Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


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It’s been a month

First, I want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my Friday post to say they hope I’m not in (tooth) pain. I’m not. The wisdom tooth has to come out just because it randomly gets infected, and the antibiotics are tough on my system when it happens.

Fingers crossed it doesn’t get infected between now and July 26th. Must stay away from sharp food.

So yeah. It’s been a month. And not in a good way. That’s my excuse for not blogging very much. I’ve learned stuff about myself this last month, not least of which is my MO tends to lean toward avoidance. This being the post I’ve been avoiding.

It started, actually, in March with Winston getting sick.

Yes, I understand if you don’t read the rest of this post. It doesn’t have a happy ending. Aside from the fact that my two nine-hour hospital visits (Tuesday the 23rd into Wednesday the 24th and all day Saturday the 27th) with Alex turned out okay. He was throwing up, which doesn’t play well with his heart condition, but a combination of Gravol and IV fluids got him back on his feet both times.

But yeah, back to Winston.

I just wrote and deleted everything that we went through. All the appointments and the tests. But all that’s in the past. What’s important is that he was a good boy. He protected our house like none of us ever could, and he loved us and we loved him.

I received a condolence letter from the vet’s office today, along with a paw print and a nose print on a piece of heavy paper. It wrecked me all over again.

Rest in peace, Winston Church Hill.


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One-Liner Wednesday – Screen time

My time on my phone might be good, but if my laptop ever decides to count the hours in a day…

Photo: A screenshot of a phone app telling me that out of an average 10 hours and 56 minutes in a day, I spend 11 minutes with my screen on.

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

Available now! Click the image!


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#SoCS – Just plain lazy

There’s no other way to describe my weekend than just plain lazy.

I’ve barely done anything this weekend.

Well, I did go for a mile-long walk with Alex today.

And I am going to write “The End” on a 93,000-word novel tonight, as long as life doesn’t go sideways on me.

But I didn’t write all those words this weekend. It’s taken me three months.

Maybe I’ve earned a lazy weekend.

Happy Easter!

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

This short, day late, plain lazy post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – My spare … bedroom?

When I decided on the house I’m living in, one of the things I liked was that it had a spare bedroom. Somewhere my mother could sleep when she came over for a holiday.

And it worked out well for the first … I’m going to say eight years I was here.

Then it was 2020 and my mother stopped coming over. She moved to a nursing home and I needed somewhere to put her stuff.

Guess where it went.

Guess where some of it still is.

I decided to repurpose the room as my office since it already had a desk in it, at the foot of the bed.

The bed that’s piled two feet high with stuff I didn’t have anywhere else to put.

But my back is to it, so I only see it if I get up. Or if I’m on a video call.

My office is where I work. Where I procrastinate.

I have evidence.

It’s sneaking up behind me.

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

This cluttered post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – ‘Tis the season

Seems like the season for woolly hats and blankets is almost over.

I’m looking forward to spring, to being able to get outside for walks more. I’m not looking forward to the increasing wind and storms that are sure to show up again. The areas around us are planning for fire season already too—not something I’ve ever seen before in this area of the country.

It all feels a bit too apocalyptic for my tastes. For my comfort level.

So yeah, I’m looking forward to woolly hat and blanket season again even more than spring and summer, and even fall, my previous favorite season of all.

Sure, we still get the winds in the winter, but without the resistance from the bulk of the leaves on the trees, they don’t tend to fall on houses as often.

*sigh*

Maybe it’s just me getting older.

But the world out there is getting increasingly scary.

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

This far-seeing post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – Seems clear …

The fact that I’m a day late with this post …

The fact that I didn’t post at all in the last two weeks aside from the prompts …

Seems to signal that I haven’t changed my ways after all.

But it’s not for lack of trying.

It’s been a stressful couple of weeks here, worrying about Alex and getting busy with a new proofreading job. Plus, I have to drive to Ottawa on Tuesday, so that’s got me stressed out too.

I hate writing posts that sound like “woe is me,” because I’m not actually feeling sorry for myself, and neither should you. It’s just life. You take the ups and the downs.

I do plan to do better with my posting. Maybe not this week because I have a lot going on, and I’m going to have to catch up after Tuesday’s all-day trip.

But next week for sure.

Yeah.

*touches wood*

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

This determined post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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#SoCS – Fail

Despite everything, despite all precautions, I have failed.

We have a cold.

Two of my kids came down with it first—the two who haven’t left the house in a month—and now I have it.

I blame it on chicken.

I ordered out for Valentine’s Day. Swiss Chalet. Do you have Swiss Chalet in the US? They specialize in roasted chicken dinners.

The two kids had chicken, I had ribs.

I figure someone sneezed on their chicken skin. It’s the only explanation.

I know the very moment I caught this cold. Standing in the hallway beside the bathroom door, Alex yelled at me (we were playing around) from only a few inches away. I felt his breath on my face and had a moment of absolute clarity.

I’m sick, I thought. This is where I got sick.

And sure enough …

I’m sick.

It’s totally the chicken’s fault.

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

This blame-y post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! It’s fun!


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What Day is it Anyway? February 8, 2024

Yep. It’s back.

Actually, I needed a What Day is it Anyway? yesterday.

I made such a bonehead move.

On Tuesday, I had to get up at 5am to start my son Alex’s tube feeding so I could make it out the door for a dentist appointment by 10.

Yesterday, I forgot to turn off the alarm, so it rang again at 5.

And I trusted it.

I dragged myself into a sitting position, put on my robe and slippers, and trudged down the stairs to get Alex’s feed started.

It was only when I was pulling the containers of formula out of the case when I thought …

What am I doing?

Am I going somewhere today? Is Alex?

Noooo!

So I put the formula back and trudged back up the stairs.

On my way back to bed, I checked on Alex. He woke up.

“What time is it?” he asked in sign language.

“It’s 5:00,” I replied.

“What are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” I said with a shake of my head. “Go back to sleep. I’ll explain later.”

I trudged back to my room, took off my robe and slippers, and went back to bed.

When I told Alex what happened yesterday, he laughed and laughed.

Bonehead Mom.


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Trying not to flounder

By definition, trying not to flounder means struggling not to struggle. Far too much to wrap my insufficiently caffeinated brain around.

If I were to say I flounder with one thing in life consistently, it’s getting up in the morning.

I actually shocked myself one day not too long ago—I’m going to say it’s been a few weeks now—when I woke up and realized there was something I needed to do, and I sat up and put my slippers on without even thinking about it.

That never happens!

Okay, it happens once.

But you get what I mean.

Is that how early risers do it every day?

Seriously, I want to know.

My dear friend Dar is the founder of a new February prompt called Floundering February! Here’s the link. Check it out and join in. It’s fun!


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#SoCS – Watch this

Watch this.

It’s me, writing a SoCS post on a Saturday morning. On one cup of coffee (it’s not enough).

I’ve spent the last half an hour looking for the last time I participated in my own prompt—barring Just Jot it January and the occasional post, I think it’s going on three years.

Here’s what I wrote in April 2021 in one of my last posts:

“I’ve been paralyzed every time I’ve thought about writing something. It’s not fear, exactly, but it kind of is. Anxiety, maybe? I dunno. Maybe I’m just totally out of practice.”

And as far as blogging goes, that hasn’t changed. Until now, when I’m still running on momentum from January.

So I’m going to try to be here more often.

I wrote six (6!) posts last year that weren’t One-Liner Wednesdays or Friday prompts.

I need to remedy that.

Just watch me.

 

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

This determined post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in!