Category Archives: Uncategorized

Nearly Midnight, and a New Task from Cee!!!

Well, here is a new question prompt from Cee (Just received.  Does this lady ever sleep?) and if you’d like to play along, please post your answers to these questions both on my blog and here.

Would you prefer snowy winters, or not, and why? I have paid my snow dues and now prefer iceless windows, skidless walks and un-frost-nipped nose. The beach for me in winter, please.

So, you’re on your way out and it’s raining. Do you know where your umbrella is or do you frantically search for it all over your apartment/house? I know exactly where my umbrellas are but I will probably not take them with me, but instead will make a mad dash for the car, trying to avoid jumping dogs and raised stones on the terrace. The fact that one is handle-less, one is missing connection to two of the spines and another is too big to fit through any door without going sideways, which sort of defeats its purpose, is coincidental. All of my good umbrellas that I can actually use now reside in undisclosed restaurants, movie theaters and other places where I have left them.

Do you prefer your food separated or mixed together? I like it mixed together. A little bit of each in each bite.

What is set as the background on your computer? Predictably, a scene of gentle ocean over white sand.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? I am grateful for the talents of my writing group and being able to hear their varied and interesting works and to have them appreciatively listen to my work, as well. I am thankful for a two-hour swim in the perfectly clear waters of Tenacatita Beach and the company of two fascinating women, both of whom have had lives filled with adventure and who are both wonderful story-tellers. If one of those tales caused me to increase the salt content of the ocean surrounding me, well, so is life. The sad tales make the happier ones all the happier by contrast. In the week coming up, I look forward to beach bonfires and fireworks on the beach New Year’s Eve, more talks and walks and swims with new friends, another trip to Tenacatita before I return home on January 15 and hopes that I’ll meet last year’s resolution to get my book formatted this year, before I return home. Happy New Year to all.

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge

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I think it is obvious why this picture naturally fell into the oddball category. I didn’t crop, wanting you to know I had the good sense not to be in the same room with this cranky old codger, who was 1500 miles away as he serenaded me.

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I don’t know why I find this picture oddball. Perhaps it is the “Mickey Mouse ears” on the little girl that are really the heads of two boys in the water, or the contrast of all the bobbing heads with the one boy stretched as far out of the water trying to catch the ball that was thrown by whom? Perhaps it just happened to be flying by like the pelicans that are above and out of view.

 

http://ceenphotography.com/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge/

Post Christmas: Falling to Hell in a Hand Basket by Kim Scaravelli (Reblog)

 I found this blog post so hilarious I just had to reblog it.  I’ve put a link to Kim’s blog at the bottom.  I recommend you read her past posts and then hit the “follow” button so you don’t miss out on any of her future posts.

2014-12-28 15.18.17To quote my sweet little old granny, I have “fallen to hell in a hand basket” since December 25th. I have been wearing my Roots sweatpants for three consecutive days.  I no longer even entertain the pretense that I might eat a non-candied fruit or a vegetable NOT deep-fried and/or dipped in ranch dressing. There are candy wrappers on my bedside night stand and I’m dropping Baileys in my morning coffee (don’t judge me!). December 18th was the last day I walked further than the distance from my front door to my car. My belly button now looks up at me when I sit and my muffin top has morphed into a full-sized Bundt cake. The cellulite dimples on my ass resemble a dot-to-dot activity page from a kid’s colouring book and I’m pretty sure that if I could reach them with a pen, they could be joined into the image of Santa’s village, complete with sleigh and reindeer.

During the past few days, I have read nothing but Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Girl and a slew of trashy magazines pulled from Christmas stockings. As a result, my vocabulary has expanded to include over a dozen new ways to say ‘vagina’ and I have a newfound understanding of the mating rituals of boy-band members, Family Channel stars, and the Kardashians. Sadly, I no longer know what’s going on in Syria (although who really does?), why oil prices are dropping, or what my voting inclinations might be in the next federal election. Oh well…

It’s Post-Christmas; a surreal netherland vaguely linking the manic shopping and visiting and partying madness of December 1-25 with the disciplined repenting of January. Come New Year I will strap myself to a stair climber and press pause only to eat carrot sticks and dry quinoa. While scaling those endless steps to lean perfection, I will make a plan to pay off my VISA and my line of credit and catch up on 20+ years of unused RRSP contribution limits. 2015 will be the year when I finally clean out the basement rec room… and my bedroom closet… and the backyard shed! I will be better, faster, stronger than ever before!!! But that’s still a few days from now…

