Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “full/empty.” Use one, use ’em both, use ’em any way you’d like. Bonus points for including both in your post. Have fun!
There was a time when our home was full of love with our set of black-and-white dog, Kali, black cat, Rosey, and orange tabby, Teddy. They grew old and passed, leaving our home so empty for so long!
Through some wonderful magic in our lives, we have a full house of love again. Black-and-white dog Milo (formerly ‘Crunchy’), black cat, Shiloh, and our orange tabby, Sammie. It is the oddest thing, even now, that the combination of pets came just that way. We still mess up names and genders. Every parent knows how easy it is to call the wrong name of the naughty kid or when in an emergency moment hits. Most of the time, the kids don’t look the same. Autocorrecting the brain can save it. But if your kids all look alike (Italian, dark hair and eyes), it’s even harder. So I should be used to it. But this team of pets is uncanny!
I don’t want to go searching for the old team pictures (I need to write 2,000 words today–this distraction I can avoid), but here’s the latest of the ‘ILO’ team
They loves each other! Milo and Shiloh groom each other and play often. They share their bed with me.
And here’s Sammie from the other day. I like the picture so much that I need to see them again.
He is getting used to the ‘Ilos” and now plays with them. They have been on my husband’s bed together–he has treats nearby.
But this was just this morning. With temps being in the teens, I love the BTU of pets.
Isn’t that the cutest face?
My life is full.
On the other hand, on November 1st, my yWriter app was empty. On November 30th, it should be full. I should be at 36,674 words. I only have 33,172. TrackBear says I should write 1,893 a day to reach the 50k by the end of November. But that is a lot. 1,667 is a lot. If I can push it today and for a few days, I might bring this project to something doable. Wish me luck! I need to bring this story to its full and proper ending. Let’s hope the brain isn’t empty!
The fork in the road is one we revisit often. Should I have said or done this? And, of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we know what we would have said or done. I guess that is why we aren’t given that knowledge when it would have been helpful.
I should have told her, when she complained of being so tired, to call the doctor immediately. But all I knew then was that she just needed to rest. Not that my COVID-addled brain knew more than coughing and needing to sleep. I was finally over the fever but my friends and I check in on each other often. And of the three musketeers who had known each other for a couple decades we knew age, pain, and strengths of each other.
Three musketeers. They came to visit me shortly after we moved so far away. This was a fun visit.
You know the Bible verse about entertaining angels unawares? I have and sometimes got the breeze from the wings. Michele was one of those
One of the forks in my life. My adult children all moved north. It made no sense to stay. So my husband and I moved north. Before the move, I looked up NaNoWriMo, writing groups, BookCrossing groups.
I found the writers and readers of the new community and found myself at home. Even if my adult children were busy with their jobs and lives, I found my people.
That Writers’ Group set up a lot of friendships for me. I think you have to be quite vulnerable to write inner thought while in a group. This group was open and welcoming. That was due to the one on the left and the one on the right.
Anyway (this stream is so hard to write!),the Sunday night after I finally was fever-free, one of my friends went in for emergency surgery. The very next day the other friend had a heart attack. It was touch and go for both. I’m 6 hours away from them. I couldn’t do anything for either of them. Sadly, Michele passed, or as her daughter said, she gained her wings. I always believed she had wings.
One of the hard parts of writing this is the heart-heavy stuff I want to say I can’t as deeply as I’d like because I don’t want to bring personal names here, to protect both friends.
Michele was raised in a abusive family and then had a few relationships that were equally horrid. But she decided early on to not raise her children in that kind of environment. She found a religion that served her heart, and she dedicated herself to love, God, family, and friends. She was one of those people that didn’t preach. Her love was in how she took care of everyone. Always patient. Always feeling empathy for others. Helping as much as she could, in any way she could. See, she already had the wings. I am going to miss her so much and yet, I feel she will be watching over her family and friends as much as ever, except now, I pray, she is painfree.
My other friend is still in medical care. She had that surgery and hasn’t been able to eat food or even move around for the stitches up and down her abdomen. I wish I could be with her and help her through this nightmare that is both physical and emotional, having lost our mutual friend.
I feel awful that I couldn’t say goodbye to Michele. We did chat on Instant Messenger so at least I know our last conversation was loving and hopeful towards our friend who had the surgery. We had decided we didn’t want to worry the one in the hospital surgery department. But of course with Facebook we can all see what is happening by a peek on our phones.
And my friend in the hospital still had a fever yesterday, and all I can hope is that she has had visitors and rest as I don’t want to call and wake her. Please pray for my friends and their friends and family. I don’t mind a few coming my way. I’m trying not to revisit forks in the road, traveled or not.
