#SoCS ~ 10/16/21

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If I had a hammer 🔨 🎶. I’d hammer 🔨 in the morning. Wait! Stop ✋ the music 🎵. People are here now.

Howdy Folks! We’re back for another round of #SoCS. Today the lovely 🥰 Linda gives us the prompt of if. Specifically start your post with if. Bingo! To play along, HERE are the rules and ping back.

Hmmm. If. Think 🤔, 💭, 🧐. Not a clue 🕵️. If only. How sad 😞 if only speaks of regrets. I’ve had a few like Frank Sinatra. Doing it my way or his way or every which way but loose Tony Danza or BJ and the Bear 🐻. Wait every which way but loose is Clint ‘go ahead and make my day punk’ Eastwood. See where if has led me? To simians.

If I keep going I’m going to wonder if a monkey 🐒 chimpanzee and orangutan 🦧 are relatives. Are they all grape 🍇 apes 🦍 ? Then add gorilla 🦍 to the riddle. Oh my. But to Google or research 🧐 is cheating. Onward I press.

Grape 🍇 Ape 🦧 was intentional. That’s where my stream took me. Saturday morning cartoon in the 70s. The best. Or not. Mediocre? Looking back those cartoons were terrible and we never even knew it. Oh well, one man’s trash 🗑 as they say …

Alrighty. We’re off. Donuts 🍩 of the Halloween 🎃 themed variety are calling our name. Making the most of October. If the rain 🌧 subsides that is. Grateful 😇 for the break in the heat as well. We may just get a fall yet.

As always more to come.

Friday Book Club: J-Dub’s Review of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

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I got this book from the SAPL online library while awaiting hardback holds to come in. Since this book was only a temporary download to my Kindle, I have no notes. I double checked my common place book and also came up empty. Oh well, next time I need to remember to jot notes. Here is my review though, captured by Goodreads.

Quick and easy read. Relatable characters, southern colloquial. An easily detectable whodunnit. The good guy prevails. Recommended read for an escape.

Take a peek if you’re so inclined mi amigos and amigas.

As always, more to come.

Thursday Thoughts ~ 10/14/21

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My one day a week thinking exercise finds me all over the map. The brain synapses are firing, popping like old fashioned popcorn in hot oil. Ugh! Calgon take me away. Make the thoughts stop.

Overthinking is the bane of my existence. I need to slow my roll and take a pause. And I did just that. Yeah, I know, I surprised myself too. Let’s put a pin in this and come back here later.

I’ve been joking at lot on FB since that’s where my co-workers can see me and I know many can relate. Most recently I wrote about the conundrum that is work email. Specifically I asked Is it appropriate to start an email response with I’m truly, deeply, regrettably sorry … when what you really want to say is “Bite me!” Asking for a friend. LOL

Well back to the pin. I got some results late in the day yesterday that were less than stellar. I’ve been working my John Q hind parts off and didn’t take too kindly to the outcome. I started firing up the email cannon/missile/projectile of your choosing. Then I stopped. Closed shop. Logged off. It was well past 5 pm anyway.

Now don’t get me wrong, I can accept feedback. I spent many years auditing people. I get that the first, knee jerk reaction, is defensive. “Not me” Never me” “The dog ate my homework” Which is why I vowed to never be one of “those” people. I stewed about our rating internally, while reading my newest book, and semi watching TV with the fam. Finally, putting the thoughts out of my mind, I went to sleep and slept like the queen comma drama that I am. Sleep of the just. The righteous I think they call it. I’m kidding folks, in case anyone thinks my situation is anything other than a minor irritation. Since I haven’t used him in a while, the gecko is back. LOL

This morning I lodged my appeal with more questions than accusations. I accept the final score and didn’t try to weasel my way into a high rating. Ultimately this situation is NBD = No Big Deal. Be ready next quarter, my team of two and I will knock their socks off.

As always, more to come.

Share Your World 🌎 ~ 10/12/21

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Melanie gives us 2 x 2 today. Ready, set, go … And we’re off! 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️ 🏃

QUESTIONS (Two ‘seasonal’ and two plain today)

What is the scariest game (board or on-line) you ever may have played? Ouija. Only because I was a kid and was easily scared 😳 by the unexplained. Later I learned involuntary muscle exertion or my friend Lisa Ann moved the planchette. Sr. Teresa overheard us talking about the weekend sleepover and how the Ouija board predicted who had a crush on who. She told our parents she thought it wasn’t proper. Next thing you know, Lisa’s Ouija board was in the garbage. 😂

What’s just ‘over the rainbow” for you? Beautiful blue skies 🌌 after the rain 🌧 clears out.

Do you have to watch something upbeat after watching a suspense or horror movie so you can go to sleep? Yes but that’s why I quit watching horror movies 🎥 completely and watch suspenseful movies 🍿 with others.

Is there intent behind every action? No. Somethings are unintentional. I’m the Queen 👑 of foot in mouth disease. Spouting off with nary a thought 💭 in my head. I’ve been asked to practice the pause. Measure 📐 twice cut once. All things because I’ve acted without intent. And sometimes there’s nothing subconscious about my actions. No excuse and apologize when necessary.

GRATITUDE SECTION (as always, optional) Feel free to share some gratitude with folks today! Thanks! I’m grateful 😇 for my books 📚. The library came through and I’m learning lots about being a better human.

