Life in progress

Category Archives: Life


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#SoCS – Fingers and Puppy Update

Fingers. How could we live without them? I’ve spent more time wagging mine at the puppy in the last couple of months since we got him than I think I have in the last ten years at my kids. Then there’s Alex. He’s Deaf, so there’s not much communicating going on if he doesn’t have his fingers for sign language.  Back when he was at the hospital half the time I had to ask them to put his IVs in his feet, so he could still communicate. They couldn’t leave his hands unwrapped (with bandages) or he picked them off. What’s kind of amusing is that I can swear as much as I want to (or feel I need to) in front of Alex without guilt, but I don’t dare give anyone the finger.

Fingers hold rings, but I still haven’t found mine. I probably lost it in the parking lot of the grocery store. Fat chance anyone would turn it in, but I’ve asked a couple of times anyway. There’s a Dollar Store there too. Maybe I should ask in there. One can always hope.

Funny thing about fingers – I’ve been touch-typing since I was a little girl. I learned on an old Underwood with keys you could get your fingers stuck between and letters that got stuck together if you typed too fast. But I’ve never been able to play the piano. It must be a different part of the brain.  …then again, you have no idea how many typos I make in the process of typing a single sentence. It’s silly… glad I can watch the screen as I type.

The puppy finally got his cone off his head today. It’s been twelve days since his surgery. He’s looking very handsome without it. Pictures to come. Later. For now, with the cone.

 

Winston - Feb. 4/16

Winston – Feb. 4/16

This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here to join in today!

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The Queen’s Inn – Kingston, Ontario, Canada

A couple of weekends ago it was my pleasure to stay in one of the oldest operating inns in Canada, The Queen’s Inn, in Kingston, Ontario.

It’s a comfortable hotel with friendly staff and, considering there’s a sports bar downstairs and I was there on a Friday and Saturday night, it was very quiet.  Despite the fact that they provide WiFi, the place hasn’t lost much of its ambiance from back in the 1800s when it was built. As you can see, drywall, in my room at least, isn’t necessarily a consideration.

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After dinner, I went outside to take a picture. My windows are on the second floor with the light on.

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In the morning I had Coppers Pub downstairs to myself for the complimentary breakfast, so I wasn’t at all self-conscious about taking pictures.

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While I was sitting in the pub, I wrote in my notebook:

I love these old buildings. They send my writer’s imagination into orbit, much like I want to believe the inspiration for the Overlook Hotel did for Stephen King. The feet that have walked these floors and gazed upon these walls – people with a million different thoughts in the their heads even as they looked but barely saw, astounds me. Humans stopped here for the night with their horses stabled nearby – weary souls traveling through came here, refugees from the cold as far back as 1839. The place has so much history, and I can only imagine…

I love staying in Kingston, so it fits well with The Bee’s Love Is In Da Blog prompt for today, “write about places you love.”

If you’d like to read about my most memorable and amusing, (and spooky) visit to Kingston to date, you can find the post here.

To visit the Queen’s Inn website, click here.

Thanks to The Bee for the prompt!


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My Plans for February and Why I’ve Been MIA

That would be Missing In Action, and the reason is also what is behind my exciting news. A friend, who is also an avid reader and a respected author and reviewer of fiction has accepted my request to read my manuscript. I’ve asked her to give me a no-holds-barred opinion on whether or not my novel needs a professional editor. Yes, I know how many authors and editors insist that every novel MUST HAVE an editor, but seriously… My novel is 750 pages long. I’m looking at paying more money than I can probably ever hope to get back. So this is my last-ditch attempt to really see what’s up with my grammar.

So why have I not been around? I’m concentrating on getting this baby as good as it’s going to get before I give it up. And then, it’s either going to an editor or not because come hell or high water, it’s getting published this year. Why is it going to be published this year? Because I told my muse in a letter that it would. And that’s what it all comes down to.

Just had to slip that in

That’s right.

Not that I’m delusional enough to believe that even on the off-chance he read my letter he would remember it ten minutes later, let alone remember I’m writing a character with his sense of fashion, his stage presence and his face, he’s damned well going to (potentially if it gets to him) receive a copy of my novel in the mail, complete with his name in the acknowledgements! So there! (Disclaimer: The preceding run-on sentence is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an example of the grammar in my novel.)

