Life in progress

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SoCS – Three out of Four

According to my horoscope I’m an Air sign, though I’m not sure that’s my favourite element – at least not all the time.

There have been times in my life when I was in my element out of doors, particularly when I worked with horses. I loved being out on horseback no matter what the weather. Except freezing rain. That sucked for everyone. But in general I love nature, and so sitting on a fence rail, breathing in the air and just watching the horses graze was a gem of a time for me.

I love being in a canoe as well. Floating on the water, paddling my little heart out is a great time as far as I’m concerned. Swimming as well – I used to enjoy holding my breath and just laying on the bottom of my neighbour’s pool for as long as I could. Sounds are muffled and it’s simply peaceful.

When I went camping when I was younger I was always the one to tend the fire. Keeping it going was a constant occupation and could keep me busy for hours. Sitting by the fire at night with the crickets singing and a million stars overhead could be heaven. As long as it wasn’t raining. Then again, crickets don’t sing when it rains, and chances are I wouldn’t see the stars either, so scratch that. Ah stream of consciousness and no editing, eh?

The one element I could never really get into is earth. Digging in the garden holds absolutely no appeal to me. Sitting in the garden reading a good book on a nice day… priceless.

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2014/11/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-november-1514/ Come an join in!

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

And Nano Poblano:

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And NaBloPoMo:

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Nano Poblano Day 12: NaNoWhatever

I’m starting to think writing a novel would have been easier than this NaBloPoMo thing. Writing a post every day, especially when I’m being forced into it, is HARD! Writing a novel when I’m being forced into it, on the other hand, is a piece of cake as long as life doesn’t come along and bite me in the arse like it did during NaNo ’11.

Yep, NaNo ’11 was a doozy. I was going along strong and then suddenly everyone got sick. Alex, my youngest, was in the hospital in Kingston, which was miles away and so I figured I’d sleep there, save the drive home. Only I got woken up at two in the morning to find out my eldest, Fred, was puking up blood. What do you do?

I rushed home as soon as I’d talked to Alex’s doctor the next day–which was almost dinner time–and I don’t even remember what happened after that, ‘coz I got sick. At least I knew Alex was taken care of.

The manuscript that came out of that there NaNo ’11 took me another year to complete, as it turned out. Today I printed out all 627 pages of it–again–so I can give it what I hope is a second-last once-over before it goes out to my beta readers. That should take, oh, a week or so if all goes well.

And no one gets sick.

This post was brought to you by Mr. Mark:

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and NaBloPoMo

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Nano Poblano – Day 10: One of THOSE Days

3DThere are mornings when I float in a sea of imagination, of blessed inspiration, where the shadows are in 3D and I even take a picture of them in hopes that the lens will pick up on that which my feeble, caffeine-deprived brain sees as magical.

 

 

There are nights–normally attached to those same mornings–when music presents itself in the muddle of my sleep-deprived brain as truly the most penetrating thing on the planet. Those are the nights when the guitar solo at the end of Comfortably Numb can move me to tears.

And my muse can move me to sing.

Do you ever have one of those days?

 

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SoCS – A “But” Rant and a Thank You

There are times when I just can’t stand hearing people say “but.” I do it myself sometimes and I hate it when I do it too. I suppose that’s why I hate it – they say the things we dislike in other people are the things we dislike about ourselves – that’s one time it fits to a tee.

“I want to go on vacation, but…” This is the one I hear most often that bothers me. Is there really any good time to go on vacation? There will always be something more important to do than taking time for ourselves. There will never be enough money to go. There will never be enough time. So do it! Stop saying “but”! Either that or stop saying you want to go!

Wow, there was a rant I wasn’t expecting.

A bit of this time I’m taking to write this post should be used to mention that the participation today, and in the last couple of weeks has been awesome! My promise to read and comment on each and every SoCS post is taking longer and longer to do, so I apologize if it’s next Friday by the time I get to your post, but I will get there. I hope there will not be a time when I can’t read everything, but at the same time I hope this prompt will spread further and wider so that many bloggers will have the opportunity to participate and, most of all, connect.

So, thank you!! To all who read the SoCS posts linked in the Friday prompt, to all of those who are part of this wonderful WordPress network, and most of all, to all of you who join me in Stream of Consciousness Saturday!

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2014/11/07/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-november-814/ To join in the fun, please click on the link to get started!


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Day 6 – Nano Poblano: My Mama Said…

Expressions. We all have them. We all use them. There are so many we all know–he’s pushing up daisies, or busy as a bee, for instance–but how about the ones you grew up with? You know,  the ones that come out of your mouth with a satisfied grin because you’ve just uttered the most perfect thing at the perfect moment EVER, yet you get a strange look because the person you’re talking to has never heard them before. So then you have to explain that what you just blurted out was something your mother, father, grandparent, or old Uncle Fred always said when blah blah blah and by the time you’ve finished going through the entire history of your fabulous phrase, its lustre has worn down to the brilliance of a twenty-year-old tractor tire.

You’ve been there before, right? So tell me, what are some of your favourite expressions that no one has ever heard before, and where did they come from?

 

This post brought to you by:

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and:

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Day 4 – Nano Poblano: Invasion of the Teeth Eating, Six-Legged Creatures!

My pumpkin had pointy teeth.

 

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Then the ants came. It’s the same every year; the infestation begins the moment the pumpkin goes outside. I know, I know there are ways to prevent this: I just wait until the last minute to put them out.

What really amuses me is the large chunks of skin the ants manage to throw out. You can see them on the step… and if you look really close you can see all the ants. Most of them were sleeping. Pumpkin must be to an ant like turkey is to a human.

So I propose the name of a new band. Who needs the Smashing Pumpkins when you can watch the Slowly-Being-Eaten Rotting Infested Jack-O-Lanterns?

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Happy Hallowe’en!

My house, this morning.

spiderman!

Spiderman looks more like The Fly

chefalex

Who was that masked man?


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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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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/