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)

SoCS: A Year of Challenge and Hope for Healing

Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “day/week/month/year.” Linda also invites us to write about the past year of pandemic, “how we have coped or not, to share our common experiences as a way to connect, to feel a little less alone.”

As a citizen of the United States, these past 12 months have been heavy, not just due to the pandemic, but also with the political divide and the racial injustice of the murders of George Floyd, Breaonna Taylor and others. It has been strange and confusing to have stay at home orders, masks and social distancing recommendations along with protests and demonstrations.

My hope is that with the pandemic calming down and someone less inflammatory at the helm, we can move into healing. It’s going to take a lot of work. A lot of compassion, listening, compromise, and seeking common ground… or higher ground.

I find myself feeling tired as I write this. There are bursts of energy when things get done, but maybe it’s a tired that comes with age. Still, my personal life has not been bad. I’m the oldest one in my family – my parents and siblings are deceased. Even Aunt Ruth in Wisconsin crossed over last year after a full life into her 90s. I am thankful not to have to worry about my parents anymore and feel for those who do. I am thankful to have the luxury of time and the freedom to study my father’s letters from Vietnam, and to write and paint.

Staying at home doesn’t bother me, except that I have not seen my granddaughter, son and daughter in law since October. I miss the mountains. It was in October that I last visited the mountains and first brought mama cat home from the church. She has kept me company when David is at his woodshop, and she has become much less feral.

Mama Cat has a plate of food.
She wants attention while I’m trying to write.

Having a cat has been a big change after being a dog person for so long. The pandemic and people not being at church much was one of two factors that led me to bringing her home. The other factor was the abduction of her daughter, Gray, in June. I still go to the church once per week to see if Gray has shone up, but I don’t think this is likely. I talk to Saint Francis and pray my hopes and thanksgivings.

St. Francis with last year’s hydrangeas

Not going to church and choir practice is probably the biggest change in my personal life. We do zoom church and I’ve sung and played a little guitar for that, because music is my favorite part of church. My voice is way out of shape when it comes to singing anything challenging. My friend Anne, who is in her 80s and teaches singing, is helping me with that. I’m thankful to have had both vaccines, in spite of the side effects, I’m glad to have a little more confidence if I do want to go out. I’ll still wear a mask and avoid crowds.

Hopefully we won’t have as much to protest or demonstrate for or against for a while. Maybe things will calm down and justice will grow. Maybe we humans will wake up, bridge the divides, and focus on healing Mother Earth as we celebrate diversity in all it’s beauty and strength.

…

Thank you to our host, Linda Hill for the consistency of SoCS through the year.

For SoCS rules and more streams, visit:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 13, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Buttercups!

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt is “butter.”

We are not going to write about, wait, who’s we? Me and the cat? She’s not interested in writing. She just wants to cuddle since she hid most of the day yesterday in the bedroom where maybe she was trapped. I don’t know. But I don’t want to write about the first thing that popped into my head, the butter in the refrigerator and object of my cheating in my endeavors to be vegan for lent. I’d rather write about the second thing that popped into my head:

Buttercup!

Photo of buttercups my daughter, Ayla, took in the mountains

Then, I thought of Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride and found this commentary about how she is not just a typical, helpless, fairy tale princess. She is not in love with the prince. She loves to ride her horse. It made me like her more. I didn’t realize until recently that the same woman who played Princess Buttercup, played Jenny in Forest Gump. Back to the commentary.

Horses and freedom. My horse phase was more than a phase. I actually had my own horse in my twenties. I miss horses. And the beach. But there’s no reason I know of that we can’t go back to the things we love in some way or other – if it’s meant to be, we will find a way. Trust the Timing.

Spring is coming. With buttercups!

That was way more fun that writing about my awful side effects from Moderna 1 and 2. But that is over and done with, and I’m very glad. I survived, and I’m thankful for my strong immune reaction.

Buttercups! Daisies! Roses! Orchids!

Check out the orchids and other flowers blooming in time lapse from Nat Geo! They even have fairy tale like music to go with the images of Princess Bride riding her horse. That’s my stream of consciousness for this Saturday.

But wait!

