SoCS: Camera, Camping, Camels, and Camelot

Our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “cam.” Find a word that contains “cam” or use it as is. Enjoy!

Camera. I use my phone. There’s a camera in my closet that is frozen as in stuck. I am so not mechanical. Maybe one day, I’ll get it fixed or looked at. But my phone takes good enough photos for me – just for fun, for now. Cameras are amazing when you stop and think about it. So much of our culture depends on them, for better or for worse. Let’s keep the most beautiful, life enhancing pictures and videos.

Camping. It’s been a long time since I went camping. I miss the camp fire and the smell it leaves on my clothes. But I don’t miss the sleeping on the ground. If I ever go camping again, I’ll be sleeping on a THICK foam pad, or in a bed in a camper, or a cabin. Maybe I’ll have a camp fire in the back yard this winter.

Camel. I’d walk a mile for one in my twenties if it was the only cigarette available. Thank God I don’t smoke anymore! The camel is a symbol of sobriety, since camels can go a long time without drinking. But they can’t go forever, and they’d want water. Water is the best thing to drink as long as it’s not contaminated. We finally got a reverse osmosis filter for drinking water at our kitchen sink, because our city water is too risky. Some people call city water Gen X water which is one of the contaminants. Camels got the wise men to baby Jesus. I hope they had enough water.

Camelot! It was a song and a movie. So romantic. At least when I first saw the movie and the play. Seems like it was in high school. Now, I’m irritated at Guinevere for cheating on Arthur. But I don’t know if that really happened. But I still like the music in musicals.

I was going to try to capture the romance of the movie I watched in my youth, or the play, but alas, there is no use. Monty Python figured that out.

I trust that no animals were hurt in this silliness.

Writing this Friday evening, who knows how I’ll feel in the morning after getting my covid booster this afternoon. There’s going to be some movie watching for sure. It’s nice not to have any other plans.

Update: The nurse said effects, if any, from my 1/2 dose of vaccine which is what the booster is, would kick in after about 12 hours. It was more like 8. My immune system cranked up at 10pm last night and has been going strong since. Maybe I shouldn’t have picked staying with moderna for consistency, but at least I know I’m building immunity, or so I tell myself – chanting in my head: Immunity! Immunity! Immunity! Even if it’s not 100%. It’s a good thing. Now, I’m going back to bed.

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For more streams of consciousness, rules, and more, visit out host, Linda Hill by clicking here.

SoCS: A Lucky Pig’s Lullaby and Angel Clouds in the Sky

Here’s our prompt for today from our host, Linda Hill:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “luck.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Is there really any such thing as luck? Anything is possible. But I think more times than not, we make our own luck. Regardless of whether we have good luck or bad luck, God can help us use the situation for something good. It might take a while. Was I lucky that my high school sweetheart found me so many years later at the perfect time? I don’t think it was luck at all. I believe it was meant to happen just that way and that my hopes and prayers nudged it along. Sometimes our prayers aren’t anwered. Or maybe they are and the answer is no, or not yet. Or wait and see. I had work to do to become ready and so did he.

Maybe animals can have good luck or bad luck. I don’t know. But the animals at the sanctary where I’ve been volunteering were lucky to be rescued from factory farms or petting zoos. Tuesday, I sang to a pig named Francis. He was trying to take a nap, but I think he liked the singing.

Do you rememember this song from the movie, Babe? It’s a sweet movie about a young pig who learns how to herd sheep. Maybe some day, more pigs will get lucky.

Was it lucky to see these angels shapes in the clouds at the beach? Maybe.

I enhanced the color to make it easier to see.

Sometimes they look like birds or angels, maybe even clouds.

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For more lucky streams of consciousness, rules, and more, visit Linda at:

https://lindaghill.com/2021/08/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-14-2021/

SoCS: Angel Wings, Caladiums, Fairies, an Owl, and my Old Dog

Here’s our prompt: “the last photo you took.” Take the last photo you snapped. What’s the first word that comes to mind when you look at it? That word is your prompt. Enjoy!

