Life in progress

Category Archives: Random


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JusJoJan24 the 16th – Little variation

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and the prompt for today is courtesy of John Holton. Check out his blog here!

I’m finding myself more and more becoming a creature of habit, and I’m comfortable with that.

Some of it comes as a result of COVID. I used to go to the grocery store whenever I needed something. But when the lockdowns started, I chose a day of the week, first thing in the morning, and got everything I needed for the entire week in one go.

And I’m still doing it almost four years later.

But it has gone beyond that.

Because I always go to the same store, there are always the same things on the shelves. Which has made it difficult to get inspired to buy different things to eat.

So I pick up the same things with little variation every week.

And most of the time, I’m comfortable with that.

This decidedly comfortable 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 John for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 15th – But why?

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

I remember waaaayy back in Kindergarten loving arts and crafts. Being able to paint and make things to take home was the best part of my day.

But somewhere in there, between those earliest days of my schooling and Grade 8, I decided I didn’t like making things in class any more.

And I don’t know why.

Considering my love for creating things with yarn, you’d think I would have loved arts and crafts. Unless I got turned off by my inability to draw.

Case in point: the Just Jot it January badge below.

Because I really suck at drawing.

This overly honest 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 to Astrid for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 14th – It’s what I do

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

“Writing” is the prompt of the day—it’s something I’ve written about many times here on my blog. So in deciding what to write about writing today, I’ve come up with only one idea: what writing is to me now.

I was told long ago that having a career as a novelist would inevitably turn what I love into a job.

And yes, there are days when it does feel like a bit of a grind, but they are few and far between.

When I’m in the thick of a novel and discovering, plucking out of the air the stories that my characters are telling me, writing is still every bit as much fun as it was when, as I child, I used stories as an escape from loneliness. Back then, sometimes I wrote them down, but most times I just wrote them in my head, going over and over them, starting from the beginning every time and adding a little to the end.

The joy of those stories meant that I was never really alone. I had my characters to keep me company.

In that, not a lot has changed.

And no, it’s still not so much a job as it is a way of living.

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!

Thanks so much again to Joanne for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 & #SoCS the 13th – Nothing lasts forever

This post is part of Just Jot it January and my weekly prompt, Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt and see how you can join in HERE.

Nothing lasts forever, and sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes it’s a bad thing.

It’s a good thing when you’ve got a cold, for instance.

Or a broken something that will mend.

(Not a vase. Unless you have glue.)

But every year around this time I start to think about the fact that one day I’ll have to close up shop on my prompts.

Not that I’m considering doing that yet. I think I still have at least a few years left in me.

But still. Nothing lasts forever.

And sometimes that makes me sad.

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

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

 


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JusJoJan24 the 12th – Toasty

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

There’s nothing better than being toasty and warm inside when it’s cold and snowy outside.

Photo: Taken on a particularly cold and blustery night with lots of snow on the ground and the trees and the rooves, and long, toothy icicles hanging from the eaves.

This quick, jotty 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 Barbara for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 11th – Olive

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

I mean, I like the color olive as much as the next guy. I do. It has a way of unobtrusively bringing out other, more vibrant colors. Back when I decorated my coloring calendars with pencil, I used olive all the time to highlight the other greens.

Take the following picture as an example. See how wonderful my avocados in their bright green bag look against my olive counter top?

It’s lovely.

So you’re probably wondering by now why this post comes across more like a rant than a celebration of the color olive.

The answer to that question comes again with my 1940s olive counter tops, scratched, scarred, and burned as they are.  And the fact that I reeeeaaaaly want to modernize my kitchen one day. Preferably before the 2040s.

So here’s to olive! Just not in my kitchen, please.

This colorful 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 gratitude again to Kaye for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 9th – Pastimes of old

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and our prompt of the day is from Di. Check out her blog here!

There was a time when my favorite thing to do to escape the world was reading. It still is right up there, but lately I’ve been reading more for research and work than for pleasure.

So about a year ago, when I was looking for something else to pass the time, I started knitting again.

I love creating things. It’s one of the reasons I love to write, though that, too, has become a job. Not that I don’t enjoy it still, but it’s gone beyond a pastime and into something I have to do.

So yeah, knitting. If they weren’t so expensive, I’d make blankets for all of you.

This knitty 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 Di for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 8th – I’m grateful

This post is part of Just Jot it January, and our prompt today is thanks to Sadje. Check out her blog here!

I have so many things to be grateful for that it took me all day to decide what I was going to write about for today’s prompt, “gratitude.”

I’m grateful of course for my family, that I have a roof over my head and food in the cupboards. I’m grateful for my (so far) good health (touches all the wood), and the fact that I have few things to worry about for the future.

So what, with all that, did I decide to write about?

This website, and all the friends I’ve made here over the years. All the people who’ve stuck with me, even when it must have seemed like I’d gone missing.

I’m grateful to know that if I come here and write something, someone will read it. Someone will notice, and I’ll always have at least one person in the world who knows I exist.

And if all that goes away one day and no one comes back to visit? I’ll know that there are people out there I can seek out, just to say hi.

In fact, I’ve been going through some of my old posts and doing just that, lately.

Try it! You never know who you’re missing until you see a familiar name.

This thankful 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 Sadje for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 the 7th – But what’s your motivation?

Back to our regular prompts, this post is part of Just Jot it January, and our prompt of the day is courtesy of Dan. Check out his blog here!

As a writer of stories, I do my best to make my character’s motivations clear. Like, not only are they doing this or that thing, but it’s obvious why they’re doing it.

And to take a step beyond that, I do my best to make sure they’re not doing something just for the sake of doing it, especially when the action is dangerous or stupid.

Which is why I don’t watch a lot of horror movies.

Why does the girl who’s about to be killed really need to go into the room where the killer is? Curiosity? Don’t be stupid!

I get that it causes tension for the viewer, but ugh!

If it makes me scream at the screen, it’s obvious to me there’s no plausible motivation behind the action.

If the character is walking into a dangerous situation, for instance if there’s a killer at the door and she answers it because she’s sure it’s someone she’s expecting, that’s good motivation.

But “ooh, what’s that weird noise in this dark room when I don’t have a pet and I believe I’m alone in the house?”

RUN! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!

Because we all know curiosity kills more than the cat in a horror film.

This frustrated 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 Dan for the prompt!


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JusJoJan24 & #SoCS the 6th – Harder than it looks

This post is part of Just Jot it January and my weekly prompt, Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Find the prompt and see how you can join in HERE.

I tell myself to “just do it” all the time. But it really is a struggle.

Just willing myself to start writing this post, I sat back in my chair, picked a few stray dog hairs off my sleeve, looked at my to do list, checked out not one, but two of my calendars, and had a drink of water before I gathered the courage to place my fingers on the keyboard.

And it is courage, it seems, that’s necessary.

Because I want to get it right the first time.

Now, yes, because this is stream of consciousness writing and I can’t go back and change it, but much of the time I’m like this.

I suppose I’m a perfectionist.

Or maybe it’s a case of not wanting to have to fix things once they’re done.

HA! And I call myself an editor.

But that’s different. When I edit someone else’s work, I’m actually looking at it for the first time…

Anyway, that was a tangent.

Just do it.

It’s more than three words. (Editor Linda is saying no, it’s literally three words.)

It’s a concept.

And it’s far bigger than meets the eye.

I’m starting to think that in many cases, there’s no “just” about it.

Do it.

Yeah, that’s better.

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

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