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 Day to day stuff....a memoir without order. |
 Imagination is described by Webster as...The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses in reality. Albert Einstein said "Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere."  I never realized it until I read it somewhere but there are ways to boost one's imagination: Create a visual journal Draw whatever you see for 15 minutes a day. You don't need to be an artist. Think like an artist Cut out pictures from magazines & piece them together to create an original image. Listen to Bach Close your eyes while playing your favorite music. Or listen to the sounds of nature on a CD or in the great outdoors. Play word games Try thinking of as many words as you can that begin with MAR...or you pick. Daydream Let your mind wander, or focus on a single object & study its characteristics.     Everyone has a story....here's mine.....c ** Image ID #1701066 Unavailable **  |
| I just got back home from my walk. Even though the temp is in the 70's, the humidity makes it seem more like 90. Blue jays were screeching and crows were laughing, water was dripping from the overhanging limbs of trees and the storm drains were gurgling from the late night storms. I still huff and puff a little while going uphill, but I purse my lips and blow out all the air I can to make room for new and fresh, hopefully oxygenated. The air in Florida (to me) always smells like hundreds of others have already breathed the good part out of it...not like that sweet smelling air in Delaware of maturing wheat and corn and soy beans. I am reading a book by Joyce Carol Oates (just started, at about page 50) titled A Widow's Story. I have been mulling something interesting she says, that there are two kinds of personalities, those who can relax and enjoy each minute of life and those who think they need to be creating something to be worthy of life. Can't we be a little of each? Her husband, she says, was the first kind and she is the second. And then she goes on to talk about how worried he is while in the hospital that he cannot keep up with his work and insists she bring it in to him there. I think we all are a little bit of each. At least I hope so. I had some sort of upsetting news at the eye doctor on Friday. I have both kinds of glaucoma. I am already taking drops for open-angle...knew about that...but she says my tear ducts (wrote ducks first, haha) are very narrowed and I will need laser surgery to make a new opening in both eyes, first eye scheduled for 9/15. Not too happy about that. I asked if I would be able to drive home and she said "yes"...and then she said something that surprised me. "You don't look like the kind of person who would need someone to hold your hand." Really? I must look stronger than I feel. While I am writing this, I am thinking how much easier it is for me to communicate through writing than it is through speaking. I have a very difficult time expressing myself verbally and I think it has always been like that. I can remember loving to write letters while growing up, but not really sharing with girlfriends as others did. Some people think that is being secretive but I am just not a chatty person. And even in writing I am not overly verbose. I say get to the point, get it out, and be done with it.... until next time...c |
| Is there anyone who smells sunscreen and does not think of the beach? Of course, back in my day, it was called suntan lotion. There was no sunscreen. Everyone wanted to be brown like that little girl on the Coppertone billboard ad. Funny thing, it didn't make me brown. It made me red. And later, after I was at home, sometimes I got blisters. Water blisters, Mother called them because when they broke (or I broke them) water rolled out, and, horrors, the skin peeled off. It was dead. Underneath I was still white! My nose was the worst. It peeled over and over and over again because it stuck out into the sun's rays whether I had suntan lotion on or not. Even in the ocean, my nose was doomed to be burnt. Then my mom found that white stuff, zinc oxide, cheap and effective as long as it stays on, but eewww, the look of it. Sunscreen today seems to work for me. I use it religiously. Melanomas and other skin cancers can tend to do that to a person. It makes me sad to think that something I found to be such fun when I was younger is now replaced by fear, fear of feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin and the color it brings to my cheeks. It was always a "healthy look" when I was a teenager. Even today, knowing the damage it does, it's hard to believe a tan is not a good thing. I can understand how young people feel and why the sun is still "worshipped". until next time...c |
