Category Archives: Blogging Community

Expectations

Isn’t it frustrating when stuff that usually works without delays or glitches suddenly doesn’t work. Like when your internet connection goes down. That happened to me recently and boy did I miss the internet. It is such a big part of my day. My connection to the world. Then about a week ago my browser had really slowed down to a snail’s pace and I decided to clear my cache. Later that day I wanted to sign into my WordPress account and guess what, WordPress did not recognize me and could not find my account. That was pretty upsetting because I didn’t expect to be cut off from my blogs and all my stored posts. It was like I did not have an account and never had a blog, the ‘twilight zone.’ Around the same time another blogger friend, Dan Antion, was posting about glitches on WordPress, like the ‘comment’ section not working. I realized I had noticed other people’s ‘Like’ function not working. It would say, ‘loading…’ and then not load. I discovered that if I refreshed the page the ‘Like’ feature would work. But then I thought it probably hasn’t been working on my blogs either and maybe several people were not able to ‘like’ my posts because the ‘Like’ button was broken,(that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it). It took me what seemed like a very long session with the Support person on WordPress and then I was transferred to the Happiness Engineers and we finally got me back to my blog site. So all good, and life returned to normal, at least on WordPress. But this morning I go to sign in and I am having problems signing in and then my Reader page, with the other blogs I am following , is not loading. I am getting this message in a red square with an exclamation point to boot, that ‘sorry we are unable to find the posts you are following’ or something like that. So more time with Support person and then after some crazy voodoo, I don’t know what we did, I am able to sign in and see who I am following.

by rawpixel on Pixabay.com

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt “for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “xp.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “xp”in it. As always, use any way you’d like. Enjoy!”

Scribble

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It can be good to let go and scribble. Let the color go outside the lines and see where it takes you. It always bothered me when I would hear someone make an issue with children about coloring inside the lines. I guess it is a good exercise for fine motor skills but doesn’t do that much for creativity.

by anarosadebastiani on Pixabay.com

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt is “rib.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “rib”in it. As always, use any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Featured image background by Choupette 455 on Pixabay.com altered by me.

Let The Sunshine In

Time Slips By

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Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

I have been looking back across generations quite a bit lately and discovered so much about my family tree. I have connected with cousins in Ireland who were wonderful to share a copy of the family tree and another who helped me do research. At first we did not know we were related but discovered his great-grandmother on the family tree. Two volunteers, Margaret and David, at ‘Ireland Reaching Out’ helped me connect with my cousins and with research. Geraldine at The North Tipperary Genealogy Center with rootsireland.ie was a great help with questions about records. I met another cousin who spotted my posting on a message board and met a more distant cousin through Ancestry.com whose family came from the same county in Ireland as my great-great grandparents. I found the grandchildren of two of grandmother’s sisters. I have found the grandchildren of my Great Aunt and much more. Other Ancestry members have been generous with their help as well.

Now I need to pause and look at my own life as I am living day-to-day and the people living in it. I don’t want to lose track and let it all slip by. Lifetimes pass much too quickly.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “lip.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “lip”in it.

Fabulous

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I made an exciting discovery in my search for members of my family tree. In the late 1970s my aunt wrote in a letter information about my father’s family. She told me about my paternal grandparents and their siblings. At that time, my aunt still corresponded with a cousin back in Ireland. She told me what she remembered about her aunts and uncles. She said three of my grandmother’s siblings had remained in Ireland and her two youngest sisters had emigrated to Canada. She mentioned that one of the sisters had 3 children and other had none. At the time I received the letter there was no internet and I never thought I could access databases to locate family members. I envisioned myself making a trip to Ireland or Canada in search of ancestor records and maybe living relatives. I did not ask any follow-up questions about the married name of the sister or where they lived in Canada. When I recently started doing genealogy research I was amazed by all the information I could find online. But because my great aunts names were common I could not be sure of the records. I thought I might never find out what happened to them. After I had been researching for a while I decided to have a DNA test because I though it might make it easier to identify ancestors. I did have several cousins confirmed through DNA that I already knew belonged on my tree. I have used the DNA matches with various surnames to try to find answers when the records are not clear or not available. During a recent search for DNA matches and surnames a new name popped up on my match list. Ancestry was saying our DNA match was extremely high and this person could be my first or second cousin. I contacted him through Ancestry and as I read his answer I became very excited. It turns out he is the grandson of one of the sisters who emigrated to Canada. Through him I now know who my great-aunt married and the names of her children. I am in touch with her descendants and to me this is just fabulous.

‘Wild Irish Rose-Royal Canal’ by Peter Mooney on Flickr

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The ” prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “fab.” Use it as a word or find a word beginning with “fab.”

Let’s End Ageism

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In America there is a big elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. All the talk of booming economy and reduced unemployment that completely leaves out a large segment of our society who have not fallen through the cracks but down a humongous sinkhole.

ProPublica did a report in December 2018 focusing on a big elephant: ” If You’re Over 50, Chances Are the Decision to Leave a Job Won’t be Yours.”

ProPublica and The Urban Institute analyzed date from the Health and Retirement Study that followed ” a nationally representative sample of about 20,000 people from the time they turn 50 through the rest of their lives.” Their findings were “that between the time older workers enter the study and when they leave paid employment, 56 percent are laid off at least once or leave jobs under such financially damaging circumstances that it’s likely they were pushed out rather than choosing to go voluntarily ….only one in 10 of these workers ever again earns as much as they did before their employment setbacks.”

