11 Sleeps til Christmas

December 14, 2009 at 4:47 pm (Daily Ramblings)
Tags: , , , , , , ,

My God I can’t believe how cold it’s been!  Apparently, there are reports that Alberta, in particular the region we live in, is currently the coldest place on the planet.  I don’t know if that’s true — I have my suspicions that Antarctica might still be somewhat colder — but it sure feels like it at the moment. 

Buses are cancelled in our division today, and so I thought good I don’t have to go out in this weather.  But duty made me try.  I went out to start my car — it had been plugged in since 1 am Sunday — and it barely started.  When it did it made this nasty, unhealthy sound, like an ancient electric can opener that no longer has enough juice to even scratch the surface of the lid it’s supposed to be cutting through.  I let it run for about 10 minutes and even after that it still sounded rough, so I decided that even though I’m barely 10 minutes from where I work, I’m not going to chance it.  The fear of freezing and of being without a vehicle are just to great for me.  I’ll go out and run the car every couple of hours for 10 minutes, hopefully that will enough to keep it from seizing up. 

Just the few minutes it took for me to run outside and deal with the car was bad, I can’t imagine having to be out there for any extended period of time.  Although, once upon a time when I had a dog, I would have bundled up against the frigid temps and gone out for a brief walk.  That’s one of the reasons I do miss having a dog for a pet — it forced me to get out in winter even when I seriously did not want to.  Dogs need their exercise, and so do humans, but where dogs will gleefully step out into the cold, concerned only about what new smells they might discover, most people won’t even bother to stick their nose out the door.  That’s me, right now. 

This kind of weather inspires a sort of inertia within me.  Being cooped up, inside with nothing but the computer and the TV for entertainment I find myself doing little or nothing.  Although I have tons of things I could be doing like:  reading, crocheting, baking, cleaning, doing laundry, finishing addressing Christmas cards, writing, putting the finishing touches to the decorating, cleaning my closets, dusting my dressers, straightening up the spare bedroom, the list goes on and on and on.  I just don’t want to do anything, except, well, read, maybe.  That requires no effort, and curled up under a blanket I just might drift off and have a little cat nap.  Such ambition!

But. . . I try not to be too hard on myself, it’s not often this kind of weather locks us into our cozy, comfy homes where we’re forced to enjoy a few moments of peace and quiet.  Most of the time it’s go, go, go.  Especially around Christmas.  The need to feel like we’re doing more, being more is incredibly high around the holidays, so if nature gives us a day off I think we’re wise to take advantage of it. 

Eleven more sleeps til Christmas — I’m looking forward to seeing my grandchildren on Christmas morning as they tear through their presents.  I want to see my son and his wife enjoy their first Christmas in their new home, and I’m so pleased we’re invited to be a part of that happiness.  For Tim and I, that’s what it’s mainly about now:  We’re on the outside, looking in, and what we see is what makes us smile and brings us joy. 

An update on the Christmas tree:  it got decorated yesterday and it is absolutely lovely!  I will post a picture here as soon as I get one taken. 

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Leave a Comment

Flash Fiction

December 11, 2009 at 1:27 pm (Writing Samples)
Tags: , , , , ,

This is an example of something called Flash Fiction.  I entered this piece in a contest about a year ago (didn’t win, but got some decent feedback).  I’ve since edited it taking into account some of the comments I was given. 

It’s an apocalyptic little story, something ala 2012, if you will.  Hope you like it.

© 2008

  Beneath the Bed 

 Kathy Larson

              A wistful smile crossed Sandra’s face as she gazed down at the tiny body beside her, and she thought, what better place than this?  The steady rise and fall of the baby’s chest helped to soothe her, but it couldn’t stop the fear blossoming in hers. 

            It was warm here, beneath the bed; absurdly, she felt protected.  Then, sorrowfully:  Why hadn’t he stayed?  Choking back a sob she drew their son close and buried her face in his blankets.

            When the flash came she was telling him about the fun she and her sisters had once had playing make-believe beneath their beds, imagining golden lives in a far-off and shining future.

Leave a Comment

Monday, Brrr, December 7th

December 7, 2009 at 2:22 pm (Daily Ramblings)
Tags: , , , , , ,

Here's our nice little tree for 2009!

  

It’s minus flippin’ thirty-seven (-37ºC) here in Bon Accord!  I do not, I repeat do not, want to set foot outside again until it is at least only -15.  That’s not asking too much is it?   

I will do my best to be grateful for this weather and try to remember that it will kill the pine beetle and save our forests.  Also, it looks pretty from inside while I’m bundled up with a coffee and a good book.   