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing and what I’ll be doing for the next week or so. But I haven’t forgotten about you! I realize I’m terribly behind in my reading and replying to comments. I’ll be going back a couple of weeks to get to them, so if you get a reply to a comment you’ve forgotten you left, don’t be surprised. In the meantime I’m going to try to post every day on my fiction blog, plus blog about my trip to Japan here, and, (of course) keep up the weekly prompts. In other words, I won’t be as busy as I was last month. 🙄

Wish me luck. 😀


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Just Jot It January 29th – Ghost

Let me start by saying I’m afraid of ghosts. At least other people’s ghosts. Their ghost stories scare me. I think it must be the unpredictability of them, because I’m fine with writing my own ghost stories.

For me, a ghost story has to have a romantic element for it to be enjoyable. Like in the movie Ghost, which is arguably the most famous purely paranormal romance out there, there has to be a feeling of comfort for me to be able to watch it or read it. I remember the first time I tried to read Stephen King’s The Shining – I couldn’t. I got as far as the twins in the hallway and I had to put it down. Yes, I was only about fourteen years old at the time, but it wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I was able to read the whole thing. And I still look for a spooky set of twins every time I stay in a hotel. Especially if it’s an old one.

It’s funny, I used to love to be scared by certain movies and books (but not too scared, Mr. King) but now I’d really rather not. Is that growing up? Or growing old?

The “Ghost” prompt is brought to you by Barbara at teleportingweena. If you don’t already know her, please pop over and have a read!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 29th post here!


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One-Liner Wednesday – It really sucks

Woke up to a new message

Woke up to a new message on my fridge… I wonder who left it?

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It was a rough night of peeing everywhere and bumping into things. (Winston, not me) It took him a few tries to get used to going down the small step through the back door without his cone jamming between the slats, causing him to get stuck. He’s still sucking air occasionally, but he doesn’t seem to be in any discomfort. I sincerely hope this is the end of his troubles. I can’t afford any more. But hey, the good news is it was only $2,200 instead of $2,500! 🙄

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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. 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.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), 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.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.” However, if you’d like to combine One-Liner Wednesday with Just Jot It January, go right ahead!

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.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Have fun!


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Just Jot It January 27th – Mendaciloquent

Mendaciloquent. Yes, you read it right. Or did you? It seems to be one of those words that can only be found in places like the Grandiloquent Dictionary. The closest Merriam-Webster and Oxford come to it is mendacious. According to my trusty thesaurus, mendacious is synonymous with deceitful, fraudulent, and untrustworthy, among others. From what I can gather, mendaciloquent means all that, but to the nth degree. Perhaps it’s lying with eloquence.

I was amused in a wry sort of way that a few mentions of politics came up on the first page of my Google search for the word of the day. I could talk about how much I love The Donald, (that’s sarcasm … or is it mendaciloquence? I’m not sure anymore) but you wouldn’t be able to shut me up for days. And then I’d be told to, “go back to Canada!”, to which I’d reply, “I never left!” and then a wall would go up and it would be a complete mess, so I won’t talk about liars in politics.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it ’til I die – I don’t see the point in lying just for the sake of lying. Or for the sake of making oneself look better in someone else’s eyes. The truth always comes out eventually. Even fiction, no matter what the story, no matter how outrageous it may be, has its own truth.

The problem arises when people can’t discern the difference between fiction and dishonesty. There are people out there who build their entire lives around a fiction. They survive by it; then it’s devastating for them when reality seeps in.

The truth is now I need to go to bed. That ain’t no mendaciloquence.

The “Mendaciloquent” prompt is brought to you by Coralee at Musefully Mendaciloquent. If you don’t already know her, click on the link and check out her blog!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 27th post here! If you’d like to combine this with One-Liner Wednesday (which will be posted several hours after this), have at it! Just be sure to link back to both prompts.


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Just Jot It January 26th – Oneness

There are certain things we humans naturally feel a oneness with. Being joined by the tradition of marriage; being a couple rather than an individual and having your name synonymous with someone else’s of your choosing creates a sense of completeness. The birth of a child between a couple who love one another is a bond that cannot be broken. For that matter, our families as well as our friends, nature, or even a good book can cause a feeling of oneness. But etched in my mind was one bond I can recall with great clarity. It was with my horse.

His name was Shadow and he was a mutt – part quarter horse, part thoroughbred; we were never really sure. I bought him from the lady who owned the farm where I guided trails but I eventually moved him closer to where I lived. Close by was a conservation area, the Vivian Forest, consisting partly of natural forest and partly planted rotating forestation, which spans almost 5,600 acres. I could ride for eight hours without seeing the same trail twice. Shadow and I knew the place very well.

