Weekly Photo Challenge: Change
How do you like my fancy new cast? I slipped on the ice on Easter Sunday and fell on top of my wrist which broke, of course. This was not the change I was looking for. But I am learning a lot!
Like how hard it is to get dressed with only one operable hand and forget hanging up jeans at all. Forget hanging up anything or making a bed or sweeping a floor. I’m becoming a slovenly teenager late in life! Didn’t I just mention a few posts back how I wanted someone to take care of me – send applications to 
.
I had to get my sister to open the jam when she was here last weekend but I was able to figure out how to open the juice today by myself. I held it under my armpit and used my good hand to untwist the lid. It wasn’t too messy and now my armpit smells like mangos.
And did you know that regular pill use gets you constipated! Not fun!
Plus, it would be a good idea to cut your long hair before you break your arm as it is very hard to wash it one-handed.
I’d ask how Pirates did it but then they were never known for their cleanliness!
And the more expensive the toilet paper the easier it is to tear at the perforations.
I’d show you pictures of my bruises but they’re on my good hand and I can’t use the other hand to take photos right now.
I only have four button down shirts and on three the buttons are too small to do up with one hand. Let’s not even talk about bras and how hard they are to do up even in the best of circumstances.
Breaking bones leaves you very tired and the resetting is worse then the breaking. The emergency room doctor was impressed that I didn’t swear when she reset my wrist even though I had permission to do so. I guess I wouldn’t make a very good pirate after all.
My blog posts, for the rest of April may be shorter than usual as I adjust to this change!
And learn what it is possible to do mostly one-handed.
Are you ambidextrous? What can you do one handed? I can turn on the bath tub taps with either foot but that is not helping me now (can’t shower, can’t take a bath, can’t get my cast wet).
I wish I were a cat and could lick myself clean as sponge bathing is annoying (but there are certain parts you don’t want to lick)!
Can Winter be over now, she asks, as she watches the snow come down (once again) outside her window?
This was not the change I was looking for!
Inspired by The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge.
(Click on the second photo for a book recommendation).
Travel Theme: Smoke and Mirrors
This is an Alice in Wonderland door; small, compact and leading I know not where! To the right is what looks like a small winter forest path. Winter has been too long and I have lost my words and my will.
With luck, I will have them both back by next week!
Read more entries at Where’s my backpack.
Surprise: Fences, Walls and Shadows
I go out for my morning walk without my camera because I just plan to walk; it’s too cold to fiddle with a camera and really, how much has the landscape changed anyway!
However, Friday’s photo memes are peculating in my head.
Walls and shadows. Shadows and walls.
Shadows are easy. It’s an early morning walk; the sun is just coming up and it’s at my back. I just have to remember not to get my shadow in the picture.
The most interesting things about the picture I don’t even notice until I get home and start manipulating the image. My focus as I shoot is on the smiley face. I don’t notice the angel shadow to the left and is that Santa’s sleigh still stuck on the roof?
My Shadow
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons
I live in Canada. We had our first permanent lasting snow over a month ago. A full weekend of blustery, blowy snow which is why I didn’t go outside to take these pictures. I took the pictures through my balcony windows from inside my warm, cozy apartment.
I’ve lived in Canada most of my life. I expect snow before Halloween which hardly ever stays. Here, where I live, the season changes from Autumn to Winter long before the official December solstice.
This year, the snow appeared fast and fluffy in early November. I walked to the grocery store that Friday through ankle-high drifts and blowing winds. I had the day off and I had plans! I took a Taxi home again and stayed in after that!
I didn’t mind the walk (too much). I was grateful that I had money for a taxi. I was happy that I hadn’t had to walk to work that day. I was glad it was the weekend and that I could spend the rest of it hibernating and reading.
I was glad to be an adult because nobody could boss me around and tell me to go outside to get some fresh air. But I was sad about it too. When did I forget how to build snowmen and would I ever again play street hockey (very unlikely)? Where did that joy for endless snow-banks and crisp star-filled nights go? I feel so old!
I get looked down on, around here, because I choose not to drive ninety-nine percent of the time. I am not a driver (I can drive). I am a walker who has moved somewhere where everyone else seems to drive and the sidewalks never get cleaned and I worry about my safety.
