Soggy Days–#WeekendCoffeeShare

If we were having coffee this morning, we would definitely be some place warm. I’m actually heading for Starbucks when I finish this post. Let’s pretend we’re there and I can treat you because I have 5 rewards for free items saved up! Let’s boogie before it starts raining again!

We would talk about the short week. Well, it wasn’t short but the work part was. It was a good week. I got to see my grandson. He’s six months old now and he’s a ball of cuteness and movement. He’s sitting up and on Thursday, I got to see him start crawling. I will see him again next month for Christmas. I can’t wait. The drive up there was almost fine. I did get a little rain and a little traffic but the drive was still in the normal range, time-wise. The return was a little longer than usual but not horrible. I’ve learned to keep my phone display on with the Maps app turned on even though I know the way because it alerts me to traffic slowdowns and I can prepare to take an alternate route, which is what I did on the way home.

One of the things I am excited about is a story I wrote. It’s a story I posted a couple of times for my December collection of Christmas stories (one every day in December until the 25th). This year I will be contributing to Solveig‘s Christmas collection so I wrote something new, or rather a re-visioning of something old, by changing the point of view. I did this to get a new story but I chose to tell it from my dad’s point of view. I wanted to write something positive about him because what I’ve written about him has been so negative and he was not all bad. I want to make sure I don’t forget the good times, the good man, and the good father. It felt good to write it. I’ll reblog it here after Solveig posts it.

I have been upset about not being able to complete NaNoWriMo this year. I have had no time. By the time I get home each day, my mind has been fried. I actually think it has something to do with the two head injuries. They’ve made me tired and unable to focus. Then, of course, there was that little incident which turned out to be such a train wreck and continues to be each day as we move toward January 20th. That took up (and continues) a lot of mental energy and time. So no NaNoWriMo for me this year. I actually sat down and wrote at midnight on November 1 and got my quota of words for the first day and I have not been able to get back to it. So no way. I’m a little sad about that but I’m not going to punish myself. Things happen. Things happened. Somethings didn’t get to happen. Oh well, there is always next year.

Well, I’m alone again today. I have to get dressed and go pick up some free items. This time a package of light bulbs for my outdoor motion sensor light which actually needs both bulbs and now I get a package of six for free! And a set of brand new in the box and unopened set of vodka glasses (which I will gift at Christmas time). I think there’s something else at the same house that I am supposed to pick up but I forget. And after all of that, I might take myself to a $5 matinee. Might. Or maybe I will come back to the warm house and bundle up with a book, which is another thing that hasn’t happened all month long!

In any case, I would also like to hear what has been going on with you! I will also be reading blog posts today, at some point or other. Have you seen any movies you would recommend? I’m in a lull on streaming because I haven’t picked up anything I want to stream. I’m happy to get suggestions of movies or series that I can stream on Amazon, Netflix, or Hulu. Let me know!

#WeekendCoffeeShare is a weekly blog link up hosted by Diana at Part Time Monster Blog. Hop over and check it out! There is always room for more coffee share posts!

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Unusual

It has been an unusual day for me. The kiddos are gone to their other grandparents, along with their parents. So I’m here alone. Wow. No demands on my time, except to feed the kitties. I don’t know if I can handle this. I’m so used to having every moment of my life controlled by other people’s needs and demands that I don’t know what to do when that is not the case.

I kind of wasted part of the day by sleeping but then again, I’m not sure that was a waste. Then I took off to pick up a free bar of soap. I belong to a number of free/buy nothing/freecycle groups and I got the really neat bar of fig soap, for free. So I took off to go pick it up. Then I decided to eat breakfast (it was about 2 and I hadn’t eaten). It was such a treat to sit at Denny’s without any distractions (and for a bargain price and an  even greater bargain with a 20% AARP discount!). The Dollar Tree was the next stop for some craft supplies so I can entertain the boys. And I also do this thing for them each year where I give them a tiny surprise to open each day from Dec. 1 to Dec. 24. So I picked up a few things for that from Dollar Tree. They are tiny things, like a little piece of candy or a little car or stickers. Little things that they love to open as a daily surprise. I’ll have to get a few more but at least I have some to start with when December 1 rolls around. Then I came home only to find out that I had been selected to get a couple more free things so out I went again!

I was going to do a Weekend Coffee Share today but it’s so late (after 7) that I will do it tomorrow. I’m going to read some posts now and watch the 4 episodes of Gilmore Girls that were released on Friday, again. And I wrote a new Christmas story on Thursday night so I am going to re-read it and send it off to Solveig for her blog (which I will reblog here when she posts it).

I will bid you good night as I sign off to do some reading, listen to holiday music, and maybe have a glass of wine!

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Silent Sunday

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Unique

Spencer is unique as evidenced by the lone orange feather on the turkey… 

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Sunday–#WeeklySmile

The protests have continued in Portland but by all reports, they haven’t been violent and vandalism has been kept to a very minimum; mostly graffiti and that too has been very little. The riot squad was called in to “escort” marchers and supervise protesters. That seems to put an almost stop to it.

And then the really great thing…remember yesterday I mentioned that there were private citizens volunteering to clean up the mess and clean the graffiti? Well, they have continued and it appears that everything is cleaned up. So now this same group is moving on to clean up trash and graffiti in other parts of the city. Cleaning up what is not related to the protests. How wonderful is that? I think it’s an amazing thing to have this spirit of taking care of our city. It’s also a wonderful example for our youth. Some families are going out together to help with the cleanup.

My dad always used to say “no hay mal que por bien no venga” which is the Spanish equivalent of all bad things bring forth something good, or every cloud has a silver lining. I think this is an excellent time to remember this.

