writing

Are you sure about that?

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This is a question I ask myself often. Starting as a young adult. I had taken a serious position on something and later discovered I was wrong. I soon discovered I wasn’t a big fan of eating crow.

It’s easy to be swayed by opinions or appearances. The question is: are there any facts to back up these conclusions.

Recently I watched an interesting interview and in the middle of it the guest expressed strong negative opinions about a respected and popular podcaster. In the guest’s opinion the person in question was part of cancel culture.

In a way I can see how he could draw this conclusion but it troubles me deeply because I’m not sure it’s true. I’ve heard strong opinions in the podcasts and I don’t always agree with his way of thinking but nothing so far has proven to me that the podcast host cancels people. The guest’s opinion, though, has raised doubt in my mind and I wish I could know for sure.

The guest has had a troubled life in many ways and his opinion could be colored by personal angst. Offence taken where none was intended. There is that to consider.

Some things we can never be sure about but other times, with a little digging, we can be sure.

Another news item heard on line was reporting the results of a poll. In the political arena the question was do you think this man can do a better job than his opponent? The numbers showed the answer was yes. I admit to being shocked.

Ironically, I had seen a number of interviews with the favored personality and he did not do well at convincing anyone of his ability to handle the position. I wanted to ask the polled respondents are you sure about that? It was obvious they hadn’t done their homework.

Our culture seems to run on opinions and appearances. The thing is, we can look good on the surface but sometimes good ends there.

In the Bible it talks about not judging lest we be judged. The connotation usually is that we should avoid negative judgment. I heard someone talk about this verse not long ago and they pointed out that while we shouldn’t judge people as bad we also should not judge them as good. We can be just as wrong either way. It’s true, when I think about it for very long.

In the last year, for some of us, our world was rocked when terrible allegations were leveled against a popular and beloved public figure. Those closest to him rose fiercely to his defense. The problem with all of this was that the unthinkable allegations were true. There was irrefutable evidence. Those closest to him could have clung to their perceptions and opinions but they didn’t. Instead they mounted an investigation to find the truth and when they found it they owned it.

Opinions and impressions are based in emotion. Emotion, while an essential part of life, can get things so wrong. Provable facts are like bedrock.

These days it seems most of us are happy to accept as fact whatever we are being told. It takes time and energy to answer the question.

Are you sure about that?

This and that, second try.

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Last time I tried this it was a bust. My mind was on holiday.

Actually, it wasn’t, not really. My thoughts were focused on a number of things and, for a variety of reasons (none of them bad,) it wasn’t appropriate to talk about any of them. That is still the case but at least now I’ve recognized a solution and can move on to the small talk areas in my life instead.

The weather. It’s been crazy this last week or so. Soaring temperatures, wild thunder and lightening storms. Wind gusts battering the house, trying to blow in the windows. Torrents of rain challenging the gutters to handle it all.

A backyard that, with all the heat and moisture, has gone from zero to overgrown in four weeks. The thistles seem to grow a foot a day, I swear. This year I broke down and bought some serious weed killer to deal with it all. Now if it would only dry up enough to avoid walking in mud to spray it around.

Between extreme heat and heavy rain it has been an exercise in futility for the painting team to meet their projected finish date. The last task is the deck, fingers crossed it will be dry enough to be painted by Saturday. The fence and the house look even better than expected. The young ladies did a great job and they liked my color choices. A win/win situation in my books.

There is talk today about lifting some of the covid restrictions around here, which is good news. The infection rates have been high and our medical staff is feeling burned out. For their sake it will be nice to see an end to this plague. It has been a challenge to convince people to do the right thing and take care. Who knew Manitobans could be such rebels?

I did my part, in my hermitage.

Although I have to admit, lately I have been going out more often than I have in years. At least one trip a week and sometimes even four in a week. Grocery store, multiple drive-thru, even Canadian Tire a time or two. I know, hey. Crazy.

It has been good having people around this week, even if they are not here for social reasons.

Power outages and thunder storms, that’s the other thing messing up my life this week. They don’t work well with computers and internet connections.

