It’s the middle of the month -ish, so I’m here with a gentle reminder that there’s still time to link your colouring projects to the original prompt from February 1st, here. The comments in this post are turned off to ensure all pingbacks go to the original post.
Take a deep breath. Time to really get into this whole A to Z business.
When I opened my thesaurus to find my “B” word, I saw “breather” and thought HA! An easy one. But like many words, the more I think about it, the more complex it seems. Of course, it’s “one who breathes.” Then there’s the rather unflattering term, “mouthbreather,” which according to the Urban Dictionary means “a stupid person.” I’ve been a bit of a mouth breather of late, but it’s to do with my cold… You know, stuffed up nose and all that.
But mostly the word “breather” is known as a noun to mean “a break.” Relax. Take a breather. In my thesaurus it says it’s a synonym for “constitutional” and “walk,” as well. In which case it could be thought of as a heavy-breather, depending on the shape one is in.
Speaking of heavy-breathers, do they still do that anymore? I remember it was a big thing in the 70s – you’d pick up the phone and on the other end there’d be someone just breathing heavily. I suppose prank calls pretty much went out the window with caller ID. One day I’ll be able to ask “Is your fridge running? Yes? Better go catch it!” and nobody will know where it came from.
“Breather” is one of those words that, when I think about it too much, stops making sense. Or in this case, I think it makes too much sense. Relax. Take a breath.
Phew! I need a rest. 😉
***
If you’re stopping by my blog for the first time or you haven’t picked it up yet, please check out my A to Z Challenge-inspired novelette “All Good Stories.” It’s a romantic comedy about two best friends who belong together – Xavier knows it, but Jupiter has her eye on another guy: a shady character named Bob.
“Delightful, Light-hearted tale with great twists!” ~ Lori Carleson, 5 stars, Amazon review
“Quirky and charming.” ~ Bobby Underwood, #11 top reviewers on Goodreads – 5 stars
If you would like to participate, 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.
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 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.”
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!
When I started Stream of Consciousness Saturday, two and a half years ago, I did it because I wanted to write something on the weekends without having to think about it too much. For most people, the weekdays are the busiest and weekends are for relaxing. My situation is the opposite, having the kids home all day. So I’d sit and wrack my brain for a “good idea” of what to write and usually just get stressed while I watched my views plummet. (I’ve always paid attention to numbers, so the views on my blog were a natural obsession for me.)
The whole thing started at the mall, actually. I was sitting in the food court, eating my lunch alone, and wanted to write something. Anything. So I took out my trusty notebook and began. I came home later and transcribed it verbatim on my blog. It was a week or two later that I came up with the idea to let other people in on the fun. And it has been fun, hasn’t it? (This is starting to sound doomed – it’s not.) (Also, I’m going to end another paragraph with brackets.)
I think the whole love affair I have with stream of consciousness writing stems from the way I write fiction best. I’m a pantser, which means I don’t plot. I write by the seat of my pants. It’s a lot like stream of consciousness, because you never know where it’s going. The difference is, when writing fiction you’re in someone else’s head. Someone you have gotten to know by writing backstories and by living with them through their trials and tribulations. Their struggles and their joys. Once I know them well, they carry my mind along… much like my mind carries me along to write what I’m writing now. It’s so completely natural, and that’s what I enjoy about it the most when I read all of your SoCS posts. It’s a lovely, unfiltered glimpse that allows us all to really see how we connect with one another. Because we’re really all the same inside.
Hey! I managed to write a paragraph with no brackets! (So where was I?) (See what I did there?)
I suppose to go back to the beginning, I just wanted to say I still and will probably always appreciate the concept of stream of consciousness writing. It’s an escape inwards. Like an explosion of bodily fluids but without the mess. Fingertip sweat. I should probably shut up now.
I’m breaking from Helen’s theme on Song-Lyric Sunday today because what I want to write about is time-sensitive.
I’m not much of a Tragically Hip fan. I never have been. But what the band is going through right now affects me. It has the potential to affect all music fans, regardless of preference. You see, a few months ago, when The Tragically Hip announced their final tour, they also came out with the news that their lead singer, Gordon Downie, has brain cancer.
Over the years, The Tragically Hip have become a Canadian icon, every bit as much as David Bowie was to England. Yet they chose to handle the same disease differently. Some would say Bowie did it right, not allowing his fans to fawn over him during his final days. Those same people might say The Hip announced Gordon Downie’s disease as a publicity stunt. But I would have to disagree. The same number of people would have bought tickets to their “final tour” (in brackets because we know what that usually means) and perhaps some of their most loyal fans would have waited until they came out of retirement. As it is, it doesn’t seem they will.
Imagine.
On August 20th they will walk off the stage for the very last time, in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario. The venue, the K-Rock Centre on Tragically Hip Way. How difficult will that be for both the band and the fans? I’m in tears just thinking about it, because even though The Tragically Hip isn’t “my band,” it will happen to every one of them, eventually. Because of the timely announcement, the CBC will simulcast the concert countrywide.
To one of Canada’s greatest bands. I salute you.