The last photo I took was…. No wait. What’s the word? It’s a toss up between, Fairy, and What, as in What is the title of this piece of art that I’ve been working on for the past year and a half?

It all started when David was making a cabinet to store more canned goods at the start of COVID. He brought home the door of the cabinet, and I said, “Wait a minute! Look at those angel wings!”

Here’s one section

Unfortunately, it’s a bit heavy, but I couldn’t let it just be a cabinet door. Here are some enhancements below inspired by the wood grain. I was looking at caladiums a lot. Then the owl just showed up.

This was maybe a year ago.

Well, it’s closer to being finished. It might even be finished. I don’t know. And I don’t know what to call it. Tree fairies and friends? Caladium Angels, Fairies and Friends? Any ideas? Here’s where it is now:

What’s the first word that comes to your mind?

I didn’t plan the painting much. Some things just emerged, like my Golden Boy, Jesse who’s in heaven. Maybe he’s hanging out with fairies and owls.

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For more streams of consciousness and rules, visit our host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS July 31, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Color is in the Eye of the Beholder

Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “color/colour.” Use it as a noun, a verb, or pick a color and write about it–use it any way you like. Have fun!

I’m in the mountains this weekend visiting my son, daughter in law and granddaughter. There’s a lot going on that I can’t/wont’ go into right now, but I hope there will be some coloring in coloring books which always helps me relax.

What would the world be without color? Are there more colors that we can’t see as humans. Supposedly dogs and cats cannot see as many colors as we humans can, but what if they can see colors we can’t see? We know they can smell things we can’t smell.

I started volunteering at a farm animal sanctuary and getting to know a rooster named Leo. Leo likes to look at pictures of himself on cell phones. I’m told he can even swipe to look at different pictures. Leo didn’t swipe my phone, but he did seem interested in the picture I took of him.

Here are a few pictures from the farm/sanctuary where all animals have been rescued from factory farms or petting zoos.

Leo

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  Leo playing a game

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  Padre

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  Napping Pig

For more colorful streams of consciousness, SoCS rules, etc. visit our host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS July 24, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Hope for the Best and Trust the Timing

Linda picked my favorite word for today’s prompt: HOPE!

If you can’t find faith, look for hope. Hope will lead you to faith.

About 15 years ago, I was afraid to hope. Romance was not working out for me at all, so I tried not to want a partner. I tried to become cynical about men. I decided to focus on myself and my daughter, friendship, and of course my most loyal companions, the dogs.

But hope snuck back in. I read about manifesting, and visualizing. Of course, this was AFTER I had worked on myself some. For five years, I hadn’t dated anyone beyond a coffee shop visit. No one interesting seemed interested in me. Now, I know that was all part of the plan created by God, the Universe, my guardian angels who were tired of my dating messes and lessons. They all knew I had work to do on me first.

At the same time I was working on me, licking my wounds, and finding my footing again, my high school sweetheart and long lost first love was doing the same – working on himself. We were becoming ready.

Have you seen my wild woman photo? It was taken around that time when I was working on me. My daughter and I had gone on a trip to the mountains. I love this photo.

It was comfortably dark in the forest, and I’m resisting the urge to edit this photo.

I see that I posted it back in 2013. Well, here it is again. I thought I was lonely, but I was finding myself. My authentic self. I’m guessing this was taken around 2006, but that’s just a guess.

Well, here we are in 2021. David and I are coming up on the ten year anniversary of our second first date which was July 15, 2011. We were so nervous and excited. He says he wasn’t looking for a relationship. I told my heart to calm down! But we both knew this was extra special. In October, the company he had worked for in Connecticut for 35 years told him it was time to retire. That spring he moved in with his 3 dogs to make our five pack. In December of 2012, we made it official. I know you’ve seen that photo before. But maybe the five pack one not as often.

David and I walking the five pack.

