SoCS: nuts

My life is full of nuts; edible and human.

My ex-husband, who’s a nut, brought me a big bag of nuts; walnuts from Costco. They have the best walnuts because they are fresh. Walnuts go rancid very quickly so those little bags at the grocery store are already rancid.

I eat raw walnuts to boost my protein at breakfast and also because they are high in Omega 3 fatty acids. Recently I found chia seeds are really high in Omega fatty acids also but they aren’t nuts so they’re aren’t in this story.

One of the bins in my fridge is just for nuts and seeds.

My ex-husband is a nut and not in a good way. First of all, rejecting me as a wife proves it right there. So far he cannot find anyone who can put up with his nuttiness.

He collects things; he has 50+ salt lamps and I’m sure he will keep on buying more. He also buys rugs from somewhere in Toronto at a really good price.

Last spring he came with a beautiful salt lamp (I even posted it here) and two runners.  He visited me a couple of days ago and came with another salt lamp and two more, bigger, rugs.  They are beautiful but . . .  I don’t want them!

Yesterday, while I was dragging them around the house trying to find good spots for them, I was getting pissed off. Just give me the money you spent on them, damn it! Apparently the new hall runner is worth thousands of dollars but he only paid hundreds. It makes me want to sell them. I have a sagging deck that needs fixing and have to hire someone $$$; replacing it for a new one is more than I can afford.  I don’t need or want expensive rugs!

His house (which used to be my house) must be so weird but at least it has lots and lots of negative ions abounding. He can feel them. He doesn’t have any on-line or especially wireless anything. I hide my phone when he comes just to avoid scorn. He say he can feel wi-fi but doesn’t know I have it here and I’ll never tell him.

I’m glad when he leaves because he’s so intense and full of nutty opinions he wears me out. I can hardly get word in before he interrupts and talks me down. Then, after he goes, I feel sad. Sad for the husband he could be, but isn’t.

I must be nuts.

 

 

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “nuts.” Use it any way you’d like.

https://lindaghill.com/2019/11/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-2-19/

RDP: flaky neighbours

You hit upon one of my pet peeves, something I just can’t tolerate and that’s flaky people. They will tell you whatever they think you want to hear at the time but its all bullshit. They are empty husks with no substance, easily blown away anyway the wind blows.

As an old friend said years ago; ‘there are invalids; those who can’t do things, and there are inVALids ; those who won’t do things.

So thank you, WordPress and RDP for letting me complain about my flaky neighbours:

They moved into the house in front of me: my driveway is a right-of-way through their place. They are both in their early 30’s and when they first moved in they said they were going to help me! I was so happy; young people to help me! He even had a chainsaw! I thought they would help me shovel the driveway in the winter!

As time went on it became apparent that they are very lazy. He had a local job but it was too hard on his back. He can’t get a job anywhere else because he doesn’t drive. He did work for the guy who put my bathtub in so I got to see first hand: the employer not only had to pick him up, he had to wake him up. He doesn’t work for anyone now.

She works and drives far to her job in London. This adds two hours to her work day so she likes him home because she doesn’t cook. She takes a lot of days off; at least once a week.

They seem to be in all weekend; every weekend. He plays video games. One beautiful day a couple of weeks ago; a Saturday, she posted on FB that she was binge watching wrestling. Yeah, not only was she watching wrestling on a gorgeous day on a weekend; she posted she was watching wrestling!

So many tales to tell but I’m already sick of talking about them. What did they do about shoveling our shared driveway in the winter?  She has a little spot right up by the road so she can just drive out. When the snow is light and easily moved, I shovel just to do something outdoors; exercise and fresh air. They do not even stick their heads out of the door. When the snow is heavy I have to hire someone to plow the whole drive way.

I repeat; they are in their 30’s. He has not done one job I’ve asked him to help me with.

Flaky.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/10/27/rdp-sunday-sub-flaky/

SoCS: dress

Beautiful photo!

The first thing I thought of for ‘dress’ was one of my favourite PJ Harvey songs; “Dress”. It pretty raucous and raw so I’ll save you from watching it if its too harsh and tell you why I like it so much. Its about a girl/woman who’s dressing up to attract a guy.

The best lines are; “I’m spilling over like a heavy loaded fruit tree” and, later, “I’m falling over like a dancing costume.” Love PJ Harvey.

Now actual dresses; I don’t wear them. This is mostly because my legs are not my best feature but also because I don’t like bare legs and breezes up my skirt unless it very, very hot outside. I just like my legs covered, that’s all. I do not feel comfortable in a dress.

I have a couple of dresses for special occasions like weddings but by the time I’m ready to wear a dress again its either gone out of style or the middle part is too tight.

I’m not dressed yet; still in my pjs and housecoat.

Today I’m going to try and finish off the pile of wood  that’s left in my driveway, if not I will definitely finish on Monday. Two dump truck loads of firewood I put away all by myself. My wood shed is full so I might have to pile some off to the side.

OK . . . get dressed.

https://lindaghill.com/2019/10/25/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-26-19/

SoCS: Oh, Happy Day

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “oh.” Use it as a word or find a word that starts with “oh.” Bonus points if you start and end with “oh.”

