%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  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   |
| My respite lady, Dana, came today at 12 to stay with Jim. I had several errands planned, the first being a visit to the library. I had lots to return, some dangerously close to being past due. My library has installed a new soflware system and us patrons have been "babysitting" books during the changover. So with Dana at home I had plenty of lackadaisical browsing time on my hands, a wonderful thing. I found a book on writing memoirs by William Zinsser, Writing About Your Life. I've read the first few pages and it looks pretty interesting. He writes about things from his own life, tells why he chose them, gives hints on how to "think" of memories and how to organize them into a memoir...looks very helpful. Also, I picked up a couple of mysteries, Butchers Hill by Laura Lippman, and Dead Like You by Peter James. I have to admit the last one was a mistake. I was looking at mysteries by P.D. James and picked up this one without realizing the first name was Peter...ohoh. Who knows, it may turn out to be even better  . I love to read mysteries but have never tried to write one.Then I went to a "pay for" bookstore to look for a b-day present for our daughter. They have all kinds of neat things...wow, I just looked out my window and saw the most beautiful red sunset over the pine trees! What's that saying...red sky by morning, sailors take warning, red sky at night, sailors delight...definitely a delight! So after much searching I found something I thought she might like and got the cutest b-day card ever. It shows the back of a cat (suspicously looking like Mopsy) holding a shotgun pointed at a mousehole in the baseboard and says, "You better have a happy birthday or else!" I know, I know, it doesn't sound that funny...you'd have to know Mopsy!  Then it was off to Home Depot for some mulch and another plant, this time a red hibiscus. I spent a little too much time traipsing around the garden center in 95 degree heat, and it almost did me in. I forgot to eat lunch or bring water. I decided to go by Publix and pick up a snack to get revived...crackers and a grapefruit drink. Then I went next door to the post office and mailed the present. So I got lots of things taken care of. My gas gauge was at half full (or half empty, depending on your point of view) and I couldn't make up my mind whether to fill up or not. The price was $3.41. I opted not to thinking it may go down a little more, probably the wrong decision but we'll see. On my next respite time, I'll need to get the oil changed, not a fun time  .Thank heavens I've got some new books to read...PBS and TCM have been sucky lately. I have become addicted to a new show called Longmire on A&E on Sunday nights at 10. It's set in Wyoming, beautiful backdrops. I think it's the westerny atmosphere I like. Well, my books are calling me. so.... until next time...c |
I wrote an article last year on Father's Day and how it came about, "Father's Day"  , and it has made me smile to see how many hits it is getting. I even updated it for the current year. It's really nice when people are looking at your "stuff" without encouragement . I hope all the Dads out there had a terrific and memorable Father's Day this year!This afternoon I was trolling through some photo albums and came across this old picture of my Jim. He was probably about thirty years old, and I pulled it out to get a closer look. I don't know why but I turned it over and there on the back I recognized these words written by our daughter, My handsome Dad. From the looks of the writing, she must have been about eight or nine. I sped into the bedroom where Jim was resting and shared it with him. I got a huge flash of the happy, proud Dad face. It was great...he has been so down lately and not feeling good. Then I had to scan it and email (front and back) to our daughter. Her reaction was just like Jim's. She remembered writing it and thinking he looked like a movie star. What a great Dad's day! until next time...c |
| One of the things I like best about this site is the reviews I get. Now, don't get me wrong, all of them are not good (by good, I mean applauding my writing talent ), but the ones that are....well, they make me very happy! When I need a lift in spirit, good reviews are my "go to place". I'm very sure I am not the only person who feels this way. This morning I needed some of that spirit lifting, and it only took me a few "wonderful" reviews to get me back in the groove If you are like me, I have to be in a pretty good, confident mood to begin with before I can fully appreciate and comprehend those constructive reviews. I hear that little voice saying, "Yes, but these are the ones that help you to improve your writing." And I cannot disagree with that statement, but sometimes I just need to read the "good" ones and leave the others for another day. My humble words cannot express the thanks I feel for all the writers here who have taken the time to read and review my work. Your words are a spotlight in my day exactly when I need it. Thank you. until next time....c |
| I did a little weeding today in between the raindrops. We are definitely in our rainy season...every afternoon. Yes, we do have seasons in Florida. There's the hurricane season, the love-bug season, the rainy season (oh, yeah, I mentioned that), the tourist season, and of course, we have summer. Come to think of it, they may all be the same season...or the same time period. It has rained so much, I have grass growing in my bird feeders, yuck. And a pair of bluebirds are nesting under my mailbox. They try to dive bomb me every time I go for the mail. I'm thinking maybe I need to wear protective clothing. Those little things can be scary. Remember The Birds? I'll be reaching for my mail and I hear this click, click, clicking noise and see these darting shadows on the ground. Makes a person want to leave the junk mail in the box! I made the most delicious sugared pecans today. And so easy. I guess I have mentioned about a thousand times how much I like Wendy's apple pecan chicken salad. Well, it has sugared pecans on it. The cheapest pecans in the supermarket are found in the baking aisle, usually near the flour and sugar. So all you do is whip