I forgot all about sharing that commercial where they sing the buttercup song. Can I have three videos in one post? Let’s see! I’m not promoting the product. I just love TV commercials that use old songs like this. I’d totally be singing with her if I was in the store. It doesn’t matter that the lyrics are sorta sad. It’s got a good beat and it’s easy to sing to.

For more on Stream of Consciousness Saturday, like rules and stuff, visit our host, Linda Hill at the link below!

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 6, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

The Road to Rivendell

Today’s SoCS prompt is to use a word ending in sty. First I thought of the word, fantasy, but that doesn’t work. I had to look up words that end in sty. The first one I liked was, “misty.” That lead me to the Misty Mountains and this story….

What have I gotten myself into? Elya wondered if she should just go back the way she came. But she couldn’t take another day, another night, at the Prancing Pony. She was too old to be working in a pub. If only her husband Dane were still alive, she would never have had to take that job. Her horse seemed to keep plodding along as if knowing something better lay ahead.

Elya had heard stories about a beautiful place called Rivendell. It was east of Bree, somewhere near the misty mountains. It sounded magical, a place with elves. She knew she never really belonged in Bree. If they really knew her mind, they would think her a witch. But she was just different. Swallowing with nothing to swallow, she let her horse lead the way. She had come to trust her beast and companion over the years. Would there be monsters along the road? Would they be there by nightfall? She nudged her friend further.

As darkness fell, she fought back the panic and found a place off the main road, almost a hideaway, under a willow tree for them to stop for the night. She ate the last of her bread and found cool water from a stream, then hummed quietly to herself needing to sleep, but too afraid. Somehow she drifted off.

The sunlight woke her and she gave thanks that she had not perished at some strange sword. She had kept the knife close and was glad she didn’t need it. Onward they went, eastward until they found a path off the road late in the afternoon. She didn’t know why she took it, something told her it was the way. After a time, a view opened up. The misty mountains were to her right. The air smelled different. The path had seemed to disappear, but there was something, a beam of light, directing her left. Just north of the mountains, the path became more twisty with rises and falls. She could barely see a path.

Elya dismounted and walked leading her horse. The sun was behind her now. She stumbled, then stood and took a breath. Light shown through the trees ahead. A few more steps, then she saw it, bathed in golden light. Rivendell! It had to be! Below her was a stream, and across the stream, paths that led up the hills to the beautiful castle doorways set among the waterfalls.

Would they accept her? Would they understand how much she longed to belong in a place of beauty and peace? She patted her horse and headed down to cross the stream.

~~~

You’ve probably heard “Misty Mountains Cold” droned by the dwarves in The Hobbit. Here’s an instrumental version on an ocarina:

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For more info on Stream of Consciousness Saturday, visit our host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 27, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Nerves ~ Correlation is not Cause ~ Peace ~ Dreams ~ and the Wizard of Oz

The prompt: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “nerve.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

The first thing that popped into my head was the expression, “You’re about to get on my last nerve.” It isn’t exactly logical, but it’s fun to say. One thing that gets on my nerves, is when someone posts something that suggests a correlation is a cause, like the meme I just saw that had a photo of gas prices in November and gas prices in January with the heading/comment: “Biden’s America.”

To my credit, I did not try to engage in debate, but neither did I pass it by and ignore it, which is sometimes the best thing to do. Here’s my comment:

“In statistics class, we learned that correlation does not necessarily mean cause. There are likely other variables/factors to be considered.”

I do not need to engage in any further discussion that would irritate my nerves. This is why I try not to scroll on FB. I actually want to reduce my time on FB, but every now and then, these things come up. Then I was happy to be able to like and love some photos of her grand daughter.

I’m in training. Besides having a personal (exercise) trainer, I am in training to “practice peace that overpowers darkness.” I know that sounds somewhat presumptuous, but it is practice. I don’t always get it right, especially when things get on my nerves. This idea for peace training comes from the February 11 reading from the daily meditation book, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. I certainly can’t do this practice on my own. But if I connect with the guidance and strength of Jesus and my Creator, I can do my part.

“Nerve” can be used in so many ways: nervous energy, nerves of steel, a bundle of nerves, “You’ve got a lot of nerve!” Then there’s the nerve cells I learned about in college with axons, dendrites, synapses, and all that fading knowledge that I don’t use much, though it could be helpful in cellular imagery for the purpose of meditative healings…..

Where was I going with this? There was something I didn’t want to forget. Oh, in college – The Psychology of Consciousness, all those years ago, was my favorite class. I do recall the dominant theory of dreams being that our sleeping dreams are created by random nerve cells firing while we sleep. But what part of us assigns meaning? And what meanings that mean something important? Though maybe sometimes, they are just random, like the stream of consciousness. But is it really random? There is also a not so dominant theory that when we have a deja vu, we are experiencing something we dreamed since we dream so much that we don’t remember. I mentioned this in my college class. The professor was not impressed. But hey, anything is possible.

The “cowardly lion” in the Wizard of Oz, didn’t believe he had much nerve. But he really did. Or at least he found it.

And Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn’t already have.

I love this song and the mellow sound.

