It’s here – the last day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. All good things and bad ones, too, come to an end. This one has been more of a pleasure than others in the past. I can’t say it was effortless. Some days were difficult to get the words out. Those days I had to work and push hard to get past the block. Doing so gave me more confidence. I’ve learned that if I come to the keyboard, the words will come.
What have I learned? I’ve strengthened my stay-with-it muscle by continuing and finishing when I I felt blocked, dull and bored with it. I felt not as motivated when others fell off their writing block. It always felt better with others’ company. But it builds character to carry one’s own torch and not mind what others are doing. I am inspired by others who also carried the torch through their difficulties. I have much gratitude for their shining examples.
Much thanks to Paul Taubman for leading us through another Ultimate Blog Challenge. He is a powerful leader of the pack. Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts, knowledge and interests.
It’s the second last day in April, the second last day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m coming late to the keyboard. I’m also coming tired. I like to say I’ll do this later. But there is no later. Later might be too late. Lately I’ve been coaching myself to do it now. Now is the time to do it because when I put off things for later, I forget and then it’s another day and another later. Sometimes I have to make a list the night before. It works and things got done.
I would put no more than 3 things on my to-do list. I would more likely succeed with a few. Success has a way of making us feel good. It would encourage me to try it again. So I talk to myself to do it now. And here I am, tapping on the keyboard, making words for the second last day. It feels good to finish well what I have started. To each job there’s a beginning, a middle and an end.
I woke up to a cloudy morning with raindrops on the windows. Looking out, I see that one of our tubs for catching runoffs from the garage roof is laying on its side. Well, that’s doing alot of good, I said to myself. The second thought was the season of what’s-her-name has started. I went out and righted it. The large rock to weigh it down was still in it. Must have been a mighty wind or a push. Our neighbour has dumped our rainwater into the back alley in the past. She complains it breeds mosquitoes. So we put a screen over the tubs. We try to empty the tubs as soon as possible before she does.
I have moved past getting angry and crazed by my neighbour’s antics. Being angry was not very effectual but very harmful to my physical and emotional health. It made me look like the one with the problem. Of course, I have tried to do the neighbourly thing – given her some of my plants, talking to her. It was an impossible task. She would not allow me to talk. Even the community police officer had a hard time getting in a word edge wise.
After many years of trying different ways, giving her no response is the best solution. Being human, I am not 100% foolproof. Sometimes I do lose it. I always pay for it. Then I learned some more on not reacting. I just have to keep on walking by with no eye contact, not saying hello. It’s not the neighbourly thing but a very wise thing to do.
A beautiful sunny Saturday morning. It is cool though at 0℃. Just when I think we’ve past all the cool, it comes back to remind me. The only sure thing is that there are no sure thing. There’s no it’s in the bag. Looking ahead, I see that there are a couple of 0s and -2℃ lows for next week. I have to remember that we’ve had snow on Victoria Day – the long weekend in May. It’s the gardeners’ date to put in the garden.
I’ve been patient and heeding that date this year. I’ve been holding back and not rushing things. Most of my seedlings are relatively small compared to other years. They’re easier to handle. We’ll see how the harvest is in the fall. The greenhouse is in its 4th year. I no longer try to get things going in late February/early March. Late March is soon enough. That also have saved me work from covering and uncovering, worrying and fretting. I’m learning to be a little more thoughtful in how and when I tackle stuff.
The best time is, of course, the moment when I see the need. Procrastination and pushing things to the back of my mind and closet will only create much hassle sooner or later. With that knowledge, I’ve just spent a couple of hours defrosting and cleaning up the stand up freezer. All the shelves and jars have accumulated a very thick layer of frost from the door not properly closed overnight. Defrosting the freezer was a snap. The frost melted quickly when the power was shut off and the door opened wide. Cleaning the frost off the jars was a chore. It’s all done. A big sigh of relief.
Three more posts left for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I have done well, having missed 2 so far. I took the day off yesterday. I was tired and taking a day off is good for me. Sometimes I am too dogged about these things. I need to let go a little and then come back. I don’t have to be a dog with a bone. It’s not a to do or die. I know my priorities.