an egg white with a teeny bit of water till frothy, mix some white sugar, a little salt, and a little cinnamon together, dump your pecans in the egg mix to coat, take out with a slotted spoon, then put them in the dry mix and shake them around until they are coated. Remove them again with a slotted spoon and spread them out on an oiled, foil covered baking sheet. Put them in a 250 degree oven for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes. I'm not sure these will make it to the salad...yum. Nothing that comes in a can tastes this good .I started writing a poem for the "Short Shots: Official WDC Contest" but got stuck after 8 lines....Sunset finds him alone on the beach, missing his master who's now out of reach. He knows something's different, he can't tell what. Now another voice calls him, always ending with "mutt". He can hardly eat, his food tastes funny somehow. It sticks in his throat, can't be his usual chow. What happened, he wonders, where is his master? There were bright flashing lights and sounds of disaster. This has been happening to me a lot lately. I think it's called poor concentration. But I had fun writing these 8 lines and the whole story is somewhere in my head. I've decided there are lots of good reasons to write that have nothing to do with being published, two of the most important being to have fun and just maybe learn something about yourself. So that's what I'm going to do. Just have fun writing. That is how I started on this site and the main reason it is so dear to me. until next time...c |
| I was just sitting here thinking about how I felt the day we left Delaware to move down here to Florida. It was so hot, mid-June 1978, had to be in the nineties. I had a huge spider plant on my lap. It was my "baby" and I wouldn't let the movers take it. I held that thing all the way to Florida where I hung it on the patio of our rental unit. Would you believe, not long afterwards, somebody stole it right off our patio! Oh, well, that's another story...back to moving day. I can't say I was happy about moving. I was born and raised in Delaware and never really wanted to move away. But I had agreed and thought it was probably for the best. In the days prior, I took pictures of all my favorite places which meant I got to visit all my favorite places, Rehoboth, Bombay Hook, Mispillion Light. We even made a final trip to D.C. and the Smithsonian. I have worn out those pictures. They keep falling out of their album, they have been looked at so often. Although Florida is where "home" is, it has never really been home to me. I still think of Delaware as my home. Driving along Route 8 on that hot, summer day, watching all my familiar places flash by, almost seems as though it was yesterday. We have been back a few times and some things are the same, but most things have changed without me. I can go to Rehoboth and walk in the hot sand and know it is the same sand I walked in years and years ago. Somehow, that is very comforting. Moore's Lake in the fall is still one of the most beautiful places on earth with all the sugar maples in their oranges and yellows reflected in the smooth water. That moving day I had no idea how I would miss my home. But life goes on and somehow we adapt to it and make the best of it. I don't think I will ever move back to Delaware, but I do know I will never stop missing it. until next time...c |
The nice little lady was here at 12 today to stay with Jim while I got some "free" time. He was not feeling well last night so I had nothing planned not knowing for sure whether I would be leaving or not. But he felt better today, told me to go, so I did a little shopping first, bought some capris and a top and a couple things for Jim...then visited the food court in the Mall for a Wendy's salad. I can't get enough of Wendy's very, berry, chicken salads I did some people watching as I was eating. There are just too many people walking and texting. They look like zombies! I'm glad they have good radar.Old couples are sort of funny, too. Most of them seem to walk apart even when they are walking together...is there a message there? And so many people eating by themselves...I had no idea  .I thought about going to the Harn Art Gallery but just felt too tired. I was up almost all night with Jim for one thing or another. I'll do the Harn next time. I did get my hair cut before I came home, a blunt cut, I mean short short in the back! At least it will be cool in this heat. And oh yeah, I stopped at a bead shop (Avalon) and got some string to macrame some anklets, some really unique beads for them, and a cute little silver butterfly...mostly, I just like to look. Mostly, that's all I can afford to do... .Jim was feeling okay when I got back, a little early cause I was tired. We had leftover spaghetti and a salad for supper, and then a much-needed nap, short but restful. Did anyone get to see the transit of Venus across the sun. It's been cloudy here all day...no sun visible...so I watched it on nasa.gov...interesting. A hundred years till our descendants get to see it again. It made me think of Doris Claibourne (sic?). I love that movie. Revenge just seemed so sweet! until next time...c |
| I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who have had the same heart dropping sensation when that much dreaded "virus detected" message comes on your screen from your security software. Last Thursday I started getting virus alerts while surfing the web as I normally do...virus detected, threat blocked, file infected...ugh! Then they started coming more frequently...then I started getting shut down...yikes....what did I do.? Nothing new that I could think of. My AVG software gave me the names of the files involved and it seemed to me they were all associated somehow with Internet Explorer. I have another email account through Google (gmail) and have had Google Chrome installed on my computer for sometime now, but never actually used it. So I decided to try it and see what happened. It is working perfectly and is what I have wdc loaded with right now. I 've received no more "threat messages" so far, but I do have my computer person coming later this week to check it out. Microsoft seems to be a threat target of all hackers. Maybe they will think Chrome is too small potatoes to fool with .It is super duper hot here...in the mid nineties this week with some rain expected Wednesday. We got tons of rain from the fringes of Beryl, and my grass has finally turned a brilliant green. The downside is that it needs mowing more often but that is okay with me. Riding the mower is my "meditation time". What else can you do while mowing. Haven't run into any trees yet! Even though it's hot, I love summertime. Did anyone see the partial eclipse early this morning? The moon was really full and bright last night. I wonder why just looking at things like that make us feel so good? Good old nature for a soul and mind booster...you just can't beat it. I guess it puts our problems into the right perspective. I always feel my best when I'm outside no matter the weather. My Zen Cat Calendar saying for the month of June is...."The flowers of peace are found in the gentle heart."