SoCS: up and down

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “up/down.” Use one, use them both, but try to put one in your first sentence. Bonus points if you use the other in your last sentence. 

First thing I thought of is my mood; up and down, mostly down. Then I thought of the temperatures, mostly up. We are not experiencing heat right now but we’ve already had 2 heatwaves here in Canada and in between them it got cold. Now we are getting badly needed rain however the forecast is lots of rain for days on end. They are experiencing record heat in British Columbia which rarely ever gets hot at all. I’ve read about the temperatures in the US southwest. Holey Moley! We are experiencing extreme weather.

Its not helping my mood to be either too hot or too wet. Although I am relieved; I don’t feel like I should be getting something done outside and everything is being watered. Its a lot of work keeping this place up and that’s getting me down.

I have fairly large lot and I’ve planted a lot of shrubs and gardens to cut down on the size of the lawn but I still want a good stretch of lawn. I had an old rider mower that made that job actually fun but it broke down forever. I could not afford another rider so I had to get a push mower. Even though its self-propelled, its a lot more work.

Not getting my second shot is getting me down. The local clinic is booked until late Aug. Seriously. Oh yeah, I can drive to the city an hour away but I’m not going to. Its ridiculous that I should have to go that far for a damn shot. Everyone at every age is getting their second shot everywhere else.

So you might have guessed by now, I’m down. Yesterday I went for the mail and ran into my lazy, young neighbour. “How’s that new lawn mower working out for you?” I want to beat him up.

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 26, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: hot, hut, hit, hat

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “hat/het/hit/hot/hut.” Choose one, choose ’em all, put ’em in your post. 

Yesterday I watched “The Magnificent Seven”; the original one from 1960. I had actually never watched it before which was a surprise even to me as I’ve seen most classic movies, even westerns like “Shane” or my favourite (western) “Once Upon a Time in the West”.

The reason I was inside watching TV during the day was because it started out raining, then got hot and steamy. But I had planned to do nothing except watch TV because I was tired. I had a few days of being physically busy and I wanted a day of rest.

First of all it stars Yul Brunner. Even as an adolescent he got my new hormones doing a dance in my body. I still have to laugh at myself at 13, 14 or whatever, getting mesmerized by Yul Brunner in “The King and I”. He was hot! Those smoldering eyes burning into .. . . well, me.

The Magnificent Seven had a line-up of hot men. They wanted women to enjoy the movie too so they had everyone’s type; Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and surprisingly Robert Vaughan who managed to keep a clean white shirt and clothes for an entire ride to Mexico and fight a gang. There was a very young ‘hot’ guy for the teens but I guess he never made it as an actor because I don’t know his name. He was no Yul Brunner!

There were a few things I wondered about; they lived in adobes and yet there were some African-looking huts on the edge of town. The locals did a strange dance; I wondered if it was real or Hollywood. They certainly depicted Mexicans as . . . well, not as manly as American men. Funny though, the Mexicans expected the Americans to be rapists. I liked that. They hid all their young women in a mountain lodge. Of course they found them; the youngest one met a beautiful senorita and ended up staying but it was her who hit on him first. They had to throw one romance in there.

They all had very unique cowboys hats. They had to be shaped just right.

Well, now I have to go get a photo; that is my SoC.

Got a great one!: When men were men and men wore hats.

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 19, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)

SoCS: yarn

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

Yarn? Darn.

Hey, glad I said that, it gave me an idea.

I used to darn socks with yarn! Seriously, that’s what we used to do when our sock’s heels wore out. You could buy braids of thin, coloured yarn pieces, about a foot long, that had the main sock colours.

My mom taught me this. Now that I look back I understand she was still in her old way of thinking. She lived her teenage years in England during WW2 when everything was rationed. Even in her childhood they didn’t have much money so my mom taught me to darn socks the way her mother taught her.

She taught me to put an orange in the heel and hold the hole in position. Then you got your special darning needle that had a dull tip and large eyehole. The first stitches were loose and as long as the hole and when the vertical stitches were done, you carefully wove the horizontal in and out.

The major problem was that someone at school would see it. You would have to make sure you didn’t let your shoe heel drop. I guess back in England in the 30’s it was quite common to have darned socks. Not in Toronto in the ’60’s.

YARN. Yarn is the word. And yarn is another reason why I didn’t like it. I liked cotton socks and yarn darning was ridiculous.

Now I never wear out heels of my socks. Its the big toe nail that cuts cuts through. I admit; I have sewn up some toe holes on my favourite 100% cotton socks. I don’t use yarn.

Now we just throw things out.

Today is June 5. My mom’s birthday and her death day. I am grateful to her for teaching me to be frugal and the importance of not throwing out every thing just so you can buy new stuff. She taught me how to darn socks and talked about why they used to darn their socks.

. . . while she ‘spun yarns’ about her life. (that’s gotta be bonus points!)

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 5, 2021 | (lindaghill.com)