SoCS: ending and beginnings

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “the beginning, the end.” Write about the beginning of something and the end of  something. Bonus points if your first sentence contains “the end” and your last sentence contains “the beginning.”

The end is in sight; (how many thought of that first?) but even as I write it, I’m not 100% sure that’s right.

The vaccines have arrived! Then Pfizer cuts back Canada’s orders. It’s getting out to the nursing homes at least. Now Moderna is cutting back Canada’s orders. Both companies need to ‘re-tool’. I’ve heard everything from 6 weeks to September for when we can be vaccinated.

Now there are new variants that are much more contagious. Things are as bad as they have ever been. Toronto hospitals are so over-loaded they are shipping patients out to less populated areas. And no one is sure if the vaccines will be any good with the new variants. It might be like the flu, meaning we’ll have to get Covid shots like flu shots as it mutates.

But I can’t be too forlorn; I’ve had worse winters than this! Worse than this was having to go to work. Having to get dressed and go out on cold mornings, brush of the car, spend the day freezing cold, under florescent lights listening to the same annoying songs over and over. . . Oh yeah, I’ve had worse winters than this!

I’ve felt so much better since I started to Zoom. It has given my week structure. I hesitate to say, I like it better in some ways. I can meet with people and not go anywhere! That’s win-win for me! Don’t have to get dressed and go out. Don’t have to sterilize the house. I meet with friends and do an exercise class in my living room. I host a Balderdash game night. I even chat with friends and I hate to chat! (that’s when the 40 minutes limit is good; forty minutes is enough)

So I’m not too worried about when the end of all this is because its been the beginning of a new way of communicating with people while staying at home being a hermit!

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 30th | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: downtowns

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “close eyes and point.” When you’re ready to write your post, open a book, a newspaper, or whatever is handy and close your eyes and point. Whatever word or picture your finger lands on, make that the basis of your SoCS/JusJoJan post.

. . . downtown . .

Things will be great when you’re . . DOWNTOWN.

I opened a magazine and got an article; the word I pointed to was ‘downtown’. . . downtown L.A. “It was the Summer of Revolution” but for me, ‘downtown’ was Toronto. I lived there from the ages 10 to 21 and I lived there in the summer of revolution.

Lucky me! That was before AIDS and crack. Hippies hung out in Yorkville or ‘The Village’ as it was known. I was only a teeny- bopper so we would go downtown by bus and walk up and down the street a few times. We had to take two buses and the subway to get down there because we lived out in the suburbs.

I travelled around Europe when I was 21, saw lots of downtowns, then moved to Vancouver. That city had a scuzzy downtown with sad businesses and street people. We only went down there to the scuzzy bars we liked.

My nearest town is a very small town, there is no downtown, just TOWN.

The little hamlet I live in has a convenience/beach store with a little bit of everything including a LCBO (booze). I have a favourite (yes, that is the correct spelling) photo of this place right here in my images.

I found it; from 2016! Downtown Ipperwash Beach;

“Hey kids, gather up all the empties and go get us some coffee!”

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 23rd | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: first thing

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “first thing.” Start your post with the words, “first thing” and go from there. Bonus points if you end your post with the last thing. 

First thing I think of when I wake up: oh yeah, my furnace is broken.

Get up and get the woodstove burning, turn on all electric heaters, then run back to my nice warm bed with the electric blanket on ‘4’. That’s when I realize I have to pee real bad.

I run to the toilet and scream because its not warmed up yet. Run back to my nice warm bed.

Now I have to poop. NO! I say to my poop, Can’t you wait until its a little warmer out there? It continues to knock at the door until I get up.

This has played out every morning all week and will continue for some time.

My furnace went out last Sunday; of course it happened on a Sunday. I spent most of the week looking for someone to service it but its so old it wasn’t worth putting expensive new parts into. Thursday I bought a new furnace/air conditioner. I was so grateful I have a credit line in place to do everything on my computer right then and there; otherwise I would be shit out of luck. I opened it when I bought my car and and don’t owe anything . . . well, didn’t owe anything.

Our province is in total lockdown because of the surge in Covid cases. My furnace is outside so I wasn’t worried about contact. The guy came to check out how the ducts go into the house and the electric. He only came in once to look at the fuse box and wore a mask.

After he left he called me; he couldn’t find his glasses, he must have left them here. I found them outside, they fell off the porch where we were exchanging paper work. I left a message I found his glasses.

