Sharing My World 80

Share Your World – April 30, 2018

Do you use paper money? If so is your money organized sequentially according to denomination?

Well, sort of, in answer to both questions, although the organized part is a bit hit or miss.  A couple of weeks ago I had two five dollar bills, both folded in half and probably right side up and facing forward. If I still had them I would go and check to verify this information, because that is exactly how busy I am.

I like to have some cash on hand, especially if we’re travelling, for small things like coffee or snacks, but that’s just a long ingrained habit, because now everywhere takes cards for everything.  But if they don’t, or their machines are down, it’s good to have an emergency stash of a couple of twenties stuffed into some obscure zippered pocket of your bag so you can rummage around in a panic trying to find them, praying you didn’t use them for something already.  Also a suitcase full of paper money hidden under your floor boards would be nice.

You are comfortable doing nothing? For long stretches of time?

I am comfortable doing nothing for long stretches of time.  Yes I am.  I am also able to sit perfectly still without fidgeting.  Normally I am a very patient and calm person and don’t mind waiting.  I can be relaxed to the point of passing out.  I used to call this severe laziness, but now I’ve decided it’s more like energy efficiency.  I am conserving my power.  Fully charged and on standby.  Except not actually standing if there’s someplace to sit down.

What is your greatest strength?

I honestly don’t know.  I’m pretty ordinary.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

I appreciate the weather for finally figuring out what season we’re supposed to be experiencing, although today started out overcast and windy.  It’s not snowing.  Woohoo.  That’s something to smile about.

When the snow finally took a breather W was able to drive east to see his parents and take care of some things for them.  We haven’t communicated much for a couple of weeks but I’m assuming it’s all going well and I expect him home some time tomorrow afternoon.  Our lawns at last look to be dry enough to be raked and poked and prodded and whatever else he plans to do to them.  Apparently he has a system.  He told me that when I offered to help.  So I’m assuming he meant I should just stay out of his way.  Stirring up the grass just stirs up my allergies and I really hate yard work anyway.  I don’t even know why I offered.  Sometimes I carry this trying to be nice thing way too far.

The sun is just now coming out from behind the clouds!  All the green emerging from the greys and browns is a beautiful uplifting sight.  It IS May, after all.  Which means we have about three more weeks before we can put out our bedding plants here.  I wish I was kidding about that, or that I bothered with bedding plants, but I gave that up a long time ago because I got tired of spending money to watch things die.  Maybe that’s my greatest strength, knowing when to give up.  Ha.  Like that one made the list.  Although when you think about it, it is a concept some people can’t grasp.

Give it up.  Let it go.  End this blather.  See how easy that was?

 

Sharing My World 69

 Early morning sunshine and shadow which prompted W to ask me what the hell I’m taking a picture of now.  

Share Your World May 1, 2017

Would you rather live where it is always hot or always cold?

No.  I would rather not live in either one of those places.  I would complain about the heat and people would tell me to move somewhere not so hot.  Then I would complain about the cold and people would suggest I shut up about it or move to a warmer climate.  People are weird that way.  Not sure why they can’t figure out I just like to complain.

I would prefer to live in a temperate zone with the occasional heavy rain, cold wind, hot day, chilly evening, dense morning fog.  But mostly blue skies and sunshine with those other things thrown in to offset the boredom and make me less complacent and more apt to appreciate the fair weather.  However,  no earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.  Or tornadoes.  Or mud.  A lot of mud would be a real deal breaker.

Do you prefer long hair or short hair for yourself?

Long straight hippie hair was great when I had the face to go with it.  Medium length was great when I had the time and ambition to style it every day and turn up for work looking presentable and sort of half-assed put together.  Now hair that’s too long just drags my face down.  It’s already droopy enough on its own without help, so short and sweet is my preference these days.  I just don’t see the point in going through a lot of fussing about with it anymore.  Tell that to my high school self who spent five years of her life going to bed with rollers the size of frozen orange juice cans in her hair and then trying not to smile too much the next day because it would cause wrinkles. She probably wouldn’t laugh, but I sure am.

