Life in progress

Monthly Archives: February 2019


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One-Liner Wednesday – Waking on the weekend

It was interesting enough waking up to my eldest son’s cat on Saturday morning, since he (the cat) is supposed to stay in the basement,


but it was even more interesting to find out Alex was riding him (the cat).

If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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 pingback, 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.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback 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. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!


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My mother, my basement, and my eye – Is 2019 over yet?

So let’s start with my mum. I haven’t written an update on her for a while.

She’s still in the hospital, even though her pneumonia is cleared up. For a while there she was so lethargic and unwilling to move that the doctor told me it was likely her dementia’s progression, and that she’d never get better. So last week, on her 89th birthday in fact, we had a meeting with the hospital’s discharge planner, the head nurse from her retirement home, and myself. My mother refused to get up and walk, so it was decided that I needed to start looking for nursing homes. She wouldn’t even lift her hand to feed herself.

I explained it all to her when the meeting was over, and it was as though a switch flipped. The next day she was up walking.

It took a few days, but I convinced them to go back and reassess. Yay! I thought. She’d be able to go back and live somewhat independently! But no, now her ankle is swollen and she can’t put any weight on it. The x-ray turned up nothing, so gout, maybe? The good news is she’s more alert and less confused than I’ve seen her in a long time, probably due to not smoking for a month.

And even better, she seems to have forgotten that cigarettes exist. She hasn’t asked for one in three weeks.

Fast forward to yesterday morning, I was sitting in the living room with Alex (who was supposed to go to his dad’s this weekend but didn’t–it’ll be at least 2 months again before I have a break), when my eldest son came upstairs and said he thought a pipe had burst. There was water under his desk in his room.

When I got down there, half the basement was flooded. All the cardboard boxes on the floor and everything in them, I figured, was ruined. Turned out it wasn’t the whole basement once we got stuff moved, but the leak had been ongoing for some time. The stuff that was ruined was really bad. The good news is I think we’ve managed to plug up the hole, which is half-way down the wall in the concrete behind an electrical outlet. The bad news is mold.

Fast forward again to this morning. The windy weather made Alex decide he wouldn’t get dressed to go to school. So we did our usual dance when he’s misbehaving, him screaming at me and punching me and me ignoring him the best I can until he complies. Which he always does, eventually, and usually with minimal damage until this morning when he decided to hit me in the side of the head with his sock. It wouldn’t have hurt except he got me in the eye. My only good eye. The other one is legally blind.

So I’m off to the eye doctor today, just to make sure there’s no serious injury. The sock in question was one he’d worn before, and I think he had it on downstairs yesterday. Nothing like an infection to ruin your entire life …

Happy, happy, joy, joy.

The bright side? Alex actually went to school today on the bus, even though there’s snow. Keeping my fingers crossed we’ll finally have a full week of school, the first one this year.

 


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#SoCS – Critical Thinking

I don’t like criticizing people. Okay, maybe I do criticize members of my family and my best friend once in a while (shut up, John), but people I don’t know very well–people who might take my criticism the wrong way–I don’t like to criticize. Why not? Because I don’t want them to think I’m judging them. I like to think of myself as non-judgmental. Really, I don’t judge.

So what did I do? I chose editing as a career. Possibly one of the most critic-heavy jobs one can do. I criticize people’s writing for a living.

Maybe it’s being critical without being judgmental that’s the biggest challenge for me. And I do love a challenge. What I do NOT do is judge people’s writing. I don’t judge people on their ability to write a certain way, or on their lack of knowing the difference between “discrete” and “discreet,” for instance.

Look at it this way:

I can tell you your fly is open without judging you. That might be seen as criticizing your ability to remember to do your fly up, but still, I don’t judge you for it. I assume it was a mistake and that you’re not trying to flash me. My biggest reason for telling you is so you’ll do it up before someone comes along and laughs at you for it, less discreetly than I did.

The difference between that and editing? After all, ideally, I edit before someone indiscreetly points and at you and judges you for not knowing the difference between “discrete” and “discreet.”

The difference is, you don’t have to spend thousands of hours learning how to notice someone’s fly is down. You just have to have a good eye. Or a bad eye. Don’t judge me!!