The five pack is gone now. They’ve all crossed over the rainbow bridge in the past ten years. I miss them and hope to see them in heaven. That’s more than a hope. Do I have faith that I’ll see my dogs in heaven? Yes. God knows how important this is to me.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst if it’s likely to happen, but don’t spend a lot of time on that. It’s like with tropical storms and hurricanes. We knew Elsa would not do as much damage as a big hurricane, so we didn’t spend much time preparing. Just a little.

We can strengthen ourselves for the difficult times as we hope for the best. Like my favorite quote goes:

I hope you are well and at peace as much as you can be. Enjoy the hopes that come your way. Nurture them and they will become exactly what they are meant to be when the time is right.

For more streams of hope, visit our host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS July 10, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Ups, Downs, and Fancy Sneakers

Our Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt is: “up/down.” Use one, use them both, but try to put one in your first sentence. Bonus points if you use the other in your last sentence. Have fun!

Life is full of ups and downs. Mountains and ravines. Peaks and valleys. Slopes would be better. I’ve had enough of the rollercoasters. Gentle waves are fine if you don’t mind mixing metaphors.

You can dive under some waves. Letting them crash into you is not fun. Positioning is crucial to avoid being slammed down. Then there’s surfing which I don’t know much about. I’ve been on a surfboard but never stood up on one. My preference in the ocean is to swim beyond the breakers or to let the swells lift me to a higher perspective of lower gravity, then set me down gently on the sand.

My granddaughter has sneakers that look like they have scales. I think they are really sequins. Brush them up and they’re silvery. Brush them down, and they’re rainbow colors. Like magic! Just what we need for traveling the peaks and valleys.

But I’d rather lay down on a soft grassy slope and gaze up at the clouds.

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  Fancy sneakers

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  Hills, valleys, and clouds

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  Waiting for a lift

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For more streams of consciousness,

plus the ups, downs, ins, and outs of the SoCS rules, please visit out host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 26, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: It’s Never Too Late to Have a Happy Childhood, featuring Raggedy Ann, Flo and Eddie

The Prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “yarn.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

My mom grew up during the Great Depression. I don’t know if that contributed to her depression as an adult, but she got better after menopause. She told me that when she was a child, she had to put pieces of cardboard in her shoes to cover the holes. As an adult she had a lot of shoes.

“We don’t throw away food,” was her mantra in restaurants. I remember her wrapping leftovers in a napkin and putting the bundle in her purse to take home. Did they not have “doggie bags,” in the 60s?

One of the things my mom wanted as a child was a Raggedy Ann doll. She never got it during her childhood. One year my dad got her one for Christmas. Seems like I was about 9 years old, so that would’ve been in the 60s, too. When she opened the present containing Raggedy Ann, she cried, because she had always wanted one. Maybe she got both Raggedy Ann and Andy from my dad. They both had red yarn for hair and red and white striped legs and Ann wore an apron if I recall correctly. Maybe they had red triangular noses like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz.

Personally, I don’t see the appeal, though my mom and I both had red hair. Mine’s still reddish, blond with a little grey blended in. I’m trying to imagine wanting a doll that badly and not getting it until you were in your 40s. Maybe they were expensive, or maybe they were just that poor and the dolls were an extravagance. When I think about all the toys I had as a child and that my grand daughter has, it makes me wonder if we had/have too much. But I’m glad my mom got her Raggedy Ann doll later in life.

I only wanted a pony as a child, and did have my own horse for a while in my twenties. Horses are a lot of work, but they gave me a little stability during a crazy time of my life. Speaking of horses, my grand dog went to the dog park and met a couple of great Danes. Leilu is a husky, so she’s big, but not as big as the Danes, named Flo and Eddie, or was it Eddie and Flo? – They were named after the leaders of the old rock and roll group, The Turtles back in the 60s?

First I’m going to share some photos of Leilu, my grand dog, with Flo and Eddie who I could not tell apart, though one is bigger than the other. Leilu looks crazy because she has blue eyes and a big smile which is real, not enhanced. She just got her stitches out from being spayed, so we didn’t have to worry about any hankypanky from the boys. She lives with her two sons who are also bigger than her, but that’s another story, or maybe it’s a yarn.