~~~

For more on the Saturday Stream of Consciousness,

visit out host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 20, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: On Being a Night Owl, Listening Skills, Dogs in Heaven, and Making Christmas Last

Here’s the prompt:

“Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “first thing.” Start your post with the words, “first thing” and go from there. Bonus points if you end your post with the last thing. Have fun!“

First thing in the morning…. it would be nice if I said I pray before I get out of bed. But I don’t usually. It would be a nice habit. To be honest, the first thing I do in the morning before I get out of bed is hit the snooze. I am not a morning person. I am a night owl. The husband is a morning person. Good for him. Lately, I have started listening to music on Youtube to help me wake up – James Taylor is my favorite, but yesterday, I listened to a Ted Talk. I have to find a good Ted Talk, and one might wonder that if I’m going to go to all that trouble to scroll and find a Ted Talk, I might as well get up. But I’m a night owl. Listening to a Ted Talk helps even if I drift off a little.

First thing we need to learn is how to listen to each other to understand. I’m thinking about the political divide problem. But some people are good at listening and need to be more assertive which means being honest with RESPECT. If someone talks a lot, goes on and on, like one of my old boyfriends used to do, I cannot hold that many ideas in my head to be able to process. It can be overwhelming.

That’s why, when I was working on bringing my soulmate to me, I made up a song to the tune of Janis Joplin’s song about “Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV.” I changed the words to, “Oh Lord, won’t you find me, a man who can listen.” David is a good listener when I need to talk about something important. When it’s a more mundane thing about household chores, well that’s another thing. But nobody’s perfect.

First thing I want to see when I get to heaven is my dogs, especially the dog I wrote about yesterday. I’m sorry Jesus. Maybe the dogs should come after Jesus. Yeah, unless Jesus is busy and wants to let me get settled in at the cabin in the woods with the dogs.

First thing to do when we have a list of things to do might be the most important thing unless it’s something really hard and you have to break it down into small steps and maybe it would be okay to do something easy on your list so you can check something off.

My Christmas tree is still up. Don’t laugh, sometimes I’ve left it up into February because I love Christmas lights. I took down the lights outside except the ones on the fence, because they are pretty, and things look so bare when the Christmas stuff is down. I took the decorations off the tree and put them in a box. It still has the colored lights, because they are attached. I took down the Christmas cards. This is actually good for me to have this stuff done before MLK day. Taking down the Christmas tree and getting it up in the attic this weekend will be the last thing. But there’s usually something that I have forgotten to put in the attic in which case, that will be the last thing.

Oh, yeah, let’s have cats in heaven, too.

…

For more streams of consciousness and Just Jot Januarys, visit our host, Linda Hill at:

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 16th | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: With all the Infinite Possibilities, Choose Wisely

Our prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “sky’s the limit.” Write about something that has or seems to have no end. Enjoy!

Doesn’t everything have an end? Or maybe nothing has an end, it’s just transformed. There’s a law in physics that goes like, matter/energy can not be created or destroyed. That has stuck with me ever since I heard it in high school. This law suggests something about life after death. Our spirits have no end, in my belief, they may transform in the type of energy that goes on while our bodies decompose. Isn’t that cheerful?