Oh, yeah . . . we got our tree this weekend and it’s not a giant.  It’s a very nice 8 footer that will be easy for me to decorate.  We went out with Landon and Jenn and the kids this weekend to Gunlor Pines — a family tradition now for 18 years!  With all the snow we got on Friday it was really quite nice.  The kids seemed to have fun although being bundled up they could hardly move, it was cute to watch them stumble along.  Timothy just kept agreeing with everything we said — “you like this one, buddy?”  “yeah.”  “how about this one? is this one better?”  “yeah.”  I’m sure he was just wondering why on earth we were out there wandering through a bunch of trees that essentially all looked the same to him.  After Tim and Jenn ‘felled’ our trees we headed in for hot chocolate and candy canes.  The kids were enthralled by the inflatable Santa popping in and out of an inflatable chimney.  It was a very good day.   

And now we’re in a deep freeze.  Sigh. 

A happy bunch of lumberjacks!

  

 

 

 

Leave a Comment

Wednesday Night

December 3, 2009 at 4:22 am (Daily Ramblings)
Tags: , , , , , ,

A place of indescribable beauty, a testimony to faith and spirit and, yes, gratefulness.

I am grateful for my life . . .

This after 3 evenings and one day of meetings.  I didn’t think I’d ever see the end of them.  But, they’re behind me now and I can start to focus on other things I enjoy. 

Like. . .

baking with my grandchildren on Saturday and then having my son and his wife and my other grandchild come for supper. Then we’re going to go see some Christmas lights and take a little stroll on a beautiful winter evening.  Nothing quite says Christmas like baking and lights!  I am looking forward so much to this little self-made solstice on the weekend.

Right now I am dog-tired.  Yesterday at work I fell on the ice while helping supervise our kids during phys-ed where they were learning to curl.  Me and ice, not a good combination, historically.  I gave my head a good rap and jolted my back and shoulder, too.  Not so much that I can’t work, but just enough so that I can feel twinges of achy pain all day. Lovely.  Still . . .

I am grateful I didn’t get hurt worse.  That my body is still resilient enough to handle such mishaps.  I vow to not set foot on ice again this winter, or, at least until our next curling class.  Maybe I should take a helmet?

Well, I think I’m about ready for bed.  Which is something else I’m grateful for — that I have such a lovely home and a place to sleep that is warm and safe and comfortable.  So many in our world do not, and so many are fighting to bring security to others and, as a result, are missing their own safe, warm beds.  I am grateful for their efforts, even if those whom they are trying to help are not. 

The world is such a great place, truly.  Sometimes my heart just weeps at its loveliness.  Did you see the moon tonight?

Leave a Comment

Tuesday, Dec. 1

December 1, 2009 at 12:54 pm (Daily Ramblings)
Tags: , ,

The countdown has begun.  Christmas is officially just around the corner.  I’ve got a bunch of plans and it looks like I’m gonna be busy, busy, busy!

On another note:  God, I can’t stand lies.  No, I’m not lying about my busy month!  It’s something else, entirely.  I will think positively, I will have only happy thoughts, I will control only that which is within my control. 

Movin’ on!

Leave a Comment

Saturday, November 28, 2009

November 28, 2009 at 6:17 pm (Daily Ramblings)
Tags: , , , , ,

I am having a great day!  I am loving this Saturday morning.  I’ve written a short story, I’ve talked to my sisters about New York and I wished my brother a happy birthday.  All before 11 o’clock.  The planets must be is alignment or something. 

I started my Christmas baking last weekend — made Boiled Raisin cookies.  This weekend I plan on making some shortbread.  Seriously, don’t know why I’m going to do all this baking — it’s just Tim and I.  Sigh.  Maybe we should plan a party and have a whole houseful of people.  Haven’t done that in ages.  It could be a lot of fun.  Usually is.  If I can stay organized I might just do it.

Thursday, I took my granddaughter to her Tae-Kwon-Do class.  She is four.  She is the only girl in the class.  There are 3 boys who make up the rest of the class. 

These kids are hilarious!  I had the best time watching them, took a bunch of pictures of Hailey in action.  I give such credit to their instructor because he has to have the patience of a saint.  When he says “Okay, turn in” (which means pay attention) and they continue to hop around on one foot and make faces at each other, and he repeats it two or three more times before they realize he’s talking to them and he still remains utterly calm I have nothing but admiration.  Their little voices yelling “yes, sir!” when he does get their attention is also hilarious, because they act so serious for about a split second and then they become four-year olds again and they’re just jumpin’ and bouncin’ and rarin’ to kick something, anything, but usually not in the way he’s shown them. 