When I was young, three clocks stood out in my life.
No picture appeared in the free tech stock, so I guess I need to use a thousand words instead. Glad the clock isn’t ticking.
This first one was the little mantel clock on the upright grand I learned to play on. It needed two keys. One to keep it wound up and the second to set as needed. It was a beautiful wave of wood with Roman Numerals. This clock rang out the hour, so no matter where you were in the house you would know the hour. It also rang once for the half hour. That was more confusing as that could be interpreted as 1 AM, 1 PM, the need to wind it up again, or just the half-hour—but what time was the last hour that rang? Dusting the piano and the clock was a sacred duty for me. I can still smell the Pledge and the smooth curves of the clock.
This is the clock that helps at night now. I glance up to the ceiling to see the time. I don’t hang out in the bedroom so I don’t have to try and see the tiny font that doesn’t show up in the light. Definitely not as exciting as those old clocks.
Next door to my grandmother’s house was a nice old couple. We called her ‘Grandma Dirtyfoot’ as she was always outside watering her plants. She actually saved my life when I was a newborn. Apparently, I had an enlarged thymus that blocked my breathing at 6 weeks old. I was the first grandchild on that side of the family. Nobody wanted to spank me while holding me upside down, even though that was what the doctor was telling them to do. Grandma Dirtyfoot walked up and did exactly what was needed. And then I breathed. This couple went to our church. When I was old enough to visit them, I remember their clock on the china hutch. A glass dome covered the golden twisty-turning pendulum. I guess that was what it was. I found it fascinating to watch. I recently saw that a friend of mine had one. It was pretty exciting to see. It is quite hypnotic watching that pendulum. But it is silent. Sorry,I couldn’t find a picture of that one either.😒
Both of my grandfathers were carpenters. My dad’s dad built houses. My mother’s dad built furniture. At one point, he built grandfather clocks. I remember the one in their house not only ticked and tocked, it chimed the hours, half hours, and quarter hours. It wasn’t just a monotone bell, like our piano clock. It played a little tune. It was beautiful in every way. And the real pendulum swayed back and forth. You had to pull the chains to wind it up. It looked something like the one below.
This is my living room clock. Not so fancy. But nice to see the numbers clearly all day long. And it reminds me of school clocks. Their time keeping was wacky. Five minutes at the end of the day took three hours. Yet this clock can make a few hours fly by as I play with my hobbies.
If all else fails and we need to be accurate, There’s the high-tech thing at the bottom of the screen.
Imagine telling our grandparents to look at their phones to see what time it was. Oh, wait! UL3-1212 I think, got us the ‘Time Operator’. “At the tone, the time will be…” She’d say. And you knew she was right.
Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “tack/tech/tick/tock/tuck.’” Use one or use ’em all for the bonus points. Enjoy!
I guess I couldn’t figure out how to include the tacky word. Oh, well, maybe next time. Oh, wait! I just did! Hehehe! Now how to tuck in that other word. What was it?
By the way, I tested negative today. Chris is doing okay, just not as peppy as usual. The fires are still going but far enough away that we don’t seem to get more than the smoky, sore throat. Praying for the folks that are closer. Our poor little frontier town only has a volunteer fire department. But they are doing their best.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “Start with a question.” Begin your post with the first question that comes to mind when you sit down to write your post. Bonus points if you end your post with a question, too. Have fun!
Which question shall I start with? Shall it be last night’s answer to the prompt when I read it?
Who was the most resilient?
We lost Kali over a year ago. Why does it seem like less than a month ago? Kali’s Death
Shortly after that, Teddy left us. Could I miss anyone as much as I missed them? (Teddy’s story is easily researched here.)
So, the third question is the one I’m answering first, and the answer is plain: Rosey outlasted the rest of the furry trio. Yikes. I already am speaking in the past tense. I hadn’t planned to do that last night.
A recent picture of love. Rosey and Chris.
What is Rosey’s story? Well, when we moved to Reno, we had only had Panda, a tuxedo sweetie. Then, our friend Kieu brought us a little Teddy. It wasn’t long until Panda was playing and, we think, had a heart attack as he was gone. Sadly, we were at our writers’ meeting, so we didn’t get to say goodbye. My brother and Son-in-Love were home to take care of the felines.