Possibilities never end. Choices never end. There will always be choices for somebody, some being, even if the choices are made by amoebas or angels. Some organism or entity will exist in some form. But this is a bit esoteric. No, that’s not the word. But I do like how it sounds. Abstract maybe. Let’s move on.

“Infinite possibilities” is something that caught my attention in the following video offered by North Carolina representative Graig Meyer in responding to the attack on the capitol. I watched it Friday morning and was impressed by his sense of hope in how to respond to the craziness. I suppose if I watched it again to comment further, that would cross the line on minimum planning. If you’re interested in the question of how to respond and healing, you could visit my post from yesterday as well.

One of the main things I’m feeling right now is frustration at people who reinforce the divide. I have to look at myself though and notice if I ever do this. The goal is to bridge the divide. Don’t pour fuel on the fire. Put water on the fire. Water seems to have no end when you’re standing at the edge of the ocean, but you know what? Water is finite. Use it wisely. We need to use our words wisely. With all the infinite possibilities of word combinations, we need words of hope, peace, and cooperation.

…

PS. Okay, I went back and watched the video again after I finished writing this post, and I recognize he’s addressing North Carolina democrats directly. If you’re not a NC Dem, I hope you can overlook that part and glean something good from his message. I don’t think we need to get everybody to agree, we need to learn to disagree with respect, compromise, and find common ground.

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

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 9th | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: Time Out, Petting the Cat, ASMR, and Shoe Size

The prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in the corner.” Write about whatever the image or thought of “in the corner” brings to mind. Have fun!

Interesting prompt. I might just try #JusJoJan this year, too. No promises. If I miss a day, I won’t put myself in the corner. I don’t recall being sent to the corner as a child. There was usually furniture in the corner. But I was sent to “sit in the chair” for a time out. It was not a bad chair, just a normal chair. Now, I wouldn’t mind that at all – taking a time out in the chair.

There’s a comfortable chair in Mama Cat’s room which is a smallish room with a cubby and a window seat made from a pillow and blankets. She has a lot of blankets. A couple of days ago, I sat in the chair in Mama Cat’s room and she hopped up on my lap as she has started to do over the past month. I sat there in the late afternoon, or maybe it was evening, I don’t recall, stroking her soft fur as she fell asleep, and I almost fell asleep. Petting Mama Cat put me in a sort of trance. I can feel the brain waves changing if someone rubs my head or an ASMR thing – the tingle, which I find fascinating and easier to get to the more it happens. You can read more about ASMR here. I can imagine how it could be addicting. But on a brighter note, I’ve read that cat purrs can be healing like meditation.

“Stop playing with that thing and pet me.”

But I can’t spend too much time there in the chair petting the cat. I need to get some energy. There’s that thing about inertia.

My main goal for 2021 is to improve my health. It’s not bad, but I fear I’ve gained some weight and feel tired more than I want to, so I’m going to be exploring joining a gym or/and other ways to increase my exercise, like walking and hiking more regularly. That will involve getting some better shoes.

Here’s a question for my older followers. No, more mature followers might sound better. Wise and experienced readers…. or anyone who might know. Has your shoe size gone up over the years? I think my feet might be feeling uncomfortable because I need to go up to a 8 and a half. Maybe even a 9? I haven’t changed shoe size in a lot of years, so maybe that’s it. Seems like I wore a seven in my 20s. That would be better than going to a foot doctor. Anything to keep me from getting totally hooked on sitting in the chair and petting the cat… or TV, but let’s not go there. I can always do some yoga stretches while watching TV.

SoCS and Just Jot January are hosted by Linda G. Hill. You can read all about it at:

Stream of Consciousness Saturday | (lindaghill.com)

Happy New Year!

SoCS: Saving Boxes, Watching the Sky, and Feeling the Thrill of Hope

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is, “box.” Short and simple with all kinds of possibilities. Even though I’m more of a circle person and like to think outside the box, I do like boxes that are sturdy or pretty. Maybe you could say I collect boxes, though I do break some down and put them in the recycle bin. Cereal boxes get recycled, ordinary cardboard boxes get broken down and recycled, but if a box is sturdy or pretty, it’s a keeper. Because I might be able to use it for something. I take pride in putting boxes inside boxes to store them in the attic.