There were a few rides, just me and my horse, that I’ll never forget. Once, riding along a well-worn trail, we came too close to an owl’s nest. She wasn’t pleased: she flew at us, soaring over my head three or four times as I ducked down as close as I could to Shadow’s mane and we galloped the hell out of there. Another time we were walking, on our way home, when Shadow came to a dead halt, head up, ears pricked. Rather than urge him on, I sat still on his back and looked in the same direction he was staring; a fully antlered buck, almost the size of my horse walked out of the forest on to the trail, stopped, stared at us, and crossed the trail, disappearing back into the woods.

But there was one ride that truly made me feel that oneness. It was early summer and I’d just finished an overnight shift at the 24 hour gas station I was working at at the time. Rather than head home to bed, I decided to go out on Shadow for a while. We went a long way that morning and on the way home I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. So I closed them and fell almost all the way to sleep in the shade of the forest, while Shadow took me home. What an incredible feeling of oneness it was.

The “Oneness” prompt is brought to you by Carol at WritersDream9. Pop on over and say hi!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 26th post here!


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…on this difficult day

It’s been a rough day, both emotionally and financially. I’m having a hard time concentrating; I wonder if writing it out will help.

I was sitting down to breakfast with my best friend, John, when Winston came in from playing in the back yard, huffing like he was choking on something. He ran around a little and then he tried to lay down but every time he did, he whined like it hurt. After watching this go on for a few minutes I decided to take him to the vet. They checked him out as soon as we arrived. Since his gums were pink and he didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger, they left us waiting for about twenty minutes. By the time the vet came to see him he was filling up with air – his stomach was bloated and getting worse by the minute. They tried to vent his tummy with a nasogastric tube but nothing came out. X-rays showed that his stomach was twisted. They’d have to operate.

So we left him there and a couple of hours later they called with good news; they got the air out while he was anesthetized and thought maybe he didn’t need surgery after all. If all went well, I was to pick him up at 4:30. At 4:25 the vet called. He needed surgery after all. The gas had come back.

Almost three painstaking hours later the vet called me. He’d come out of surgery okay and the repair was done, but they still don’t know why he filled up with gas. Anyway, there are no foreign objects in there and all his inner pathways are now clear. The vet said that they’d keep him overnight but of course there’s no one there to watch him, to see if he fills up again. So the vet is going to take him home with her. Wow, right? Probably close to $2,500 worth of wow. All for a free puppy.

Oh, and I lost one of my silver rings today.

They say bad things come in threes. Hopefully losing my “f”‘s will count for the third.

Please send positive thoughts.

Winston

Winston


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Early Morning Photo Shoot, January 24th, 2016

I received a nice email from one of my son Christopher’s teachers the other day, explaining that if he didn’t get an assignment completed he would fail the course. The course is photography. The assignment, landscapes.

I only had one chance this weekend to get out with him, and that was at 7:30 this morning. So we went to my favourite spot, the Waterfront Trail so he could take some pictures. I couldn’t resist getting a few myself.

Please click for a better view.


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Just Jot It January 21st – Mittens

The word “mittens,” to me at least, conjures cozy feelings of being warm despite the cold winter wind and the icy metal scraper I use to heave the snow off my car. It’s just one of those words, isn’t it? Like “hot chocolate,” or “fireplace.” But today I’m here to tell you a sad story about a pair of mittens and a boy. It’s not a devastating story – it’s just a little heartrending. And it does have a happy-ish ending, and a moral too. You ready? Here we go.

One day last week I was in the car with my best friend, John, and my son, Alex, on our way to the grocery store. Alex had noticed a hole in his glove as he got into the back seat, so I assured him we’d be able to get some new ones where we were going. However, it’s a store that sells food, primarily, so the selection of clothes isn’t tremendous. We checked out the kids’ section first, but all they had was a few pairs of gloves Alex didn’t fit into and one pair of mittens. He saw those and his eyes lit up.

Yes! he said. I’ll take them!

But… I said…

No! No buts, said Alex. I want them!

Okay, try them on, I said. (It was just to make a point.)

So Alex tried them on. And they fit.

Yay! Alex said.

Okay, I nodded. Now tell me your name.

And Alex fingerspelled his name. Inside the right mitten. Alex is Deaf.

What’s that? I asked.

Alex drooped in defeat. And gave me back the mittens to put back on the shelf.

We went then to the ladies section where he found a nice pair of ladies gloves that he liked very much. And that’s what he’s wearing to school.

And that’s my sad but true story about mittens. The moral? Fashion and communication don’t always mix.

 

The “Mittens” prompt is brought to you by Candy at Rhymes With Bug. If you don’t already know her, please click on the link and say hi!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 21st post here!