What is your favorite month of the year?

May is nice.  It has Mother’s Day and my birthday in it.  I’m also quite fond of July and August.  As long as there’s no volcanic eruptions or earthquakes or monsoons and the bugs leave me alone.

What is the easiest way for you to learn something new? By reading, by seeing and doing, in a classroom?

Definitely by seeing and doing.  I watched a towel folding video three times before attempting to make a bear shaped creation on my own.  I had no idea I was so dense and my towels were so incredibly stupid.  But I got it done.  That sucker is never going to be unfolded again while I live and breathe.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I’m grateful it appears to be spring-like again after all the weather shenanigans we have dealt with this April.  W did spring cleanup of the lawn for a couple of days and then we watched the snow fall for many days and many nights after that.  We became reluctant to draw the curtains in the morning never knowing whether we would be facing a lawn mower or a snow blower day.  Typical April for us really, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it or not gripe about it.

I am looking forward to finding out if my Tiger Lily bulbs will survive a brutal uprooting and transplant from the back yard to the front flower bed where nothing grows except a big wild-looking thorny thing.  It might be some kind of berry bush, I can’t remember, but it’s very hardy and persistent and refuses to die so I quite like it.    The Tiger Lily bed was annoying to manoeuvre the lawn mower around so I got rid of it.  Yep.  Does not take much to piss me off.

And that is also the reason why I have had to wean myself gently away from the daily news.  Life is just too short to spend so many hours in a day wondering why about so many things.  SO MANY BIZARRE THINGS.  Where do you even start.  And how do you stop once you get started.

The good news is, there has been a marriage in our family!  I don’t know if I’m supposed to make that announcement because it’s not my story to tell, so I’ll just leave you all hanging about the details.  Except to say I’m very happy about it, so there you go. Don’t ask me any questions.  You know what happened to that flower bed.

I found it on Facebook.  Source of all good and worthwhile stuff.

The Sixth Day of May

Yesterday on our walk home from voting in the provincial election I took this really bad phone photo of a beautiful tree covered in white blossoms. What happened to those flowers? At least you can see how green everything is. Or was. I will get to that.

Then I look a VIDEO of some yellow and red tulips. You will have to trust me when I tell you they were lovely. But they just stood there doing nothing, so the video was boring and I deleted it. Stupid phone with its little buttons.

The election results last night were surprising, to say the least, but very, very gratifying for the gazillions of people who have voted ‘other than P.C.’ for years and years with no hope in hell of changing anything. And yeah, that would include me. The Conservatives did not even make official opposition, and the NDP party has a majority. We were so over due for a change. Let’s hope it’s a good one.

Well before Christmas last year W took his truck to a guy who does body work to have his rusted fenders and things worked on. Obviously I’m fuzzy on the details. What I do know is that he was told to take his time, keep it as long as he wanted, there was no hurry to get it done. Six months later we finally have the truck back and W can stop driving my car.

This is our garage yesterday, with a big empty space on the left where the truck parks. W is out driving it somewhere. And there’s my car, barricaded behind many heavy things. It’s so wonderful to have it all to myself again.  What the hell??

And this! THIS is this morning, taken from my kitchen window, because I’m not going out in THIS. It started snowing around midnight and hasn’t stopped. Yep, we often get snow in May. It will all be gone in a day or two, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. I wonder how those tulips are doing.

And W has gone off to his appointment to get the summer tires put on his truck.

Gawd I love this place.

Missing My Mom

♥♥♥Happy Mother’s Day to all the awesome moms out there.  You know who you are.  ♥♥♥

Happy May Day

Isn’t it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fools Day and ends with cries of May Day!  (unknown)

Happy First Day of May!  It’s sunny right now, with a predicted high of 14 C!  (There’s also a little picture today of a rain cloud on my weather app, but I’m just going to ignore that.) No rain on May Day, come on.  Not nice to even think about it, weather people.