I just want to enjoy my solitary walks in the quiet of the snow. I want to revel in the pleasure and wonder of the changing seasons once more.
Travel Theme: Mystical
Today you get two for the price of one.
Where’s My Backpack does a weekly photo challenge and today is my first time participating. Her theme for this week is Mystical.
I don’t remember where or when I took this picture. I think it was winter. I know it was night. This is one in a series of four colours – the green seemed most mystical to me.
This globe reminds me of a crystal ball and I want to stare deep in its depths and foretell the future (my future or your future – it doesn’t matter which).
WordPress’ Weekly Photo Challenge this week is green and though they asked for gallery I’m just going to do one picture.
So, there you have it – two for the price (free) of one!
Now go forth and enjoy everyone else’s green and mystical photos.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Big
I live in big sky country. This picture was taken in July as I traveled the highway from city to city the big storm both behind and ahead of me (literally & figuratively). These are mammatus clouds; this summer was the first time I ever saw them.
This is how my life situation feels right now – big, immense and unsolvable.
This post inspired by the Weekly Photo Challenge from the Daily Post.
Photo Friday: Summer Colours
I had a different post planned for today (hopefully, you’ll see it next week) but I’m in the midst of the last of my unpacking (see last week) so I give you a little bit of summer color instead.
Holy, run-on sentence, Batman!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple
The violet purple of this flag always pops out at me every time I pass!
My Hometown
Today’s assignment comes to me via Kathy over at Upwoods. The challenge is originally from Scott Thomas over at Views Infinitum and it is Assignment 13: Hometown History.
I had to think about this one awhile; I read Kathy’s post the day she wrote it and only decided today to do the assignment. The problem was that I’m really not sure what I consider to be my hometown, right now. I could tell you about where I grew up or I could tell you about my city, the city that I’ve only been back living in for the last five years. Five years doesn’t seem to be enough time to be able to call somewhere your hometown. Though, according to the dictionary, I’m perfectly within my rights to do so.
home·town/
Noun: The town where one was born or grew up, or the town of one’s present fixed residence.
The complication, in my mind, is that I still consider myself unsettled. I’ve moved too much and lived too many places.
I never considered Montreal or Calgary to be my hometown because I was only there to go to school. I wasn’t even allowed to vote in Montreal even after I had lived there for six years because I was only a student.
I did not live in Winnipeg long enough. I was only there for a summer as I mooched off my stepmother’s relatives well I looked for a job. I have to have time to walk around a city to know it; once I know where this alley leads or how long it takes to walk from where I am to the downtown core then I can start to consider that this city might be my hometown.
I’ve been in and out of Saskatoon since I was thirteen and my eldest sister started University here. I lived here before and after I was married. I live here now. But I’m still not sure if it’s my hometown especially when I talk to co-workers who were born and raised in this city.
I wonder at what point in my life, I’ll feel like I’m truly and completely home.
Here in Canada, this weekend is Victoria Day weekend and I’ve actually got four days off to enjoy my city. I’ve gone walking every morning with camera in hand and this assignment in the back of my mind so today’s post will be very photo heavy. I hope you enjoy this tableau of my current hometown.
The district I live in is called Nutana and it is home to one of our older city streets – Broadway. It makes me smile to think that I live just off Broadway because of the New York connotations of that phrase.
Notice the ubiquitous 7-11 sign on the right.
Broadway use to be more low rent. The Salvation Army thrift store use to be here as well as my favourite hobby shop and a book store, where I was able to buy artistic colouring books for a dollar or two. The street is more artsy now, full of night clubs, high end shops and expensive free trade bastions.
I am close to the South Saskatchewan river and in-between two bridges (one unfortunately closed for rebuilding). The only steamboat accident we ever had is within walking distance.
There is history within history here.
This tribute to our pioneers was erected in 1952, a lifetime ago.
Walking in my neighbourhood, I am always aware of the passage of time. If time travel is merely stepping between dimensions, it would be so easy to do here.
My favourite antique shop resides within in the 100+ year old Empyreal Building. What I am coveting now are old oak library card catalogs – even though I have no idea what I would use all those drawers for.