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And here’s a video of the Turtles, including Flo and Eddie, from when they were on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967 singing, “Happy Together,” a song on the playlist for my wedding reception.

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For more streams, yarns and rules for Stream of Consciousness Saturday, visit:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 5, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Crocs, Gators, and a Birthday Hike

Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “roc.” We are to find a word with “roc” in it or use it as a word all by itself, and enjoy!

Crocodiles are different from alligators. We have alligators here in North Carolina. I’ve seen them at the lake and less often in the creek not far from my house. Alligators are not as aggressive as crocodiles. I have to admit that I researched the differences before starting this stream. I was curious! But I’m still writing in SoCS style and did a minimum of planning. I think that’s the rule.

I used to think there were no crocodiles in the US, but read that southern Florida is the only place where gators and crocs coexist. Crocs have pointier snouts. I guess I thought gator snouts were pointy because that’s how they look in the water. Crocs live in South America and Africa. I’m glad gators aren’t that aggressive, at least to people, but you have to be careful not to let small dogs or cats run around gator territory. Don’t want to think too much about that.

How about this sign?

WARNING: Beware of Alligators

Is that sign just weathered, or did the alligators come up and rub those letters so you couldn’t read them? Why would they do that? Why would I even imagine that? Too much imagination. Let’s move on.

Crocs are a brand of functional shoes. I love my crocs sandals with lots of cushioning. The first pair I had lasted at least two years. Then each pair afterward seemed to last less time. It helps if I don’t wear them to do yoga outside. Seems I need more and more cushioning under my old feet. No more going barefoot. Maybe that’s a good thing. My feet will be a little safer from crocs, gators, and snakes when I go on hikes to the creek or my urban forest.

On Tuesday we went on a birthday hike for my daughter’s 28th birthday to a nature preserve across the bridge in the next county. There were places where alligators might have been hiding. No crocs though. We did see a turtle. (It looked like a turtle, but there was no water nearby so maybe it was a tortoise?) We hiked lots of varied terrain – woods, fields, and swamp. Not many rocks though like up north in the mountains. Glad it was too early for the mosquitoes to be out in force. I’ve only seen a few, but it’s been very dry here lately. It won’t be long…. Anyway, here a few photos from my daughter’s birthday hike.

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  The woodsy part

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  Field trail

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  Turtle or tortoise?

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  My granddaughter talking to the turtle

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  New growth in an old stump

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  Gator Territory

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  Cypress trees

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  Doesn’t this look primordial?

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  When did my daughter get taller than me! She must be on her tiptoes.

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Today’s prompt is brought to you by our SoCS post, Linda Hill. You can find rules and more streams of consciousness by clicking the link below:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS May 22, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Balancing Growth and Rest

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt was: to use the word, “growth” any way we liked, and to have fun!

Personal growth was a big deal once upon a time. I’m still growing, but I want to enjoy life, too. If you’re enjoying yourself are you wasting time? I don’t think so.

My energy level fluctuates a lot. The only thing even close to predictable is that I tend to have more energy at night. David is a morning person. He gets sleepy at about 10 pm. That was a good thing when we had the five pack of dogs. I could let them out at night and he could let them out and feed them in the morning.

When I was a mom, I had to get up early. Same with work. But now, I’m RETIRED. I can do what I want, mostly. Naps are a wonderful treat. I’ve earned them. Paid my dues. Left to my own devices, I’d probably keep vampire hours. But I do my best to get up and have breakfast with David.

Lately, there are times in the afternoon that I can barely keep my eyes open. Maybe 7 hours of sleep is not enough. Fatigue seems to come from nowhere. My bloodwork is “normal.” I guess I could just go with the flow and be grateful. I am SO VERY GRATEFUL I don’t have to go to a job at a scheduled time. However, I do need a schedule to get me to write and do art, so I don’t watch too much TV. Usually the TV stays off until after noon. I have a yoga class at the senior center plus silver sneakers exercise classes at the gym about twice a week. There are times when I get really into yard work and overdo it.