Whatever you do, don’t go saying May Day three times in a row in a distressed tone of voice over a VHF radio today.  Even if you preface it with the word Happy, chances are you’ll get a lot more attention than you were expecting for a May Day greeting.

Semantic Antics by Sol Steinmetz

This is SO my kind of handy dandy little word book.  I looked to see if mayday, or m’aidez (help me) was in it, but of course it’s not because the meaning hasn’t changed, just the spelling with the anglicization of a french phrase.

We do that a lot – mess with french phrases, or just use them as if they’re our own,  forgetting or ignoring where they came from.  Éclair, crêpe, apéritif, belle, faux pas, déjà vu,  joie de vivre, gauche,  liason, omelette, hors d’oeuvre, panache, armoire, au gratin, au jus, blasé, c’est la vie, poseur (poser), chauffeur, venue, rapport, cliché, ennui, escargot, sabotage, entrepreneur, motif, touché, voila!   See – you know a lot more french than you thought.

A word that is included in the Semantic Antics book is Mayhem, from Anglo-French maihem, and Old French mahaigne (physical injury).  It started off in the 1400’s meaning “the crime of intentionally crippling or disabling a person, as by blinding him, or cutting off a limb.”  In the 1700’s it was defined as “the violently depriving another of the use of such of his members as may render him less able in fighting.”  In the 1800’s it became “any violent behavior, especially physical assault.”  And now it’s been dumbed down completely to mean merely “rowdy disorder, confusion and chaos”  which can occur in any broadcast sporting event in the game itself,  or more likely in the pub or bar in which  it’s being watched, even though no limbs are actually lost.  As a general rule, anyway.  But all good rules have exceptions.

So, no maydays on May Day, no mayhem, no rain.  I think that’s got it covered for the don’ts.  Do get out there and enjoy the springtime or at least open up your windows and let in that fresh spring air.  Flip over your calendar with a bit of panache and some joie de vivre.  Belle May is one of the best months of the year.

Changing Traditions

What is My Most Non-Traditional Holiday Tradition?

This question has me seriously stumped. I’ve always thought of a tradition as being some practice or custom passed down through generations. Rituals of long standing. Conventions particular to beliefs which are deeply important and therefore should not be altered.

Well, big fail for me and my immediate family if there’s supposed to be some kind of continuity in how we celebrate holidays. We’re doing well if a ‘tradition’ lasts more than a couple of years in a row.

The only consistent thing I can think of that our family has ever done is to have ridiculously huge meals to celebrate occasions. Although there’s often no rhyme or reason to when or where or who gets invited.

When we were growing up we rarely celebrated Christmas or birthdays on the exact calendar day. Mom would arrange a date based on everyone’s convenience and ability to attend. (My birthday dinner was likely to happen some day or other in May. Early or late, it was no big deal, and often shared with someone else whose special day was however remotely close.)

Our Christmas dinner might just as easily be on the 20th of December as the 30th. Or maybe even the first Sunday in January if that’s when it suited people. When I met W. and discovered that his family observed their Christmas eve on the 24th of December each and every year no matter what I thought he must be joking, but he was dead serious about how it should be done.

So our kids celebrated on the exact proper day until they were off on their own and figuring out their own traditions. One of which, surprisingly enough, has become to pick a convenient day for “Christmas” (usually a few days early) so that there is more “after Christmas” time to spend with family (playing with new toys) before they have to head home and go back to work.

I’ve come to think of the random-day festivities as a tribute to my mom. So maybe our odd tradition is being basically traditionless, flying by the seat of our collective pants and making up the rules as we go along. It’s kind of fun to have a holiday looming and no set plan in place, no hundred and one things that you MUST get done by the dreaded deadline.