Month: July 2023

#MondayThoughts: Better is better.

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It’s sunny today with a hint of a haze which is apparently not pollution. Or not much pollution. Just a touch of pollution.

So that’s good?

I am actively trying to drink more water which seems to have helped with my pain overall. Who knew? So have the senior/beginner workouts, and the touch of yoga I’ve been throwing in.

I’m still nowhere near where I was or where I want to be but better is better.

Which is what I tell myself each time I try to push my range of motion just a little bit further.

It’s hard to believe we’re at the end of July, nearly at the downward slope of the year. I really don’t know how that happened. It’s been a blur. Not an entirely good one.

But maybe blurring a lot of the bad is good thing. Nature’s soft lens.

So…one of those disguised plusses? Maybe?

Anyway that’s it for me today. Have a stupendous Monday if at all possible.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#FridayThoughts: Which is which is for you to decide.

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It’s gray and it’s going to be hot today, and likely very humid. It can be dangerous when it’s like this, because sweat can’t evaporate. Always better to be in a cool place, if you can.

I am running the air. I don’t like to run it, but also I don’t like heat exhaustion or heat stroke so it’s a balancing game.

Supposedly it will reach 105 F (40.5 C), though it’s much cooler than that right now. Not exactly an ideal temperature for outdoor activities anyway.

We’re here at Friday, and I’m finally making some progress with my hips and back. Well, mostly my hips now. I also got a memory foam pad to put on my sofa, and it really seems to be helping.

Solution by solution.

It’s not easy to work through things, whatever they may be, when they try to hold you in place, when they are designed to hold you in place. But one thing is always more uncomfortable than the other.

Which is which is for you to decide.

Anyway, that’s it for me this week. Have a terrific Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#ThursdayThoughts #ThursdayTen ten word photo prompt: Direction.

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Photo by Ali Pazani on Pexels.com (Image of woman in a dark room using a holographic control panel of circles. She’s wearing a shirt that reads “I’m allergic to basic,” and a heavy pinkish mineral necklace.)

It’s THURSDAY!! And that, my friends, means it’s time for our #ThursdayTen!!

I’m trying to include some alt text, I can’t promise to always remember and I’ll try to get get better at it, but the whole idea is for everyone to be able to play.

So how do we do that?

Using the image above as a prompt, write a ten word story.

EXACTLY ten words.

We can do that, right? Eventually?

With me? GREAT!

Ready?

Here’s mine:

Identity revealed, nowhere to hide, she set course for home.

#WednesdayWisdom: Begin again.

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It’s dark this morning. A moment ago there was a quick flash of lightning; then the thunder. The clouds above arranged themselves into gradient bands of gray; darkest on the top, lighter and lighter down toward the earth.

Dramatic, yes.

After yesterday’s unsuccessful yoga, I decided I needed to work on it. I didn’t like how difficult the things that had been so easy for me a few months ago had become.

So this morning I did a beginner’s practice. Maybe I’ve desensitized myself with all of the workouts for seniors, but I didn’t feel a twinge of anything, aside from satisfaction when I had even a little more flexibility than I had yesterday.

And not to interrupt myself but there was just the biggest bolt of lightning, the following thunder far less impressive than the light show.

Nature is quite a character. Getting some spatters of rain now.

Back to the whole beginning thing, though really it’s the middle of the post, but you’re smart so I know you’re with me.

Whatever knocks us back, no matter how far back it is, there’s always a place to start again. Maybe that line is miles from where we were.

I’m not going to lie, that sucks. Why sugarcoat the uncoatable?

But it’s there, if you want it.

There’s no obligation, of course. Some things are just over and that’s fine.

But it’s OK to begin again. The only person who needs to approve or give you permission is you.

Have a great Wednesday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#TuesdayThoughts: Hazy.

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First, #ChatTuesday, “Perhaps.” And now Tuesday.

It’s incredibly hazy out there, likely from the Canadian wildfires again, and it’s going to be both hot and humid to dial it up some more.

Nature is not pleased.

Can’t say I blame it, all things considered.

I tried some yoga today, which I haven’t really done in a while and it did not go well. I didn’t hurt myself but I couldn’t do much either and that was disheartening. Our bodies are weird.

So weird.

Still you have to (re)start somewhere, I guess.

I’ve been spending more time at Spoutible (hi, Spoutible!) and it seems like the transition I will make. If I have to make a full transition.

Though some of the same annoyances are finding their way over, like the men who think they get to tell you when you’re allowed to block. Or the people who are upset they’re not the center of every conversation.

At least they don’t seem to last long there.

