SoCS: year

Another year has gone by. The older you get, the faster they go ’round. Hard to believe I’ve been living here for 12 years. The years just go by.

This feeling has been heightened by going through old family albums. I have all the old albums from both my mom’s and dad’s side of family. They go way back, 1800’s even. The bindings and covers are falling apart; I’m re-doing them to give to my nephew’s family.

That’s the feeling I keep getting; lives gone by, years gone by. . . time marches on.

**************************************

People make such a big fuss about New Year’s Eve. Its almost as much stress as Christmas but without the shopping. Its just a night. Its just a change of month like any other month; a change of calendars.

I’m looking forward to New Year’s Day. That’s when I take away everything Christmas.  It’s already getting sad looking; like ‘the morning after’. I think I didn’t cut enough off the bottom of the tree because there is water in the reservoir but its tinder dry. Some of the icicles and balls are drooping and so they don’t hang anymore; they touch the branch below and are crooked. It looks dead, sad and cheap.

We had a green Christmas this year. That was OK with me because it was easy travelling to my nephew’s. Its nice not having to have my driveway ploughed or my porch shovelled. I’ve been out on the trail many times. But its dull and dreary; seeing a blue jay or cardinal is a surprising flash of colour.

Being as old as I am and remembering years gone by; we’ve had a few green Christmases and we are probably in for a few more.  But then it will swing drastically and we’ll get terrible cold and lots of snow.

That’s still coming, although I can remember a year when I hardly had to have my driveway ploughed.

Hard to remember we had a foot of snow in November! That melted away and there’s been no more since. I saw a lot of complaining about having a green Christmas on Facebook, all by younger people.

My stream of consciousness is a babbling brook today.

2020. I can’t believe I even made to 2020. I know I’m only 67 but I remember when we were young and read about the future; like 1984, or Space Odyssey 2001. Trying to imagine what we would like and what we would be doing when we were that old!

OMG, years go by.

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

https://lindaghill.com/2019/12/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-28-19/

SoCS: Let it Jingle!

 

Ol’ Kris Kringle is going to be jingling and mingling around here tonight! My sister is coming over with my 7 yr. old grandnephew and staying overnight!  We are going to play games and eat stuff.

This great kid recently lost his dad but he’s doing well. I can’t wait to see him.

 

When you are single it can be hard to mingle especially if you don’t drinkle. (ok I stretched that one) All those couples talking about their kids, their grandkids, where are going this winter?  what renovations you’re doing. . . . I just want to go home, get in my jammies, light one up and watch TV.

And there’s nothing wrong with that!

I found these two looking for Christmas dance numbers for my exercise class.

and this one just because;

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ingle.” Find a word that contains “ingle” and use it any way you’d like in your post.

https://lindaghill.com/2019/12/20/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-21-19/

SoCS: stop yelling!

My inner voice, the monkey mind part, has been yelling and I can’t stop it. Oh, I can drown it out with music somewhat or try to repeat a mantra, maybe twice if I’m lucky. Sometimes even TV doesn’t drown it out and I have to run back what I’m watching.

I’ve complained about my neighbours before. I wish so much I could NOT think about them. I’m not just talking to myself, I’m hollering at them all the things I’d like to say to them.

There are the lazy young people in front of my house and their house is owned by the matriarch next door. My lot is behind both their houses.

I’ve been sitting here trying to think of how to explain it simply. I can’t. And I sure don’t want to sit here and write out the 12 year long details of why I feel this way today.

I spend so much time alone and Thursdays I get to be with people who make me feel good. We’ve had a heart-breaking death in the family; I’ve been struggling with depression.

So I come home Thursday feeling pretty good and there she is in my driveway with her dog, going for a walk. She never walks her dog. My first thought was, “she wants to know the details.” I’m already screaming “fucking, go away!” in my mind.

Yes, she wanted to know what happened to “the guy who used to be her neighbour”  then turned it immediately to ‘this is when her husband died two years ago’.  No ‘how’s your niece doing?’ or ‘how are you?’

Normally I could muster up some sympathy but this time I could not. I’ve been living here for 12 years, on my own, and the women in this neighbourhood have been awful to me. Those italics are what I yell at them.

The Celebration of Life for my niece’s husband was the day before my birthday. It was a very sad day. They knew I was home alone all day. This woman wrote on my Facebook Timeline; “have a great day, gf!”

And what does my stupid monkey-mind do? “Girlfriend?” Seriously? I want to walk over there and yell at her, “I’m not your fucking girlfriend!”

I’m sorry for all this negativity; I’m fighting it with a beautiful Christmas tree and watching a lot of comedy. . .

Why did she have to be in my driveway on Thursday?  Damn!

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “loud.” Find any word that means “loud,” and use it any way you’d like in your post.

https://lindaghill.com/2019/12/13/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-14-19/

SoCS: keys

I read an article recently (on Facebook so it must be true) that now thieves can replicate the sound of your remote lock for your car and open it. It says we should go back to using the key to lock the doors manually.

I tried to remember this on my recent Christmas shopping quest. But its hard to remember its so automatic. (ha, pun!) And its a hassle.  Go all away around your car and lock each one like the olden days.  Then I start thinking, “Well that’s just in big cities, not here in Strathroy.”

But I will lock the doors with the key manually next time. I need to move on to a bigger city where they have lots of stuff. I’m on the quest for a coin sorter. It has to be Canadian for Loonies, Two-nies and no pennies.

The key to enjoying Christmas is to stop buying so much crap. Draw names or just buy for the kids. Stop buying all that needless garbage that nobody wants. When we stopped buying gifts for each other, Christmas got so much easier, cheaper and way less stressful.

Hells Bells: I just went looking for a film clip from Harry and Tonto (I’m sure that’s the movie) where he picks up a couple of hitch-hikers and a woman goes on and on about how much crap there is in the world. More and more crap; everywhere, crap. But I couldn’t find it and I’m losing Stream of Consciousness momentum.

One of my key ways to enjoy Christmas is to go through ‘all the hassle’ of getting a real tree. I bought it on Monday and it was outside in its netting until yesterday.

I moved some furniture and set it up; let it sit and unfurl all night. Straightened it a number of times because just a few degrees off drives me crazy. After much sweating and swearing and turning screws I finally stuck something under the tree stand itself. Perfect.

Today is Saturday: all that insanity out there in a shopping frenzy. I’m going to decorate my tree.

 

 

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

https://lindaghill.com/2019/12/06/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-7-19/