Tag Archives: Blogging

Stream Of Consciousness Saturday-Seabiscuit

A most inspiring true story. The story of a courageous race horse named Seabiscuit.

Seabiscuit is one of the most famous race horses in America. He was ranked one of the top ten race horses in the 20th century. I first read the whole story about Seabiscuit in Laura Hillenbrand’s book of the same name. It is a wonderfully inspiring story about an unlikely race horse hero and his entrepreneurial owner, horse whisperer trainer, and slightly overweight and partially blind jockey. Seabiscuit captured my imagination when I read his story and that of the American public during the dark times of the Depression. Laura Hillenbrand’s story is pretty inspiring as well. She suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and is often confined to her home. She wrote another book about an unstoppable WWII hero Louis Zamperini called, “Unbroken.” It is the amazing story of his survival as a POW of the Japanese after his plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean. Both books are highly recommended by me.

Here is an interesting documentary about Seabiscuit via Horse Racing on you tube:

|LindaGHill|

We Need To Be Dreamers

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We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.”

–Arthur O’Shaughnessy

We have to have dreams and believe in possibilities if there is ever to be human progress. It is so easy to get discouraged and bogged down with all the problems in the world. Thinking that things will never change or will always be bad.

There is always the possibility of new discoveries and that the world can improve.

“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

–Howard Zinn

I want to read over and over all the hopeful and encouraging words of all the dreamers and visionaries. It buoys me up and helps me to believe in life and the future of the world.

Let’s act in small positive ways and not give in to the darkness.

|Katgotyourtongue|

Writer’s Quote Wednesday-Faulkner

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“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it.
Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”
― William Faulkner

Well I should be able to write pretty good by now because I do read so much. I agree with this quote because I think you can pick up how to be more articulate in writing by reading others work. I read a bit of Faulkner’s biography and learned he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. He never graduated from high school. He used some of his Nobel Prize money to help establish the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. I like the part in the quote where he says if the writing is not good you can throw it out the window. He developed his unique style. I think all writers need to develop their own style. Try not to compare yourself to others or copy others.

|SilverThreadingWriter’s QuoteWednesday|

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Writing Nerdy About Sporks

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“Let me tell you how I came by 1,000,000 sporks and what I plan to do with them…”

This is a prompt from Writing Nerdy this week. I have to confess that I had to google “spork” to see if it was a real word and found out it is a combination of a spoon and a fork. Another name given for this handy product is “foon.”

Hey diddle, diddle

The cat and the fiddle

The cow jumped over the moon

The little dog laughed to see such sport

And the dish ran away with the foon.

How I Came By 1,000,000 Sporks and What I Plan To Do With Them

I was standing in my backyard one afternoon when suddenly the sky clouded up getting darker and darker. A lightening bolt flashed in the distance and I heard the loud rumbling of thunder. Rain started falling and pelted the water in the pool. Were the drops getting bigger? What was making that loud splashing noise?

I walked over to the pool to investigate disregarding the fact I was getting soaked. I looked over the edge of the pool and saw there were all these white objects floating on the surface and, as they piled on top of each other, some of them were sinking.

I ran over to get the large net we used to scoop leaves out of the pool and scooped up about a dozen of these little white plastic things. I was astonished to see they were white plastic spoons. They did not look like regular spoons because they had little teeth on the edges like short prongs of a fork. I recalled getting these kind of spoons sealed in clear plastic from fast food restaurants.

I was not sure what to make of all this. I thought I better go back inside and get out of the rain. I could think about this odd occurrence over a nice cup of chai rooibos.

The splashing in the pool continued for about 30 minutes. I worked up my courage to go out and see the final outcome. I had to get close to the pool to believe what I was seeing. The backyard was flooded with about a half foot of water. I sloshed my way over to the pool.

There was a small mountain of the plastic utensils in the center of the pool. The water had been displaced by their volume. It is hard to find enough adjectives that would adequately describe my emotions. A few would be flabbergasted, dumbfounded, mystified, astounded, rattled, shocked and stunned.

I went back into the house to text my husband. How were we going to clean up this mess? I turned on my computer to distract myself for a bit while I tried to get control of my nerves.

That was when I saw the bulletin. “Plane carrying large shipment of plastic products from China struck by lightening over Los Angeles today…many Angelinos reporting strange plastic items falling from the sky during rain storm.” Another headline proclaimed, ” It’s Raining Sporks in LA! ”

We had to rent a large dumpster and hire a man to come and shovel all the sporks out of our pool. The story was written up in our local newspaper, The Acorn. The headline read, ” Chinese Sporks Overflow Local Pool.”

We decided to donate our sporks to all the schools and senior centers in the county for craft projects. Our local school made a spork sculpture in our honor. The kids made the sporks into a large hulking superhero character. They called the sculpture ” The Big Buff Foon. ”

One Elephant Seal and the Central California Coast

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I went on a spur of the moment trip and met my daughter in Cambria this past Sunday. It was a little over 3 hours drive about 200 miles north of where I live. The drive up was gorgeous. The most beautiful scenery starts above Ventura where the highway runs along the ocean. The day was sunny with moderate temperatures and the ocean appeared calm and blue. You get a beautiful view of the ocean up to Santa Barbara. Then again above Santa Barbara where you start getting more open countryside. Everything is still green. Up into Solvang there are rolling hills and oak trees. Above there around Los Alamos you start seeing vineyards. The vines are dormant now for the winter. Then you swing by some ocean communities again like Pismo Beach. Onward to San Luis Obispo and you connect with Highway 1 and head toward Morro Bay. Highway 1 then runs along the ocean up to Cambria.

