Posted in #weekendcoffeeshare

#weekendcoffeeshare – 01/08/2017

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“Hello, Jenn! Come in quickly! It’s so terribly cold!” Jenn is joining me today for our #weekendcoffeeshare. It’s only 6F degrees this morning and I can hardly believe anyone at all will get out and trek to my house for coffee and tea!

“My car doors were almost frozen shut,” Jenn said, “but I was able to get them open. I don’t think this kind of cold is supposed to last very long.”

Where Jenn and I live, in the Ohio Valley in Kentucky, this kind of cold in winter is not particularly common. We usually have some of it but not a lot.

Jenn and I went about the business of preparing a limited coffee bar as we didn’t expect many people this morning. We set up a couple of kinds of coffee and tea, including a wonderful Indian Chai tea I had happened to find, hot chocolate, and some fine apple cider I had heating on the stove. I was gratified that some people did come by and just hoped they weren’t frostbitten. We all convened in my writing studio with our hot beverages. Most seemed interested in the hot cider this cold morning.

One person spoke up about her heat going off during the night. She is staying elsewhere until the HVAC people show up and is terribly worried about her pipes freezing, with good reason. Another person said his car wouldn’t start and caught a ride with someone else. All the problems associated with bitterly cold weather. Some of the reasons I have such a fervent desire to move to a warmer climate. I truly dread leaving my friends and what little family I have left here, but the benefits of moving are starting to outweigh the costs for me.

I’m going to have at least two realtors take a look at my house and give me their opinion on a selling price as that will determine whether I can move or not. I hope I have time to accomplish that reasonably soon. I will also look at homes in my desired destination as, of course, real estate prices there play another role. If I can move, it will be almost 1000 miles away, so it is a big move and I have to be sure. It’s a move I feel I need to make if I can get it to financially make sense. Given the political situation in the U.S., things are changing, including interest rates, so many factors have to be considered. My house was renovated last year. That is another consideration. Lots to think about!

On top of the cold weather, we had a big snow yesterday and, on the mountain where I live, we got more snow than in the valley below. Several inches. I detest snow and cold which means for four months or so each year, I’m miserable. Not a good thing, particularly at this time in my life. I guess the good news is that I get a lot of writing done! Writers need experiences, however, and I would certainly have the opportunity for more experiences if I moved. I hope there are many novels to write in my future.

I hope all of you have recovered from your holiday celebrations and that you really enjoyed the holidays with your families and friends! Now I hope you’re getting back to the business of being normal without too much adjustment.

That’s about it for today’s #weekendcoffeeshare. I have to get busy here as I have lots to do. I appreciate your stopping by. See you next week!

 

 

Posted in Challenges

SoCS – Jan 8/17

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There are only a couple of things on my mind today for this stream of consciousness post. I had such a good time on Thursday and Friday of this week Guest Hosting for Linda’s JustJotJanuary17 Challenge. I had a blast getting to know a bunch of new bloggers that took part in the Challenge and reading their posts. The Challenge is to blog every day – blog something, anything. You can join at any time so if you aren’t currently participating in the Challenge, jump on over there and start taking part now. It’s a lot of fun! To any of my new blogger friends, thanks for reading my blog and I will so enjoy getting to know you!

It’s a busy week here on my mountain. I am working on my house. Considering I avoid working on my house because I’d rather be writing, this is quite an event! I have a television/reading room in a third bedroom. It also houses a filing cabinet, small desk, shredder, and computer. It seems like there is a computer everywhere I look in my house! It used to serve as my primary office. I am FILING which is my most hated chore. The one thing nice about working in this room is that I have the most beautiful art in there and pictures that are important to me. But FILING? I’m also shredding, which is just as bad.

We have snow. I hate it so much I refuse to say anything more about it! Except that it is SO COLD that a heavy coat is necessary. I want to move. We are, in fact, considering it!

That is my Stream of Consciousness Jot for today! Have a great weekend!

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Posted in Challenges

JustJotJanuary Blog Challenge

Linda G. Hill of Life in Progress is offering the JustJotJanuary Blog Challenge this month. I was just the Guest Host for two days and it was great fun. To all the bloggers out there, check it out! You can join at any time and you can find the rules at the above link.

You’ll meet a lot of new, very nice bloggers and stretch your writing skills!

 

Posted in Challenges

Tangible

The snow is tangible. You can touch it. It’s cold and feels somewhat crystalline. The ocean is tangible. You can touch the water. It can be either warm or cold depending on the time of the year and the ocean you choose. Snow is never warm. Which do you find most enjoyable?