I’ve done my income tax and I get a refund. It’s a good reason to sing Hallelujah with K. D. Lang. It’s my favourite rendition of Leonard Cohen’s song. K. D. in barefeet and no ads on the video either. What a treat! I want to do a Lia hallelujah pumping my arms. Hallelujah, hallelujah!
I like to do another rendition of her when time permits. My tax return has been sitting heavy on me for the last month or so. That’s the whole trouble. I allowed it to sit on me, weighing me down, gnawing on me. I couldn’t or didn’t want to do anything until time was running out. I was frozen with dread and procrastination.
The weight is lifted. I am left with a headache. I hope I can learn from this and get my act together. I have a pile of paper crap to sort, shred and rid. I will not say never again. It didn’t work many times before. Saying it will not help. I will save my breath and try something else – another day. I’m keeping it simple on day 25 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.
Another beautiful sunny morning. It’s day 24 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I love waking up with the birds and sun. I’ve had my cuppa, played Wordle and Spelling Bee. I can beat Wordle most days but having trouble with spelling. I’m in a spelling rut but I can leave it without frustration.
I’ve made my morning trek to the greenhouse and planted my first tomato – a Sweet One Million. I disturbed the earthworms from their sleep. The soil was alive with them. I will plant one more later – a Red Torch. And that will be plenty in there. Real estate is at a premium in there. I want to make good use of every inch. It’s hard to envision now but it doesn’t take long before it’s a jungle. Here’s what it looked like last summer.
Going into the 4th year of the greenhouse, I’m working at maintaining my health and vitality. I need both to keep on growing our own food. I was careless last year and I suffered for it. Now I working out in the weight room, training almost like Joan. Growing our food, maintaining my health and that of our planet gives me purpose and meaning. It’s easy to relax, slide and let everything go to pots. All my little every day things keep me mostly on track.
A beautiful sunny April 23 morning to you. I’m looking down the last week of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’ve been successful in showing up almost every day, having missed just once. Coming to the keyboard early in the day makes the words flow better. My mind is still relatively fresh, not corrupted by the events, thoughts and feelings accumulated through the day. Writing about things that I am familiar with and passionate about makes it that much easier.
My head and thoughts are still on The Woman in Gold, the movie about Maria Altmann, an elderly Jewish refugee living in Los Angeles. She was 82 when she embarked on recovering her family’s paintings by Gustav Klimt. They were stolen by the Nazis during WW11. Two of them were portraits of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer. Though the odds were against her, she did win. The movie was a great interest to me because of the history and the art.
It reminds me about my family’s journey out of China. I was 6 at the time. My paternal grandfather and father were already in Canada then. When we(my grandmother, uncles, my mother and I) left China for Hong Kong, there was no thoughts of us not returning home. All our worldly possessions were left behind. These included all the gold jewellry in my mother’s dowry, gold gifts on my birth plus my grandmother’s gold were left behind in the safe keeping of our relatives. My grandmother had always wanted to return to the house my grandfather had built for us.
Life got in the way. We never went back to China. We ended up in Canada. Our relatives kept and spent what we left behind. Now they have immigrated to the U.S. They have visited us a few summers ago. My cousin’s wife talked to my mother about how beautiful her jewellry were. I think they still have some of it but did not offer to give any back to her, not even the gold hairpin she described so vividly. My mother didn’t ask for any.
It was always my dream to visit our village one day. I got as far as Hong Kong and a bus ride away. It was not to be. I was there at the wrong time of the year, when everyone was going back and I couldn’t get a bus. Then I had plans on another time. Politics got in the way. Now, I do not have any interest. Sometimes you just can’t go home again.
Day 22 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I got sidetracked by Gia Carangi’s story enroute here. What a sad tale about a beautiful woman who had it all in a couple years and to lose it all equally fast. Then to die of AIDS at age 26. It sucked the energy right out of me. I could have done without the story. I am so easily sidetracked. I am so human. Not much will power today.
