A part of my coping with the stress of the world these days is reading books. This is mostly physical paper books. Some from the library, others purchased, and most are fiction. Books are magical things that introduce me to new people, places, and cultures.  As I read, I come to feel like the characters in the stories are real people. I like or dislike them, and care about their actions. Books are containers of whole worlds.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is  “container.” Use the word “container” any way you’d like. Or think about a container of some kind and write about it. 

Featured image ‘ Young woman reading a book’ by Renoir via wikimedia.org

Not feeling an eruption of creative energy. How are people able to be creative with all the negative stuff happening? We are fortunate that the wild fires have not touched us here yet. But as I sat here tonight at the computer I felt an earthquake. Not a bad one, but don’t we have enough right now? Nature just sending a reminder that things could be worse I guess.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is  “-tion.” Find a word that ends with “tion.” Bonus points if you start your post with it.

Featured Image: “The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (Hi-RISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this avalanche plunging down a 1,640-foot-tall (500-meter-tall) cliff on May 29, 2019. The image also reveals layers at Mars’ north pole during spring. As temperatures increase and vaporize ice, the destabilized ice blocks break loose and kick up dust.” (JPL California Institute of Technology)

Been doing some ‘Spring cleaning’ in the summer and came across the pet collar of our deceased cat. I don’t have the heart to discard it as yet. It has her name on one side with our old phone number and my daughter’s name and our address on the other. Angel never liked wearing the collar. She was feisty but my daughter and I had a close bond with her. It was hard when she died. I have not wanted another cat since.

Angel ❤

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today  is “collar.” Use it as a verb, a noun, or metaphorically. Bonus points for using it in all three ways! 

With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one – but no one at all – can tell you what to read and when and how.”
― Doris Lessing

Even though I have donated about 100 books to the library in recent years we still have a large collection in our house. My husband collects Easton Books, mostly of classics. We have law books, history books, cook books, and mystery books. I have given away many of my books, especially paperbacks, because they deteriorate quickly, take up space, and collect dust. I have held onto some hardcover favorites like David Copperfield, Pride and Prejudice, The Secret Garden, to name a few. I do have several paperbacks of various subjects and genres here right now but will most likely donate many of them eventually. My favorite history books are by David McCullough,’ John Adams’, ‘Truman’, and ‘1776.’ I love books, real paper and hardcover books, not so much the digital ones. 

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is “more than a hundred.” Write your post inspired by something you have more than a hundred of in your home right now. 

Image of books on shelves by Larsgustav on Pixabay.com

Quote about books and reading via Goodreads.

Pros and Cons for Stream of Consciousness Saturday

Cons: We are starting into a weekend heat wave in Southern California.

Pros: We have air conditioning.

Cons: The power went out this evening.

Pros: At least the sun is going down and we cooled the house off during the day.

Cons: The internet is out and I am typing on my MS Word program instead of WordPress.

Pros: My computer has enough battery power for me to work on my post.

Cons: We have to live by flashlight.

Pros: I can still read a book with a flashlight. I feel like I’m camping.

Cons: We have wildfires in Southern California that are out of control.

Pros: The fires are not close to where we live right now.

Cons: I can’t run the dishwasher.

Pros: I can’t run the dishwasher.

Cons: I spend a lot of time sitting in front of the computer for mental stimulation, doing genealogy research, because we are on lock down.

Pros: I like doing genealogy research.

Cons: I don’t know a lot about my ancestors’ lives. I do know that a great-aunt died in the flu pandemic of 1918.

Pros: At least I can do research online which would have been impossible in the last century.

Cons: The sun is setting and soon it will be dark.

Pros: We just bought more batteries for the flashlights.

The power is back on here right now. My daughter and I were enjoying the quiet. It is relaxing when the light dims naturally.

Hope you are all staying safe and well wherever you are.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s  prompt is to write about ‘pro/con,’ and talk about the pros and cons of anything.

Featured image by Madmix on Pixabay.com

More power to the people. This sounds like a slogan for the oppressed but I am talking about electrical power. We have had 4 power outages in 24 hours. One was just as I finished cleaning up the dinner dishes and found myself standing in a pitch black room. I made my way over to the cupboard where we keep the flashlights and first found one with dead batteries. My husband had another outside with him, but eventually I found one that worked. We are heading into a heat wave this weekend and not looking forward to more outages. There was one nice effect of living by flashlight. We set up 2 little flash lights in our bedroom and I really liked the softer light in our room. Makes me want to find lamps or light bulbs with softer light. The flashlight is such an important device. It was invented by David Misell in 1899. A bright idea!

I am ready for the next blackout

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is to start your post with the word ‘more.’

Image of the first Flashlight Patent from US Patent Office via Wikimedia.org

Each morning I check my email and read one or two newspapers online. Not every word but I skim through and pick out a few articles. The LA Times has a Coronavirus newsletter. We are stuck in place here waiting for some good news. They say it will take a couple of weeks to see if the steps taken now will slow the virus. We seem to take one step forward and two steps back. I know I am lucky to have a roof over me ,enough food, and my health so far. I have gotten very tired of washing dishes, though. I always found housework very tedious, but what am I complaining about. I am alive, I can read books, look out at my backyard and see the hummingbirds that visit the sage bushes every day, do some genealogy research, take walks with my daughter, and do online exercise. I even ordered some dumbbell weights, small ones. You’ll have to check back with me later to see how I am progressing with the exercise. I am starting with the little blue ones.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt words for today check/checque/Czech.