My favorite boxes are Christmas card boxes that are both pretty and sturdy. Like this year’s edition bought last year:

And this box from a few years ago:

They contain Christmas cards leftover that I hope to send one year.

Box. There used to be a question years ago, routinely asked in guessing games like 21 questions.

“Is it bigger than a bread box?”

Do people still use bread boxes? We had one when I was a kid. It was yellow and seemed to have some metal on it with a pull down door. Seems like it was big enough to fit about two or three loaves if you stacked them. Now, I put my bread in the refrigerator. Cause ants. Many years ago when I lived in an old house downtown, we had mice that climbed on top of the refrigerator and burrowed a hole into the bread that was on top of the refrigerator. Though we don’t live downtown anymore, I still put my bread INSIDE the refrigerator.

But what I really want to talk about, or write about to be accurate, is seeing the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. Dec. 21st was the big day to see it, but sunset came so fast and we missed it. Instead we went downtown on Dec. 22 to the riverwalk at sunset as directed and looked to the west/southwest. We didn’t see it right away, and I worried that we had missed it, but David saw it as the sky moved into twilight. Seeing the conjunction excited me and feels like the highlight of my year, even though the year is not over. It is a sign of hope. The timing with the winter solstice, Christmas, and the holy days, tells us that… I don’t know what it tells us. What I know is that I felt the thrill of hope.

You can learn more about the conjunction of 2020 and see the rings of Saturn here among other places. What I saw was Jupiter with a second light of Saturn right next to it as the sky got darker. I don’t know if you can see that in my photos, but here they are.

You can barely see it in the upper right.

And here, just right of center.

Here, the conjunction is reflected by the river.

Have you ever felt the thrill of hope? Remember that feeling!

The Nativity Story is my favorite film about Jesus’ birth.

May the holy days carry us through

to a new and better year.

For more streams of Consciousness, rules and suggestions, visit our SoCS host, Linda Hill, at

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 26/2020 | (lindaghill.com)

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SoCS: Magnets, Manifesting, and the Star

Today’s prompt is the word, “magnet.” We get to use it any way we want and of course, enjoy!

Magnet reminds me of, magi, as in the three magi who saw the star over Bethlehem. One reason this came to mind is that I’m excited and hopeful about the great conjunction happening over the next few days. Saturn and Jupiter are going to be aligned in such a way that they look like a very bright star. This hasn’t happened in a long time like (okay I had to peek) not since the year 1226. It’s kinda the same thing that happened at the time of the star of Bethlehem. I’ve written about this before and refer to the documentary The Star. I wonder if that will pop up as a related post. We’ll see….

The upcoming conjunction is going to be visible from all over the world. I think that’s what the article said. You can read more about it, here. In the northern hemisphere, Dec. 21st is the easiest day to see it (in a clear sky) in the west near the horizon at twilight.

December 21 is the anniversary of my deceased parents. I’ve been writing about them in my family history maybe a novel some day, Betty and Jim. Takes me back to my childhood. Remember those games where you put hair or a mustache on the bald guy using a magnet? What was that called?

Wooly Willy! Really? I don’t remember the name, just giving him hair with the magnet.

Magnets. The possibilities are endless. They seem like magic. The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter might seem like there’s something pulling them together, but it’s really a matter of timing and position. Timing. Trust it. Focusing on what we want, good thoughts, are like magnets, drawing things to us. If those things are meant to be ours. So, we need to catch ourselves when we are thinking negative thoughts. Sometimes I catch myself worrying or imagining something I DON’T want and say, “Stop it!” Then I have to go back and imagine what I DO want. It’s surprising how often this happens.

Imagining a compatible partner drew him to me like a magnet. But not until the time was right and we were ready.

Imagine what you want for the year ahead. Health. Peace. Traveling safely. Having fun painting and writing. Joyful relationships….. Draw these to you like a magnet.

I also thought about this song when I saw the prompt: “Magnet and Steel”

I wish there was a Christmas song about a magnet. I bet someone somewhere got a Wooly Willy for Christmas once upon a time.

Here’s one of my favorite Christmas song about a star by the lively and impressive Angel City Chorale:

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

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 19/2020 | (lindaghill.com)