| I found this list of scents somewhere, I can't remember where. It must be universal because each scent comes to me complete with a scene and a place in time. Scents are very powerful to me. Here is the list: pine needles cut grass sunscreen rubbing alcohol cinnamon stale beer pencil erasers vinegar newly vacuumed carpet orange peel mothballs roses a new car frying bacon damp paper The scene that came into my head when I read "pine needles" took place when I was around 30 which would make it somewhere in the 70's. I am walking with Jim and the kids in some woods near where we lived in Delaware. Jim is looking for a place to hunt and on this particular Sunday, we are traipsing through this woods looking for wildlife, deer in particular. It is spring and the ground is thick with damp pine needles, which makes our footsteps quiet. In fact, I hear nothing at all. The sun is high overhead casting few shadows even though the trees are dense. There are some fallen logs we have to step over, and as usual I lose my sense of direction. Jim never gets lost so I am not worried. Eric and Erica are maybe 10 and 11 and seem timid today because they do not run ahead but stay close to our sides. I am the one who steps out when I see some interesting tree fungus. As I do, a huge black snake slithers across the pine needles directly in front of my feet. One more step and my foot would have been on top of it. I freeze. Jim grabs my shoulders and pulls me back as the snake continues on into the underbrush. until next time...c |
| I am sitting here at Sals Auto getting my oil changed. It's been over a year and I can't seem to get three thousand miles on my car (truck actually) within a year's time. My walk this morning was cool again, saw a pileated woodpecker. It's seems like they are early this year. Nothing going on at the construction site in the back, but all the stakes are in place outlining the perimeters of the house. The man here at Sal's is not very friendly. He must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. I cut all my grass yesterday evening, shady and fairly cool. My daughter called as soon as I got finished. She is starting a new job on Monday, very excited. Happily, she has not burned any bridges with her current boss. I have my fingers crossed. She will be the office manager for a real estate company. Now, she is in the same position for an insurance firm...says she hates insurance and wants a change. Today is banking day for my writing group and we are anticipating a letter on our federal non profit status. I am still loving my little Chromebook...using it now. until next time...c |
| I just had my supper (pasta primavera) and I am watching the shadow move across my front lawn so I can go out and jump on the mower. I exaggerate a little with the "jumping" part, but I am watching the shadow. We are having a drop in the dew point so our temps are not quite as awful as they have been, but I still have to watch out for the rays on my skin. I am still walking every morning and this morning was deliciously cool. Construction is beginning on the building lot at the back of my development. It has been deserted for a few days but this morning the surveyors were staking out the footers. It amazes me how a person can look online, see the building permit and know what is happening without moving their butt. So much has changed in the past few years. I know how big the house is going to be, what the builder estimates the cost to be (actually the owner is the builder on this one), when the inspections are scheduled...so on and so forth...don't want to bore you. It does amaze me though, I guess because Jim was a builder and everything was so different...and difficult  .And miracle of miracles, I bought a Chromebook, the cheapest one of course because that is me, an Acer C720 for $179! And do I ever love, love, love it! So now I have a backup for my pc although I will admit it doesn't do everything, but I would be able to get by. And for the price....well.... I gotta get...the shadow is moving... until next time...c |
| It rained yesterday evening (very hard) but this morning's walk was beautiful with just a tiny bit of coolness to the air. Mockingbirds were diving for bugs, crows were investigating new debris, and a lone armadillo walked across the street about a hundred feet in front of me. Whew! He didn't even stop and look, just kept on truckin'. My critique group met at my house yesterday, and we had a wonderful few hours. I can't believe how well we all communicate with a 30-year age span, and such a diversity of interests. Of course, our common interest of writing brings us together, words and cookies and tea  .My new neighbors have turned out to be extremely quiet, not at all what I expected from two young boys and a dog (Roscoe, a bulldog). We've only spoken a couple of times and waved several times. They seem to be gone when I am outside. There's not much progress yet on the new house going up at the back of my development. Lots of dirt (sand) has been dumped and smoothed (and compacted, I assume) for the foundation, but that's about it. A tractor and backhoe sit and watch. And I hope the displaced wildlife have found new homes...without tractors and backhoes .until next time...c |