I’m still smiling though and I even feel like smiling, nothing fake going on here, so life is good.

We will talk books next time.

Last night I missed the midnight deadline by two minutes. This time I’ll pay more attention. It’ll still be close.

See ya later.

Checking in

/ For the Love of Books / 2 Comments

Hey everyone,

I’m just checking in. I planned on posting everyday but it’s been sporadic lately. My mind has been focusing on other areas and without good book suggestions I’ve been coming up empty on things to talk about. Today is looking like that kind of day too. I figured a little something, anything, would be a good idea just in case I don’t get back here later.

The usual emails have no suggestions that interest me so that’s a bust. I’m almost finished the read I mentioned last night and haven’t looked to see what’s next. It isn’t a very long book and another hour or so should finish it but no time, I’m headed to work.

I have a big day planned. We will see if it works out. Fingers crossed. Usually when I plan a deep dive that’s the signal for emails to go crazy. Maybe I can fly under the radar for a while. That would be nice.

Tomorrow will be busy too. A painting company is coming to power wash fences, deck, and stucco in preparation for painting once it all dries out. Even if I don’t have to be involved just having them here will be a distraction. It will be great to have everything freshened up. This is the first time I’ve had this work done on this house. It turns out I should have been painting the wood every few years. Oops.

We won’t even talk about the yard. With all the rain and periods of hot weather the plants and weeds have gone crazy. My excuse for not getting out there is all the rain we’ve had. The soil is like clay and sticks to my boots in big clumps, an impossible mess.

The grass has just taken off and it’s fun to watch the birds in the back yard hunting for bugs. It’s like they are walking through shoulder high fields. The little birds are almost lost from sight in it. The guys are coming to mow today. I wonder if the birds will be sad.

If anything interesting shows up I’ll be sure to share it later.

Just to add a little color to the day, here is my current read.

It’s near the end, she’s figured out who killer is and she’s in his clutches. Will the authorities (her friends) find her in time? Of course they will, you don’t kill off the main character. Knowing that, the suspense is still great.

Have a good day, and Happy Reading!

I wonder…

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Sometimes I wonder, okay, often I wonder, what is going on with all the shouting and yelling I’m hearing these days?

It reminds me of a commotion a couple of years ago.

There is a drainage area running between my house and the one behind me, it’s filled with a layer of stones and the weeds like to grow in between them. I was out there cleaning things up one day and this bird starts making a terrible racket. He (I’m assuming it was a he) was making all this noise and then he starts with the theatrics. Down on the stones he’s flipping himself around, dragging one wing and flapping the other one wildly.

I’d never seen a bird do this before and I’m thinking What in the world? I’m looking all over and I can’t see a nest anywhere in the trees or bushes around me. I’m not seeing any other birds. He’s obviously trying to protect something but I have no idea what.

The memory of that bird reminds me of the shouting and yelling I’m hearing these day and makes me wonder all the same things. What in the world is going on, what is someone protecting?

I don’t know if it is appropriate or not, but the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the frantic commotion – two names, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Swaggart. Those boys had somethings to hide.

Yelling usually means smoke screening. A dead give away someone cares about something.

Inquiring minds jump on things like this and start looking around to see what the fuss is about.

The first place my mind goes is to a movie with lovable funny man Tim Allen where he had all these wives and ex-wives and he kept adding more. Even worse, he involved his unwilling daughter in the cover-up and deception.

It all came crashing down when he was on a Caribbean island with a friend. Tim was having a good time romancing the locals until he and his friend went parasailing. Somehow his friend fell out of his harness.

Trouble started for Tim when his family was mistakenly notified of his death. The uproar between his known wives was bad enough but when unknown wives started showing up for the funeral, well…

This week one of the books I read was a stressful story where a well known, pillar of the community family, had a deep dark secret. Lots of yelling with fists flying.

In the end the secret wasn’t that this paragon of virtue had a wild temper and was abusing his family. No, the secret was that he had a mistress and was planning to kill his present family to be with his new family. He managed to murder his wife and one daughter while the other was rescued almost too late by her guard dog.