Of course, I realize that he’s just familiarizing them with the concept of discipline that is required for a sport like Tae-Kwon-Do, and the sense of respect and seriousness that must be given to a teacher.  Still, to see these eager little people attacking the skills they’re being taught is pure delight. 

And, I am so proud of Hailey.  For four years old, she shines.

Leave a Comment

Just After Sunset, Stephen King

November 25, 2009 at 2:01 pm (Book Reviews)
Tags: , , , , ,

Just After Sunset is a collection of short stories SK wrote a couple of years ago.  I got the book last year, either for Christmas, birthday or Mother’s Day.  It’s a sad statement on how busy I’ve allowed myself to get that it takes me this long to get around to reading a book.  I think it’s only about the fourth book I’ve read this year.  Maybe fifth.  I used to read voraciously, one or two books a month.  (That’s voraciously for me.)  Now, if I manage to get 1/2 an hour a night before I go to sleep I’m accomplishing something. 

Anyway . . . whining about my poor time management skills isn’t what I started this post about.  It’s supposed to be about Just After Sunset. 

In the preface SK says he wrote these stories after being asked to judge a short story contest.  He says doing that re-awakened in him a desire to write short stories as he once had — with passion and a sense of urgency for getting the story told.  In his younger days, when writing meant feeding the kids or putting gas in the car, short stories were his stock and trade.  They paid the rent while he was working on the big stuff. 

I can remember literally devouring his collections of stories when I got my hands on them.  They were like a special treat and I would read them like I would occasionally binge on chocolate.  These days I don’t have time for binge-reading, and maybe that’ s a good thing.  I’ve also got a few years of University lit classes under my belt, so I’ve got a somewhat more refined skill-set in use when I’m reading now. 

When I used to read, I read strictly for pleasure, now I read with a more critical eye — I’m looking for plot, construction, reference, tone — all the boring stuff they teach you about in school, or try to at least.  I’m just lucky enough, or geeky enough — have it your way — to find that stuff not boring at all, but fascinating.  And when I’ve applied my newly acquired critical eye to a few of Stephen’s latest books I’ve come away a tad disappointed.  They all seemed to be lacking something, seem to be forced in some way that when I finished I felt a little sad, a little disappointed, because the man seemed to have lost his way.  But I’m a devoted fan, so I’ve hung in there, waiting.   Hoping. Praying he’d get the ‘feel’ back. 

Well, I think he has.  Just After Sunset is a fun read.  The stories roar along like a freight train and when I’m reading them I’m gone.  That’s what SK used to do for me, he’d transport me right the hell out of where ever I was, and take me on crazy ride.  I’d be jammed into some small compartment with people I didn’t know, some of whom I really came to care about, others whom I wanted to hide from, others whom I’d weep over as they fell or were pushed from the open doors of the speeding cars.  And to come back from that ride was agony, all I wanted to do was stay there and see it through to the journey’s end.  And when the book was finished?  I felt the way you do when you just don’t want to leave the party even though you know it’s over, that the door is closing, you’re waving goodbye, but you wish, real hard that the host will say: “Aww, what the hell!  Let’s keep’er going!”  And I’d put the book away on my bookshelf with my growing collection of Stephen King’s books and I’d start waiting, right there, right then, for his next one to appear.

Of course, I’m reading this one a story at a time, a few pages at a time.  The cool thing is, I can’t wait to get back to it every evening before I turn in for the night.  The other cool thing, my critical eye hasn’t found anything to bitch about.  So far, it’s all good. 

This was taken in August this year. We were on our motorcycle trip out East and back and we swung into Maine, well, because we were THAT close and I just had to do the dopey fan thing and go see where Stephen King lives. I was too chicken to go and knock on the door, although the gate was open and there were cars in the driveway. I'm guessing it was just groundskeepers and housekeepers -- Mr. King was probably in Florida. Still, it was a great big thrill.

Leave a Comment

The Horse Whisperer

November 21, 2009 at 5:08 pm (Book Reviews)
Tags: , , , ,

I finished The Horse Whisperer.  I really enjoyed re-reading this story, but in the second reading I came away with a feeling that the whole story seemed to end before Tom and Annie consummate their love.  Once they’re together the whole thing is pretty anti-climactic.  The love-making is clichéd, and you can see the end coming from a Montana-mile away.  The most important character in the story, Grace, gets short shrift, and to kind of make up for it, I suppose, Evans turns her into a female version of Tom.  This is an amazing transformation for a fifteen-year old who has suffered unbelievable physical and emotional trauma.  Even Pilgrim, Graces’ badly maimed and brutalized horse, is miraculously cured and becomes himself again, although with a few scars that make him even more handsome than he was before. 

