Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


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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!


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JusJoJan24 the 30th – My eyes!

This post is the last of my regular Just Jot it January 2024 efforts, and it’s an effort…

When I chose the word “calendar” for today’s prompt, there was no way I could have anticipated how I was going to use it.

Although, I think I’ve been here before now … at least once.

Where is here?

Here is sleep deprived. Here is a mother who stayed up all night last night with her son in the emergency room. You’ve heard this song before, right?

Anyhoo, he wasn’t admitted to hospital this time, and we were in and out of there in just ten short hours! That might be close to a record.

BUT! It did mean I missed something important. To me, at least.

I made an appointment to get my eyes checked in December—the appointment was for January 11th. A few days before that, the office called and told me the doctor wouldn’t be in, so she gave me another appointment. Guess for when?

So I called this morning from the emergency room to let them know I had to cancel the appointment this time.

I have another scheduled for February 15th. Three times lucky.

But oh, my poor wall calendar and all the covered up appointments!

This exhausted post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thank you so much to everyone who joined in!


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JusJoJan24 the 28th – Families

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and today’s prompt comes to us courtesy of Kim. Check out her blog here!

Some family members you can happily live with, some not so much.

But I don’t think you’ll disagree that there are some family members none of us want to live with: the members of the rodent family.

True story that happened many years ago:

I walked into my kitchen one morning in time to see a mouse run under my stove. I shrieked, not because I’m afraid of mice, but because it startled me. I immediately got down on my hands and knees to look for the little critter, but there was no sign of it. I pulled out the drawer under the stove—nothing. It had disappeared.

But there were droppings. Lots of droppings.

I had someone pull the stove out from the wall to see if there was a hole it could have gotten through, but nothing was obvious. The next step was to take the side panels off the stove. Sure enough, there were more droppings in the insulation between the outside and inside walls of my oven. They’d built a nest. In my stove.

So I sold the house.

…

…

Okay, the family of mice might not have been the entire reason I sold the house, but I never cooked in the oven again—I didn’t want to bake the little buggers alive!—and the oven stayed in the house when I moved.

I did leave a note for the new owners.

It went something like:

The stove is yours, but not yours alone …

This reminiscing post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thank you so much again, Kim, for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 28th – Changes

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and today’s prompt was kindly provided by Fandango. Check out his blog here!

Ah, how I’ve changed.

I used to be happy to walk into places where people congregate.

Malls, planes, crowded city streets, concerts—squashed in a sea of screaming, singing people? Let’s go!

But now …

No thanks.

I wonder sometimes if I’d have changed in this way even if it hadn’t been for the pandemic.

I mean, we change as we get older. Right?

There was a time when I thought I’d be happy to live my life spending all my spare time riding a horse. Sure, I’d like to do it again, but I don’t miss it.

So yeah. Congregating online has become more my speed. I can do that and be a desk jockey at the same time.

This thought-inducing post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Many thanks again, Fandango, for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 26th – Who knew I’d miss it?

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and today’s prompt was kindly provided by Jemima. Check out her blog here!

Here in Ontario, Canada, we’ve had some pretty atrocious snow storms. I remember one year—I think it was in 1977—when the snow came down so hard and fast and there was so much wind, it completely buried our back door. There was a five-foot window above the door and the snow covered half of that too.

But that was then.

Now we have all this rain coming down, and it’s almost February!

I miss the snow. I miss the predictability of it.

And I miss winter feeling like winter, no matter how much I inevitably complain about it.

This strange harking-back post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again, Jemima, for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 22nd – It’s the mood

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and today’s prompt comes to us from Dar. Check out her blog here!

I get heartburn. Like, sometimes it goes on for days, then sometimes it just disappears.

I’ve been watching what I eat for almost four years now—it started when the pandemic did—and trying to figure out if it’s something I’m consuming or how much or how little I’m consuming. For a while, I even thought it might be too much water.

But as it turns out, it’s looking more and more like mood that brings it on.

Things like worry and stress.

So okay, fine. I can just relax and be happy. Right?

Easy.

But seriously, knowing what’s causing it has helped. I’m learning to accept things I can’t change.

And I’m learning that the more I write things down that I need to do, the less I have to stress over remembering to do them.

So in a strange way, you could say my heartburn is helping me.

This rather convoluted post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thank you again, Dar, for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 21st – Not a chance

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and today’s prompt is courtesy of J-dub. Check out her blog here!

If there was one thing I wish I did better, it’s growing things. I’d love to have a house full of plants, but they don’t stand a chance with me.

Maybe if they could scream at me like my kids do when they want attention…

This short, sweet, non-green post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks so much again to J-dub for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 19th – Tenaciousness pays off

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and today’s prompt is courtesy of Cheryl. Check out her blog here!

I did it! I managed to authenticate my email address without breaking my blog!

It took a lot of determination and more than a little confusion over all those acronyms, but it is done.

You see, Google and Yahoo are changing what they’ll accept and what they’re going to send to spam in regards to email addresses with endings that aren’t from Google (@gmail dot com) or Yahoo (@yahoo, etc.). So there was a good chance that a great majority of the lovely people who subscribe to my newsletter wouldn’t get it after February 1st, since my email address is linda@lindaghill.com.

All this to say the job had to be done.

And I did it!

This celebratory post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Much appreciation once again to Cheryl for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 18th – Ahhh!!

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt for today comes to us from Carol Anne. Check out her blog here!

It’s been an interesting day for my blog. And by interesting, I mean scary. You may have noticed it kinda went down for a while.

I spent most of the morning trying to authenticate the email address that’s associated with my domain. I still don’t know whether it worked, but whatever I did in the attempt made me despair for the coming days and weeks of Just Jot it January!

Anyway, in changing the DKIM and the SPF and DNS, I apparently DNR the instructions ASAP and ended up UN-securing my website. I cried. I screamed, I … Okay, I didn’t do either of those things, but I might have yelled “WHAT THE HELL?”

And then I emailed WordPress. And they got back to me three minutes later with a fix.

So my despair was short-lived. For now. But the authentication thing? Still not happening.

If my website disappears again, know it’s just me fiddling around with things I probably shouldn’t be touching.

TYFL to my rant.

This decidedly UNcomfortable post is part of Just Jot it January! Want to join in? Just click here to get to the prompt and drop your link. It’s fun!

Thanks again to Carol Anne for the prompt!