He phoned me a little later and said his son, who works with him, has been in possible contact with Covid and has to be tested. The results will come back in 4 to 5 days. If its positive they have to suspend all their business for two weeks. That will push the installation back until February.

After his call I thought ‘did I wash my hands after I found his glasses and phoned him then continued on watching TV (remotes) and doing my puzzle?’ I washed thoroughly and wiped down everything I think I might have touched with a Lysol wipe.

Luckily, its not very cold outside . . for Canada. Its been un-seasonably warm and we have had very little snow so its been easy to keep the house warm. But they are talking about a polar vortex on the way at the end of the month.

So the installation of my new furnace and some very cold weather are running neck and neck. Will I get my knew furnace in time for the polar vortex? Will additional costs get added on? Will I get Covid?

This is the last thing I think of before I fall asleep.

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 16th | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: sky’s the limit

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “sky’s the limit.” Write about something that has or seems to have no end.

Write about something that seems to have no end? I think just about everyone who actually trying to follow the rules and STAY THE FUCK HOME!!!!!!! is feeling like this has no end.

But I don’t know if I can put a “sky’s the limit!” spin on this one.

“What can I do today? Sky’s the limit!” Sounds like Pollyanna.

What I really need is limitless sky! Its been cloudy for weeks: so dismal. We are getting sun today so I am getting out.

I can’t think of anything else to say.

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 9th | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: in a corner

Hey, that’s me; sitting in the corner over here.

I’m not going to lie, this is not a ‘fun’ post; this has been hard. I know all the tricks to keep your head above water when depression sets in but I’ve been treading water for 10 months now and I’m getting weak. So I’m sitting in the corner here, working on a jigsaw puzzle.

To make matter worse, I had a bad fall, I don’t feel like writing about it but I bruised my ribs and that hurts like hell. I did it a couple of days before Christmas. That probably marked the beginning of my retreat into the corner.

I did get chance to zoom with my sister’s family on Christmas Day which was nice but that was over by noon.

I have been organizing zoom meetings in an attempt to communicate with people. We had a get-together with old friends on the 21st. That went well. I did it with another friend; we put 2 meetings together and had an hour and half. For all the people we reached out to, only 2 people other than the regulars showed up.

The Zoom Balderdash game has been going well, too. Its a nice break mid week. I decided to do a special edition NYE game which meant doing it two days in a row. That was fine; I have nothing better to do anyway.

On Wednesday, one of the players, who is consistently unreliable, sent me her definitions very late. I didn’t want to be the ‘bad guy’ and say ‘you’re too late’ but it messed me up. I wasn’t ready for the game; people were coming into the room while I was still getting it together. I hadn’t peed and my fire went out. It was such a buzzkill on the game. Jeez Louse I sent out the game on Monday morning and Wed. night I’m waiting for the answers. What made it worse is seeing the next day she was on Facebook after I had texted her to remind her and she said they were coming.

The next night we had some different people; a friend I don’t know very well from our Sunday social zoom wanted to play Balderdash a few weeks ago. I thought there were too many players already but I asked him in as a guest, hoping he would set up a game. He has the game and paid-for Zoom.

So he played one week with us and was OK. I did not invite him the next week because there are already 9 players which is, frankly, too many already. But some people said ” Were’s ____? He should play!”

And so I went against my gut feelings to not add him to our game. I should always, always trust my gut feelings. He wrote something offensive. Now, I’m not a prude but this wasn’t even funny and it being “for teens” crossed the line. Not only that, I know these people; they are very conservative and don’t swear or make off-colour jokes. I could not imagine reading that out to them so I wrote to him and asked to tone it down; could I take off “for teens” and use a word other than “rich fucks”. He said OK.

When we got on Zoom for the game he was mad about being “censored”. He called other players ‘stupid’. Luckily they were not on yet but when they did get in I could feel how pissed off he was. The very people who wanted him back in the game. Do not let people talk you into something you KNOW is wrong.

So I had put a lot of work into reaching out to people and organizing some kind of fun. The nicer people have thanked me and my friend for all our work getting them together. And that’s reward enough. My friend also lives alone and doesn’t have children so she understands what its like being alone.

This has been hard on everybody. I’m sure those living with others are longing for some time alone. Our lives and our whole society, all over the world, has been shaken up by this pandemic. Many people are stressed out and behaving badly, including me. I’m not having ‘good thoughts’ right now, no matter how hard I try.

So . . .I’ll just sit in a corner where no one notices me and work on my puzzle.

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in the corner.” Write about whatever the image or thought of “in the corner” brings to mind.

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 2nd | (lindaghill.com)