Thank you so much for being part of my community in the last year;— for buying my books in all formats, for being a patron of the blog, for leaving positive reviews on the books and for recommending them to others.
I wouldn’t have this career without you, so thank you and I hope you’ll continue to join me for the year ahead.
So much for quitting the bad habits. 🙂
How did your creative goals go in 2022? Please leave a comment and let me know.
With all the lockdowns around us, we try to get outside for a walk or bike ride whenever we can to allow some time out of our house. Usually our choices are limited by the amount of rain coming down.
So this morning, we were fortunate to decide on a bike ride. The forecast had indicated rain, but we woke to no rain, just pretty cold– -1 or -2. We headed out to ride around the airport.
One advantage to the airport circle is it’s all paved, which is a vast improvement over the railroad trails we often bike that are gravelled which means more hard pedalling to cover the distance. The disadvantage is there are more hills than you’d think going around the whole air field. We started out, dressed for the cold with wool scarves, lined gloves, toques under our helmets. For some reason I didn’t have any energy, or lung capacity. I had to stop to catch my breath often.
The sky had a huge dark grey cloud overhanging, which seemed to be following us as we started out. (the picture above was taken on a different day!) Right away it started to sprinkle. If you live on the west coast, you soon learn that a sprinkle is not rain, often you don’t even have to turn on your windshield wipers, but it’s still wet. The sprinkle ramped up until I was almost ready to admit it was raining. That’s when I said, “I think I’ll turn around.” My husband said, “No, we never turn around. Besides it’s the same distance to the truck if you go forward or turn back.” I sighed, admitting he was right.
However, by the time we started up the steepest hill to the copper feathers at the top, it wasn’t raining any more. It was hailing. The heavy grey cloud was low overhead and dumping chips of ice on us. No point in turning around, as we were 3/4 of the way through by then. We reached the top of the hill, coasted down, and roared along the bottom slope to the truck. By the time we reached it, the hail was finished, and there was even some sun showing through a gap in the clouds. Quite an adventure for a little bike ride.
What do you do to keep from isolating so much? Send me a note about how you are coping.
I looked up General Haig the other day and found this quote from him-
“That’s not a lie, it’s a terminological inexactitude. Also, a tactical misrepresentation.”
(General Alexander Haig, Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan)
Clever man, clever words. What exactly is he saying? A lie by any other name….
Another clever man whose words always ring true, is Mark Twain. As a writer, I love this one – “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
I had a belated birthday celebration with some family members yesterday. My brother-in-law gave me a card that struck me as so funny. He said he’d been trying to figure out who to give it to, and decided at the last minute that I would get it. Here is the picture on the front. I spent a few minutes trying to decide if I knew any of these women from old family photos. But as I read the card, I realized- Nope, that wasn’t the point.
The front reads – “Recent studies revealed that the kind of man a woman finds attractive can differ, depending upon the time of the month…”
Inside it says – “For example, if she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged masculine features. However, if she is in the other time of the month (or especially if she is menopausal…) she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and an axe lodged in his forehead… while he is on fire.
No further studies are expected.”
Oh, my gosh. I laughed myself silly. Does this type of humour appeal to you? I know my sense of humour doesn’t work with everyone. I tend to crack jokes and get a blank look back, from someone who hasn’t heard my comments before.
We need more laughter in these strange times. What makes you laugh?