But if I was having coffee with my mother, her stories would be more uplifting even if they were sad. I never get tired of her stories no matter how many times I have heard them. I’ve learned alot about our family’s and China’s history from her stories. There were stories of hardships during the Japanese invasion. Then there were the times of Mao’s communism when my grandfather escaped with his life to Hong Kong. My grandmother was arrested and jailed in his place. Too many stories of that time to recount here today. My mother and her siblings always talk about those times whenever we visited them in New York City.
my grandfathermy grandmother
She has happy stories, too, of them growing up. There were 7 of them. My aunt was the oldest, followed by 3 brothers, then my mother and then 2 more brothers. I think that my aunt had the best childhood, being in peace time and no wars. She had more schooling. My mother was not so lucky. She loved school but only got to grade 3 because of the Japanese invasion. My grandfather was a teacher and principal of the school. He was also the mayor of the village. Because of that some people who were jealous accused him of corruption when the opportunity came.
When my grandmother was dying, she was angry with him. Because of his work, she had to suffer. I think she was 71. She had lung cancer. She and my grandfather were in New York then. I missed the funeral. I was in Saskatoon going to university. My mother said the funeral procession was very long.
I’m looking at a bright and shiny Sunday April 21 morning. It is -2℃ outside and 7.3℃ in the greenhouse. My head feels pretty clear. I’m tackling the day before it’s gets messed up with useless crap from scrolling. I have already wasted time on Youtube watching to see who is the love of Brad Pitt’s life. It was a trap. It never said, just went on and on with the parade of women.
I am often lured by such tricks. Such is my curiosity about such things. I’m finally asking myself the question WHY? Why do I have to get to the bottom of things? What is the payoff? So what if I know the answer? I’m finally wise enough to know that mostly it doesn’t matter a squat. Knowing will not enhance my life. And sometimes/most of the time, there are no bottoms to get to. Quit wasting my time. It’s better to live my life instead of wondering about other people’s.
Yesterday, I started the arduous task of tending to this one life that I have. There’s so much of it tied up in paper. I have been gathering and shovelling them into my file cabinet. Others I have just left on my desk, gathering dust. A recent death of a colleague/friend touched my heart and mind, reminding me that life is a business that I must look after. Though afraid, I opened the cabinet door and envelopes and looked within. After an hour, I was left exhausted and with a headache. More to do today and the day after and after. Feeling not quite so afraid.
A cool but sunny morning. I couldn’t get my early morning fix in the greenhouse. The door was frozen. No way it would budge. I had to wait a couple of hours for it to warm up from 5+℃ to 10+℃ before I could get in. Everything is hunky dory in there. And in a short time the temperature went up to 10.5℃.
Talking about hunky dory, some people might not know what I’m talking about, especially the younger crowd. Hmmm. I’m aging myself. I was surprised that my nephews didn’t know what going to the biffy meant. (bathroom) So I was greatly amused to read a friend’s post on FB about this. I have to share it.
No wonder generations don’t understand each other: Heavens to Mergatroyd! The other day a not so elderly (I say 75) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy; and he looked at her and said, “What the heck is a Jalopy?” He had never heard of the word jalopy! She knew she was old …But not that old. Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory when you read this and chuckle. About a month ago, I illuminated some old expressions that have become obsolete because of the inexorable march of technology. These phrases included: Don’t touch that dial; Carbon copy; You sound like a broken record; and Hung out to dry. Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie . We’d put on our best bib and tucker, to straighten up and fly right. Heavens to Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumping Jehoshaphat! Holy Moley! We were in like Flynn and living the life of Riley ; and even a regular guy couldn’t accuse us of being a knucklehead, a nincompoop or a pill. Not for all the tea in China! Back in the olden days, life used to be swell, but when’s the last time anything was swell? Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys and the D.A.; of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes, and pedal pushers. Oh, my aching back! Kilroy was here, but he isn’t anymore. We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” Or, “This is a fine kettle of fish!” We discover that the words we grew up with, the words that seemed omnipresent, as oxygen, have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards. Poof, go the words of our youth. Where have all those great phrases gone? Long gone: Pshaw, The milkman did it. Hey! It’s your nickel. Don’t forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Well, Fiddlesticks! Going like sixty. I’ll see you in the funny papers. Don’t take any wooden nickels. Wake up and smell the roses. It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff! (Carter’s Little Liver Pills are gone too!) Leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth. See ya later, alligator! After a while crocodile. Oki-Doki artichokey
So how’s everybody on this fine Saturday morning? 10 days left for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. 10 days left to do my taxes. Yike!
onethousandandtwo 