I met my daughter at a restaurant called the Indigo Moon for lunch. She had driven down about 3 ½ hours from Northern California. There is a lovely beach in Cambria called Moonstone Beach. There is a wooden walkway on the bluffs and we took a walk there before sunset and had dinner at a restaurant above the beach. There are many inns along Moonstone Beach and we could see some people sitting out on the balconies.

Moonstone Beach by Snowfalcon on wikipedia

The next day ,after a delicious breakfast at a local diner called the Cambria Cafe ,we drove a bit further north to San Simeon. The Hearst Castle is located atop the hills here. We did not go to Hearst Castle but I have toured it in the past. The Hearst family owned many acres of land around the castle. My daughter and I said how glad we are that they gave the bulk of the land to a nature conservancy so it will not be developed. What a gift to have all this open land preserved. We went to the beach at San Simeon for more gorgeous views and saw an elephant seal sun bathing on the beach, (photo above). There were signs posted about the elephant seals stating they are a protected species. The signs warned not to approach them too close. It recommended staying back about 50-100 feet from them.

When we first saw the elephant seal I was worried it was sick, injured or worse because it was laying so still. Then it opened its eyes, looked around and, as we walked over to look, started to roll over and yawn.

It had a snout, that looked like a short elephant trunk, called a proboscis. I spied a couple of pointy teeth in its lower jaw. I thought it was a young male because of its size. It had some open wounds around its neck. I told my daughter that maybe it had gotten in a fight with an older male and been driven off. A park ranger later confirmed it was a male probably about 5 years old.

My daughter and I did a little hiking along the beach and on the bluffs above. It was so beautiful with clear blue skies and sunshine that reflected off the water. We saw a few monarch butterflies among the eucalyptus trees above the beach. The eucalyptus were so fragrant as we walked along and stepped on their fallen leaves and acorns. The Eucalyptus tree is not native to California. It was brought to California in the 1850s during the California Gold Rush from Australia.

We said goodbye in the early afternoon to make our drives in opposite directions. This trip made me realize I need to do this more often. Get out and see the beauty that is so close and is the California coast.

Elephant Seals at Piedras Blancas, California via wikipedia

|Jusjojan|

One Liner Wednesday

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“There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.”
― Mark Twain

We can not tell from the outside what a person’s life has been. When we reach out and talk to people we never know what we may find out. So many turn away from the elderly. Just think of all the interesting stories that are missed by not engaging with them. Stories from a long-lived life with lessons learned. Do we think they have nothing worth sharing? What can we learn from them?

|LindaGHill|

Free Time

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“I really think I write about everyday life. I don’t think I’m quite as odd as others say I am. Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that’s what makes it so boring.”

–Edward Gorey

I really like Edward Gorey’s illustrations. I am most familiar with the ones he did for PBS Mystery. I want to read his books. Reading about him makes me smile. He used funny pen names that were a play on his name like Ogdred Weary and Dogear Wryde. If someone so wonderfully creative could say that he was bored sometimes I think I am in great company.

It has been hard being semi-retired. But I realize, at the least in recent years when I worked full-time, I spent my life doing a lot of work that just kept me distracted and busy. It used up a good part of my life. Now that I have been rudely excluded from that work I am at a loss. With a bit too much free time. What to do with it. The problem is that my prior jobs and parenthood structured my existence for me and I now I have to structure my own.

People can say go get busy. Do volunteer work. Devote yourself to service. A lot of my life has been taken up taking care of other people already. I am doing some volunteer work and tutoring part-time but that is not enough. I think I must find work or an activity that is truly engaging for me not just busy making or a distraction.

“A lot of impulsive mistakes are made by people who simply aren’t willing to stay bored a little longer.”
― Paul Aurandt

Not a good idea just to jump into the first thing that comes along.

I mentioned PBS Mystery. We do not have cable and I do not watch a lot of television. But I do enjoy PBS Mystery. I have written before that I have really enjoyed Endeavor and the Wallander series. Masterpiece is another PBS production I really like. I am still watching Downton Abbey although I think the earlier seasons were the best. I like Call the Midwife as well. It is great learning about Nurses in England who were midwives and made home visits.

I am glad that I do not have regular television service here because I can see how I might end up sitting in front of it watching a bunch of garbage to fill the time. So from what I have seen of Reality TV, I don’t think it is for me. Especially The Housewives of You Fill in the Blank.

|Katgotyourtongue|

Stream of Consciousness Saturday-To Heal

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“Some people see scars, and it is wounding they remember. To me they are proof of the fact that there is healing.”
― Linda Hogan

There are many synonyms for the word heal. Recover, be out of the woods, get back on your feet, bounce back, feel oneself again, pull through, and restore, are some. I have felt wonder and gratitude for my body’s ability to heal. There is nothing better, after having a bought of illness, than to feel myself gaining strength and feeling good again.