This is a book to read once, in my opinion.  A great summer or Christmas break read – you’ll cry, and then you’ll want to run out and fall in love with a cowboy and buy a horse.

Leave a Comment

some thoughts. . .

November 19, 2009 at 12:31 am (Daily Ramblings)
Tags: , , , , , ,

I try, these days, to live as environmentally, and globally conscious as I possibly can.  I think — a lot — about things before I buy them.  How much energy will they use?  How and where were they made?  Are they sustainable?  How much garbage will I be contributing to the landfill when I’m done with said item?  Can that garbage be gotten rid of here or will it wind up clogging some third world country’s landscape?  Will it be dumped in our oceans?  The list of questions I can ask myself is absurd.

Thirty years ago I would not have been asking myself such questions.  Thirty years ago it was all about self-gratification and never a thought to the impact my actions might have on the world.  Now, I know, from having taken a sociology and psychology course or two, that this introspective thinking I currently engage in is a natural progression.  As I grow older, I grow more contemplative, have greater awareness of the impact of my existence and begin to question the ‘why’ of life.  I think this makes me a much more interesting person than I was thirty years ago, but as I age and as I continue on this path of responsible living I sometimes wonder if I’m going to turn in to that old woman we’ve all seen with the yard full of bleach-bottle whirligigs, painted rocks and tin can mobiles hanging from the branches of the trees in her yard.  Will I do my dishes in old dish pan and then carry the water out to pour on my garden?  (Wait a minute!  I’ve already contemplated doing that!)  Surely that’s not a bad thing?  Why then is it that I feel rather geeky admitting that I would do that?  Saving water is something we should all take very seriously.  And yet. . .

isn’t the water we’re using the same water the planet’s had for millenia?  I’ve heard the world doesn’t ever create more water, it just constantly recycles what there is.  So, how can we be running out?  Especially with the glaciers, icebergs and polar ice-caps melting at the rate they are.  We’re more in danger of being flooded out than dried out, I’d think. 

Yes, I’m being facetious.  I’m really quite worried about our water supply and I do all sorts of things that I won’t bother getting into in order to save as much water as possible in my daily life. 

Now, I’m going to talk about something else that I think is quite important.  Deodorant.  Yes, that’s right, deodorant.  I think deodorant is probably one of mankind’s greatest inventions.  But. . . about 2 years ago I started looking for alternatives to the traditional deodorants I’ve been using since I was a kid.  No more Alzheimer causing deodorants for me!  I’ve tried quite a few different ones but nothing ever really truly measured up to what I was used to.  One thing I’m really conscious of is body odour, and I would be mortified to think I stink.  Anyway, I’ve found this great product from a company called Saje.  It’s called Natural Wellness Crystal Fresh Deodorant.  And it really works!  The ingredients in this deodorant are:  Liquid mineral salts, and essential oils.  The one I’m using right now has lavender, sandalwood and patchouli.  The company is based in Delta, BC, so I even feel great about supporting a product made in Canada.  Even greater is the fact that they don’t overpackage.  There are no extra boxes, plastic wrap or bags to throw away after you’ve made your purchase.  You simply take your bottle or tube or what have you, pay for it and away you go.  I love it; it’s simplicity and value and something that is good for you. 

I just wanted to share all that with you.  And I want you to try Saje deodorant.  Trust me, you’ll like it.

Here’s a link to their site:  http://www.saje.ca

Leave a Comment

Monday Morning

November 16, 2009 at 2:16 pm (Daily Ramblings)
Tags: , , , ,

It’s back to work after a wonderfully relaxing weekend. 

Our friends, Muryl and Shelley introduced us to Geo-caching this weekend.  What a lot of fun!  A great way to get some exercise while familiarizing yourself with the place you live in and the surrounding countryside (or city-side if you’re a city dweller.)  I think it could become quite an addictive little hobby.  I just may have to seriously consider pursuing it.  With winter coming on, though (maybe), I will probably wait til Spring.  I’ve been thinking of all kinds of ways you could incorporate geo-caching into your other activities.  Would love to get Timothy and Hailey involved.  I think they’d have a blast.

As I said in the opener of this blog, I had  a nice, relaxing weekend.  Started a new book — a collection of Stephen King short stories called Just After Sunset.  So far, it’s vintage.  Loving it!  Also got working on my photos; trying to learn Photoshop.  Am I the only person who thinks Photoshop is difficult to use?  I struggle all the time.  I guess I’m going to have to find a course or class somewhere to get some help, because right now I’m about ready to pitch it.

Well, I hope everyone has a great day, a great week.  Talk to you soon.

2 Comments

« Older entries