SoCS: bored/boards

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “board/bored.” Use one, or use them both for bonus points.

There are some people who work after 65, even though they don’t have to, because they are bored. I know 2 women I worked with at a grocery store that still want to work there because they get bored. They want to be there!

I can’t imagine that. Well, I can imagine being bored although I don’t get bored much. There is always something to do: some things I have to/should do and some things I want to do but hells’ bells, I would rather be bored than be in that damn grocery store for 6 hours, under florescent lights listening to the same mind-numbing pop tunes or worse; country! wearing polyester and a baseball cap! Its hell! HELL, I TELL YOU! I was counting the days to get out of there. When I got my first pension cheque I sang O Canada! Thank You!

The ‘board‘ part that comes to mind is recently donating my old deck boards to the local trail club. I was very lucky to get a new deck before the pandemic and lumber prices going sky-high. The old boards were thrown into a pile which I moved and stacked neatly. Then I realized they were in the pathway of my propane tanks for the guy that has to fill them so I moved and stacked them again. I knew they were too good to burn. They had been stacked there through 2 winters.

A couple of months ago the Lambton Shores Nature Trails advertised they needed old deck boards for building a boardwalk in a sensitive area of a trail near here. These guys volunteer. They came one mosquito infested morning and loaded the boards onto the back of their truck. They had to saw some in half first. We were all so very happy! They even sent me a nice letter with a LSNT badge.

I’ll bet those guys never get bored. They even keep the trails clear in the winter.

I know I’ve written about this before but its worth repeating: Something I heard from Oprah I’ve always remembered, that when we are bored we are really at our ‘best life’ because we are not pushed for time or stressed or worried or overworked. . . We should be content that we can be bored!

So I’m happy to be bored today. . except I won’t be. Its perfect weather to have all the windows open so I’m puttering around all day; inside and out.

Hope you all get a chance to get bored this weekend!

https://lindaghill.com/2022/08/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-27-2022/

SoCS: key

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “key.” Use it as a noun, a verb, or use it metaphorically. Have fun!

The key to happiness is. . . The key to success is . . . It seems like happiness and success must be locked away somewhere. Some say its inside us. Some say outside of us; we just aren’t visualizing properly.

I bet if I Google imaged search “the key to . . . ” I’d get a lot of things but I’ll wait until the end of my stream of consciousness.

The key to happiness and contentment is understanding the Mind. Its never enough. We never think we have it good enough or have enough stuff. We may be temporarily satisfied but it won’t last. . . the Mind will want more and better. We always look at what we don’t have. And even though I know this; I still have to keep reminding myself how damn good I have it.

The key to success . . . hell, I’ve never even looked for the locked door! The success I’ve had depended mostly on my gut feelings when my brain was barely functioning properly.

I had thought of Mon-key Pox. I used to think I couldn’t possibly get it but found out that may not be true: I read you can get from cash. My ex gave me some cash and I used it all over the closest city to me. I even ate a chocolate bar and licked my fingers afterwards! Then immediately screamed in horror! Spit into my sleeve. . . ptuu ptuu! (I was driving home). And that was just for Covid and other dirty money germs. I didn’t even know about the cash/monkey pox connection. (Which I still haven’t confirmed anywhere else)

Holy Moly! I looked on Google for the key to happiness and there are a lot of them! So many keys to happiness and success I couldn’t put them all in here. How can we not be happy and successful already? But I did find one that included the other. . .

Albert Schweitzer was a philanthropist. I have no doubt he loved what he did and considered himself a success. Good for yoouuu, Albert Schweitzer. Let’s hear it for all the people working hard in low paying jobs, trying to make ends meet. This statement bugs me so much I’m putting the SoCS photo on top of this post so readers don’t think I’m saying this.

On the other hand: now I’m retired and I love it when I don’t have to do anything.

https://lindaghill.com/2022/08/19/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-20-2022/

SoCS: ungodly

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is starts with “u.” Find a word that starts with the letter “u” and use it however you’d like. Bonus points if it’s the first word in your post.

U got that right, Linda! Scorching heat, steaming heat with the humidity. Its ungodly . . . as in hell.

I remember not having an air conditioner. We would have a heat wave for a few days but nothing like this. We could get by with fans. Now I am so grateful to have air conditioning. Heat, like last weekend literally makes me sick: I don’t handle heat well at all. At least in the winter I can bundle up and go out on the trail. Summer is the only season I don’t go in the woods.

Unnatural. But it is nature so I guess its natural now. What I really hate is having to close the curtains in the afternoon as the sun blazes into my west facing windows. I really feel stuck in the house. I ran out to water once a day and felt like my head was exploding. For 4 days I did this; I was having pandemic isolation flash-backs!

But now its over. Yesterday I mowed my lawn, all of it. Today I’ll do some weeding. The mosquitoes have subsided. Even they don’t like extreme heat.

It looks like I’ve run out of ‘u’ ideas.

https://lindaghill.com/2022/08/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-13-2022/

SoCS: wallpaper

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “wallpaper.” Use it however you’d like.

Wallpaper? Now what made Linda think of wallpaper? I am imaging her thinking up what to use and looking at a wall with wallpaper.

I’ve done wallpaper a few times, years and years ago. But I did one small wallpapering job here I will share with you.

I wanted a backsplash for my kitchen but had very limited funds and I wasn’t about to take on my first tiling/ grout job. What I really wanted was texture. Something like the old tin ceiling tiles.

Or washable wall paper. One day at Home Depot I found a roll of paintable embossed wallpaper. A big roll of it in the bargain bin for $26! Then I bought a can of white, high gloss enamel kitchen paint.

I just checked to see if I still had the photo of the fresh project in my phone and I do! Good thing because I would have to do some cleaning up to take a photo now. I probably saved it so I could show someone: look at this economic backsplash I made with paintable wallpaper! Now I finally get my chance thanks to Linda!

I noticed it was taken in 2019 so its holding up well. I’ve only done wipe downs and it cleans nicely. However, I mostly cook vegetables in a wok-style frypan and never cook meat so the splash factor is lowered considerably.

The other easy change I made was getting really pretty crystal-like knobs. I saw the ones I wanted but I needed 20 and that was too much money. I kept looking for affordable ones. One day it hit me; just buy 2 or 3 every time I go to Sarnia! My sister took me out for my birthday and got me 4 more. I had 20 knobs within the year! But I’m not bothering to take a photo because this post is about wallpaper.

I’m staying in all weekend because its hotter than hell and so humid my windows are fogged up this morning. The local beaches have e-coli warnings. This is getting bad, folks!

paintable wallpaper

https://lindaghill.com/2022/08/05/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-6-2022/