Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


by 38 Comments

Ugly Very Smoke

My illegal following of the A to Z Challenge went off the rails yesterday when I missed the letter “U.” May as well handcuff me and drag me off to blogger jail, because I’m back with “U” and “V” combined today. And I’m a bit of a grumpy camper, so make sure those cuffs are good and tight.

And could we PLEEAASE make blogger jail my room? Where my bed is? ‘Coz I’m sleep-deprived.

You see, last night at (hang on, what does it say on my Fitbit?) 1:29am, my eldest son came into my room and told me I had to get up. Confused, I dragged myself down the stairs trying to make sense of why he was saying he wanted to call 911. Turns out he’d preheated the oven not realizing that he’d spilled butter in it the last time he used it.

There was smoke. There was so much smoke that even with three windows and a door open in the kitchen, my eyes were still watering and my throat still hurt. The oven was off but smoke still billowed out of the vent while it cooled down.

According to my trusty Fitbit, I didn’t get back to bed until 2:11. Where I lay and contemplated the fact that my son woke me up, not my fire alarm.

My best friend, John, came over this morning and changed the batteries in the three (count ’em–THREE) alarms that didn’t work last night, but I haven’t started up the oven to check and see if they’re any better at detecting smoke …

My throat hasn’t recovered yet.

I should probably do that tomorrow. When I HOPE the word of the day won’t be “water.”


by 48 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Difficult Concepts

My darling youngest son came home from school on Friday and told me that Monday, his class would be outside planting flowers. He said they needed to wear “old clothes” because they’d be getting dirty. When I said, okay, that’s fine, he asked me when we’d be going to the mall to buy some “old clothes.”

Yeah. Some things don’t seem to translate from sign language very well. Or maybe he just didn’t get it.

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 very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Dan Antion

 

 


by 13 Comments

#SoCS – It Spoke of Life

It’s funny how life finds a way. Though it’s rarely spoken of, we instinctively seek out the things that keep us alive. The sun, for one.

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I found these when I went outside this morning. The same flowers that the other day, before the ice storm, were in such lovely bloom. Their warmth is apparent from the way they seem to have melted their way through the snow.

I went for a walk today along my usual path by the water. I always go alone, and today was no exception. But I just happened to be on the phone with one of my kids when I got to this gazebo, seen in an old picture:

It’s often used for wedding pictures–I see photographers there with couples doing practice shots on a regular basis, and I’ve even seen a wedding party there once. What I realized today when I was on the phone is that it looks much more romantic than it literally sounds.

Today, for the first time in the years I’ve been going there, I spoke while I was standing under the roof. It’s made of metal. My voice echoed tinnily (is that a word?)–my voice echoed off the metal roof making me sound like I was speaking somehow through a transistor radio. I hurried out of there before I said much. I seemed very loud to my own ears.

It occurs to me that that’s an illustration of how our words can ruin an experience.

Sometimes it’s best to just stay silent, and take in the beauty: let it speak for itself.

This introspective post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the following link to find all the participating posts in the comments and see how you can join in! https://lindaghill.com/2018/04/20/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-21-18/


by 12 Comments

Right!

I’m supposed to be writing a post today.

But the truth is, I’ve run out of things to say.

My eyeballs are popping out of my head.

Or they would be if my eyelids weren’t made of lead.

I didn’t mean to write a rhyme

but today is running out of time.

So I guess this is what I’m stuck with.

Orange.

Because nothing rhymes with “stuck with,” either.

I’m going to bed.

Before this lame post gets any lamer.

(And no, that’s not a passive/aggressive cry for validation. It’s lame. Say it’s lame. C’mon, altogether now …)

Good night. 😉


by 25 Comments

Potentially Perpetuating Participation

Pretend you didn’t notice all the “p”s in the title. This is absolutely not part of the A to Z Challenge, where the letter of the day just happens to be “p.”

The masochist I am, I’m thinking about doing another month-long prompt. Because let’s face it, I can’t seem to stay away from them. …unless you count … umm … Just Jot it January! Yeah, that’s the ticket.

So I’m going to put up a poll–a poll for potentially perpetuating participation in a prompt. (It’s a coincidence!!) What I’d like you to vote for is which month you could see yourself doing a prompt. This prompt would be totally random writing assignments. You know, like actual prompts, unlike Stream of Consciousness Saturday where you only have a hint at what to write.

I’m only adding months that I know I can manage myself. Not January (JusJoJan), not February as Bee’s “Love is in Da Blog” prompt is that month, not April (because #atozchallenge, which has absolutely nothing to do with this post), and not October, November, nor December (Halloween and Alex’s birthday, NaNoWriMo, and Christmas, in that order). So what do we have left?

 

Interested?


by 47 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Thought of the Day

Thought of the day:

One doesn’t appreciate the ability to breathe through one’s nostrils, until one has a rotten cold. Or allergies.

Linda G. Hill

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 very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Dan Antion

 

 


by 40 Comments

Ooooh …

… I’m looking forward to getting to bed tonight. You know that cold I’ve been dodging?

It got me.


by 35 Comments

Nope, you’re not burning down MY kitchen!

It was just a little electrical fire.

And, I mean, we spill water around the spout of the electric kettle ALL the time when we’re filling it up.

Only today it made this really weird noise just as it began to boil. A noise like “zztzztzztzzt.” So I looked at it (because I was standing there waiting for it to boil) and I said out loud to it, “What the fuck is that noise?” And then I saw it in the reflection on the stove. A yellow glow. And I thought, hey, you’re on fire! So I pulled out the plug and the fire stopped. But when I finally got brave enough to pick the kettle up, the puddle of water on the counter was burning. Yes, burning. Not boiling. Burning.

So I said to the kettle, “You’re toast!” and I put it away where no one else will use it. After I poured the water for my tea of course. Let’s not get too crazy. I’m not going to throw out perfectly good boiling water for the sake of a little fire.

I’m just glad I was standing there. Standing there to say, “Nope, you’re not burning down MY kitchen!”


by 18 Comments

#SoCS – Montage

Welcome to my literary montage, which, in other words means Hi, it’s another random post. A post of stuff I like. Random stuff. Like the flowers outside that have been buried under inches of freezing rain but that looked like this two days ago.

Early spring flowers, silky and purple with fuzzy yellow stamens.

I like taking pictures. I wish I had a real camera. You know–a REAL camera.

I like traveling to different places and I like walking, especially when my body is in shape.

And I like the Glorious Sons.

They’re an amazing band out of Kingston, Ontario.

You might have noticed I like writing, too. Especially when I can sneak in the letter M without anyone noticing that I’m not really doing the A to Z Challenge when I really am. (Shhhh!! I don’t think they’ve caught on yet.)

What do you like to do?

This post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday and NOT AT ALL by #atozchallenge. Here’s the link to SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2018/04/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-14-18/


by 24 Comments

Lookin’ out the window

It’s raining at the moment. Starting at 5am Saturday we’ll be getting rained on by ice pellets, until 11am when the snow will start. That’ll be a nice spring treat until the ice pellets come back at 9pm and continue until 7pm Sunday. Yes, 22 hours of ice pellets. Then it’s gonna rain. Until Tuesday.

All this to say if I disappear over the weekend, it’s likely because I’ve lost my power. No data on my phone, so no webz nohow.

Time to get out the hockey skates, eh?

Just don’t tell the neighbours it’s all because Karma’s coming to get me for illegally tagging on to the A to Z Challenge. They’ll freakin’ lynch me. Eh?