Life in progress

Tag Archives: weather


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10 Random things that pissed me off today

1. People who argue on the internet, just because they can.

2. Bloggers who never ever reply to their comments, especially when they’ve written something controversial.

3. Looking out the window at a downpour when the “Weather Network” says it’s sunny outside. Don’t you people have a window of your own?!?

4. Over-sensitive people who love going out to socialize but who feel offended when strangers look at them.

5. Dog poo on the sidewalk.

6. My weeds. Not only are they choking my grass, but they keep growing, damnit!

7. My Sims Agents.

8. The pull of Camp Nano. It’s calling me, enticing me like a long lost lover…

9. Bacterial infections that live in hospitals – how do you weigh the risk vs. the benefit of going there?

10. When email doesn’t work! Please let me know if you requested my story the other day and didn’t get it – you should have.

What pissed you off today? And what made you smile? I could use one of those. 😉


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If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the novel

As the temperature and the humidity rise, and the air gets harder to breathe, I find myself wanting to stay inside more. It’s like winter, only backwards – I’m looking for the ice inside and avoiding the furnace outside.

Therefore, I’ve been sitting on my ever-spreading derriere for the past couple of days trying to organize my writing. I’ve done some editing, and I’ve started jotting down notes for my next novel. (Yay!) I’ve had a couple of glowing reviews already for my A – Z novelette (which I still need a title for) and I’ve begun to look into the process of self-publishing. …and I have no idea where to start.

I have a couple of questions for anyone out there who has gone before me in this regard.

1. Do you have an ISBN for every piece of work you’ve self-published? If so, publish first or ISBN first?

2. Did you have to apply for rights in every country in which you sell?

I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg – actually an iceberg sounds nice right about now. Feel free to shoot me now for all the complaining I did in the winter. I deserve it, I know.

Tell me, how hot is it where you are? Make me feel grateful.


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Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Reading

This post isn’t about what I thought to write about today, but rather, something that has come up. It’s about reading, yes. But then again it’s about not reading. Not being able to read.

Every once in a while my vision goes wonky. It happened today and I’ve been having a hard time seeing my screen. Last night before bed I was squinting at my book. Today I’m seeing double – one image is above and to the right of the actual image. It’s very hard on the eyes.

I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t see to write, or to read. I know I wrote about losing one of my senses before (can’t think of the title of the post right now, but it was about losing either your sight or your hearing- which would you choose if you had to?) and at the time I said I didn’t know. Then again, I was sitting at the table with John this morning and he could hear a song playing in the other room and was able to name it – I couldn’t even hear a sound, let alone a recognizable song. So I suppose I’m losing both. I may not get to choose.

The things we take for granted – our senses if we were born with them being the most obvious. I sit here at the kitchen table looking out at the deck I plan to stain this summer and I wonder if I’ll always be able to see it. I wonder if we forget what colour is like when we go blind, or if we just assign another sense to it. I can imagine green would be warm to me, even though it’s not considered a warm colour (I don’t think). It represents summer, after all.

There are men outside chopping up the tree that fell in December. I can see them through the slats of the fence. It’s cold out today, so I imagine their work is comfortable.

Maybe I’ll stain the deck bright red. There goes a chainsaw – there goes my thought process.

I’m posting this without reading. I hope it makes sense.

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-1414/


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A Tuna Built a Nest Under My Front Steps!

It’s true! A tuna has taken up residence under my front steps. What’s worse, there may be more than one!

Okay, by now you’re probably asking yourself what the hell I’m talking about. Let me tell you a story.

One fine evening when my eldest son was about a year old, my ex and I decided to go for a walk around the block, baby in carriage. It was spring, just like it is now, and the lilacs were blooming their fragrant heads off. The bumble bees were in heaven, and there were plenty of them. Their low pitched drones could be heard as they busily buzzed from blossom to blossom.

In the thick of it all, my ex decided that it might be the best idea for me to push the carriage. When I inquired why, he explained.

Now there are two things you need to know about my ex at this point. One, is that he is French. Quebecois. And two, that he is deathly afraid of bees.

His explanation for not wanting to push the carriage containing our child was as follows:

Because if I see a taon, I’m going to run.

Taon is the French word for horsefly, deer fly… but he meant bumble bee.

What I heard was thon, which is French for tuna.

Many minutes passed before I was able to get up off the ground from laughing so hard. When I could finally speak, with tears running down my face, I told him he could push the carriage because it didn’t matter – if I saw a tuna, I was going to run as well.

So there you have it. I have a tuna living under my steps. I won’t be telling my ex though – I won’t see him again until winter if I do.

movieposter

My ex’s vision of a tuna


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Cheer

I’m a generally cheerful person. I try not to let things get me down. No, the situation in which I live is not ideal, but it’s really as good as it’s ever going to get. I have enough people and things in my life to make me content. I do my best for those I love, and though I could probably use a little more time off, I manage quite well, given what I have.