In other books the secret has been much bigger. A Hugh Heffner wannabe with a fabulous mansion filled with mistresses, a vast organization bringing in millions, and an off-shore bank account in the trillions.

When I think about it, the possibilities behind the yelling are endless.

Sometimes, it’s not just one bird squawking, sometimes a whole flock is involved.

One day there was a huge racket in the back yard. I looked out to see what the threat was, it was a band of kittens eyeing up the birds.

All the shouting makes me wonder. Will it be the guy with the mistress or will it be the Hugh Heffner wannabe?

For sure there is a secret. Smoke screens don’t happen without reason.

I wonder… do we need to be nervous?

So, the bird I couldn’t figure out?

As I worked my way through the weeds I went to move a cute little stone and realized it was an egg. Just sitting there on the other stones. Obviously that was what had his shorts all in a knot. What a crazy place to lay your eggs.

I googled birds to see if I could find this guy and I think it was a Plover. They lay their eggs on curbs and other unlikely places on the ground. They protect their nest by making a big fuss pretending to be injured. It didn’t work on me although I did give that area a wide berth as I kept weeding. I didn’t want him having a heart attack but at the same time I can’t work in the yard on your bird schedule either, thank you very much.

They didn’t show up the next year. I guess they moved on to safer parking lots.

This and that, one more time.

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This is one of those days when it’s taking a herculean effort to sit down and write, I think it’s the uncomfortable space I’m in that’s at fault. I’ll going to try for a this-and-that kind of day and see if anything worthwhile shows up.

I think it’s been a cluster of things that are getting to me, none of it bad though. Some of it is probably taking me out of my comfort zone and that’s the reason for the distress. Adding all the little things together, it does a number on me. The worst thing about it is that the physical response to stress is sidelining me. Frustrating. I wish I could just take a pill and move on. Wouldn’t that be nice.

Oh well, at least there were bright spots in my week.

This was tax time and mine has been filed, on time. (sigh of relief) There was even a small refund. (Awesome.)

I finally gave in and ordered a replacement for a completely destroyed vacuum cleaner hose. I’d taped it together many times until it was finally hanging only by a thread. Even then I just held it together as best I could to limp through a cleaning. The hold up was insecurity about ordering the right thing.

It should arrive in the next few days so we’ll see if I made the right choice. I hate doing things when I don’t think I know what I’m doing.

Life is ironic sometimes. Between my house and my job, I’ve had to do more than a few things I’ve never done before. Especially in the last two years, and we’re not done yet. I have to say though, once I’ve done and conquered, I’m feeling pretty happy about myself.

There is another chore I’ve been putting off. If I want to keep them, I need to put chicken wire around some plants the neighborhood rabbits keep eating. I don’t mind them eating the grass but I wish they’d leave the plants alone. Wishful thinking on my part.

I’ve been hoping the rabbits would be a predator’s lunch one day but so far it hasn’t happened and they are getting big, maybe too big now. My neighbor tells me the eagles like to swoop in and grab lunch but so far these guys have managed to escape those clutches.

There’s more swirling around in my head but for your sake I’ll quit here. Maybe save it for another time.

I have to say writing this has been therapeutic for me and hopefully not too boring for you. 🙂

Currently I’m reading the book I promised in the last post. I’m loving it. One thing about longevity in writers, they can build on their experience to come up with increasingly complex characters and situations. That’s why I’m loving this book so much. I’m glad I grabbed it yesterday because it was a small window of opportunity, it’s not a bargain anymore. Even at full price it’s worth it though.

Full Disclosure

Ann Silver is a cop’s cop. As the Midwest Homicide Investigator, she is called in to help local law enforcement on the worst of cases, looking for answers to murder. Hers is one of the region’s most trusted investigative positions.

Paul Falcon is the FBI’s top murder cop in the Midwest. If the victim carried a federal badge or had a security clearance, odds are good Paul and his team see the case file or work the murder.

