well, you have probably guessed that Valentina had no problems at any point in the hike. She bounded up the hill. She walked at a steady pace on the flats. She waited patiently for me on the downhill plod. I do not know if her respiration or heart rate ever increased during the whole trip. She just kept walking. No matter the terrain. No matter the steepness. No matter what. She just kept walking. Like I imagined a mountain goat would traverse the terrain. No thoughts of it being tough at all. Just walk. And walk. And walk.

Well, the end of the story is that we did make it. (Obviously.) We did not really know that it would be over a six-hour hike. Nor did we really think that we would walk the equivalent of a half marathon. (The other two hiked just over half that distance. Straight up and straight down.)

While I know that round is a shape, I will remember that I need to be in much better shape next time my niece comes to town and wants to go running or walking. And no, I will not tell her to go take a hike. I will go with her. Even if I know that I will still not be able to keep up with Valentina, my mountain goat niece.

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DailyPrompt Writer Question · 25 July 2026

I have a question for those who are on DailyPrompt who compete in the competitions. Actually, it is probably a broader question for anybody who participates in writing competitions. Do you submit multiple entries or just one (hopefully, great) entry?

Now, if you were going to participate in a raffle, the obvious answer is to enter as many times as you can afford. As long as you want the prize. Or you could calculate what number of entries gives you sufficient odds of getting some prize (assuming there is more than just the grand prize). Of course, you would need to have a good estimate of how many people were entering the competition to do that.

Personally, I do not enter raffles unless I am really just giving money to a good cause. (Even then, I rarely enter.) But I do enter writing competitions. At least I do when they do not cost me any money to enter. (I have entered a few competitions that had entry fees, but that was a long time ago.)

DailyPrompt has a writing competition every two weeks, so I enter. And there have been times when I give multiple entries. Several times. Not that I always want to enter multiple times. There have just been some prompts that inspire multiple stories. So I submit multiple entries.

The question is whether those multiple entries lower my chances of getting in the top three. Or even the top ten.

Now, I have not really cared about the answer. In fact, I still do not care about the answer. I just write. And I just publish. It does not even matter whether anybody reads what I write or not. I just put it out there. And that is true with my DailyPrompt submissions as well as all of my other writings. I just enter the competitions (and publish my books and my blog) and let the chips fall where they may.

So if it does not matter, why ask the question?

I am glad you asked.

I guess I do not really have an answer. I am just throwing the question out there for people to ponder for themselves. You see, I write and write and write even if I have no readers. (I actually do have a few. Thank you faithful few.) And so when I write, I do not worry about readership. I just put it out there.

The same is true with submissions for DailyPrompt competitions. I put them out there whether I think other writers will vote for them or not. This is especially true when the competition is submitting prompts for DailyPrompt to use as prompts. For some reason, I come up with tons. In fact, I wonder if they think I spammed them on this current competition. So far, I have 27 out of the 150 entries. I just like coming up with prompts. Or they just like finding my brain. It does not really matter. I just keep entering the competitions.

When it comes right down to it, I would probably put all my effort into a single entry if I was going for the win in DailyPrompt competitions. But I am not. Do not get me wrong. I would love to win another competition. Maybe more than just one more. But that is not my goal. My goal is to have fun with a different writing paradigm. After all, writing for prompts is different than blogging and writing books. It is like practicing. And I love to practice. (Which is a completely different story.)

So if you are a DailyPrompt competitor, sorry. I did not give you any help. Except maybe to say that I will continue to give as many DailyPrompt submissions as I come up with. Regardless of what my odds are of winning any competition. I think of it as practice. And maybe you can think of it that way too.

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About Nothing · 18 July 2026

What do bloggers write about when they have no subject to write about? I tend to write about nothing.

I do not know what other bloggers write about when they have nothing to write about, but I tend to write about nothing. Or about writing. Or about writing about nothing.

If you have been reading my blog for long, you probably know that I tend to write about whatever comes to mind. My subject might be some story of what happened to me the other day (like last week). Or it might be a piece I posted on DailyPrompt (a fair amount of those since I joined). Or it might be a piece about my writing process (lots of those). Or it might be a piece about nothing (a few of those too).

Yes, you read that right. I sometimes write about nothing.

Now, writing about nothing is not as easy as it might seem. I mean how can a writer dedicate a few hundred words to nothing? Really. It does not seem possible that a person could write lots about nothing. But I have. Just a few weeks ago would be just one case in point (Short and Sweet). And there was one a long time ago called Jibber Jabber. (I wrote that in honor of a friend and former colleague. Note where “former” is in the last sentence. In front of colleague, not in front of friend. Just saying.)

So how does a writer go about writing about nothing? I am not sure. I just do it. Then again, some people might think that I am not a writer. They might think that I am just a hack with a website. Which anybody can do. You can make websites out of thin air in just a few minutes. At least if the different hosting ads are to be believed.

At any rate.

I sometimes wonder if I am really a writer, but I suppose that I have a large enough body of work out there to suggest that I am. Which is nice. Not that anybody reads, mind you. But it is there for those who do. (Thank you faithful readers (both real and imaginary).)

I do need to say one other thing before I finish writing about nothing. I have been putting off blogging until the last minute lately because I have been enjoying writing little DailyPrompt pieces. I enjoy putting together little complete stories for those prompts. I do not write pieces for all of the prompts, mind you. But I do enjoy writing for them. (By the way, I have a piece I am saving for Halloween. I wrote it a while back, but I enjoyed it. And I think it is entertaining. I know Halloween is a ways away, but I hope you are waiting with bated breath.)

Okay. I must say this before I sign off for the week. Writing about nothing is not as easy as it sounds. Oh sure, you can just go off on a stream of consciousness, but that tends to stick to one subject. No. To write about nothing, you really need to write about a bunch of little somethings and keep them as separate as possible (or keep them together somehow). Then, in the end, just say, “Violà!”

And that is how you write about nothing.

Violà!

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