Life in progress

Monthly Archives: February 2016


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Share Your World – Week #9 and #LoIsInDaBlog Final Day!

This is actually week #1 for me, since I’ve never participated in Share Your World before. This is exciting! On to the questions.

Have you done something you truly want to do today?

I’ve been procrastinating all day. I have so many huge projects to get on with, and yet all I can manage is to look at the clock and stress over time running out. What is that, anyway? Is there a name for this kind of anxiety? It’s weird. I think part of my problem is lack of exercise. I need to get out more often.

What can you help the world with?

What I’d like to help the world with is inspiration. I love being inspired and I strive to share my love of inspiration with the world. What I think I do help the world with (or at least I hope I do) is teaching by example, things like compassion, non-judgementalism, and that it doesn’t hurt to be honest.

If life was ‘just a bowl of cherries’… which fruit other than a cherry would you be..?

An avocado. Like me, they’re so misunderstood. Though I’d enjoy being in a state where I’m mistaken for a vegetable more often.

Quotes List: At least three of your favorite quotes?

“Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.” ~ Chuang Tzu

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” ~ Charles Schulz

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” ~ Groucho Marx

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful that puppy Winston is beginning to heal from his wounds, and is healthy and active.

To answer the second part of the question, more of just this:

Alex and Winston, February 29th, 2016

Alex and Winston, February 29th, 2016

 

The Share Your World prompt can be found here: http://ceenphotography.com/2016/02/29/share-your-world-2016-week-9/ Thanks, Cee, for the great questions!

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Because love, this post is also part of Love Is In Da Blog: https://justfoolingaroundwithbee.wordpress.com/2016/02/28/a-last-loisindabl-prompt-for-2016/ which is on its final day today! So hard to believe! Thanks so much, Bee, for hosting it again this year. 😀

Love Is In Da Blog

 


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#SoCS – Playing with my food

As a child I was always told, “Don’t say you don’t like it if you haven’t tried it.” I have to say, I was more open to trying strange foods back then than I am now. But then again who knows if I’d have put a bug in my mouth and munched on it when I was a kid… I certainly won’t do it now.

Back then I did eat quite a few things that I still enjoy, that most people find weird. Pickled herring, blood pudding, and sour pickled onions to name a few. One thing I’ve only recently had the opportunity to eat again because of Japanese sushi, that I haven’t had since I was a child is eel. My parent’s best friends, Dot and Bob, lived next door to us all my life growing up. Bob worked in downtown Toronto for the city and he knew a lot of different shop owners. One such place he used to frequent had fresh eels. And I’m talking really fresh… he brought them home live. I remember playing with them in the kitchen sink at his house. One time in particular, when Dot (who hated them) and I were alone, one jumped out of the sink and was writhing around on the kitchen floor. She screamed for me and I, four years old at the time, had the job of picking it up and putting it back in the sink. It’s no wonder I’m not afraid of snakes. And no, I didn’t get in trouble for playing with my food.

I haven’t seen a live one since, but I do still enjoy the flavour. If you’re looking for it in a sushi place, the Japanese word is unagi.  Now I have a craving for sushi…

SoCS badge 2015

This post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here https://lindaghill.com/2016/02/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-2716/ and join in all the delicious fun today!


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I think something’s fishy

For the past couple of months the water coming out of my water heater has been getting colder and colder. It’s to the level now that I can turn the shower on full-hot, do (only) what I have to in there, and get out to a mirror that hasn’t seen steam in weeks. The water heater is a rental, so I called the company to come and fix it.

Today a contractor came out to have a look. To start with, he ignored both the puppy and the cute kitty, so that was one strike against him already.

He felt the pipes coming out of the water heater and asked me to turn on the tap. I did. Then he asked me to compare the temperature of  the pipe going out to the wash basin compared to the pipe coming directly out of the hot water tank. After being told it was too hot for him to touch, I held it. And held it. I had to admit it was a bit hotter than the other one, but not nearly as hot as he claimed it to be. Strike two.

Next, he told me it’s definitely the “mixer pipe” at the top of the tank, where the cold and the hot mix to regulate how much goes out so no one scalds themselves. “We only put these regulators on for the very young, the handicapped, and the elderly,” he said. “Everyone else has the sense to turn the cold on if the water’s too hot.” With a young son, a handicapped son, and an elderly mother that comes to visit, my thought was “Strike Three.”

You’d think that would be enough, but he got one more strike in before he left. “Do you have cash? Because, I don’t like to paint everyone with the same brush but people who’ve given me cheques in the past have ended up bouncing them and not paying. I can fix your mixer pipe for $200. Cash. It’s not covered under the rental of the water tank.”