Teddy and Chris were heartbroken, so we didn’t wait long to grieve. As much as we needed a new friend, we also realized that there had to be furry friends looking for us, so we went to the shelter. Chris, my brother, and I wandered the shelter for a couple hours. As many animals were adorable, nothing seemed to call out for us. Then, just as we were leaving, I felt something off to the other side of the call to me. I walked over, and there was this black cat wanting all my attention. Without waiting, I reached into her cage and picked her up. The attendant was surprised at how easily I held her. She asked us to a visiting room to see how we all got along. David and I sat on the floor, expecting the kitty to come right to us. Nope. She walked right by us straight up to Chris on the bench at the back of the room. She jumped in his lap and started licking his face. He giggled like a little kid. His face was red with happiness. And so it was when Rosey was 12 years old she adopted my husband. I sometimes felt a slight jealousy of the way they clicked together. But I was happy they were both happy.
Teddy seemed to like Rosey, so we had a good thing. Teddy would choose me, so we each had a cat on our laps. They loved riding in the car.
Teddy during the long move from Reno to Christmas Valley.
But when Kali came into the picture, Teddy divorced me. I tried to let him know I still loved him, but it took him a while to get over feeling replaced. Towards his end, he chose me again and Kali.
When Kali joined us, Rosey was already 14 years old or older. She already felt like a bit of a grump around the more energetic Teddy and Kali, but we could tell she missed them when they were gone.
As of last night, we had been on a bit of a vigil for about a week. She refused food and soon refused drink. Again, the horrid choice, take the hour-and-a-half drive or just try to make her as comfortable as we could. She was 22. We dosed her with bone broth and water as that was all she’d tolerate. Although alert and loving, we knew it wasn’t long for her. Every night, we wondered if she’d be with us in the morning. Even on her last days, she walked/crawled the hallway to our room, looking for Chris to hold her.
This morning, we woke early. David found her in the livingroom end of the hallway. She was still breathing. He lifted her up, and within a few moments, she stopped breathing. After our goodbyes, David buried her with her special bed. She loved it so much we couldn’t think of her without it, or it without her.
How quiet can a house get? She wasn’t noisy but… How lonely are we going to be without her?
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “move.” Use it as a verb or a noun; write the first thing that comes to mind. Have fun!
Moving was the title I gave to the memoir I wrote a couple of NaNoWriMos ago. The name started revealing itself to me right away. At first, it was that even though I was in two houses for my first twenty-one years, they kept building schools for our grade level, and we were the newbies to settle each new school. After marriage, my husband’s job moved us around the state.
My story then ran in how my mental attitude moved from one thinking to another. Music played a part in the many mental states I phased through. And since I have been reentering the music world for a while, movement is a prominent word in that realm.
Each piece was a movement from one symphony or another. As a music major whose professor was the conductor of the college orchestra, I sat in on a lot of concerts. But I couldn’t sit still. My teacher saw that I needed to be a part of the music, so she made sure I had the orchestral score to follow along with. My aim in music in college was voice, not piano. There was too much psychology attached to that big, beautiful machine.
In the next few days, I plan to break it all down. Needless to say, I need to move from the depth of stagefright that even played a part in yesterday’s practices to phone calls or being with more than people I know very, very well.
Now I need to move, to Duo, then uke, then recorder, then bed. Get up and MOVE!
Per Linda: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “photograph.” Use it as a noun or a verb or both. Have fun!
Photograph. This brings songs and groups to mind that remind me of the times in the car with my teens in the late 90s. They were late to the Beatles and to Depeche Mode and the Cure. But we had fun with the 80s music mixed with my 60s fun.
Ah, but I have a photograph for you.
The last two of the suncatchers are finished and hanging. It is a cloudy day, so this is the best I could share today.
The picture looks easy. Even when I found it on Amazon. Looks easy. And the diamond painting part was. But this little kit wasn’t easy for my eyes or fingers when it came to the chains and the rings and connectors. Maybe if you are into jewelry making or trying it out, this might be a good start. But I don’t think so. As I scanned through YouTubes, I couldn’t find those bendie things anywhere. And they seem to need lots of pressure to close them tightly around the last ball of the chain. Maybe stronger fingers? It could just be me. You may have much better luck and talent with these. For me? I’ll stay with coasters or keychains for smaller diamond painting fun.
Speaking of which, here’s the photo of today’s turtle progress.
I’m ready to move on to the next section. I love this picture (and the photograph!)
Oops. I am floundering in how to bring up floundering. But I think today’s evidence is the suncatchers. Sometimes, when we flounder, we find what we can’t do.
Per Linda: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “watch.” Use it as a noun or a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
Watch this; I will meander all over the place during this session and find myself right here. Meanwhile, I spent a lot of time on Duolingo. Sometimes I just can’t stop. Sometimes I just can’t. Ya know? Word order is the hardest part of all the languages.
While doing things that take a brain, I usually put on something I nearly have memorized just to have a place to look farther away than arm’s length. I can’t do music as I get too involved in the music and get nothing done. So this time is another run at the Walking Dead. I am always surprised at the wisdom of the writer of how humans respond to scary things. The show has never been about the monsters. It is about how people react to each other and find their own tribe. Or think they have until it is proven that that tribe doesn’t exist.
