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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   |
I've seen a lot of "holidays" being celebrated lately that I never heard of so for curiosity's sake I Googled "is today a holiday?" Yep, several came up, strange ones, but this is the one I clicked on  . Sounds like a pretty nice holiday, maybe one that should be everyday. And yesterday was Aunt and Uncles Day...which I missed...which I don't have any more of anyway  .As you may have guessed, I'm bored. I have a writing critique group to attend tomorrow, and my muse has deserted me. This morning I thought I would write about my Uncle Johnny's trunk. I named the story and everything...Life in a Trunk. I inherited it when he passed away in 2000. I described it perfectly, measurements, color, adornments, locks, handles, the picture was there, but when it came time to "write", nothing. So there the story ends with the description until my muse returns. Actually what happened was I got sidetracked. I started looking, again, at things in the trunk. And wasted the entire day doing that instead of writing about it. No matter how many times I take out all the stuff, it's still like the first time...I go back in time. It's a time machine! until next time...c |
| It is so hot this summer, everyday seems to have a heat index in the 100's. I cut my grass yesterday and as I was trimming shrubs (or trying to) a neighbor came over and said he had a gas trimmer and would be glad to do that for me. Yes, I said yes. And he did...in 15 minutes...so thankful for that. So the yard is done for another week. I do love to work in the yard but this heat is just too much, makes me feel sick sometimes and I have to take so many breaks, drink water and rest. And to think, the worst is yet to come. August in Florida is a real killer, what we call dog days of summer. I wonder how that name came to be? Okay, I Googled that and the time period is actually July 3rd-August 11th and refers to the rise and fall of Sirius in conjunction with the Sun. Sirius shines during the day and hides at night. Sirius is in the constellation of Canis Major, the second brightest star seen with the naked eye, and is the name of the dog of Orion. It is called the Dog Star...so now I know, dog days of summer. Shine on, Sirius. Do I dare look up during the day? until next time...c |
| I happened to be outside working in the yard the other day when my mail person came. We have always been friendly so I strolled out to get my mail and chat a minute. She surprised me by saying she would be retiring at the end of this month after 35 years of delivering the mail. I expressed my sadness at losing her excellent delivery service and also my happiness that now she would be able to do all those things that made her happy. To my astonishment she replied, yes, I'm an artist you know. No, I didn't know. It's amazing how we "know" people and yet we only know one part of them. Turns out she is a stained glass and mosaic artist. I don't think I've seen any of her work but I may have and not known it. I never knew her last name. She was always just "Debbi", the mail lady. Happily, we committed to remaining in touch, even getting together for coffee or lunch sometime in the near future. I left a card in my box for her with my phone number and the next day she left me her "card"...Moonstruck Studios. Now I have her whole name and phone number and am looking forward to getting to know more sides of her. until next time...c |
| We had a bunch of pine trees (14 I think) cut down in our front yard about seven years ago. Pine needles were such a hassle to rake up and then there are the Florida storms that seem to rip off a thousand twigs. Anyway, back to those pine trees. We had the stumps ground and now the dirt over them is settling...into holes which create a hardship on my butt when I cut the grass. Some of them are getting so deep that I joked to my neighbor she might need to come and rescue me if she saw the mower running without a driver. Today I went to Home Depot and bought a few bags of fill topsoil. I got it all put in the holes and leveled out with the rake. Now I will wait for the next rain storm (which shouldn't be a very long wait) to see how much the dirt settles - may have to do it all over again, but they can't be as bad as they were. It's amazing how long I had to think about this before I actually did it. I argue with myself...you can't do it, you can do it...for days, and then all of a sudden, I just do it. Are you like this? It must be age or something. Much as I wanted it to, it didn't rain today, yet. We are getting some heat lightning and thunder, though, so we may have a night storm. till next time...c |
| I have been so lazy this entire weekend, doing no kind of work whatsoever, just things I want to do. Feels good but feels guilty. I went to the farmers' market yesterday morning, bright and early and bought (yay) tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers, sweet onions, cucumbers and a huge cantalope. And that is the only constructive thing (except writing) I have done all weekend. The market was crowded, as expected. Some things are higher than Publix (where I grocery shop), but some were less. You just have to pick and choose. Of course, quality is the bottom line on tomatoes. They actually smell like tomatoes. I would have paid any price. I have cuke salsa melding flavors in its container in the fridge.I am hollering "uncle" on the rain. It is pouring as I write and has poured every afternoon for the past week. Maybe that is what has zapped my get up and go. Enough already. A little over 7" is our average precip for June, and we have probably gotten that in the past week. At least when it stops, it will be cooler. until next time...c |