Oskayak passes on traditions that are even older than the city; shouldn’t we all be listening to the wisdom of our elders.
This cafe is older than me. The original owners just sold and a new generation is redesigning the past for future generations to enjoy.
My sister shopped at this bakery when she went to university. She’s a grandmother now. I find that so hard to comprehend some days. If she’s an elder, am I an elder also?
Here is new Broadway where the old theatre competes with the new coffee house for prominence. I patronize both.
I love my neighbourhood with its mature trees and quirky shops. I think it very sad when developers cut down the trees to build houses. I love a neighbourhood where there are old trees for shade and climbing.
Don’t you just want to climb the tree, or build a tree-house, or just sit under one reading. Hug a tree today. You’ll both feel better!
My neighbourhood consists of artists, elders, environmentalists, families, old hippies, students and people like me who are never really sure in which category they belong.
Artist or Elder or Student?
Environmentalist or Hippie or Elder?
Hippie or Elder or Me?
Family or Artist?
Students or Environmentalists?
Family or Artist or Elder?
Environmentalist or Hippie or Family?
Elder or Environmentalist?
Hippie or Artist or Elder?
I walk around my neighbourhood looking at for sale signs. I could live here. I could live there. That Victorian is too big. That condo is too small. I feel like Goldilocks or the 3 little pigs building their houses of straw, wood and brick. This is my hometown. There is a lot of history here.
Weekly Geeks 2011 – 20: Technology and Reading
June 26, 2011 at 2:30 pm (Book Commentary, Meme) (carpal tunnel, Douglas Adams, e-reader, ebooks, family, Graceland, Hitcherhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Lawrence Block, Library, reading, technology, Weekly Geeks)
Today’s post is brought to you by Weekly Geeks.
This challenge is about us Geeker’s taking a look at our reading so far and see how far we’ve come regarding the format of the books we read. Erotic Horizon wants us to look at changes in the types of formats we use, whether it has happened and if it has been a good thing or a bad thing for us.
Here are the questions I choose to answer:
1. Did you have a hard and fast mindset in regards to your reading a year ago? (paperback, ebooks etc)
I’m very open with my reading; I’ve always been open to any book in any format. However, I have carpal tunnel (which oddly enough developed from my repetitive reading motions) and find most hardcover and many paperback books aggravate the condition. The older I get the more annoying most traditional book formats have become. Because of this I am sincerely considering getting an e-book.
2. If you have tried another format (ebook, audio) – Share your experience?
I have tried audio books but find them limiting. I am a multi-tasker; I quite often read while watching television. I find that I can’t listen to a book and do something else unless I am in a car. I have a copy of the BBC production of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe and an extremely witty mystery short story about someone breaking into Graceland. The short story is less than half an hour and thus is perfect for short trips. I tried listening to Hitchhiker’s as I cleaned house and had to stop cleaning because my mind could not focus. I think this has something to do with me being a linguistic learner rather than an auditory one.
3. Give a brief over view of where you are at with your reading now, eg, loads of paperbacks lying round, or the out of sight out of mind e-reader putting your mind at ease, or life as you know it has tossed you a curve ball and forced you to think outside of the box?
Right now, I am reading books that I bought between 2000 and 2004. Long story short – in 2000 I went back to work after ten years of school and unemployment. I went a little crazy buying books because I could now afford to. I ended up with three packing boxes that kept getting moved but not read because I read the library books first. I finally made a resolution this year to read the books I owned and am about two-thirds finished. They are mostly paperbacks with a few hardcovers here and there. They are fiction, non-fiction, young adult and children’s books. When I am finished with them, I pass them on so that others can enjoy them. I am her.
I tend not to keep books when I’ve finished reading them and this is why the library is an ideal third place for me. This is also why I think an e-reader would be a good investment. It would be lighter than a hard cover, the pages would scroll differently than a book and I would need no space to store books. The disadvantages are the cost, concerns over what files (pdf etc) the device would support and how one goes about borrowing a library e-book (my library only recently began to lend e-books) plus my sister would no longer have a book connection to foist books on her.
In conclusion, I hope to soon own an e-reader once I decide on which one is best for my needs and I am no longer unemployed. So, hopefully, this will happen sometime this year.
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