A while ago, while my husband was in here with me we were watching The Chosen. I am very surprised at how much I like it. It is not for everyone. But then I loved Jesus Christ Superstar, and my mother found it offensive. I think it is like the people in The Walking Dead. Our tribes show up, and even within our tribes, things show that, in the end, our views are our own. We can only agree where we can and find others that fit with other parts of ourselves.
If we feel the need to nap, and since I love to read after midnight, I often need a nap, I put on some animal show. Dogs 101 found my restful place, and I woke wishing for my new canine friend.
So many uses for one word. My husband has a watch that tells him his blood sugar, blood pressure, etc. I had one, but the sensor burned my skin. But I am smiling now as I think of Dick Tracy.
No flying cars yet, but Rosy, the Roomba robot, vacuums our house, and we have these watches that are telephones!
In a nutshell is the best way to eat nuts, not salted, not cooked. And hard to eat a lot at a time, which can be my way if I don’t have to work at it! Maybe that is something to look at in life. I could go out and buy a lot of socks. But my body won’t be as happy as the ones I make myself. I thought it was just me, but my son and brother both told me they love the way the sock feels like it’s hugging their foot, like a little massage. I feel that way, too.
I do seem to be a paradox, though, as I look at this line of thinking. Though I love the process of learning music as opposed to buying and listening to it, and I love diamond painting instead of looking at magazine pictures, why do I find such laziness within? Shouldn’t I be happy with a process no matter what?
A friend and I were talking about how some things seem too much work. The first and silliest example is when I am playing a game, and I have to leave the scene and click five times to find myself in a totally different scene. I sigh like it is a lot of work. I find myself complaining: why do I have to go all the way out there? In this case, the game is Mystery Case Files®: Return to Ravenhearst™ Collector’s Edition. If you play it, you know there is a place where you need to leave the children’s town to go back to the well to get the knife. FIVE clicks. Yet it seems like so much work! It definitely says more about me than it does the game. I love the game, though I have played it so often. It is mostly boring and just something to do when I need to waste time. If you’re curious, here is what it looks like:
But I lost my stream. It is that often I feel something is too much work. Even though when I do the work of most tasks I am satisfied that I did it. I rarely am unhappy when I put in the time and effort.
Some things feel unproductive. Knitting, there’s an item when done. Riding the stationary bike? I go nowhere. But I have seen proof it is working just in my energy levels, and my abilities to do certain things have improved. But that box of things I need to go through… Seems like five clicks too many! I need to work on my brain! That’s it! In a nutshell!
Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 13th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “close up/close-up.” Use the verbal phrase “close up” and/or the noun/adjective “close-up” somewhere in your post, or write a post in the spirit of the phrase. Have fun!
A face only a mother could love or one more wrinkle? The close-up may not bring in the bucks, but what about personality? What about love? Those who are as touchy as a cactus or close up their hearts and hide from emotions are even less appealing. It isn’t easy to be around the monkey, for the energy is tough to keep up with. Walking on eggshells for the touchier relationships is tough, too.
I’ve been lucky enough to live with the types I mentioned and have to admit that as hard as it was, there were good times, too. The monkey is more fun than the cactus, but when those anti-touchy-feely types feel safe and can find their center, they can reveal their hearts of gold. Long, honest talks can bring understanding. It’s not easy. Early traumas can trigger anyone. Even me. Making me a part of the problem while hoping to be part of the solution. Yeah, bring it up close, and those gray hairs and wrinkles have good reasons to be there.
It’s a lot of work, don’t you think? And worth it.
Just like the leg warmers. And speaking of close-ups, the areas that I had to do decreases, look like little hearts. I think I see a correlation. Maybe not.
The stream went cold. Just like when our electricity went off a while ago. We finally got our foot of snow. Not enough to cover the bushes but it’s looking better.
If you click on the photo, you can see the snow close up. But you still can’t feel the cold.
From Linda’s Prompt: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “something that closes.” Write about the first thing that pops into your head that closes. Enjoy!
Closing of an era and opening of the next. For a couple weeks, I have been watching The Doctor (From Chris Eccleston through Jodie Wittaker). That way, I’d be ready for this morning’s special. It’s on Disney Plus if you want to see it. I watched the previous Whos on Max.
My son has been letting us watch his Complete Farscape collection for the past month. That ended for us today. Another door closes.
And Now:
Though he has the movies, we couldn’t wait; we went on Amazon Prime to find the movies.
But when this ends, I am going to have that loose ends feeling. What next? Suggestions?
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
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