Perhaps I should start with baby steps; tiny progressive movements towards adult behaviour and appropriate hygiene.  I will focus on an attainable goal that doesn’t require too much mental or physical exertion… I will shave my legs!  Yes.  This seems like a very good idea.  After all, there are still sort-of-social things happening.  While I cannot imagine ever again donning pantyhose, history tells me that such things sometimes occur on New Year’s Eve.  I should make a pre-emptive move and mow down the kneecap-to-ankle forest before it becomes a situation requiring input from professionals!  I will begin with a soak in the tub…

Nothing like soaking in the tub with a nice glass of wine… and another selection from the trashy magazine mountain under the Christmas tree.   I think I will skip the whole leg-shaving thing in favour of a bit more wine (educational note to readers: always bring the bottle into the bathroom!).  After all, I’m putting on my Christmas jammies when I get out of the tub, so what’s the point really?

http://stuffmydogtaughtme.com/2014/12/28/post-christmas-laziness/comment-page-1/#comment-678

Good News

Just received this news that photos I submitted were chosen to be featured in Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge.  There is a link below:

Hi Judy,
Congratulations! I have selected this post to be featured on Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge.
http://ceenphotography.com/2014/12/28/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-week-43/
I hope you have a great week.

Last night’s incredible sunset and moon

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Warmth

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For other photos reflecting warmth, go here.

Thank you all!

I’d like to thank everyone who read my blog yesterday and many who read more than one of the postings I made.  The result was that I had my best day ever for my blog, with 307 viewings!  I must say you about gave my blog editor/co-administrator, Duckie, a heart attack as the minutes ticked away toward midnight and we were 9 views away (from 300), then seven, then frozen at six down.  Then, at the last minute, some blog angel read a whole slew of posts and we were over the hump and still going up!  It is very exciting to break a record and I think I broke my old one by 49 viewings.  All of this was due to you and I want you to know that I know you have a plethora of blogs to choose between and I am most grateful when you include mine in your list.

xo—Judy (And I bet Duckie is quacking still. See his blog here.)

Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge 42

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Is it just me, or do the upside-down shoes look sorta angry and threatening? I think these shoes could give a toddler a complex.

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Yes, you are correct. This sign in Spanish is telling us not to molest the crocodiles! I trust on the other side was a sign telling the crocodiles not to molest us! For the rest of the story, go here.

http://ceenphotography.com/2014/12/21/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-week-42/

Book of Love

The Prompt: Final Trio—For our final trio prompt of the year, write about any topic you wish, but make sure your post features a bookcase, something cracked, and a song you love.

“Book of Love”

When I came into the room
the bookcase, too heavily laden by far
had tipped and spilled our picture to the floor.

Its glass gathered with a broom,
the torn remains of us is saved here in a jar
I have neatly filed between fantasy and lore.

The Sweet and Bitter Lie

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This is one of 15 creches I’ve constructed of unaltered natural items I’ve found on the beach. For some reason, I am captivated by the gentle side of Mexico best symbolized by her obsession with the Virgin of Guadalupe. I’ve seen motorcycle leathers with an image of Guadalupe on the back! I’ll publish pictures of the others soon. I know. A seeming contradiction to the words I’ve posted below, but perhaps one or the other view is just a sweet little lie!

The Prompt: Sweet Little Lies—As kids, we’re told, time and again, that lying is wrong. Do you believe that’s always true? In your book, are there any exceptions?

The Sweet and Bitter Lie

I think the sweetest little lie we tell ourselves and our children is that of a beneficent and caring God. This belief and the religion that stems from it  is our way of comforting ourselves. It is totally aside from reason. How else could we look at a baby turtle struggling to swim for the first time plucked up and swallowed by a hungry pelican, or a baby suffering with cancer or a horribly deformed child and think, “This is the product of a caring Father?” We all must conclude, if we make use of our senses at all, that nature is impartial and serves only its own cycle. There is no kindness in nature, other than her beauties and comforts; but even they all serve a purpose: to survive against all odds, and to kill or at the very least to depend upon the death of other organisms in order to do so.

I do acknowledge that Religion is probably necessary for many who do not think far enough to recognize the sweet lie. For those who use it to create more compassion for others, I applaud the end. But right now it seems as though religion is being used more as a weapon and political ploy than for the “good” side of its coin.

I don’t know how I align my agnosticism with my belief that there is some sort of incredible synchronicity going on in the world. This is a topic for another day, I guess.

For other posts on this topic, go here: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/sweet-little-lies/