Wheat Kings
(Lyrics from Google Play Music)
Sundown in the Paris of the prairies
Wheat kings have all treasures buried
And all you hear are the rusty breezes
Pushing around the weathervane Jesus
In his Zippo lighter he sees the killer’s face
Maybe it’s someone standing in a killer’s place
Twenty years for nothing, well, that’s nothing new
Besides, no one’s interested in something you didn’t do
Wheat kings and pretty things
Let’s just see what the morning brings
There’s a dream he dreams where the high school’s dead and stark
It’s a museum and we’re all locked up in it after dark
Where the walls are lined all yellow, grey and sinister
Hung with pictures of our parents’ prime ministers
Wheat kings and pretty things
Wait and see what tomorrow brings
Late breaking story on the CBC
A nation whispers, “We always knew that he’d go free”
They add, “You can’t be fond of living in the past
‘Cause if you are then there’s no way that you’re going to last”
Wheat kings and pretty things
Let’s just see what tomorrow brings
Wheat kings and pretty things
Oh that’s what tomorrow brings
First, a little explanation: I have a spring in my basement. There’s a concrete hole in my concrete floor, and into it runs a constant flow of natural spring water. So my brilliant best friend, John, has decided he’s going to use it to concoct air conditioning for my house. However, it has to be 55 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. In order to check, he needed a thermometer. So he asked me, “Do you have an old thermometer around? One you put under your tongue?”
“John, I don’t think they make them go that low.” His temperature is above 55! He might still be alive!*rolls eyes*
Anyone who would like to participate, 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.”
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!
Do you remember the old Memorex commercial? No? If you’re wondering why I’m asking, see the title of this post. Okay, on with my point.
What kind of person are you? Are you like me and wonder what happened to someone if they don’t show up online for, like, twelve hours? Or do you figure they’re just living their life in real life? Because seriously, it’s hard to differentiate between online life and real life sometimes. If someone stays offline for three days it’s not the same as if they don’t come out of their house for three days. But we still wonder, are they laying on the kitchen floor in the puddle of grease they slipped on because it’s been thirty-six hours since they last posted a picture of a cat on Facebook?
You hear stories of how the mailman calls 911 because the old lady in 226 hasn’t emptied her mailbox since last Tuesday, but you do the same thing for your online friends and you end up with the police knocking on YOUR door with a restraining order. Okay, there may be exceptions: like when they don’t show up online for months (yeah, I’m looking at you, Paul Curran). But the fact is, we don’t really (usually) know what goes on in the background of our online friend’s lives. Just like we shouldn’t judge people by the way they look, we shouldn’t necessarily worry or think others are ignoring us when they’re not around the internet at the same time every day.
I do consider my online friends as friends. It’s a totally different friendship we have with our physical neighbours though. Right?
I’d be a full-time student if I could. Most of what is holding me back is time. I’d hate to spend all that money (which would have to come in the form of government grants, but still) and then find out I haven’t got enough hours in the day to complete a course. So I wait until the perfect time. HA! Yeah, that’s going to come along.
What I do think I’ll be able to manage though, is a course from the college where I graduated from my writing program. One of the classes they offered but I didn’t take because it didn’t fit with what I was doing at the time, was for writing memoirs. I could really use that for my story about Alex and parenting a Deaf child, when I get the chance to gather all that up. Yeah, time again.
Speaking of time, how pathetic is it that I almost didn’t get my post for my own prompt written before midnight? I was so afraid I’d not get my fiction one done, that I wrote it before this. It’s also a SoCS post – I’m actually quite proud of it. Often when I write stream of consciousness fiction it ends up sucking. But I don’t think today’s did. I hope you’ll check it out. The link to it is over there —-> on the right-hand sidebar. At least right now it’s there. Next week it probably won’t be there, so you’ll have to look for it with the rest of the links in the comments of this post. Where you can join in too! It’s fun!!!
I wonder if I’d be as enthusiastic about taking classes if I had to go back to the same set-up as we had in public school. Tiny little desks, teachers who demanded respect and sent you out into the hall if they didn’t get it… lousy cafeteria food, and hall monitors. Now the only monitor I have to deal with is the one I’m looking at when I type.
I skipped school a lot. Writing this, I can see why.
In nature we find nothing but being: the act of existence, the cycle of life. Hate, jealousy, fear…none of that is present. But joy in the form of the vibrancy of life, that we can sense.
Anyone who would like to participate, 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.”
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!
I often feel like a servant in my own house. Because of their disabilities, there’s a good chance I’ll always have to serve my children, to some extent.
But it’s something we all do, isn’t it? There are times when it’s much easier to do a thing ourselves than take the time to teach the kids to do it. In many cases it’s justified: while in the way out the door to an appointment, or getting ready for school in the morning, when we’re tired and just want to get the thing (whatever it is) over and done with. At some point we need to stop and teach though. We do our kids a disservice by waiting on them hand and foot.
While I’m here, I also wanted to let you know that today is the final day to vote for my novel, The Magician’s Curse, for the Reviewer’s Choice Award, hosted by the Paranormal Romance Guild. Here’s the link to my original post, if you’d like to read all the details, or for a quick link directly to the voting, you can click here (The Magician’s Curse is about 2/5 of the way down the page): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdn-ptlQncLRBuBxYkrmWPX8XF12nvxO7_f_cH2vS-e8ghwXQ/viewform
lindaghill.com 