| Missed two days walking, the 15th and 16th, because of rain, and I really missed it. I could hardly keep myself from going out with an umbrella, but considering the metal skeleton of the umbrella and the lightening dancing around, I thought better of it. Better to stay inside than be fried! I guess the baby bird flew away. I got tired of watching and gave up. The bluebirds have nested under my mailbox again. You would think it would be too hot under there, definitely an incubator. I see them flying back and forth, either bringing food or nesting material. I am beginning to remember why I hated bookkeeping…too many bosses. The writers’ group is turning out to be no different. Why can’t people just agree on something without turning it inside out and upside down and shaking the hell out of it. Geez. And the more people, the worse it is. Everyone has an opinion and they are all different. Wondering if I can last until December. Bookkeeping is so much more than making deposits and writing checks and keeping records…ugh. And critiquing shuts down the muse even more. Logic is ruling my world right now. until next time...c |
| I just went outside to trim some more on my shrubs and as I was pruning, I came eye to eye, or nose to beak, with a little bird, sitting there inside the leaves, frozen with fright. Now I know why mama mockingbird was raising hell when I got back from my walk. I scared a kitty out of the bushes and thought that was the reason. I am watching from inside as mama struts around spreading out her wings and puffing out her chest in encouragement…or maybe it’s papa? She never made a sound while I was out there clipping away. Trimming will have to wait. The author signing at the library yesterday was a huge success, over 100 people! It was very well publicized and of course the snacks helped although I don’t think that was known in advance. I did not see one man in the crowd, and were they noisy! Ladies love beach reads. Mary Kay Andrews talked about her books (22 of them) for over an hour telling how she got her ideas and titles, interesting. I finished my Soprano binge last night and what a letdown. The ending sucked, big time! What the heck was that fade to black crap? until next time...c |
| Still walking, day 18. It is very foggy this morning and the heat is oppressive even though the sun cannot get through. My face feels encased in a moist cloth. The Spanish moss, live oaks, and royal palms, fuzzy through the mist, alert my "be on your guard" button. Sounds are louder. I saw a cat, feral I suspect, a dog, thankfully behind a fence, and a bunny hopping down the bank to the holding pond in the back of the development. I would not have seen any of them except for the noise they made through the heavy fog. People leaving for church, or wherever, have their car lights on, but their noise precedes them. The street is wet with dew, and a patch of mulberries turned the soles of my shoes purple. Mossy, green-coated pecans litter another patch, probably dropped by squirrels. I have to watch where I walk. They hurt when stepped on. Yesterday I met with two friends at the little cafe in the Harn (museum) for lunch. We had the most delicious crab bisque, real crab, I found shells. Then we strolled through the museum and visited the gift shop. I bought my granddaughter a Japanese hair stick for her birthday next Sunday. It rained so hard on the way home, I could barely see to drive...a free carwash .This morning I have to make some cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip) for a book signing at the library, Mary Kay Andrews, a beach read author...something to do. So I had better hop to it.... until next time...c |
| Whoops, missed a few days. That’s okay. I went to Book Club yesterday and had to take brownies so baking preempted blogging. I have walked at least 30 minutes for 7 days straight now. Yay! Feeling much better. And I am doing some arm and core strengthening exercises, getting ready for kayaking on Newnan’s next month…maybe. Book Club was very enjoyable..again. The Round House by Louise Erdrich was depressing to some but I thought it was interesting (Ojibwa), had characters with depth, an excellent plot and written well. The father reminded me of Atticus. Sallie and another lady brought cookies so we had plenty of snacks. Our membership is up to 31 now with 21 present yesterday. It is such a nice feeling that we all get along so well. We have a T.S. Arthur spinning off the east coast of Florida, expected to turn into a #1 hurricane as it travels northward later in the week. It’s very beautiful here this morning, though, hot but with a nice breeze. There is an equine encephalitis alert here in Alachua County. Mosquitoes are prolific. I use a repellent called “Buzz Away”. The active ingredient is citronella oil, but it is scented with cedarwood, peppermint, and lemongrass. I think it smells good and more importantly, it works for me. I got some wickable clothing for kayaking and I am wearing them for walking…so much cooler, who knew…love it. Not much happening here and I need to send out my critique group update requests so I had better get to it…. until next time...c |
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