Their lives intersect when Ann arrives to pass a case off her desk and onto his. A car wreck and a suspicious death offer a lead on a hired shooter he is tracking. Paul isn’t expecting to meet someone, the kind that goes on the personal side of the ledger, but Ann Silver has his attention.

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Thanks for listening.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Reconsidering Red Riding Hood by Eli Brown — Nerdy Book Club

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Loved this, you will too – For the Love of Books

When did I first scratch my head about Little Red Riding Hood? Kids are experts at shrugging at the imperfect world. They believe us when we tell them how Wednesday is spelled and then they move on to more important matters. After all, there are bugs to poke. Recently, I have been thinking a lot […]

Reconsidering Red Riding Hood by Eli Brown — Nerdy Book Club

Story prompt – Stick

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To be honest, I’m a little worried Aaron might stick it to me if I don’t get this done. I mean, I don’t think he’s vindictive or anything but you never know about some people, ya know?

The other thing I was a little worried about last night was opinion on how this piece should be done. In the end I decided Aaron may have strong opinions about some things, and I’m ok with that, but I’m going to stick to my guns and do this my way.

I wasn’t sure for a while if I’d have the stick-to-itiveness to stick with the program. It was pretty tempting to throw in the towel and say sorry Aaron, I just can’t do this. I mean I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday. What in the world is there to say about stick.

Things look a little better by the light of day, maybe I can stick it out and come up with something. I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes.

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They say you can tell things are done when they stick to the wall. I’m not sure but I think this could be done. Although, there is an inescapable niggling in the back of my mind. I’ve pretty sure I’ve missed some things.

This is a stick up.

Stick to the top of the blog (choice in settings lol)

Stick to your lane

Stick to my fingers

Sticky fingers (in more ways than one)

Help me out guys, what other good things have I missed?

Story prompt is hosted by Sunday Scribblings with Aaron over at peckapalooza The Confusing Middle

Say something, say anything March 24th

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This is one of those days, mind going a million miles an hour, with nothing coherent to say.

My thoughts are in problem solving mode. Scattered and busy, busy, busy. Reading is definitely out of the question when it gets like this.

Since I couldn’t settle down enough to read, it seemed like the next best thing was podcasts. Several of my favorites posted today. New material.

One of them is in news format. A niche market, very focused. Often times it is light and fun and the co-hosts keep it interesting. Most of the news revolves around a world that I am not part of, but I enjoy hearing about it anyway. Except today. It definitely was not light and fun. That’s part of life though. It’s tragic but it’s real.

The first podcast I watched was my favorite. I thought about sharing it with all of you but I’m not ready to cast it out into the world just yet. I need to park on it for a bit. There was just so much to take in and I need time to digest even a fraction of it.

There were so many things I liked about it. The interviewer and interviewee were both interesting, engaged in the subject, with lots to say. In a way, the subject matter wasn’t new but their perspective was fresh and new. The purpose of the podcast was to encourage the listener to think. Most guests on the podcast have a new book out and I’d have to go back and check but if I remember right the title of the book tonight was Think Again.

By that he meant be willing to take out your thoughts, beliefs, opinions, even decisions, and with an open mind take an honest look to see if you still think/believe the same way.

I can remember having a thought similar to this back in my twenties, you know, that time in your life when you think you know a lot of things for sure. By experience I learned to avoid being loudly dogmatic about anything. Backtracking on a strongly held opinion was not an experience I particularly enjoyed.

Anyway, I am still living tonight’s inspiring experience. When it wears off I will listen to it again once or twice and then maybe I’ll share.

Instead, I will share what I was doing part of the time while listening/watching the podcasts.

When it’s finished I always need to savor it for a while. That’s why there is a finished one hiding under my diamond painting projects. One of these days it will go back in the box.

Well, I’m glad I stopped by to visit with you all. This exercise has been a settling experience. Much needed if I hope to sleep tonight.

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Tomorrow, (well technically today since it 1:13 AM) maybe we will get back to books.

Currently I’m reading and enjoying ….