Would you trust someone who doesn’t trust you? Or is he just a poor plumber who can’t get paid? Sounds fishy to me.


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 27/16

Friday’s here and so is your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. It’s been a tough day for coffee already, and it’s only 8:30. First, I turned on the coffee maker and realized 5 minutes later I’d forgotten to prepare the coffee last night. Then I made it and the filter collapsed. So now I’m waiting for my McDonald’s breakfast to be delivered. Yes, they deliver when your best friend has a car and he got off work early too.

Oh, and by the way, this is the closest we’re going to get to the two year anniversary of SoCS! I started it on March 1st, 2014. Congrats to all of those who’ve been with me since the beginning! Anyway, on with the prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “food.”  Make food the theme of your post. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

SoCS badge 2015

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


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My Top Ten List of Annoying Things for This Week

It seems to me that, though life in general is made up of them, there are weeks when little annoyances build up rather substantially. Or perhaps I’m just less tolerant of them. During weeks like these, it’s important to keep a sense of humour lest I end up totally bonkers due to the stress of it all. Failing the ability to laugh at my woes in the privacy of my own closet (which is where the men in the white coats SHOULD NOT LOOK FOR ME!! IGNORE THE GIGGLES COMING FROM THE CLOSET!!!) this blog enables me to share my madness with all of you. Aren’t you lucky? Here we go.

My Top Ten List of Annoying Things for This Week

  1. Having a fantastic idea for a blog post that’s so freaking good that I didn’t need to write it down.
  2. Famous last words.
  3. Getting all ready to have a shower and then realizing I need to wash my clothes first.
  4. Snow days. All one of them.
  5. Firefox crashing every evening at about 7. What’s up with that?
  6. Having a to-do list that’s longer than there are hours in a day.
  7. Meat in the fridge that won’t wait just one more day before it expires. C’mon, meat! Have a bit of decency!
  8. Not being able to get more fridge magnet letters from Toys ‘r’ Us.

    9. on the bright side, the accent is correct

  9. Chocolate. More specifically, orange Kit Kat. Why does it have to be so mouth-wateringly delicious?!
  10. Not being able to come up with ten annoying things, damnit!

So, how has your week been so far?


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HarsH ReaLiTy Has Moved!!!

No more HarsH ReaLiTy on WordPress!!
Comments closed here. Visit the original post to put in your two cents. Thanks.


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Wordless Wednesday and #LoIsInDaBlog – The Eye and Palette Town

From the top of the Eye. Recognize anything?

From the top of the Eye. Recognize anything?

 

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

2007

 

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Apparently I only visit places with giant wheels

Brought to you by Wordless Wednesday and The Bee at Just Fooling Around With Bee for LoveIsInDaBlog


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One-Liner Wednesday – Life, Interrupted

 

“We’ve got all the time in the wo…” she said as the meteor hit.

CAM01326lots of time!

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com

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Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our new, very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!


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#tuesdayuseitinasentence – Quell

It’s not easy to quell the enthusiasm and curiosity of a puppy. Who would want to?

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Winston, 16 weeks old

Tuesday Use It In A Sentence is brought to you this week by My Loving Wife. Click here and find out how to join in today!


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Writing Random Writing

I’ve been writing. Actually, I’ve decided that it’s about time I turned this writing career of mine into an official profession, and to do that I need to be paid for what I do. To this end I’ve begun to look for writing jobs that are paid. On Friday I submitted a story for an anthology based on fairy tales, or specifically the continuation of fairy tales after the point at which the story ended as originally told. I decided to tackle Alice in Wonderland. We’ll see where that goes.

My current project is to write ten 100-word stories under the category of speculative literature. I thought that with my recent foray into writing 50-word stories, twice that length would be a breeze. I’ve written one so far, nine more to go by the end of the month. Whatever doesn’t fit into the genre (or whatever I can’t get to stretch all the way to 100 words) will likely be posted on my fiction blog.

On the novel front, I’ve decided to have it professionally edited, so the first third of it is off having that done to it. (It’s like a week at the spa!) In the meantime I’m hoping the lovely person who I’ve asked to design the cover (one who might be reading this) is well on his/her way through the reading of my novel. On my end I’m working on the eighth edit of said novel; part 3 of 3 left to go, and then I’ll work on finishing the first draft of the sequel.

With all this writing and editing, by the time A-Z April rolls around I think I’ll need to spend a week getting edited. (If this makes no sense, you weren’t reading closely enough. Go back.)

And that’s my recent news. What are you working on?