Anyway, that’s it for me today, have a wonderful Tuesday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#MondayThoughts: We make our own rules.

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I thought it was cloudy today, but it isn’t, it’s that pollution haze. Again.

In some places temperatures have reached incredible heights, and we’ve got to wonder what we’ve done to this planet.

Not so much us, largely industry, but money doesn’t make a habitable planet. At least not the way things are going now.

I’m still on those senior workouts, I haven’t gotten back to the full ones I used to do, and sometimes, honestly, they’re fun. They’re not anywhere near as strenuous, and maybe that’s OK.

At least for now it has to be OK because that’s what I’m doing.

It’s funny how we do that, make our own rules for ourselves. Create a box and put ourselves squarely into it.

Who’s the boss of you? You are.

Except for your boss, they’re technically the boss of you but that’s not really relevant here.

When it comes to these requirements we create for ourselves, we’re the ones making them and we’re the ones enforcing them.

So if they don’t work for you, just don’t.

In my case, at least for now, that’s strenuous workouts. They would do more harm than good at the moment so that’s a rule tossed.

It’s OK to look out for your own best interest.

Have a great Monday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#FridayThoughts: I don’t know…what do you think?

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It’s very sunny this morning, a cloudless kind of sunny, and the weather is telling me it’s cloudy. It was cloudy earlier, and maybe it will be again, but I’m sorry to tell you this, weather, you’re wrong.

We’ve come to this Friday in more than the middle of July, and the year is just flying along. For good or for bad, who’s to say.

I just learned that my set up here will allow me to accept “tips” (that “buy me a cup of coffee” button) or “donations,” which I didn’t know. Spoutible accounts have the same feature.

Is that weird? I can’t explain why but it feels weird to me, to have something like that.

Maybe I’m allergic to money?

But seriously, does it impact your impression of what you’re reading? On the other hand, I do put my time and energy and often emotion into the writing that I do, wherever I do it.

And it’s not like writers shouldn’t be paid.

Maybe I’m out of sync with how things work now. Maybe the buttons are too in sync with how things work now. I guess I’m concerned it turns a conversation into a transaction.

I don’t know. Something to ponder.

Anyway, that’s me for the week. Have an incredible Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#ThursdayThoughts #ThursdayTen ten word photo prompt: Hiking.

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Photo by Kamaji Ogino on Pexels.com

It’s THURSDAY!! And what does Thursday bring? I mean besides Friday?

You got it! Our #ThursdayTen!!

How does it work, you conveniently ask? Well, I’ll tell you.

Using the image above as a prompt, write a ten word story. EXACTLY ten words!

We all know ten words, right?

Just put them in an order.

Ready? Here’s mine:

As the gorgon unfurled, they regretted the Mythical Creature excursion.

So I tried the AI and honestly, not worth sharing. Experiment over.

#WednesdayWisdom: Pain means stop.

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As creatures, we have a built-in warning system. Pain tells us when something is wrong, when something is bad for us.

And yet we’re often told to push though it, to ignore it, that it’s not that bad, that without it there is no gain.

Don’t get me wrong, you can’t go through life never being uncomfortable. Discomfort roams hand in hand with change and growth. Comfort often means standing still.

But pain is different.

Sometimes you have to work through it, whether it’s physical or emotional, to get to a point where it subsides. How we approach that, or how we do that, that’s different for everyone.

But it’s also OK to listen to the pain when it speaks to you. In my very literal sense, with the back stuff I’ve had going on, my hips have been bothering me. I’ve realized that the hips probably preceded the back, and I was using yoga to alleviate it somewhat, while still working out.

This time I decided to listen and just give it all a rest. I am better today, and hopefully even more so tomorrow.

Only you know what is pain and what is discomfort. Only you know whether pushing through will help or hurt. It is your own journey.

But give yourself the option to listen to the pain. It doesn’t make you weak, it makes you wise.

Have a great Wednesday.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.

#TuesdayThoughts: Super brief.

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First, #ChatTuesday, “Dull fish thoughts.” And now Tuesday.

Which will be very, very brief as I said it all in the Chat Tuesday, so all that is left for me to say today is have a wonderful day.

Check out  my full-length novels (affiliate links): 
Aunty Ida’s Full-Service Mental Institution (by Invitation Only)   
Aunty Ida’s Holey Amazing Sleeping Preparation (Not Doctor Recommended) 
Her Cousin Much Removed
The Great Paradox and the Innies and Outies of Time Management.
And download Better Living Through GRAVY and Other Oddities, it’s quick and weird!
Peruse Montraps Publishing
See what I’m writing on Medium.