...Honshin. I don't know why but Jimmy Carter came to mind when I read this..... until next time....c |
| First of all, I'm sorry I've missed a week (or more) of blogging. My Jim has been very sick and in the hospital (again). He is home now. His clotting level (from warfarin) got very, very high and he has been taken off of it permanently, a huge deal because he has had dvt's (deep vein thrombosis) and lung emboli in the past. He's been on warfarin for over six years. But he is home now and feeling a little better, but he may still have to go back for blood transfusions if his hematocrit does not improve in a couple of weeks. For those who understand, it's 7.9 on his last labs from the 22nd. Normal for men is almost 14. Anyway, I have a little breathing room this morning to try and write some. When I was very young, being a caretender for a loved one was not even a thought that entered my mind. That was for "old" people and "other" people. I read now according to statistics more and more of us will be falling into the caretending catgory as our population ages so I feel it is an appropriate topic to address. When Jim and I first met we were in excellent health, and those vows in the wedding ceremony were just words, pretty words, high-sounding words, but just words without real meaning. All I thought of was how wonderful life together would be. We had the usual worries, jobs, money, raising our children. Getting old was far, far away. All struggles were minor because we had high hopes for the future, and we were in love. Time continued, people around me got old, and I got older. First, I lost my mom to lung cancer. Although we were close, we could have been closer. I could have done more, and I had regrets when she passed. I wished, later, I had quit my job and spent more time with her...but I didn't and the past cannot be changed. So when Jim got sick, I knew what to do. On October 14th, we will have been married 49 years, and we are still in love. Our marriage vows have real, concrete meaning now. And that thing inside me, my immortal soul, tells me what to do. Life is still good and as someone said, today is a gift and that's why it's called the present. We are still enjoying it and have hope for the future. until next time....c |
| I couldn't believe it when I read this prompt. I had actually just made this very remark. You might think, "Gosh, did she leave her husband? Has she got a new beau?" Nah! I was at the library trying to pick out an interesting book...  . Which leads me to wonder, "How do you pick out a book to read?" I mean if no one has recommended anything to you, and you're just browsing the stacks.I used to look for authors, but I found that reading several books by the same author could get boring. They tend to write the same old stuff with a some little new twist. I don't like to be able to guess what's going to happen so author shopping is out. Think Jodi Picoult. Now I look for titles, first. If the title is appealing, I check out the cover. If I can connect with something there, I read the first three or four pages, looking for the hook or....something of mutual interest. Then I might turn to the middle and read a couple more pages...just to make sure. But even this way is not sure fire. It all boils down to content. A book can have the most beautiful cover ever and the most intriguing title and still be a dud. Sometimes it's just potluck. One thing I have found very unreliable are the recommendations. Yes, the ones by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, blah blah., or the famous authors who found it fascinating. Phooey. I don't waste my time. The more of those usually directly relates to how awful the book is going to be  .Even the book blurb can be misleading sometimes, but if the title, cover, and reading a few pages doesn't turn me off, I confidently drop it in the book sack and say, "Something's telling me it might be you." until next time....c |
| The reasons are many and changing as my life changes. Currently, I am here to take care of my Jim. Before my children left the nest, I was here to guide and take care of them. When my mother got lung cancer, I was here to take care of and do everything I could for her. As people entered my life, my purpose interacted with them and theirs with me. When you live through a terrible ordeal, as I did when I had an automobile accident at eighteen, you realize you have to be here for some reason, and it turns out the reasons are many. If we think about things that happen each day, our lives have so many purposes, the number is unfathomable. I think of my kitty, who was dropped in my yard as a few weeks old kitten. What would have happened to her if not for me? The reasons do not have to be big and momentous. I know I impact other lives almost everyday just by being me. It gives me a deep joy to know that and to see the beauty in everything around me. I believe every person alive is somehow writing history daily. Even when you die, you impact others. Think of the Kennedy wife in the news today and what an impact her death must be making on her family right now. We have to be careful what we do. There are consequences to others. Sorry, I didn't mean to be preaching and doomy and gloomy. It's a beautiful sunny day again. I just finished cutting the grass and I'm pooped .until next time...c |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
and doesn't cover everything.