Here is another story about someone feeling the effects of the above reality and how the ‘gig economy’ is not such a wonderful panacea for us all, “Surviving on $3 a Day and Hope, the seven lessons I’ve learned living in poverty.”

Age discrimination is the parent of this elephant and I don’t think it helps to get new skills or a new hairstyle without efforts to change attitudes of employers and society toward older people. I do think policymakers need to take a realistic look at this and what policies might help like lowering the Medicare enrollment age so employers would not use the excuse that older workers will cost them more with their health problems, (which is an ageist stereotype), and people who are unable to find secure employment would not lose their health coverage. While I was looking for programs offering solutions, I came across an article from American Society on Aging, “Ageism in Action! Ageism Inaction!”

In it the author mentioned an organization, Boomers Leading Change, that states, “We mobilize, connect and empower Adults 50+ to utilize your skills, passion and energy to create positive, lasting social change.” This organization based in Denver, Colorado, recruits people 50+ to utilize their skills to help their community.

“Our volunteers receive highly valuable education and training and then are connected with service opportunities in one of our programs – The Volunteer Program, our AmeriCorps Encore Program or our Boomers Advocacy Academy. In addition, our Connect for Health Coverage Guides help individuals and families learn about health insurance that fits their needs then find coverage through Colorado’s insurance marketplace.” (Boomers Leading Change)

The AmeriCorps Encore Program is probably the only paid position, and probably low paying, but I like their approach to volunteering for older adults, not just stuffing envelopes. Boomers Leading Change wants to “change the world’s view about aging.” We need more organizations dedicated to this.

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, is a monthly series dedicated to shining some light into our world.

Rolling The Dough

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Krumcake rolling via NorskPower on wikipedia.org

‘Rolling in dough’ is an old American slang expression for having lots of money, wealth. Some people think having a lot of money is the way to all good things and happiness.

Dough can be a flour mixture used to make all kinds of good foods to eat. You roll out dough to make bread and pastries, even pasta. Making this kind of dough can be very satisfying and worthwhile.

My mother had the knack for making the dough for pie crust. You need to develop a feel for the right consistency when mixing the ingredients and not handle the dough too much otherwise it will come out tough. Hers came out tender and flaky, just right. It’s a talent, a skill.

Some people have been rolling their dough all wrong to get their kids into college and their recipes have fallen flat.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt is “dough/d’oh.” Use one, use both, use ’em any way you like. Enjoy!

Bill Of Fare

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One of latest (e)mail messages I received was from the MD with whom I had a telephone appointment and received an Rx for eye drops for me. Just recently, my daughter was down with a sinus infection that took her out of commission for about a week and a half. She had an in person MD visit and a telephone visit. I really came to appreciate the telephone visits because it saves the time of having to drive to a doctor.

I morphed into my maternal role of cooking soups of chicken and minestrone but her taste buds were not up to appreciating my efforts. At least that is what I am telling myself not wanting to accept that my cooking is bad. The illness kept my daughter from wanting to cook anything and I have missed her contributions to our bill of fare. Now I am a bit under the weather with an eye infection and she is getting back to normal and appreciates feeling better. So she made dinner for us which was great. I really am not into cooking the daily dinners any more and really love that she likes to cook and does not mind pitching in with menu suggestions, cooking, and shopping with me. I am grateful too for easy to put together items from the local groceries and restaurants that deliver.

‘Bill of Fare’ of Glen Island Grand Cafe 1892 via Wikipedia.org

In the meantime, Spring has sprung in my backyard.

Jelly beans

Lavender doing well

Wooly Thyme

Crazy succulents

Blooming succulent

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt: “the last piece of mail you received.” Talk about the subject of the last piece of physical mail you received, i.e. a gas bill–talk about gas, not the bill itself. Have fun!

Sole Mio

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‘O sole mio!’ is Neapolitan for ‘my sunshine, or ‘my sun.’ You probably have heard the well-known song. I feel silly because I always thought it meant ‘lonely me’ or ‘by myself.’ You know solo, alone. ‘O sole mio!’ is a prettier song than ‘You Are My Sunshine,’ but looks like they mean the same thing.

I don’t mind solitude but hated losing our wifi the other day. No streaming video, no internet, yikes! So guess what ? I read a 455 page book in 2 days. I thought I did not have the patience to read books any more and I am glad to find out that I do. It was ‘The Legacy’ by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, an Icelandic author. I read one of her books a few years ago, ‘Ashes to Dust,’ and I really liked it. This latest was another page turner. Now I am starting another by the same author titled, ‘I Remember You.’ This one is spooky, scary, about ghosts creaping around and I think they kill people. Have just started so I will have to let you know. Not good to read it before you are going to sleep. I kept the night-light on for a while last night. And good that I wasn’t sleeping solo.

First Edition cover of ‘O Sole Mio!’ via David Wilson on Wikipedia.org

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt is ‘soul/sole.’ Video of The Three Tenors, Pavarotti, Domingo, and Carrera via tiziano po on You Tube.

Cream of Celery Soup

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When I was growing up we ate Campbell’s Soup. My father said my younger brother and I looked like the Campbell’s Soup Kids.

Vintage Campbell’s Soup image via Miami University Libraries (Flickr)

One of their soups I liked was Cream of Celery. There are recipes online for making fresh Cream of Celery Soup and other cream of, (some type of vegetable), soups. They look and sound good, especially for cold winter days. Do you have a favorite?

Here’s another one:

My daughter bought the ingredients to make cream of fennel soup. I’m getting hungry.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is ‘cele’, use as part of word.