I like doing yard work – clearing the pathways through my urban forest where things grow lush and thick in the summer. Actually, they’re pretty thick right now. Not a lot of flowers, though. The amaryllis that gets the most sun is done blooming. The others haven’t bloomed yet. The Hydrangea has more blooms coming than usual on the way and the lantana is just starting. I guess that’s what happens when you let the trees do their thing in the urban forest and make shade. The good thing about tree shade is that it keeps the house cooler.

I guess I’m missing the Thursday Tree Love post. Unless I got the day wrong. It’s normally on the the second and fourth Thursday, but I didn’t see it. I hope our host Parul is okay. She lives in India. Feel free to join me in sending good thoughts and prayers to Parul Thakur and India.

Hydrangea Blooming

My urban forest is only on about one quarter acre.

From my kitchen window

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Some of the wildlife visitors to my urban forest include hawks, geckos, squirrels, and an abundance of birds. Yesterday I saw a rabbit which surprised me because I don’t know how it got through the fence. I think the neighbor’s dog motivated it to find a way. Anyway, it was too fast for me to get more than a glimpse. Here are some old photos of backyard wildlife:

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  This hawk caught a morsel.

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  Watching Me Watching You

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  Moving on

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  Fortunately nobody got hurt.

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  Just chillin’

Challenges help us grow, but we need rest and relaxation, too.

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Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to us by Linda Hill. For more streams and rules, visit Linda’s blog:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS May 15, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Phones of Yesteryear

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is:

“…to your left.” When you sit down to write your post, look to your left. What is the thing closest to you? Write about the memories that thing induces. Enjoy!

To my left is my phone, quietly charging, waiting for the next spam call. Or something better. I’ve recently started getting spam texts. Nothing like in the old days, when we only got an unwanted call if we listed our female names in the phone book. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

When I was a teenager in the 70s, we had one phone for the whole family. It hung on the kitchen wall – a yellow phone on a yellow wall. Most of my phone calls with boyfriends, including my first boyfriend who much later became my husband, took place at the kitchen table. It allowed for some privacy if you didn’t talk too loud. I remember my phone number was 347-5359. Before that, when I was a young child, we had a black phone that sat on a table. They all had rotary dials that went, click, click, click. I vaguely remember having a party line which meant sharing a phone line with someone – you had to take turns, not just with your own family members, but with the other party.

“Is this the party to whom I am speaking?”

That’s what Lily Tomlin said as Ernestine on Saturday Night Live, right? Nope. It was Laugh In.

Look what I found when I went looking for Ernestine: It’s so random, just like SoCS.

Some people didn’t even have phones when I was a teenager. But they could use phone booths. In England, don’t they call them call boxes? Has anyone seen a real phone booth lately? Where have all the phone booths gone? They could be dangerous though. Back in the sixties, or fifties, well, in the olden days, there was a thing to see how many people, usually college students, you could squeeze into a phone booth. Then there was The Matrix phone booth scene. Is the Matrix really that old?

In the 70s, we didn’t have an answering machine, voice mail, caller ID, or any of that stuff. We just had to take our chances. If someone was already talking to someone else, we got a busy signal – buzz, buzz, buzz. No personal computers, no remote controls (not in my house anyway) and only three TV channels that went off the air around midnight most nights, at least in the early 70s. But it was better than the two tin cans with a string tied between them. That never worked for me. I found out just now watching this video that it didn’t work because I didn’t have the string tight enough. Finnovation demonstrates what type of “string” works best. Bright kids!

We’re never too old to learn. Just because something doesn’t work the first time, doesn’t mean it won’t work. Sometimes we just have to keep trying different ways.

Oh, and I finally got back in a kayak, making sure not to take my phone just to be safe. The first two photos are my son out on the lake in the mountains. The last one is a photo he took of me in my new kayak which is blue, green, and purple. These days, I take all my photos with my phone. In the 70s I never would’ve imagined taking photos with a phone that you carry in your pocket.

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For more streamy streams of consciousness, and the rules, visit out host, Linda Hill, here:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS May 8, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)