Leaving November (Clayburn Novels Book 2) 

Eight years ago, Vienne Kenney moved away from Clayburn and all its gossip to pursue a law degree in California. But now she has failed the bar exam again. Is she destined to be stuck forever, a failure—just like her father—in this tiny Kansas town?

Nine months ago, Jackson Linder left Clayburn with no explanation to anybody. Now he, too, is back. He isn’t sure he’s ready to face the rumors and well-meaning questions of the town’s busybodies. Yet he’s determined, once more, to make his art gallery a success—despite the secret that haunts him every day..

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Happy Reading!

(Yes, it’s still Christmas at my house. The tree is even still up in the other room. I’m thinking if I leave it another month or two I may as well go ahead and leave it up for next Christmas lol)

Bye!

Story prompt – fragrance

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Story Prompt is hosted by Sunday Scribblings – Peckapalooza’s The Confusing Middle

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

I know I am in good company. That’s why we often see signs claiming it’s a fragrance free zone. Allergies abound. It’s too bad really, because some scents are exquisite. Wouldn’t it be great if it was possible to have pretty scents that are hypo-allergenic.

I used to wear perfume, way back in my teenage years, but had to quit. Something changed in me, my chemistry, to the point that what used to smell nice on me, suddenly didn’t. Sad, sad, day.

My allergic reactions have increased over the years and more and more things have became bothersome. Now, I avoid anything with a scent. There are a variety of reactions and some fragrances are less intolerable than others. I’m sure I could find something that would work for me but I don’t love perfume enough to search for just the right one.

This affliction affects many areas of my life, I’ve even had to quit a job over this issue.

Having left a job I loved (mostly, anyway) and taken another job that I didn’t, it was a safe place, I found myself in a bit of a dilemma.

The thing about this new place of employment was – it was full of scents of all kinds. Drugstores are like that. It had a thriving gift section with candles, oils, and all things pretty. The store also had a perfume case. While the gift section was near the front of the store the perfumes were at the back. It wasn’t difficult to avoid that area. Most of my time was on the cash registers at the front, well away from most things smelly.

My allergies were taking a back seat to more important life concerns, and I just put up with the minor reactions.

The interesting thing about perfumes was their attraction for shop lifters, a surprise to me.

There were other things in the store attractive to shop lifters too. Some products were a cheap substitute for alcohol. Others were ingredients used in the manufacture of street drugs, while popular items were sold on the black market to generate cash.

Changes had to be made to reduce shrinkage and the plan for the perfume case was to move all of it to the front of the store, on the shelving behind the tills.

Sometimes life has to become intolerable before I am willing to make changes. It was so bad that I was hearing impaired with the fluid build up in my right ear yet, I was still only flirting with the idea of quitting. Fortunately the decision was made easy for me in the end. My boss wanted to change my part-time status to full-time. Talk about a shove off the end of the pier.

It was a blessing in disguise. I found a better job, in a fragrance free zone.

The last couple of years an unidentified agent has rendered me hearing impaired for a few weeks in November. I guess quitting a job won’t be the easy solution to the problem this time.

Story prompt – Pie

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Story Prompt is hosted by Sunday Scribblings – Peckapalooza’s The Confusing Middle

Stanley was close to home and anxious to get there. For once he knew the answer. It was time for the daily Trivia contest on his favorite radio station. Finally, after so many weeks of trying he was the first caller through to know the answer. Yes!

Not only that, but the prize was a large two topping pizza from his favorite restaurant. He paid extra for an up-grade. He wanted this special pizza to include all of his favorite toppings.

It smelled so good. He was drooling and his stomach was already rumbling. He could hardly wait.

Somehow he had to sneak into the house without his little brothers noticing. It’s not often he ever wins anything and he wanted to savor the experience. If they catch even a glimpse there won’t be much left for him.

He was almost in the house when he heard squeals. PIZZA! He was pretty sure there were more than two sets of feet running toward him. Yup. He was surround by not two but four little boys jumping up and down with excited anticipation.

That right there was the whole trouble with winning.

The minute they notice, everyone within a three mile radius wants a piece of the pie.