Photo-Finish Friday -- Refreshment

Wild running water refreshes the soul.

Something Weird is Happening

Kootenay Lake during one of the ferry crossings. The idea suited the post.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. Now that I'm back reading I realized that the 50 or so books on my To Be Read pile were nowhere near enough. I had to go to a bookstore and I had to get story books. Novels. Stuff talented folk made up.
Most of the TBR pile is non-fiction and that's wonderful, but I want characters and dialogue and a plot or three.
My happy if perplexing problem was what interests me now? I stood amongst the shelves and wondered what do I like? Do I still like science fiction and fantasy?
Yes. I bought the first three books in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
What else?
Frankly, the choices were overwhelming. It's been so long since I hung around the fiction and literature section of the store I felt like a neophyte. Hell, call it what it is: I felt like a virgin.
I settled on The Shack by Wm. Paul Young to see what all the fuss is about, then Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and decided that was enough for my first trip back in years.
When I got home I rooted through my TBR pile to pick out the novels and found I had a hardcover collection of Wilde from a yard sale last spring. Sigh. That'll teach me to rescue books and then ignore them.
It's not just reading. I don't know what to eat now either. A few months back I decided to make a point of eating oatmeal for breakfast every day. I usually manage it 5-6 times a week. It keeps my blood sugar even so I rarely crave sweets now. That is good and not so surprising. What did surprise me was it cut down my need for salt. I hardly add any to food on my plate and I rarely want to eat any salty snacks.
I'd also decided to cut out excess fat just to see what would happen. So I gave up butter and found I actually like dry toast. It was only supposed to be an experiment and it was only supposed to be for a few weeks. That was back in August.
I no longer know what to read, and by my own hand I have no clue what to eat.
It's weird, and that's usually good so I'll presume this is good, too.

Gratitude Monday - Still Fuzzy

One of more than 20 different types of willow in the province.


We went for a drive yesterday. That alone is something to be grateful for as it was a nice late fall day and good for driving.
It was good to get out of the house, too, as I hadn't ventured around much locally in the past few months. It was good to see the farms, and the wetland such as they are these days, and to see the mountains rise against the edge of the forest again.
Along with a few cows and some small birds we saw a very large cat, probably a housecat gone wild, hunt for food, and we saw a coyote. It was a good day.
We also saw some pussy willows in full fuzz and I made sure to get pictures.
Stepping outside has many rewards and I am grateful for each of them.

Photo-Finish Friday -- Penguins

A colony of Gentoo Penguins observes the tourists on the Falkland Islands.

Please click to enjoy.

Thank You

I am tickled silly.
Hilary has put me on her list as a runner up for Posts of the Week for my Gratitude Monday post.
It has added to my gratitude.
Thank you, Hilary.

Twosday Twosomes

I’ve had a good week of reading and a reasonable week of writing.
I finished the western I offered up last week and then picked up a memoir that I am thoroughly enjoying.
Unfortunately, it’s one of those books that repeatedly reminds me I’ve got something that must be done before I settle in the pages for an hour or so. I read a bit as the little voice nags, then I attend to the pressing matter and then something else and then finally get the chance to settle in. I am pleased to say it is well worth the wait.
It’s Lillian Hellman’s An Unfinished Woman
(Little, Brown, 1969) and here’s a sample from her time in Russia toward the end of WWII.

“The Russian telephone operator and I had never liked each other.
(He listened in on all conversations, even in languages he said he didn’t understand, and sometimes made a point of coughing into the phone to let you know he was there.)”
#
I’m still plugging away at editing The Legend of Shallal. I added some original material last week to pad out a section that desperately needed it and tarted up some tired old prose.
Here’s a sample describing a scene outside of Shallal’s home.

“The dendros were gnarled and twisted and many had top trunks so heavy they’d doubled down to the ground and were taking root. New shoots sprouted from the rooting tops and dripped sap through fresh bud pockets.”

For more, or to find out how to participate, please see the Women of Mystery.

Gratitude Monday -- Zip a Dee - Yay!

A frozen waterfall in B.C. This is how my intellectual curiosity was for a time.

My intellect seems to have recovered enough that not only am I reading --yay!--I'm thinking better and my interests are being piqued once more.
They were always varied though they got set on the back burner the last few years. I was still interested in things, but not in the way I had been before.
Such curiosity has come back. It's not with a vengeance yet, though I can feel one building.

Here's what happened: I have a pair of comfortable brown pants that I like, but whose zipper refused to stay done up. A short while ago I got the idea that pliers applied properly would take care of it. It had just worked on a pair of green pants and I decided to try my luck once more.
It almost worked. It would stay up for a time then blithely slide to the bottom and smile as it stuck it impudent tongue out at me.

I shattered the last bits of ice off my intellectual curiosity yesterday when I realized I really wanted to know zippers worked.
How Stuff Works is a great site and there I learned what I needed. Best of all a link took me to how to repair zippers.
Pliers.
One uses pliers to coax the wedges in the zipper closer to get them to hook the teeth together properly.
I had the right notion, but the wrong execution.
I was thrilled, jazzed, elated, gratified, and a whole bunch of other words when I read it. Plus I was fascinated just reading it.

Simple?

Yes.

Many things are simple. It in no way lessens their worth.

My zipper stays up now and I am grateful. I can see in my mind what a zipper does when it brings teeth together or sends them apart. This may not interest many, but it does me. I'm grateful for that because it means my curiousity is up, too.