Life in progress


40 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – The Lasting Consequences of Sign Language

Don’t ever sign that you have to go to work when you’re fed up, frustrated, and angry.

It can leave a nasty bruise on the back of your left hand that you can still feel a week later.


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!

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com


26 Comments

#SoCS – No thanks

Along with all the stuff I had to do today…

The 24/7 parenting thing…

The full-time job that’s 7 days a week lately…

The feeding myself thing…

All that stuff…

I went to get a Covid-19 test.

Not because I think I have the disease or because I’ve been around someone with it, but so I can go and visit my mother in her long-term care home.

For, like, the first time since March.

As soon as I have the test results, I can see her for a couple of weeks, give or take, before I have to be tested again.

So what it comes down to, is I hope I’m not a container for the disease.

See what I did there?

What was the test like?

I’ll tell you.

It was a drive-through testing site, so I didn’t have to get out of the car, but I did have to follow some really confusing pylons. Because I was the only car there, and they had that loopy-loop thing through the parking lot. As my son pointed out, I was like that character in Shrek, running back and forth through the roped-off empty line-up.

So I get to the front of the line, finally, after feeling like I’ve just gone through an obstacle course for the World’s Worst Driver (no, I didn’t knock down any pylons), and the nice PPE’d lady took my health card to check to see who I was, etc. She came back a few seconds later with a two-foot-long log swab to stick up my nose. Before she did, she explained that it was quick, but it would feel sort of like when you breathe in pure chlorine water from a pool. What she didn’t tell me is that if you clench too hard and they can’t get the knife swab up far enough, they’re going to ask you to swallow. Had I known this earlier, I’d have had some spit in my mouth.

But no. No spit. So the sword swab was up my nose that much longer.

But still, before I knew it, it was over. She gave me back my health card and said I could leave. But to take my time and wait until I’d stopped bawling like an infant my eyes had stopped watering before I drove away. There was still not a single car behind me.

So yeah, if you have to get a brain scrape a Covid-19 test, take spit with you.

 

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This painful post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2020/09/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-26-2020/


44 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Sept. 26/2020

Friday again, and here I am with your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Fall is here and the leaves are starting to turn. I hope to get some photos soon! Here’s your SoCS prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “container.” Use the word “container” any way you’d like. Or think about a container of some kind and write about it. 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 beautiful 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!!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.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!


48 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – A backhanded compliment?

I wonder sometimes if Chinese food likes me as much as I like it …
The craziest thing? I got this same message almost exactly five years ago to the day. Figure out those odds, Mr. Holton! 😉  Click.


Photo: My fortune cookie message tonight: “Enjoy you own company. If you don’t, who will?”


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!

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com


8 Comments

#SoCS – Motion

The motion of the ocean…

Why isn’t ocean spelled “otion”? Ah, the English language. It makes no sense.

When I was little, maybe 5? 6? years old, I asked all the adults around me (and I actually remember this) why you didn’t write a number like thirty-four out as 304. Because that’s how you say it, right? 30 4. Thirty four. None of the adults understood what I was saying. They just told me you couldn’t do it. Nope. No way.

(Adults had no imagination when I was a kid.)

But NOW …

There’s a house in my neighbourhood. It’s an old house, but it was sold, and the new owners painted the red brick white and snazzed it up. (I liked it better the old way, but there you go. It’s not my house.) Anyhoo, when they screwed the numbers back on the front of the house, they put up these HUGE things in sleek silver.

The number on the house?

30four.

And it pisses me off.

Why?

What happened to that innocent little kid with an imagination?

NOTHING.

BUT!

The only way you can know if the actual address on this house is 34 or 304 is to look at its neighbour. (It’s 32.)

So.

Someone who has my brilliant imagination took it to a ridiculous(!) extreme and stuck it on a building.

UGH!

Just thinking about it makes me mad.

So back to motion…

(So I can stop thinking about that poor old house.)

What’s the saying? Things in motion tend to stay in motion, or something like that.

That’s my brain. Thank goodness. These days at least.

The tinnitus hasn’t stopped, not for a second. It SCREAMS at me in the morning when I wake up and every single time I think of it during the day. But when I stop thinking about it? I don’t notice it.

So if I can concentrate on something … really concentrate on something … I get relief.

Brains in motion.

Hmmm…

Running away from zombies.

And that’s where I get stuck for the night.

 

 

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This not really serious post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2020/09/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-19-2020/


55 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Sept. 19/2020

Today is … Friday! Yeah, it’s Friday! Thank goodness for the calendar on my laptop. Anyway, I’m here with your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Life has been crazy busy again this week. How are you? Here’s your SoCS prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “-tion.” Find a word that ends with “tion.” Bonus points if you start your post with it. 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 beautiful 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!!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.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!


60 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – PIN codes

 

They advise us not to use our phone numbers for our PINs, but what happens when the phone company gives you a number that’s already your PIN?

Happened to my mother. What are the odds?


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!

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com


3 Comments

Win 50+ books and an eReader!

This is pretty cool stuff. I’ve teamed up with 50+ fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of Paranormal & Sci-Fi Romances to two lucky winners!

Oh, and did I mention the Grand Prize winner gets a BRAND NEW eReader?

🔥You can win my novel, The Magician’s Curse, plus books from fifty other awesome authors.

Enter the giveaway by clicking here 🔥 bit.ly/SciFi-PNR-Sept2020

Good luck and enjoy!


9 Comments

#SoCS – Collars up

After what I believe might have been the hottest summer since I’ve lived in this part of Ontario–on record? maybe not–it’s cooled down enough that I have to pull my collar up if I go out at night. It’s winter-coat time if you spend too much time out there.

Crazy weather.

But (touch wood) at least we’re not on fire. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow here. I’ll blow as much as I can southwestward.

On my mind of late has been the fact that things are open. More things than I’ve gone to in the past six months. Six months today, and I’ve only been to the grocery store for as many weeks as that is … 26 times? I’m tempted to go to the mall just to get my Christmas shopping done before everything is closed down again. I dread shopping online, but you know what I dread even more? Going out in public.

The virus has put a not-entirely-unwelcome collar around my neck and kept me chained to my home.

But my shoes have holes and I can’t buy shoes without trying them on because my size varies with brand. And no, I can’t just buy the same ones I already have because they came from Payless … Yeah, that’s how long it’s been since I bought shoes.

And Alex needs new clothes but he’s grown, so I really need to look at them to see if they’ll fit. Unless I can find actual measurements online.

Nope, I’m going to have to brave the retail, I’m afraid. Damn the torpedoes. Mask up and have off.

Yeah. I’m going shopping. Wish me luck.

 

 

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

This post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2020/09/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-12-2020/


47 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Sept. 12/2020

Hey! Friday’s here! And so is your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. The leaves are late to change here in my part of Ontario. Are they red where you are? Or is the sky…? Thinking of all those who are affected by wildfires. My heart goes out to you. Stay safe! Here’s your SoCS prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “collar.” Use it as a verb, a noun, or metaphorically. Bonus points for using it in all three ways! 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 beautiful 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!!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.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!