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

This very late, very non-judgmental post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Sunday Saturday. Click the following link to find all the other critics posts for this week. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-23-19/


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 23/19

It’s Friday! And that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Alex had another snow day this week on top of the holiday Monday, but I’m not knocking it because he’s at school today. Yay! Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “critic(al).” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 our pretty 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 by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! 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 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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One-Liner Wednesday – I need to get out more

You know you don’t get out of the house often when your kid comes home from school and frowns, confused, asking you why you got dressed today.

(True story.)

If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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 pingback, 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.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback 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. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!


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The Escapist Coloring Club – February 2019 mid-month reminder

Hey there! I’m a tad late for a mid-month reminder, but I’d like to take the opportunity to highlight all of the great bloggers who have joined in so far this month. I’ll turn off the comments in this post and redirect you to the February 1st prompt to link your entries there.

Here’s what I’m working on this month. It’s coming along, slowly but surely. I hope to finish it in the next 10 days.

Thank you to our members who have posted so far! Here they are:

Anita at anitashope

Barbara at Teleportingweena

JP at Wide Eyed Wandering Spoonie with her work-in-progress

and the latest by msjadeli at Tao Talk.

Please visit them to see their wonderful colouring projects. And join us! It’s fun and relaxing.

You can find the original post here.

Thank you. 🙂

 


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#SoCS – Yawning

You know what makes me yawn? Waiting rooms. Sure, it’s been better since the invention of e-books and e-book apps for phones–I always have a book to read now–but generally, sitting in a waiting room is the worst. Especially at the hospital, where it’s usually a loooong wait. I don’t think I’ve ever fallen asleep (or almost fallen asleep even) in a dentist waiting room. I’m too damned nervous there.

…aaaand, I just yawned.

How many other people who did this prompt yawned while they were writing their posts? I’m genuinely interested.

Because just thinking about it makes you do it.

I’ve noticed my dog yawns when he’s being bothered and is trying not to bite someone. It’s like he’s opening his mouth and showing his teeth without being menacing. I’ve never known a dog to do that before.

I’ve been tired all day. Which is weird, because I actually got eight hours of sleep last night.

Maybe I’ve just been thinking too much about this post all day.

I seriously have to come up with a more exciting topic next week.

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

This rather late post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click on the following link to read all the other posts and join in the fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-16-19/


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 16/19

Hi there! It’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! Another dismal week in regards to getting Alex to school every day. We’ve managed three. Here’s to getting him to school all four days next week (because Monday’s a holiday)! Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “yawn.” Write about the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word “yawn,” when you sit down to write your post. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 our pretty 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 by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! 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 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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One-Liner Wednesday – Good or bad?

Nothing saves water better than a water heater that turns off after five minutes when you’re in the shower.

(Motivational poster made for free at canva.com.)


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Just a nice story

Every once in a while, something happens that restores my faith in humanity a bit. At times like these I kind of kick myself for being so cynical in the first place. So yeah, there’s a lesson here somewhere. And it includes believing a little in serendipity, too.

To start at the beginning, I had my best friend, John, and his kids over for dinner on Saturday night. (Salmon on the barbecue with rice, corn, brussels, and a lovely lemon and dill sauce, if you’re wondering.) After dinner, John was chatting on his cell phone to his other son. Then the three of them left.

About half an hour later, John called me from his son’s phone to say he’d lost his mobile and would I look for it. I searched the house, I went outside to look in the snow bank, nothing. He couldn’t find it at his place either. We tried calling it but the automated voice came on to say the “customer you’re calling is unavailable.” John came over with a flashlight to see if I’d missed it. It was nowhere to be found.

He tried again the next morning, thinking maybe he’d find it in the daylight. The only thing he could think of was that he’d dropped it on the sidewalk and someone had come along and picked it up. He was about to leave to go home and get himself some breakfast, but I invited him to stay. I usually work during breakfast, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to eat together since he was already there.

We were just cleaning off the table after our toast when there was a knock at the door. This is where the serendipity comes in, because I never answer my door on a Sunday morning. It’s usually Jehovah’s witnesses, and I don’t like standing with the front door open chatting about religion in my pajamas, especially when the air outside is sub-zero. But John, being far braver than I, opened the door.

To find two ladies who had been walking up the street, knocking on doors, to find the owner of the phone they’d found in the middle of the street the night before. Where it could easily have been run over.

The first thing he did after turning the SIM card back on was put the message on his lock screen: “If found, please call …” and my home number.

Because you never know. Someone kind and considerate might find it again next time. At least I’ve got to believe they will.