I have had some major challenges to my health and had to undergo major surgery two times and literally gone off a cliff in a car. So I have some good examples of our body’s ability to heal. I feel vulnerable writing about this because I do not want to be seen as damaged. I know people turn away from those of us who have had cancer.

I underwent major surgery for lung cancer two times in a 4 year period. In between those times my husband and I were in a major car accident which could have easily killed us both. I was terribly wrenched and bruised with 3 broken ribs from that accident. Each time I underwent surgery I was very frightened. Even though or maybe because I was a Nurse my fears were magnified. One brother-in-law, who is a MD, told me after the first surgery that this type of surgery is one of the most brutal and worse than cardiac bypass because of what they do to the body during the surgery. I am glad he did not tell me this before I went into surgery. I remember asking one of my RN friends about how they operate on the lung when you are breathing. I was not familiar with how the surgery was done and she worked in ICU and knew about these surgeries. She told me they put a tube in your windpipe and collapse the lung before they start. The recovery from this type of surgery is rough. But even a few days after I felt my strength and would get up by myself in the hospital at night to go to the bathroom.

About 4 years later, after the second surgery, there were several wild fires in the LA area. The location of one of the fires was not too far from the hospital I was in. During the second night, after surgery, I could smell the smoke coming into my room through an air vent. I thought this is so great for someone who has just undergone lung cancer surgery. I asked if something could be done. They could not move me or get ahold of anyone in engineering. Hospital beds are on wheels. So I got up and moved my own bed away from the vent.

The recovery from the second surgery was harder as I had been told it would be. I think part of that was my stomach does not tolerate pain medication. I really needed the medication but it wrecked my stomach and I ended up with trouble sleeping not only because of pain but because of terrible heart burn.

But I did recover from both of these surgeries. My body healed.

I do not have to go through major surgery to appreciate my body’s ability to heal. I do appreciate it even when it heals from minor illnesses and injuries. It is a kind of miraculous thing this great strength and ability to heal with which we are born.

My husband has pointed out to me that the visible scars of my lung surgeries have faded quite a bit. Another demonstration of the body’s healing powers.

|LindaGHill|

Writing Nerdy-About a Little Bug

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Monster 6 I can’t resist this guy or girl, so whimsical. This is a prompt from Nerd in the Brain. Where does he/she come from? What is his/her world like? What happened to cause him/her to have that look on his/her face? What was for dinner last night? Just what is he/she up to, eh?

Ode to the Flu Bug

I am qualmish,

Not so hot,

Under the weather,

Indisposed,

Rocky,

Out of sorts,

Out of action,

Something is amiss,

I think I have been invaded by this little bug.

This is how I would feel if I caught something that looked like this guy/girl. I did feel like this a few weeks ago.

The little bug says in reply:

The Flu Bug’s Refrain

I have a crazy life,

Floating around from here to there,

Ejected forcefully from someone’s nose,

I am just trying to find a nice host,

A warm, cozy place,

To live out my short life,

Is that too much to ask?

Give me a break.

Soapbox Sound Off-Are Frankenfoods Safe for Consumption?

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Introducing Soapbox Sound Off. I want to make this a bi-monthly feature of my blog. To air some issues that are important to me. I would love to have readers chime in with comments, additions to my topic, and disagreements, but all in a polite way. I will present an issue and some added information for further reading if I have it. Readers are welcome to add to the information. I did start already with a post on Social Media last week. I plan to do this type of blog post bi-monthly on Wednesday.

Soap Box Sound Off: Are Frankenfoods Safe for Consumption?

I know my title is redundant and a no brainer, right? Something called “frankenfood” does not sound safe or healthy. I consider GMO foods and foods with a lot of chemical additives frankenfoods. Like Frankenstein’s monster they are something created by man that is turning out to be a monster. I receive various newsletters in my email. One is from the Organic Consumers Association. Many times I can not read all of their articles because I get overwhelmed with all the alarming news. I wanted to share the latest one I read. I have been concerned about GMOs for quite a while. GMO is an acronym for Genetically Modified Organisms or foods. I intuitively felt that eating something that was genetically tampered with may not be a good idea.

The link I am providing is to an article about genetically inserting pesticides into seeds. So when we eat the food it has some pesticide right inside of it. This article points out that the pesticide sprays being used now can not be washed off the food either. I did not realize that. I now want so much to eat as much organic as possible. The article mentions ways to fight against GMO and pesticides as consumers and talks about how the FDA has often abdicated its consumer protection role. There are so many GMOs, pesticides and other additives, that we are not told about, in our food now.

It is important that we all give some thought to this issue. It is a health issue for us, our families and the planet.

Here is the link to the article about GMOs and pesticides:

Consumer Self-Defense: 12 Ways to Drive GMOs and Roundup off the Market.

What do you think of GMOs and pesticide use in agriculture? Do you think GMOs and pesticides can have a harmful effect on humans and other species that share our planet?