Oh man, (and I really do say that a lot) my company is gone! Yay!

Oh, thank goodness they could only fit in a short trip. At first they were coming Tuesday and staying until the weekend. Yikes!

Then they had something on Tuesday so they would come Wednesday then she said ‘sorry, they would have to leave Friday. . .’  Oh, yeah!

This time she was bringing her husband whom I had never met. I was hoping he slept in as late as she does because I only have one bathroom. I would be sharing a bathroom with a strange man.

He did sleep in pretty late the first day which was good but he next morning he got up at 9:30. Luckily I already had 2 coffees and 2 other things happening, oh no, don’t talk about that.

I had a good time! We had great talks. It went very, very well.

But, OH, .  . when I woke up this morning and realized they weren’t here I was so happy. And I don’t have to go anywhere.

Man, oh man . . . this is livin’.

Oh, yeah; We had a raging wind storm recently and I heard the crack of a huge tree then the fall. It was out at the corner of my property. But it couldn’t have fallen in a better place; right between my compost bin and my Ohio Buckeye.

Oh . . . and a REALLY good thing it didn’t fall on my medicinal herbs!!

https://lindaghill.com/2019/10/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-19-19/

SoCS: ground

I haven’t written a post in 2 weeks! I have to use ‘ground’:

The ground you walk on can be dangerous.

The last 5 Mondays I’ve been taking a course called ‘Boosting Balance and Bone Health’. It was run by an Occupational Therapist so there was a lot on how to make sure your home is safe.

You don’t think about these things when you are young. Is the ground I walk on safe? How about that towel on the bathroom floor instead of a no-slip bath mat. How about getting in and out of the bathtub? Wearing socks on a slippery floor?

I’m stacking firewood in my shed and there are all kinds of calamities waiting to happen! It has a sloping roof so there is a lot of bending over; bad for the osteoporosis spine. You must bend at the knees, keep your head up and back straight. No twisting while carrying an object; like a bit piece of firewood. How do you pick up a piece of wood from a pile and put it in the wheel barrow without twisting?

I was coming into the wood shed with a wheelbarrow load of wood when my foot got caught on a Virginia Creeper vine that was growing across the ground and I almost tripped. Nowadays, that’s a scary thing. I have to carry less load in the wheelbarrow because of the strain on my upper back.

One of these day I’ll have to give up firewood. That makes me sad.

I’m not sad my aunt passed away last week. What was sad was the last year of her life. I’m happy she has passed on to a better place. She is not buried in the ground; she was cremated. She is free!

OH gosh I have to run (no, don’t run its dangerous). I have to move into the kitchen; we are having our family Thanksgiving today.  Well, my family and some other extended family; its confusing.  I’m making apple crisp.

Last night I prepared the apples, added some Fruit Fresh and put them in the fridge. Put all the dry ingredients together except for the butter which is in the saucepan. Now I only have to bring them all together and bake. I always toss the apples with ground cardamom.

Nice day for a drive to St. Mary’s, a scenic town; the colours are changing. Life is good. On even ground.

https://lindaghill.com/2019/10/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-12-19/

SoCS: tenuous

My 97 yr. old aunt has a tenuous hold on life. She is dying of dementia and I mean she is in the process of dying, as I was told last Wednesday.

It was about 3 weeks ago they said to get ready for the end. 2 weeks ago, they said , “any day now”.

One thing we have in common is that we are both not parents. She didn’t have kids, she only has my sister and me. I couldn’t have kids but I have a niece and nephew. Its not lost on me that this could happen to me and to them: being responsible for an aging aunt.

Its not the same as a parent; there’s not the emotional connection. Especially with my aunt who had a great life apart from us, in other countries, and wasn’t particularly attached to her nieces. She danced, flamenco danced! and had dinner parties. She had a great life!

But all those friends aren’t with you at the end, only your family.

She certainly would not like to see herself this way; slumped in a wheelchair, vacant, messing her diapers. If she was ‘in sound mind’ she could request assisted suicide but because she does not have any mind left, she cannot.

And so we wait, hoping the end will come soon. For her sake as much as ours.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ent” “ten” “net.” Use one, use two or use all three (bonus points for using two, double-bonus points for using all three).

https://lindaghill.com/2019/09/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-28-19/

SoCS: wrap/ rap

I bought some ‘wraps’ the other day and they are awful. I was fooled. I don’t like those big, round doughy wraps to begin with but these were oval and smaller and had fake burn marks like they were grilled. Black Pepper flavoured.

Stupid, I usually don’t fall for that stuff but they looked good. They’re not, they’re doughy and leave a bad aftertaste.

I even tried to cook it in a fry pan like a roti but it doesn’t even cook! It stays doughy and weird; its not real food.

At first I thought I had just made a bad dinner, trying to use up the free zucchinis and tomatoes I’ve been getting. My first couple of bites were ‘yuck’ then I opened the wraps and just ate the filling. It was delicious! The horribleness of the wrap overpowered the deliciousness of the filling.

