Free-form Friday 20190215

While my friends in Carson City and Reno were showing me their sudden snow and near blizzards, I took this out my front window. It was windy but we didn’t get the snow predicted either yesterday (except that sideways bit around midnight) or today. Forecasts yesterday for the 10-day had us under snow except for Sunday and Monday. NOW we have no snow until next Wednesday. Life is looking good!

Meanwhile, still making toys and hats and nearly finished with my brother’s first sock! I know once the weather is warmer I will be out walking. And I think the chair yoga with Adrienne and gentle chair yoga that I do with my husband should have me ready to get out there more. Then knitting will be done less often.

You know, I often get discouraged in that I expected this part of my life to be like the Jetsons. We don’t have folding flying cars. We do have robotic vacuum cleaners and video phoning. I can talk to two friends and at the same time! Even when they aren’t in the same location. I can talk to my adult children on holidays even though the roads make it impossible to visit in person. Today was one of those days when my friends and I chatted for hours.

Our newest idea? To try and communicate to each other in Spanish, even if it is only in written form. One of the friends was in Guatemala for a few years so she is far more advanced but rusty. I have blogged about learning from Duolingo. I’ve dropped all but Spanish and German. At one point I was up to Japanese, French, and High Valarian besides the other two. But I felt I wasn’t doing any of them justice. I can’t give up on either Spanish or German as I have had classes in each. The trouble is I often translate to the wrong one. Die-s and la-s and Der-s and el-s get messed up.

My goal is to keep my mind alive. If I can learn to communicate well with others in these other languages all the better. My biggest dream/nightmare is when my mind goes and I’m trying to communicate with the nursing staff I end up saying something in either or both those languages instead of English. LOL! Okay, maybe not so funny if I really need to say something important like my head hurts or I have a broken leg.

Anyway, I think I need to go to the library and pick up something about letter writing in either language. Any suggestions? Have any of you done the Duolingo or another system of language learning? How’s your weather? Is it Spring yet?

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Remember this from yesterday?

Well, there was more to that story. My husband tried to capture the picture from the door of the creature in the driveway.

This morning the creature was right across the street.

I tried not to think about it. But then as it started snowing again, and I started to take a picture of our front porch, I saw yellow.

Look who came to visit!

That same creature. What is it? You may ask. I did. I went to the door and this is who I found:

I don’t trust that innocent smile, do you? We sent him back home. Told him next time bring cookies!

Meanwhile, the snow continues icing the view.

And I continue to knit.

Believe it or not, the socks and hat are of the same yarn. Lessons in shadows and light, I suppose. Patterns for both hat and socks came with the small gauge baby KB looms.

 

Stream of Consciousness Saturday 20190209

Lightly falling,

Fluffy white,

Suddenly:

Sideways,

Crisscrossing,

Erratically

Blowing.

Blizzard?

Not quite.

End of story?

Hardly.

 

 

This Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to us by Linda G. Hill.

Festive Friday 20190208

What do you do with a Friday that didn’t work out as planned?

I couldn’t take the trip to town, Flare. Body predicting cold snowy weather. Husband and son volunteer. But snow would be coming too soon. Canceled. But need groceries. Even as we discussed what to do flurries were gathering on the banister of the porch.

Yeah, the old snow never melted so this coming week should be interesting.

DH and brother drive to little town. Get necessities which in the case of the snow that had started celebratory pizza.

While they were gone my friends and I got together over the internet and laughed and talked for hours. Friends are great!  They made me feel like this:

This evening while trying to figure out what to share here, Teddy came to visit with me.

“Mom, I’m bored.”

“Wanna play?”

“Nah.”

Then he marched off my bed to see what other mischiefs he could get into.

More snow expected over the next week. It is pretty. But worry about Kali and her outside times. Much deeper and she will disappear.

Friends, family, furballs, pizza. Who could ask for more? Snowed in? What do you do?

Mud <– Karma for A-Z

Looking at Linda G. Hill’s page today and the weather they are experiencing there, made me wonder if all this mud is Karma! We have had non-stop wind, rain, snow and the resulting mud between storms. Luckily, we live in a desert so much is just wet sand. It doesn’t get sloggy or mushy. It is easy to get around in regular shoes if you avoid the puddled mud. But with the weather changing day by day and not letting Spring take effect, I’m beginning to believe it may be Karma.

I didn’t get started on time for the official A-Z Challenge. So I just am playing along illegally. I think you can Google it to find the actual web URL of the person who starts it so–

Here’s MUD in your eye, Karma!

Lousy Illegal “L”

After my lousy poem yesterday to catch up with the illegal alphabet blogging, and lousy weather and lousy lazying around NOT walking, I have very little to say.

I have been editing my first book. Until I reached a horrid sentence and can’t seem to find a creative way around it. So instead of showing you what it is, I will sneak in this tidbit: I’m editing my first book!

I wrote Haven in the March following 9/11. Actually, I made it a NaNoWriMo as I started on the Ides of March and finished on the Ides of April. Except I didn’t finish it until November the same year  (2002) as there was a move involved and a lot of stressy things going on.

Haven started as I was riding the train on my daily commute to Irvine. During that time there were a lot of times the train wouldn’t continue on to LA. for fear of terrorists, etc. I sat there and wished, “If only there were a planet…” and that wish was strong enough to pull out my Palm Pilot and portable keyboard and started writing.

I have been told there is not enough tension in this book. But taking that wish, I was avoiding tension. These days I seek less tension as it seems everyone wants to blame each other, argue or hate each other. I think it is nearly worse than the atmosphere of 9/11. That was why I finally pulled it out and started working on it again. Then that lousy sentence! But editing is what I’ve chosen to do for CampNaNo. So…

If anyone is curious you can find the first 8 chapters here. I hope it isn’t Lousy.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas Valley

For the last couple days the wind was so strong you could be sand-blasted out there. A few minutes ago I saw no farther than the end of the driveway. By the time I got my cell phone ready it had calmed down to this:

This poor Southern California-born gal hasn’t been able to take walks for a couple days and it may be a few more before this blows over. Kali is very sad! Me, too!