Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


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Random Update – Doctor Fortune Cookie Edition

I love it when a fortune cookie actually tells my fortune.

fortunecookie

I did have an opportunity to edit this weekend, since the kids were with their dad. Now to play the lottery with those numbers… or did I miss it? I’ll check Saturday’s draw and see.

In other news, I went to the doctor about my shoulder and my eyes on Friday. She’s sending me for another ultrasound for the shoulder and I’m on Advil three times a day to see if it helps. Apparently if we can figure out whether it’s bone or soft tissue that’s causing the problem, she’ll know how to treat it.

My eyes on the other hand, she had no answer for. My bloodwork showed that I’m perfect – I already knew that though (haha) – so the good news is it’s not diabetes. Anyway, she said she’ll talk to an optometrist colleague this weekend and get back to me next week if they come up with any ideas. I thought of something that I neglected to mention to her since. I’ve been watching my diet, screen time, and all kinds of things to see if there was a common denominator to when I have problems, but the one thing I hadn’t watched was what I was drinking. I wonder if I get dehydrated, particularly when all I drink in a day is coffee and wine. I’ll mention that if she doesn’t come up with anything better.

Or maybe what I really need is more Chinese food to get my answer.


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Canada – Today and Tomorrow

canada-day

In light of the shootings yesterday in the city of Ottawa, and the subsequent statements I keep hearing that our country has changed, I can’t not say something.

As a nation of people who are often accused of having an identity crisis, we ourselves wonder who we are, and how we fit in. With our English spellings and our love of American television, we have been known as the “51st State,” though when we go to court, it’s us against the Crown. When asked to define Canada we come up with adjectives like, “big,” “culturally diverse,” or “the place where poutine and insulin were invented.” We are a nation of coffee-drinking hockey players who talk about the weather and say “sorry” when someone bumps into us.

Ours is a land populated with people who care about their towns, their cities, their neighbours and their country. We’re proud of our peacefulness. So can one act of violence change that? I’m here to say, quite loudly, NO.

At the moment we are reacting, and yes, it is deeply disturbing that on an ordinary day in the nation’s capital, a soldier standing on honour guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier could be shot and killed. But while we are reacting, we are focusing on the family of the man who was lost. Because that is who we are.

It is in our nature as Canadians to pull together, to care for each other. And for all Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s statement that, “we will not be intimidated,” might refer to our government, it stands for our citizens as well. We CAN not be intimidated. We are nation of 35 million who feel the responsibility to protect one another.

That is something about Canada that will never change.

Oh Canada

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Oh Canada


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How Do You Do Tired?

Now that I’ve finally caught up on my comments I’m allowing myself to post. Except… I can’t think of anything to write. Add the fact that I’m so tired that if tired was an animal, my tired would be an elephant. And it would be sitting on my lap. Do you have any idea what it’s like trying to type with an elephant on your lap? Ugh. He just farted.

This is how my family can tell when I’m exhausted. I either go hairy and bounce off the walls until someone placates me with either a cup of coffee or a glass of wine (depending on what time of the day it is… though if I’m honest I’ll take the wine any time) or I get creatively silly.

How ’bout you? Do you scream everyone around you into complete jelly-bowls of submission when you’re tired? Do you giggle until your insides hurt and your bloodshot eyes are ready to walk up the stairs to bed without you? How do your loved-ones know you’re tired?


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SoCS – When Things Go Pear-Shaped

I like circular. What comes around, goes around and what you give, you get back. Rectangular things are better than trapezoids, but not better than squares. I suppose I’m a little obsessed with order, though you wouldn’t know it looking at my house. Tidying up is at the bottom of my list of things to do.

Order in the way of plans are also important to me. When things go pear-shaped I get stressed. Not that I need to stick to a schedule – it’s more for my kids than me. Both of them are obsessed with schedules.

Today will be a busy day. If things don’t go as planned it will result in a late night.

This post sucks.

But that’s Stream of consciousness for you. Pear-shaped indeed. Show, don’t tell, right? Haha.

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

If you’d like to participate in Stream of Consciousness Saturday, click here to get the details! https://lindaghill.com/2014/10/17/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-october-1814/


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I Haven’t Forgotten!

Dare I say it? My eyesight seems to be back. On Saturday it was horrible, then Sunday it was better and I thought to myself, ‘Oh great! I’m on the mend!’ but yesterday I could barely see again. I got some Lutein from the local pharmacy and have had two doses so far – it seems to have helped but I don’t want to push it too hard and strain my eyes before they’re ready.