Yesterday I went on a group bus trip to St. Augustine, only around 80 miles from my house. We met at a local farmers' market site to preregister and wait for the bus. It was my first trip of this kind. Well, we waited and waited...and learned the scheduled bus had cancelled and we were getting a replacement. It showed up about a half hour late and we rolled out of the parking lot at 10:30 instead of 10 o'clock. Not too bad, but I was wondering if I was jinxing things with my newness  .Fortunately, that turned out to be the only problem of the trip. Palatka, a small town on the St. Johns' River and a little over halfway, provided our lunch stop, a lovely restaurant called Corky Bell's. With a setting on the river and good seafood and vegetables (I had green beans and collard greens), we were now starting off right. After a small piece of key lime pie, I walked their deck and boardwalk and floating dock out onto the river. Perfect. There were 28 of us, all "old", but sort of surprisingly to me, all were in good humor with no grumbling. Everyone was friendly and chatty with some jokesters sprinkled in. And, remember, the temperature here was nearing the 100 degree mark. Reboarding the coach after lunch, we traveled past the corn and potato fields of Hastings, a teeny-tiny town but with potato renown. The scenery reminded me of Delaware with its vast wheat and soy bean fields. With our full bellies, we arrived in St. Augustine in no time, picked up our on-board guide, a real Minorcan descendant, and made our way to the Fountain of Youth, our main destination. At Ponce's Place, being who we were, our first stop was the modern bathrooms  .All of us drank from the Fountain with 20 minute promises of....um....youth? Later, at the gift shop, I decided a souvenir coffee cup with the Fountain's insignia might help do the trick. I'm trying it now and will let you know. Ponce's Place was interesting with its beautiful entrance on Magnolia Avenue and its strutting peacocks, even a white one . Our guide was an excellent storyteller in period costume, pretty darn hot for Florida in June.Later, we toured St. Augustine, with our guide enlightening us on all its famous history. Our driver got a real workout on those narrow congested streets and curvy parking lots, but he was a pro. After visiting the "welcome center" and its well-stocked gift shop, we headed home, without incident. Mopsy greeted me at the door with that "where have you been" look. Actually, it was more like "where's my food?". until next time...c |
| I am feeling more optimistic after the second class of "Creative Writing Your Way", optimistic about how to organize my memoir stories with a focus. These were some ideas thrown out by classmates and instructor after reading off my story titles with very short synopses: 1. Gifts in my life.... 2. Nature stories.... 3. Friends, family, & fun.... The first two encompassed many stories. My assignment for next week is to take three seemingly unrelated stories and segue them together. I think I just needed an impetus and this class may be it :). until next time...c |
| We have a forecasted high of 99 for today and tomorrow, much much much too hot for June, even in Florida. The birds have deserted the feeders, panting in disgust, only visiting the water bowls. I went to my first blog critique pod yesterday and, as my friend, Sue, would say, "It was a hoot." There were five of us, some old, some not so, and the helpful attitude of each member was palpable. I am scattered, but of course I knew that. The good side of being scattered (in my blog focus) is that there is fodder for more than one in each of my posts. I'll work on that, but my mind does not want to stay in one spot for very long. Is that a "me" thing? Each of us writes a draft post for our blog one week before our meeting and posts it in a mutual dropbox folder set up especially for our group. We download the other members' drafts to our word program and critique using tracking changes, then drop them back into dropbox before the meeting. At the meeting we take turns explaining our notes to each person (who must remain quiet during their draft's critique - comments at the end). It worked beautifully, and it was interesting to note that many of our comments were repeated by others in the group, a unique, and instant, reinforcement to the critiquee. Can't wait till next month :) until next time...c |
| Just returned from my morning walk and got caught in a little misty rain. It felt good, even a couple puddles to trample through. My doctor's appointment is this afternoon and I have made it through the seven days on 5 mg of prednisone with just a few tiny tweaks of pain, nothing I cannot handle. My creative writing class (your way) started yesterday with not much that was new to me. She had us free write for ten minutes, then read aloud. Our assignment is to write about one person, one place, one time period in our life using the garland method, known to me as the wheel or circle with spokes from previous classes. Next time she is going to have us describe an object to a blind person. That sounds interesting...all the other senses involved. I am especially interested in organizing my individual stories into a memoir. She says I need to pick a theme or thread (not new to me either)...but first I have to find one. She talked about different ways to write memoir including an ethical will (passing on values and life lessons) and a cookbook memoir...hmmmm. Since I became vegetarian a few years ago and threw out all my meat recipes, I think I can rule that one out. There are only three of us in the class so there should be plenty of time for individual attention. I know, I just need to get on with it. until next time...c |
| Yesterday was the day to cut my Prednisone in half again (to 5mg). I haven't noticed any difference yet (fingers crossed). My doctor's appointment is Thursday so I will have been on the reduced dose for seven days by then...if all goes well. My meeting yesterday went well, too. I learned all about "hyperlink" in Ms. Word. Who knew linking url's was so easy. The blog in our writer's site uses Wordpress so I did have a slightly steep learning curve there but nothing I couldn't overcome. Many of the things are similar to Blogger (which I use). I went through a pretty heavy rainstorm as I was coming home...known as free car wash...yay, it needed it. Yes, most things do have silver linings. I'm watching another series in Netflix titled The Killing. It's about two homicide detectives and is set in Seattle. Netflix is so addictive. An email tells me a new season of Orange is the New Black is now available. I just cannot get into that one after reading the book, but many people I've talked to love it, including my daughter. It's time to get going on my morning walk, a beautiful day here... until next time...c |
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