#SLS ~ 10/10/21

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Jim tells us, this week the theme is Heavenly Bodies, Planets, Moon, Sun, Stars suggested by King Ben’s Grandma. Oh the places we could go. I immediately thought of Children of the Sun by Billy Thorpe. I even broke my own rule of no song over 5 minutes long. My freshman year, we played this song on a loop. Later when I was at SAC and they had a contest to pick intro music for the remodeled Planetarium, my Astronomy class nominated this song. It didn’t win but it’s still a favorite to me. 

People of the Earth can you hear me?
Came a voice from the sky on that magical night
And in the colors of a thousand sunsets
They traveled through the world on a silvery light

The people of the Earth stood waiting
Watching as the ships came one by one
Setting fire to the sky as they landed
Carrying to the world Children Of The Sun

All at once came a sound from the inside
Then a beam made of light hit the ground
Everyone felt the sound of their heartbeat
Every Man - Every Woman - Every Child

They passed the limits of imagination
Through the doors - to a world - of another time
On the journey of a thousand lifetimes
With the Children Of The Sun - They started their climb

No more gravity, nothing holding them down
Floating endlessly, as their ship leaves the ground
through the walls of time - at the speed of light
Fly the crystal ships on their celestial flight
On their celestial flight.

Sunday Reflections: A Week in Review

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Good morning, beware of the clowns. The feature image is a cookie jar my grandmother once owned passed down to me in 1987. The condition is poor, otherwise I think I might get some true coin for selling it. Antique roadshow here I come. lol

Today would have been my sister-in-law’s 57th birthday. Happy heavenly b-d Barb! We should go to the Riverwalk / Navarro Street bridge for a toast to your memory. But alas it’s a school night and there’s this thing called a pandemic going on. One thing I’m glad you’re to around to see. People are different. Some are the same. But mostly different. Many if not all of us can’t help but be impacted in some way, shape, or form.

Me for example, I’m seriously triggered when I see large crowds of people back at college football games, sitting right on top of each other, not a mask in the place. They say we’ve learned more about the virus and maybe I am just not up-to-date on what is allowed these days. And I’m over the moon happy for anyone who is enjoying their favorite pastime having regained some sense of normalcy. Guess I missed the memo of mask-free is the way to be. Maybe it’s time to start living again? Though I’m doing pretty okay these days. Knock on wood.

Okay on that somewhat sour note of hope for the future, here is last week’s roll call:

Peace y’all. Until next time. Stay safe.

As always, more to come.

#SoCS ~ 10/9/21

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Ready set, go … #SoCS drum roll puhleese. Linda gives us the following prompt: Our Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “lid.” Use it in the literal sense, use it in the metaphorical sense, use it any way you’d like. Have fun! To join in the shenanigans, here are the rules and ping back.

Homework. What’s a metaphor again? Similar to a simile? Perhaps I will go with the literal sense. If someone says literally do they really mean figuratively same as someone who says to be honest as preface to something when they are really a liar, liar pants on fire? Close but no cigar. Hmmm.

Alrighty. Lid. Think, think and think … Oh yeah. Lid. I just flipped mine … maybe not because someone flipping her lid is angry right? I’m the opposite of angry though I do get hangry. When I do, Snickers can fix me right up. Or Ghost Ding Dongs with screaming filling. Limited edition too. I bought some of these delectable halloween treats yesterday because when you have a coupon for $5 off if you spend $70, you buy junk food. And wine! Though the vino is a gift.

Oh well, guess I went the metaphorical route after all. I’ve no more thoughts on what to do with lid except to maybe put a lid on this post. Until next time folks. Hope you have a wonderful week.

As always, more to come.

Friday Book Club: J-Dub’s Review of Like Wind Against Rock by Nancy Kim

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A hold from the library came in and I was able to pick up a real hardback book. I love the tactile sensations of turning pages but I miss the highlight feature of my Kindle. Instead, I old school take notes of lines that grab me. Alrighty, let’s go.

My review brought over from Goodreads: I love the familiar theme of life choices. To take chances or to settle. Is there any way to control who we love? It’s nice that there’s no ending. Let’s see how this plays out … just like Alice and Rick. It wasn’t until I was most of the way through that I realized this wasn’t non-fiction. The author being named Nancy Kim and not Alice Chang should’ve been my clue but oh well. I enjoy when lines are blurred and fiction is that realistic.

Here are a few of my notes credit to author Nancy Kim …

  • It’s a living, but is it a life?
  • Time for me doesn’t fly as much as tiptoe past, as though trying not to draw attention to itself like an early departing guest at a bad party.
  • My daughter, on the other hand, is the product of all my efforts, my hopes, and my dreams … Perhaps that is why she is a failure. When I see Alice, I see frustration, broken promises, missed opportunities. I see myself, unfinished and unfulfilled.
  • … the idea of my own son-in-law working a nine-to-five job with benefits saddens me.
  • I turn and I look at Victor. My son. Is he any less my son because we share none of the same genetic material?
  • But then it occurs to me that maybe Bertha doesn’t really want to lose weight. Maybe what she really wants is another cookie. Maybe what she really wants is for everyone else to accept her the way she is so that she can stop pretending to want to diet.
  • You have more need of time than it does of you.

Okay, guess that’s it unless I wanted to transcribe the whole book. Recommended read. Definitely two thumbs up.

As always, more to come.