Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


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One-Liner Wednesday – Pro tip for the grocery store

First thing to do after you sanitize your hands: go straight to the produce bags and open as many of those suckers as you need while your fingers are still damp.

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


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#SoCS – Nausea

Okay, so I managed to get “nausea” down a couple of years ago. But “nauseus”? “Nauseas”? “Nausious”?

Every. Single. Time. I have to look it up.

It’s like I don’t like being “nauseous” or something. HEY! I got it!

I did feel a little sick today, actually. It was the five cups of coffee, I think. My usual three this morning and another two this afternoon to keep me awake.

Which I don’t have any problem doing when I lay down because of this damned frozen shoulder. I go to bed in pain, I wake up at 3am in agony. I don’t remember the other one (I had a frozen shoulder in 2016) popping out of the joint, but this one does it regularly. And MAN, does it hurt.

I’m thinking about trying to sleep sitting up tonight. Not sure it will help, though, because I think it’s just not moving it that’s the problem. Or it’s moving it into a weird position in my sleep.

Anyhoo, I’m not a happy camper.

I have an x-ray booked for next Saturday, though, and a cortisone shot on November 4th. That fixed the last one. Hopefully it’ll fix this one, too.

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

This whiny post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2020/10/16/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-17-2020/


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One-Liner Wednesday – The Thing Nobody Talks About

Let’s talk about the thing nobody talks about.

When you look down to pack your groceries at the store, do you open your mouth so wide you almost unhinge your jaw in order to keep your mask out of your eyes?

Just me?

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


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#SoCS – Medium

Seems to me that hanging around the middle — of anything — in 2020 is a bad idea.

Crowds? Nope.

Unsure if you’re for ’em or against ’em? Nuh uh. Gotta decide.

No matter what it is, you don’t want to be in the middle of it.

Hell, how many of us can say we didn’t at one point, go from a medium to a large during this pandemic?

One way or another, but not in the middle.

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

This all in post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2020/10/09/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-10-2020/


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One-Liner Wednesday – Maybe not happy, but…

Created on Canva.com

Photo: Cherry blossoms and the quote: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
― Alexander Pope

This has long been my philosophy.

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


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#SoCS – News

News from the front

(Assuming where I am is the front, since the prompt originates here … at the front.)

I killed two birds with one stone today. Going out once, that is, and getting two things done.

I visited my mum for the first time at the nursing home since she moved in in June. We sat and chatted about the same things over and over again for an hour. Nothing ever gets old, ironically.

Then I braved the (mostly empty) mall. Shoe store and Toys ‘R’ Us. No line-ups, just the way I like it. I really, seriously, have to get my Christmas shopping done within the next couple of weeks.

If only …

Ugh, I don’t want to complain.

Okay, so I’ll just say it.

Good news first?

Bad news first?

I can’t hear you, so I’ll decide.

I still have the tinnitus, but I’m able to ignore it.

And the heartburn seems to have pretty much cleared up. Yay!

But now I have a frozen shoulder again. And I have no idea why.

It’s the left one this time, which is helpful.

But it still sucks.

Getting old.

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

This post from the front was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2020/10/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-3-2020/


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#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/


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#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/


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#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/


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#SoCS – Sharpening my resolve

I’m having to sharpen my resolve to stay off Facebook and all the other time-wasters that take up my days if I let them. I have a busy couple of months ahead of me, and I can’t afford to dally anywhere.

I’m happy that my break time today consisted not of online pursuits but of walking around the block with Alex. It was a gorgeous day–not too hot, not too cold, and not humid at all–so it was a great day to get some exercise.

I wish I had somewhere to put a treadmill, so we could exercise when we’re unable to go outside. The cooler days remind me that we’ll be under feet of snow soon. At least I won’t have to worry about snow days… School is online until January at least anyway. The only reason not to go to school will be a power outage.

Imagine that.

Walking uphill both ways to get to the computer. In a snow storm.

Kids have got it tough these days, I tell ya.

 

 

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

This rambling post was brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt here and join in! https://lindaghill.com/2020/09/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-5-2020/