Yet I’ve found myself complaining a lot of late. If I was to stand back and have a frank word with myself, I’d say, “If you don’t like the way things are, change them.” So that’s what I’m going to do.

Here’s a photo of three poppies.

poppies

I think the one on the right is playing peek-a-boo.

What I really need is a vacation away from here. I want to get away – to get out of my miniscule world and experience something different. Not exotically different, necessarily, just off the block, out of town, to see new faces and unfamiliar places.

I want to break free, damnit! Thank goodness the Queen concert is coming up.


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Abduction

Not that I’m complaining at all, and I know I can just quit, but I feel like my blog has been filched by the A-Z Challenge. Hijacked. Pinched. Misappropriated by my need to take on the extra work of an alphabetical prompt: shanghaied by my inability to just say “no.”

But I’m having fun!

I just wonder what I’m going to do with myself when it’s all over.

Speaking of being stolen, I wonder what tomorrow’s promised snow is going to do to the flowers in my front bed.

fallen

It’s already ruined so much this year: my eaves troughs, the neighbour’s tree and fence, my little solar lamp…

Life is short. Nature, in every form, both gives and takes.


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Oh So Randomly Random

If you’re over the age of 40 and you have the opportunity to buy your teenager the same model of cell phone as you, do it. Within a week, he or she will know more about its quirks and abilities than you’ll ever want to look up on your own. Just don’t get them one that’s the same colour as yours… you’ll not want to know what they’re talking to their friends about by text any more than you’ll want them seeing the pictures you take, if you know what I mean. 😉

Since my fiction blog is coming up to a year old, I’ve decided to completely revamp it – new theme, new colours, new name even. When I do, I’ll take it offline, so if you can’t find it this weekend, you’ll know why. And if you can’t find it ever, it’s because I’ve changed the name. (Makes note to self to schedule a grand re-opening.)

We had spring for about 10 minutes this morning! It’s snowing now.

Do you ever get a comment on an old post and have to go back to read it to see what you said? Does that mean your memory is bad, or that you post too much? Just wondering.

OH oh oh! I found the CD I lost! It was in a pile of papers in my kitchen. I found it when I was looking for something else. 😀 To celebrate, everyone who told me I’d find it, gets one of the oatmeal cookies I found in the same pile.

So I have the weekend off. The kids are going with their dad tomorrow night and coming back Sunday after dinner. I have a freebie at the cinema… and I have Netflix. Any suggestions as to what movie I should watch? Anyone want to come with? Popcorn’s on me. 😀

 

 


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Preservation

Winter is being such a bitch this year, particularly on my roof. Granted there are many people in the neighbourhood who have it worse: it seems on every street there are houses missing so much of their eavestroughs that I can see their rafters from the street. And trust me, no one wants their rafters showing.

In an effort to not be one of them, I’ve tried a couple of different methods to relieve my roof of the eight inches of ice that is threatening to pull down what’s left of my eavestroughs. Chipping at it didn’t work – it’s far too solid. So I figured, why not throw some salt up there? As soon as we have a nice day, maybe it’ll melt from the top rather than the bottom as it has done for the past couple of weeks, causing the residual water to come in around my window frames – inside the house.

The salt, however, seems to be rather picky when it comes to the roof. It melts the ice just fine on the sidewalk.

After putting almost a full ten pounds of salt on my roof, what do I have?

This, first of all:

:weird 3\

It would seem the salt has created some interesting formations out of my icicles.

What else?

Everything dripping off my roof is crystalised. I have white splattered all over my exterior walls, I have white steps at the front of my house, and best of all, I have a saltwater cascade dripping down my windows and onto my hardwood floors. And still, I have eight inches of ice on my roof.

The good news? The mold that I’m positive is growing on the other side of my drywall will be well preserved.


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Ahhhh

My day is winding down; I have just enough wine in me that I’m not sleepy. Contentedness folds over me like a warm blanket.

The sound is down on Mickey Mouse, because my son is Deaf–gone are the days of having to listen to a certain purple dinosaur, for whom I feel absolutely no love, and who I suspect doesn’t love me either. There are walls and windows between myself and my family, and the frigid winter air. My tummy is full of a simple dinner of pasta and canned tomatoes, with mozzerella cheese melted on top… What more could I ask for?

I love nights like this. It’s like comfort food for an exhausted soul.

Tell me, what is your perfect evening with family?


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The Ice is Laughing at Me

First it was the ice storm. Remember that? Back in December, just before Christmas I slipped on the ice and hit my head on a concrete step. Result: concussion. Thank goodness I had the lovely villainous Navigator1965 to cover for me.

Then there were the frost quakes. They were fun.

And let’s not forget the icicles, that led to the destruction of my eavestroughs.

And now? To add insult to injury, the ice is laughing at me:
CAM00236

Can you see the big grin? Just in case, I drew eyebrows, eyes, a mustache and a goatee on him:

laughing

Have I mentioned lately that I’m sick of winter?