The atmosphere around both the snow and sea is intangible. Around the snow, the atmosphere has to be cold, by definition, or else the snow would melt. The atmosphere around the sea may be cold or warm, just like the sea. Does the temperature of the atmosphere determine the temperature of the sea or vice-versa? The humidity tends to be low when cold snow is on the ground. Around the sea, humidity tends to be higher but not always high. Both the temperature and humidity are intangible.

Which do you enjoy? The tangibility of the snow? Or the sea? I know the answer for me!

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Posted in Non-fiction

Can our Democracy Last?

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John Adams, one of our founders feared that it could not when he said, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Of course, that was a long time ago and they were just in the process of building America, our great shining city on the hill.

We are not a true democracy but a representational democracy. If we were a true or pure democracy, all laws would be made by direct, popular vote. Some of our laws are made like this. Most are not with a good example being the electoral college.

Our founders actually seemed to prefer a republic to a democracy. They are identical in every aspect except one. In a democracy, power is held by the group. In a republic, power is held by every individual. Most think the United States is a mixture of the two forms of government.

The ancient Greeks, in the 4th and 5th centuries BCE, formed an amazing democracy for a time. Ancient Athens gave its citizens equal political rights regardless of descent, social standing, wealth, and other factors, though women could not be involved. The democracy devolved into an oligarchy after a defeat in war. An oligarchy is a government ruled by a small group of people, sometimes private citizens, who exert an inordinate influence on the government. Sound familiar? Athens did influence forms of government for two millennia.

Athens is just one example of a democracy devolving into a more tyrannical type of government. The Roman Empire was a republic upon which the U.S. government was partially based. It, too, ended due to a number of factors. The Roman Empire found itself in a severe financial crisis. The causes were years of war and overspending and high taxes along with inflation caused a widening gap between the rich and poor. The economy started to decline. The Roman Empire lasted much longer than the average of 200 years.

Other examples of the failure of democracies and republics exist. The characteristics of the demise all seem to be similar. Greed, power, money, and a concentration of power at the top lead to the fall of such forms of government. What about the United States of America? Is it too late for us to reverse the course of history?

What do you think?

Posted in Flash Fiction

Time is a Wheel

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“Harry, please don’t play underneath the house. It’s dangerous,” said Harry’s mother when she found her nine-year old son leaning on the old wheel under the house.

“But, Mom, said Harry, “I have to see what the wheel says.”

“What are you talking about?” Harry’s mom is distracted because she is studying for her final exam in her graduate program.

“Mom, that’s the Wheel of Time. It spins it in one direction and shows scenes from the past. The other, scenes of the future.” Harry’s mother thought he was playing make-believe.

Then she heard the wheel turn – by itself.

99 words

Photo Credit: Sandra Crook

Posted in Flash Fiction

A Rocky Relationship

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We drove out to Red Rock Canyon that day. I’ll never forget it. Life had not been good for us for awhile. We both loved that canyon, the beautiful scenery, the peace.

Peter wanted to walk and take some photos. I walked with him for a bit but then veered off on my own. I took some photos of my own, including one of Peter sitting on the rocks resting and thinking.

He got up, walked back to me and said, “Carolyn, you’re my girl. You’ve always been. Can’t we work this out? What can I do?”

“You can be the Peter I used to know. Before the affair. You decided to stay, but you aren’t really here.”

Peter said, “I can’t help it, Carolyn. It changed me. She changed me.”

“Go back to her. You’re not my Peter anymore.”

140 words

#amwriting #amblogging #writing #FFfAW

Posted in Non-fiction

Life With a Warning Label

 

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Have you ever noticed that everything you do and every aspect of your life seems to have some sort of warning attached to it? There seems to be something hazardous about everything we do and someone seems inclined to warn us about it.

Warning! Wear Your Seat Belt Under Penalty of Fines

That’s one of the first ones I can remember that actually made me mad. Of course, I wear my seat belt but never without feeling a little bit rebellious.

There are more good warnings, I think, than bad ones. For example, we all value weather warnings. There is some sort of extreme weather just about anywhere you live. So we need tornado, hurricane, earthquake, cyclone, severe storm, flood, and more weather warnings.

Medication is another good warning. We don’t want to take medicine that might interact with other medicine.

There are workplace warnings. Warnings if you take too much sick leave or are late getting to work. There are performance warnings and other conduct warnings.

There are warning lights and symbols all over the dashboard of your car. I don’t even pretend to know what most of them mean.

There are so many other warnings systems that I can’t begin to name them all.

Which warnings or groups of warnings either aggravate you or are warnings that you think are good things?  Mention them in the comments! #blogging #JusJotJan3/17

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