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I can’t say I’m a big rap fan but I do like some things like songs I can dance to. I really liked Missy Elliott’s performance on the Music Video awards. So entertaining! Its the dancing as much as the music; I love dance. The dances on “So You Think You Can Dance” that were from Luther Brown were some of the best! oh that’s hip-hop. What the heck, I’m 66; I can’t tell the difference.

My favourite oldie rap is from Ludacris. I first saw it at the end of the movie ‘Tropic Thunder’ sung or lip-synced by an unrecognizable Tom Cruise.

I’ll find it and wrap this post up:

 

 

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “wrap/rap.” Use one, use both (for bonus points), use ’em any way you’d like.

https://lindaghill.com/2019/09/20/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-21-19/

RDP: missing

Do you ever get the feeling that you are missing something or someone but don’t know what or who it is? Not FOMO on some current event but missing that lost love or place you can’t quite remember.

Some would say that was the soul in its constant longing to return to its source. We looking outside of ourselves while what we long for is deep inside us.

Sometimes in the past, I would think I missed my ex-husband. We were married for 28 years and did have some good times and great adventures. When I hadn’t seen him in a long time, I could revert him back (in my mind) to the man I married; the man he was in front of other women. Then I would see him again and be reminded, “Oh yeah, this is who he really is.”  I was missing a fantasy.

I’m missing a best friend I never met. I’ve moved a lot in my life and have good friends ‘out there’ and, gosh darn it, people like me. But I don’t have that bestie partners-in-crime, hang-out with, friend. Unfortunately, my husband was my best friend for 28 years.

I did learn to be my own best friend.  I do enjoy my own company. (I’m a hoot) Today me and myself is going to TOWN. Not just town but London, I need the maximum shopping experience today. I need selection.

Another person would be a burden as I flit from store to store; looking for the elusive perfect thing. . .  that I’m missing.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/09/17/rdp-tuesday-missing/

SoCS: a pen

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “blue.” Talk about the first blue object you see when you sit down to write your post.

The first blue object I see is a pen from my local Community Health Centre. It’s last year’s model because I recently got a new red pen from them.

I’ve got quite a few pens from the health centre because I’ve signed up for so many things. This place has so many great programs and for FREE. Just to help you be healthy. Finally health care providers are coming to realize the value of keeping people healthy in the first place to avoid getting sick!

This blue pen is probably from joining Opening Doors; a mental health program. Every program requires filling out forms, health information and waivers then you keep the pen.

Sometimes you get a whole kit of stuff. My new red pen came inside a blue canvas shopping bag that says, “Everyone matters”. Inside was all kinds of information on osteoporosis and all the exercises we learned in the class. This program is called ‘Boosting Balance and Bone Health’. Its every Monday for 5 weeks.

It was a full house, unlike the other class I joined up for on Mondays where only two of us showed up. Its in the morning; 10:30 – 11:30 which is as early as I will do a class. Its called ‘Bust a Move’. Nobody really knew what it was; the flyer looked like it was dancing.  Its playing with all kinds of percussion instruments.

I know; percussion instruments in the morning? I wondered if my brain would not like that but I was OK. It was fun. I hope more people show up on Monday.

Great programs for free and they have good pens, too.

https://lindaghill.com/2019/09/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-14-19/

 

SoCS: weigh, way, whey

I was skinny most of my life. In my 40’s I still only weighed barely over 100 lbs. (Canadians still use the old fashioned weight for our weight; we never switched over to ‘stones’ as they do in the U.K.)

It used to really bug me when people would say, “You’re so skinny! You should eat more!”

So rude; I can’t imagine ever saying to someone, “You’re so fat! You shouldn’t eat so much!”

Many, many women, who I didn’t even know, would tell me they hated me. I could be just eating a chocolate bar out somewhere and some woman would spit, “I hate you!”  Yes, this happened many times.

Actually, I didn’t eat enough because my ex would hassle me when I ate. He also had me so stressed most of the time: I later learned that I lived in ‘fight or flight’ mode for a long time. My stomach was in knots most of the time. I had to work, work, work; leisure was bad. That was the way we lived. We kept bees and worked at markets on weekends so there were no days off.

Not any more! We broke up 12 years ago. It took me at least 2 years to get his voice out of my head. I still felt guilty if I took a day off. I did it…. but felt guilty. I had to keep repeating to myself that I can do whatever I want now. I still have to tell myself I’m not lazy when I hear it creeping in.

As fate would have it; his pressure-filled lifestyle and bad eating habits have caught up with him: he has a collapsed esophagus and is doing nothing about it. He lives on Boost and Ensure. If he eats anything solid, he throws up.

I didn’t see him for two years because he didn’t want to tell me how sick he was. When he did finally tell me and come to visit I was shocked at how skinny he was. The first words out of his mouth were, “Are you ever fat!”

He is a foot taller and weighs the same as me.

I gained my weight the way most people do: by relaxing and eating! I now have a belly and I don’t care. This is the way I live now!

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I used to make my own paneer from fresh, unpasteurized milk and feed the whey to my dog and cats.

 

 

https://lindaghill.com/2019/09/06/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-7-19/