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 |   A terminal for all blogs coming in or going out. A view into my life. |
Started July 1st 2019 for contests, etc. as other blogs are filling up and have other purposes.  I'm starting a new blog because
I'll be linking to
I've started an appendix (I no longer have one personally) to keep track of my Space Cadet journals for Space Blog. It's a work constantly under construction. Mind the mess.
I needed to start a folder for contests as there are so many deadlines and details to remember.
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| A grey 29 degrees at 8 a.m. I went to bed too early last night. Woke up a couple times at odd hours because I wasn't sleepy. After 10 hours in bed I'm dragging. It could snow or rain or nothing. I could read or write or nothing. Me and the day better cheer up is all I'll say! Bad connection when calling but I got a hold of my friend Gary after a year. He had covid but is fine and has had the vaccine. My mother at age 98 seems to have tolerated the vaccine best of all. Slowly the world starts to reawaken. Not me. Not quite yet. (it's not noon yet) Ate potatoes. Ate cottage cheese. Daydreams about Australia and whether they have an authentic culture that isn't just a bland version of what is found elsewhere. European, but not too ethnic? Is there any connection to the land? It's one of the more urban landscapes. The US imports food but produces a lot. Costa Rica the same. Taiwan seems to depend on local food. All three places have foods indigenous to the area. But Australia? Other than macadamia nuts and kangaroo meat what do they eat that's from there? 32 degrees at 10 a.m. ![Merit Badge in Family
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Congratulations on your Second Place win at the [Link To Item #2245620] Contest with your story [Link to Book Entry #1005975].](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Family-584.gif) I'm listening to the water drip at the sink. It needs a new washer. I'm drinking more coffee. I'm still lost in daydreams. It's 11 a.m. Should I put on clothes and go outside today? Oh... the decessions to be made! There be snow aloft at 2 p.m.! Mt. Dean Stone is white-shrouded and earlier a few rowdy flakes tried to smack me. I got safely home with 2 gallons of 2% milk. It's International Women's Day, by-the-way. Not mine but still collectable ... I think:   Apparently J&J is available here in Missoula. I need to go get stabbed. 3 p.m. and big snowflakes. My tooth broke off while I was eating an egg-salad sandwich. I'm relieved in a way. Better than breaking off while I'm sleeping. Saved it too... better than swallowing. Headache. I'm reading blogs. It's part of 30dbc that I try to keep up with. I commented to Whata SpoonStealer  :"I love the open plains. Corn, grass, wheat, beans, milo... with the horizon on the other side of eternity. I feel hemmed in by the mountains. They're pretty. But they don't speak to me like the snow geese flying over in winter or the meadow-lark singing in the corn in summer or even the red-wing blackbird ambushing from the cattails, dive bombing all intuders. So many beautiful places to see and experience." And may I add... even when others see nothing. 8:26 p.m. I'm 'winding down'. I went to bed too early last night and I'm paying the price. A bit of kerfuffle on boocfake but I'm ignoring it for now. I accomplished very little today and I don't need to be upset this late in the day. I may read ... although a bit of blockage there too. Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this my mama said...  |
  PROMPT March 8th Where are some unusual places you’ve been? What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned or discovered about those places? I've been to 43 countries. I had plans to travel in 2020 and add new places. I was supposed to be in Morocco this time last year. Now I've saved up money and still can't travel. What's an unusual place? Bigfoot Motel? With a mummified example? So my List of Five will be different, as in "what matters to me." 1. Friendliness of Serbians, especially in Beograd. American forces bombed Serbia in the 1990s. I felt no hostility. Which seems a bit odd because in the Balkans it seems that everyone hates everyone. The Serbian-Kosovar and Serbian-Croatian-Bosniak divides run deep and still makes the area dangerous. But not everyone holds onto a grudge. Never assume people won't like you. 2. Speaking Norwegian in the Balkans. Me buying cheese and counting out the coins: ein, to, tre, fire... and having a young man ask me whether I was Norwegian. Speaking Norwegian in Norway or Sweden and folks thinking I'm a (damn) Swede (my forefathers were). Speaking Norwegian at the hostel in Skodra, Albania... family in Norway. Speaking it in Kosovo and Edith understands me because she worked with Swedes for years. Ordering in Spanish in Stockholm, Sweden; conversing in Spanish in the hostel in Nara, Japan. Chatting in French in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. Portuguese on the ferry to Geiranger in Norway... never assume that people won't understand you if you switch languages. 3. Going back to places I'd been before and having people remember me: Lagos, Solvorn, Lillehammer, Taipei, Tainan, Jiufen, Montezuma, Lisboa, Prishtina, Ciudad Quesada, Orosi, Beograd. I had given a gift in Pristina in a hand-painted paper bag. It was up by the entrance when I went back. Small things ... never assume that you won't see people again. Advice: always treat people nice. 4. Feeling safe in Japan, Taiwan, Norway... most everywhere except Cape Town. The US is probably the most dangerous place I've ever visited. Everyone is utterly safe in Japan by-the-way. Everyone. It would be culturally unacceptable to do anything to harm a visitor or stranger. As long as you do not have tattoos like the yakuza (gangs). Never assume that strangers won't help you. Never assume that you need to be afraid. 5. Markets and restaurants in Prishtina, Dubai (suq), Nis, Tainan, Taipei (night markets), Chiayi, Istanbul (huge!)... Markets are wonderful places for a cultural experience. McDonalds and WalMart aren't. The small buyers and sellers know their wares whether it be a pile of peppers in Prishtina or eating turkey-rice in Chiayi. Do not fear strange food. |
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