Have a happy week. Be good to one another. Help one another. And if you know anyone that lives alone and doesn’t have anyone to speak to, check in on them. They may be needing someone to bear witness to their fears and their feelings. A lot of us that live alone have no one to talk to; to discuss things with and so our feelings build up inside of us and tear us apart. Go check on someone. Be there for them.

Yes, even in bad times, there are reasons to smile.

The #WeeklySmile is a blog link up hosted by Trent. Come smile with us.

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Electoral College #TBT

I remember when I was in seventh grade. It was the 1968 Presidential Election. Hubert Humphrey was the Vice President under Lyndon Johnson. He was the Democratic candidate for President that year. The election happened. He lost to Nixon. The day after the election, I was in first period, which for me was English. Our teacher, Miss Rossi, was in tears that morning. She was so upset that she couldn’t stop the tears when the bell rang and class began.

For that hour, Miss Rossi spoke of the election. Mainly, she spoke about the Electoral College and although I was in seventh grade, it was the first time I learned anything about the body that elects our president and vice president. Before that, we had been taught that we, the people, vote for and elect the president. I don’t know why the text books hadn’t told us differently when we studied the elections in fifth grade, but they hadn’t. That year, even on the morning after the election, it appeared that HHH (Hubert Horatio Humphrey) had won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College. It later turned out, once all of the ballots were counted, that Nixon did indeed win the popular vote (there was less than a 1% divide between the two candidates), but in the early days post election, it appeared differently.

That’s what I think about when I hear the term Electoral College. It didn’t seem fair then and it still seems like there should be a better way; one that better reflects the popular vote. I still think of the passion with which Miss Rossi spoke and I wish that more Americans had that passion. We, I think, are too complacent. We vote then we accept until the next time. We don’t do anything about perceived injustices until it happens again.

So this ThrowBackThursday post I dedicate to Miss Rossi wherever she is. I think she’s still around. She was very  young in 1968. It was only her second year teaching so probably around 23. I know that somewhere, Barbara Rossi is sitting with tear-filled eyes and wondering why we still have the Electoral College.

 

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Plot Ninjas #2

Like I explained last week, plot ninjas are meant to give you a way out when you are stuck. They spark your imagination so that you can keep writing. It may end up giving you a scene, a chapter, or a whole sub plot!

Here are a few more:

–One of your characters says “It never happened.”

–Give your character(s) a favorite beverage. Tell the background of why it’s a favorite. (Maybe over a drink at a bar; at a party?)

–The door bell rings. Who is it? What do they want? What bearing does it have on your story?

–Your main character admits something. What?

Bonus

Use one or more of these words in your story:

catapult

election

exuberant

calliope

 

 

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“Dark” – – #WeeklySmile

I have prescription sunglasses that I wear, basically, only when I drive and because we don’t have a lot of sunny days, that’s not very often. In October we had 28 days of rain so you see, I don’t have to wear  those prescription sunglasses often.

On Thursday, I went to feed my daughter’s cats and it was sunny so I had my sunglasses on. When I got back, I went straight to my other daughter’s house, where the grandsons live. I walked in the door and Spencer ran over smiling. He took one look at me and stopped in his tracks. He started to take a step back. I asked him what was wrong and he said “Dark.”  That’s when I realized that I was still wearing my sunglasses. So I turned around, went to the car to get my regular glasses and went back in.  He ran to me and hugged me, laughing all the while and then said “Dark scary. No more dark, no more scary.”

That was my smile this week brought to you by 3 year old Spencer!

The#weeklysmile is a blog linkup hosted by Trent. Come check out our smiles and share one with us.

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Silent Sunday

 

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Yesterday — #WeekendCoffeeShare

If we were having coffee today, we would definitely be indoors. It is cold and wet outside.  I guess you might call it a typical November day in the Pacific Northwest. A bit of a brrrr day but not too much yet.

It seems that my weeks get busier and busier. This week it was once again busy with the daughters. I’ve been going over to my youngest daughter’s house twice a day to feed her cats. She’s on a business trip. It’s not far, her house that is, but with traffic, a round trip is about 50 minutes plus I have to spend some time there waiting for the kitties to eat. I can’t leave food out when I leave so I really need to sit and make sure they all eat and put away any food they didn’t eat. So that trip ends up being a minimum of and hour and a half.

Then there was yesterday. Last week I told you she was borrowing my car because hers went out and it is not cost effective to put in the money for a new transmission. So she had several possibilities this week. One in Seattle, 3.5 hours away. Another was in Los Angeles which would have been tough because she can’t take time off from work to get over there and back with the  car. It’s a two day trip in each direction. That was the one her dad and step mom wanted her to get (they are paying for it) but in the end it fell through because the woman who owned it was elderly and died without signing the title over to her son and her son found out that he can’t sell it until it all goes through probate and is officially his car so no deal. The latest deal is across the river from Oregon, in Washington. It’s across the river from Hood River. My older daughter, the boys, and I went out there yesterday to see the car and leave a deposit. Now we wait for the cashier’s check to arrive by Fed Ex so we can go pay the remainder and get the car back to Portland.

The trip, while long (about 170 miles round trip which took us forever with the boys) was actually quite nice. Yesterday was a beautiful day, dry, sunny, a tiny bit of briskness in the air but nice. We stopped at an apple orchard to pick apples. It is their last weekend of apple picking for the season so all varieties were 59 cents a pound. We picked and bought 47 pounds of apples for about $27. We’ll be eating apples for a couple of months!

Here are some pictures from the trip yesterday:

So what is new in your neck of the woods? Weather? Travel? Local color? Please tell.

#WeekendCoffeeShare is a weekly blog linkup hosted by Diana at Part Time Monster Blog. Come take a look and see what’s happening!

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