Sharing My World 21

Share Your World – 2015 Week #10

When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?

I have no idea where all the flashlights are in this house, although I know W has lots of them.  Candles are more my thing.  Most of those are on the fireplace mantle along with a box of wooden matches.  We have a barbecue lighter, which I hate, because it takes for flaming ever to fire unless someone besides me is using it.  I also have cigarette lighters which I use for lighting incense sticks.  It appears I am a fan of fire.  My phone is always close by if I need to light things up in a hurry.   Despite all this preparedness, the power rarely ever goes out here during a storm.  I honestly can’t remember the last time it happened.  However, that doesn’t stop me from sitting around with the lights out.  I love candlelight.

You are given $5,000 and the chance to exchange it for one of two envelopes. One envelope contains $50,000 and one contains $500. Do you make the trade? Why or why not?

I’m no gambler.  The odds are rarely in my favor.  I went to the horse races once and was thrilled to break even.  So no, I would not make the trade.  I would grab the five grand and run.

What’s your first memory?

I don’t trust that my very early memories are really my own, rather than stories I’ve been told.  I think I remember standing up in the back seat of a car behind my dad and seeing a gigantic animal wander across the road in front of us while the rest of the passengers (mom, brother, grandparents) exclaimed excitedly about it.  Several miles down the road I apparently said “Oh my, that was a very big mouse.”  Moose, mouse, big scary creature – it was all the same to me.  My mother told me I was two years old and couldn’t possibly have a memory of that, and she’s probably right.  But standing in the backseat behind my dad is something I know I did all the time.  It was the best way to travel for a kid who got motion sickness if she sat down and couldn’t see out the windows.  There were no seat belts or booster seats way back then.  There were some really big mice wandering around on the roads though.

What do you do if you can’t sleep at night? Do you count sheep, toss and turn, or get up and try to do something?

I read.  Until my eyes burn.  But falling asleep is normally easy for me.  If there’s too much going on in my head,  I think about breathing.  Not making myself take slow, deep breaths or anything, just being aware of the breaths I am taking and nothing else.  Inhaling, exhaling, relaxing.  It’s usually the last thing I remember.

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

I’m glad W had a good visit with his parents.  And yes, I’m glad he went on his own.  I’m glad I had some me time.  Well, who am I kidding, it’s ALL me time.  I’m grateful that I survived the trip to and from the airport in rush hour traffic yesterday.  Through various stretches of construction.  Going just over the speed limit and still being passed on both sides by idiots in a big hurry to die.  This morning I went to see my doctor to have my prescriptions renewed and to discuss the results of my recent tests.  And on the way home I stopped at Michael’s for some retail therapy.

My calendar is blank for next week, except for a notation that our middle granddaughter celebrates her tenth birthday on the 18th.

They’re growing up and we’re growing old.  And I’m grateful for both of those things.

I’ve Got All the Answers

Pink Floyd in January 1968 Left to right: Mason, Barrett, Gilmour (seated), Waters and Wright (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And I don’t really give a hoot if they’re right or wrong.  I had a hard day yesterday, on my own and busy for six hours straight without a break.  Boo hoo.  At least today there will be someone there to share the misery.  And then I work Sunday as well.  There is no rest for the weary.  Or the wicked.

List three things you’ll never understand.

1.  Buttermilk

2.  Quantum Physics

3.  Chinese

I do understand WHAT number one is,  just not WHY it’s allowed to happen. Or how people can drink it without gagging and retching and dropping dead.  The other two are strictly off the top of my head in random order.  There were way too many choices to warrant thinking any harder about all the things that confuse the hell out of me.

Describe the best view you’ve seen from a rooftop.

Another brain wracking moment while I try to remember the last time I was actually physically on a rooftop.  With my eyes open.  I think I was eight and had climbed out of an upstairs hallway window onto the veranda roof on my brother’s dare.  It wasn’t much of a slope or a great drop to the ground, but scared me silly anyway. The view would have been of the front lawn and the maple trees down the laneway and a field of corn under blue skies and sunshine.  I should have taken a picture.  But that would have involved letting go of the window frame with at least one hand.

What’s your favourite fried food indulgence? 

 W makes the best deep-fried ‘fish in batter’ on this planet.  I don’t ever want to learn his methods or his secret recipe because frankly it looks like a lot of work.  Especially the part where you have to catch fresh walleye first.  There’s nothing like it.  He can have (and truly deserves) all the glory.

What book is next on your ‘to read’ list? 

Odd Jobs, by Ben Lieberman.  It’s been so long since I downloaded it to my Kindle that all I can say about it at this point is that it’s one of those .99 cent specials and it’s a mystery.  In more ways than one.  If it’s great, you will be hearing more.

Name your favourite rock album of all time. 

Of ALL TIME?  I’m not going to live that long.  But anything by Pink Floyd and Queen will make the short list.

Describe your earliest memories. 

It’s difficult (maybe impossible) to know if some of the things you think you remember (from a time when you were probably too young to keep them in your head), may after all simply be images you’ve dreamed up from the stories you’ve been told.  So the memory may not be your own at all.  I’ll share one of mine anyway.

We were riding in a car on a narrow road with dense bush on either side.  Dad was driving and I was standing behind him, peering over his shoulder from the back seat.  Mom says I was not yet three.  A huge brown animal that looked sort of like a cow crossed the road in front of us and the car slowed down to a crawl to let him pass.  My mom and my grandma and whoever else was in the car were gasping and exclaiming and pointing.  “Look at the moose!  Look at the moose!”  A mile or so down the road when everyone had calmed down, I made my own observation, somewhat after the fact.  “My, that was a big mouse!”  It was astonishing to me that a tiny little mouse could grow up to be such a great size.  It was one of those moments when all the grown ups laugh and you have no idea what’s so funny.