I turned on the computer to write Tuesday’s posts, and I had nuthin.’

I looked at a blank document, and it looked right back at me and shrugged. “I can’t help you, pal. Just start pounding keys and see what comes ‘aht,” it said.

Well, at least that’s what I thought it said. The blinking cursor on the empty white screen seemed to be speaking to me in Morse code, and that was my interpretation.

This isn’t writer’s block. I’ve had that before. Writer’s block, as I’ve always felt, is more about having a story or column or angle stuck in your head and just being unable to get it to your fingertips to type.

No. This is more writer’s fatigue. This is more like trying to draw water from an empty well.

I can’t write one more column about how and why the Pittsburgh Pirates stink. We already know why. The owner needs to sell the team. The general manager and manager need to go. The players aren’t any good. Baseball’s economics are messed up. None of that is going to change.

I can’t write another column about waiting for Aaron Rodgers to sign his contract with the Steelers. It’s going to happen when it is going to happen, and if it doesn’t, eh, what’s the difference? Welcome back, Mason Rudolph! That seems to be what most Pittsburghers want anyway.

Now that the Penguins have finally parted with former head coach Mike Sullivan, that even feels anticlimactic — like it should’ve happened four or five years ago.

Probably because, well … it should’ve.

We’ve quickly exhausted that point of discussion. Now it’s just a waiting game to see who gets installed as Mike Johnston 2.0 so we can reboot that whole conversation.

We’ve beaten all the big local topics into submission, and they all feel repetitive because all three of Pittsburgh’s sports teams are trudging through the muck of extended mediocrity and failure at this point. There is nothing new to any of this.

But the old credo in any form of writing is to write what you know, and write what you feel. Oddly, amid this wave of sports-writing inertia I was enduring Monday, I noticed a sense of being thankful.

I was thankful for a lot of events, athletes and games outside of Pittsburgh that have stirred my interest in sports lately.

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Maybe that’s what I should write. Maybe I should just write a quick “thank you” note to all the recent moments beyond these three rivers that actually got my blood moving on a sports level.

So, here goes:

Thanks to the Winnipeg Jets for the late comeback Sunday night in Game 7 against the St. Louis Blues to force double overtime and advance to Round 2 of the Western Conference playoffs.

Also, thanks to Mikko Rantanen of the Dallas Stars for Saturday’s third-period hat trick against his old team. He played hero and heel at the same time to eliminate the Colorado Avalanche and push the Stars to a Game 7 win of their own 24 hours earlier.

It was nice to be reminded of what NHL playoff emotion looked and felt like after a three-year absence. Not to mention a seven-year absence from what a series-ending celebration felt like.

Thanks to Fernando Tatis for his mad dash home on that ninth-inning wild pitch Saturday evening at PNC Park.

At least something interesting came out of that Padres-Pirates series. Plus, if it wasn’t for Tatis’ assertiveness on the basepaths, that game could’ve lasted another couple of hours without the Pirates scoring in extra innings.

Thanks to Nolan Arenado, Victor Scott II and Daulton Varsho for your gloves. Thanks to Aaron Judge for your bat (which is now hitting .414.)

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It’s nice to get a glance at what good offense and defense for a change.

Thanks to Denver’s Aaron Gordon, Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks and Steph Curry and Buddy Hield of the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Playoffs. If we have to glom onto other teams in other cities in our sports, we might as well glom on to a pro sport we don’t even have.

Your theatrics gave us something to cheer about here in Pittsburgh, even if we don’t have a horse in the NBA race.

And speaking of horses in the race, thanks to Sovereignty for slogging through the mud to win a compelling Kentucky Derby.

In particular, thanks to Journalism and Baeza for finishing in the money as well so I could win a little cash.

Maybe something exhilarating like those moments can happen on the field, ice or courts around here soon enough as well. Until then, I’ll just say thanks to all of you for the inspiration.

And thanks for filling up the white page in front of my face.