All this to say, I haven’t forgotten about all the great bloggers who participated on SoCS on the weekend. Usually I’d have read everyone’s posts long before now, but it’s hard to read when I can’t see, unfortunately.

I did manage to get through all the answers to my questions on “10 Random Whats.” If you want a really good laugh, go read some of the witty responses I received! Great fun! Thanks to all who were kind enough to join in the silliness!

My other good news is, I’m finished the 4th edit on my novel, The Great Dagmaru! I just have to print it off and read it one more time and, as long as I don’t find any major problems, it should be going out to beta readers within the next month! I’m so excited!!

I hope to be able to get around to everyone’s blogs soon. Feel free to fill me in in the comments if I’ve missed anything important in the last couple of weeks. It’s been so hard not reading you all!!


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Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Squint

I’m doing a lot of squinting this morning. No, wait, it’s afternoon already. I’m actually typing this with my eyes closed – thank goodness I learned to touch type. You see, (because I can’t) I haven’t been eating enough carrots in the past few days, and so I’m having a hard time, well, seeing. That’s why I haven’t been around today. Normally I’m all over everyone’s SoCS posts, and so I apologize.

The strangest thing today though seems to be that no matter how hard I squint, WordPress is telling me that there is one person flying around the globe looking at my posts. While I find this amazing, I do find it a little hard to believe. Have you noticed this too?

But really, I digress. My sight is the one thing I figure I’m losing more than anything else and it’s one of those things that I haven’t really thought about – at least not until it really started going downhill. I rely on my eyes to read, to write (except right now, my eyes are still closed. I hate to think how many typos I’m going to have to fix.) to get around my house… hell – to drive! I’m the only one who can take my kids to all their appointments. And the appointments are why I don’t work. EVERYTHING depends on my being able to see.

Lutein. It’s the thing carrots contain that is good for eye health. I think that’s how you spell it – I can’t see to google it. Even the word “google” reminds me of eyesight.

Protect your eyes, people. Sight is one of your greatest assets. Don’t take it for granted.

(This public service announcement comes to you in association with SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2014/10/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-october-1114/ Please join in! It’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys!)

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions


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WordPress Wonderland

Stop me if this sounds familiar:

You turn on your computer on a weekend morning and sit down with your coffee to check your WordPress stats. You see not much has happened since you dragged yourself off to bed the night before so you open your reader. And there it begins. One great post by that blogger whose posts you never miss, followed by reading all the comments and then on to the next post, or the next blog…

What seems like an hour later you’re turning on the light because it’s gotten dark outside and … where did that empty chocolate wrapper come from? You get up to waddle to the kitchen for a glass of water and realize it was actually a pound of chocolate you consumed after you fell down the rabbit hole that is WordPress Wonderland and got lost in the maze of fascinating posts, pictures, recipes and laughter.

It never ceases to amaze me how much unique content can be found here on WordPress. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something even better, more interesting, more inspiring and always time-consuming comes along to pull me in and keep me seated. And it’s hard! – really hard to stop sometimes. Finding the willpower to walk away from the computer and tidy up my house… It’s almost a no-brainer, for me anyway, which I’d rather be doing. Even editing my novel gets put aside for that post that just popped up…

…so shiny…

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

 


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One-Liner Wednesday – Dangerous Driving!

(Drawing you a mental picture.)

Sign I saw on the back of a transport trailer while going 105km/hr (65mph) down a North American highway:

<—-Passing side                             Suicide—->

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Anyone who would like to try it out, 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 ping back, 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.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

Have fun!


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Compulsion

There are some things I just can’t help. Eating the last few nuts in the tin even if I don’t want them, straightening out a crooked picture on the wall, … writing a blog post even when I’m too tired to write a blog post…

It’s been a hell of a few days, and the next three aren’t going to be any better. Last week I had two days off (meaning the kids’ dad picked them up after dinner one day and brought them back after dinner two days later) but the one in I should have had a full day off had an appointment for Alex smack-dab in the middle that only I could take him to, so I didn’t really get a day off at all. August was the last time I had one of those. All this to say that I don’t have the energy to write … anything, really. I suppose this is what being a writer is. Compulsion.

Unfortunately for all of you, it means listening to me whine about how tired I am. So here’s a consolation. A pretty picture. (Hunts for picture.) Ah, here’s one from the spring:

CAM00270-EFFECTS

and look at that – it’s not even straight

What are you compelled to do, no matter what? It’s okay, go on. Admit it. We won’t judge.