I love animals. While raising my kids back in Pennsylvania, we had hamsters, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, turtles, tortoises, hermit crabs and probably some I just can’t remember. Well that was many years ago. Today I live in North Carolina and my kids are all grown
Now I live in North Carolina along the cost. I was staying with a good friend of mine who lives on a golf course. I looked out her window into her back yard/golf course and low and behold there was a visitor sunning himself. Now, as I said I love animals, but there is a limit to how close I want this guy to get to me.
I took this photo in Holden Beach, North Carolina in 2017, This little guy measured 15 feet. My friend was afraid he would starve because the pond he had adopted as his home was too small with no fish in it. With that, we heard a terrible crunch and as he enjoyed a huge turtle snack. From his size I would guess he was feasting on the deer that roamed through the neighborhood.
I love to organize things. More specifically my home. So I get a little crazy with buying plastic containers to sort all of my junk into. As soon as the store comes out with a new line of baskets, plastic containers, or any other type of storage solutions I go nuts. As you can imagine this has created another storage issue which is I don’t have the room for all of it.
My solution to my problem has created yet another problem. Who knew?
Maggie from Cave Walls is taking a survey about our blogging habits.
questions below.
1. How many times per week do you post? Do you post multiple times a day? If so, how many? I have gone through long spells of not blogging for various reasons. I have recently recommitted myself to my blog. I am trying to post at least every day when time permits. After being retired I am again working full time which does limit my online time.
2. How many blogs do you follow? I guess it’s somewhere between 50 and 100. I can’t really say as I am having a terrible time locating where to find this info.
3. Do you read all the blogs you follow every day? If not, how often do you read other blogs? I don’t read all of my followed blogs every day, I do read them at least once a week, that is, when I am actively blogging.
4. Do you seek out new blogs to follow? If so, how do you find them? I follow new blogs from links on the blogs I read.
5. Do you comment on the blogs you read? If not, why? Do you respond to all the comments left on your blog? I don’t always comment on the blogs I read because there are times I have nothing to contribute. I always acknowledge the comments left on my posts even it it is just to like it.
6. Do you ever close comments on a blog you post? If so, why? No I have never closed comments.
7. Do you ever unfollow someone? If so, why? I think I have unfollowed one blog that I can remember. If I remember right, the blog’s content changed direction into an area I was no longer interested in.
8. What content inspires you to follow a blogger? Everything from history, to humor, to learning about the blogger to photography to crafting to quilting to reading to politics to religion…my list goes on and on.
9. What content turns you off from following someone? I do not like “adult content”, smut, vulgarity, satanic, or racist content.
10. How important is it to you that you add a photo to every post? I like to add photos in my posts, but often I don’t have the time to search for the one I want so I go without one.
As I was packing up my house getting ready to move to North Carolina I came across an old friend’s grandmother’s dishes. When she and her ex divorced she asked me to hold onto them until she had room for them. We have enjoyed a friendship since we were in high school. Unfortunately, her ex telling her he had remained friends with my husband and I, we lost touch. I had missed her so much but had no idea where she had gone. Dottie is my one daughters god mother.
Well after I found the dishes I decided to see if her sister was still in the next town over and give her a call. To my surprise she was and she was happy to give me Dottie’s number so I could give her a call. I did and it was like we had just talked on the phone the day before. I was so happy since I had missed her over the years.
After we moved to North Carolina we made plans to head to Florida to deliver my sweet friends dishes. I met her husband and we have spent so much time together ever since. They travelled through my neck of the woods heading up to Pennsylvania for the various family events they attended.
Dottie and Frank stopped the last time they drove down to let me know her sister that was living with them had been diagnosed with cancer. I felt terrible. I had gotten to know all of her family over the years. I always feel helpless when someone you love is dealing with such a situations. I wanted so much to help Dottie, but all I could do was to listen when she needed to talk.
In 2016 after losing my husband I began making the trek to Florida solo. I have gone down to see them quite often. As a matter of fact, when Frank became very ill, I stayed with them for almost 4 months taking care of Frank. Dottie was still working at Disney so she needed a hand. As Frank’s endurance improved he needed less and less help from me. That was the year I really got into photography and posted a lot of the pictures on my blogs. Maybe some of you remember that.
One of the funniest things I remember from my stay in Florida that year was when Dottie wanted to get new drapes for her living room. Frank asked her what was wrong with the ones they had. Dottie looked at Frank and told him they were old and out dated. Oh! Frank said I guess you want the periwinkle ones you saw last week. Well Dottie and I looked at each other and we both started laughing out loud. Dottie said to Frank, “I didn’t know you knew what periwinkle was.” At that he replied, ” Of course I do it’s that stretchy material made from periwinkle.” Dottie said to Frank while laughing hysterically with tears streaming down her face “you mean polyester?” Frank looked at me hoping I could help him out and all I could do was laugh. So Frank just said polyester/periwinkle it’s the same thing.
Not this year. I worked till 7 and by the time I got home it was closer to 9. Tired, crabby and suffering from a cold that made me feel just awful I put my pj’s on and slept soundly till the morning.
2. Are there any special occasions or events coming up in 2023 for you or your family?
Not that I know of, but then most times I am the last one in the family to know about things. LOL
3. Do you keep a diary?
I have never been good at keeping a diary. I have tried over the years but I get busy and forget to write in it. That’s one of the reasons I started blogging.
4. How did yesterday differ from January 1st 2022 or was there no difference?
Last year I spent the day with my oldest daughter and her family. She has three of my grandchildren. Everyone came here for supper and we played games. We had a great time.
I am not much of a star gazer, but I do appreciate the beauty of the lighted night sky. I don’t have the ability to actually see the definition of even the Big Dipper as my depth perception is somewhat distorted. I don’t really know if that has anything to do with it, or if my mind just can’t see the vague outlines of stars creating a picture.
At any rate I discovered a Constellation I can wrap my head around and thoroughly enjoy. When I was researching cocktail recipes few years ago for a social event, I found this recipe for a Constellation.
1/2 oz of Advocaat Liqueur 1/2 oz of Cherry Advocaat Liqueur (or blackcurrant flavored liqueur) 1/2 oz of Butterscotch Schnapps 1 dash of Blue Curacao Liqueur
Pour both normal advokaat and cherry advokaat in shot glass at same time, beside each other. Add butterscotch schnappes. Then add dash of blue curacao. There should be no set layers, it should be a mix of colors.
Today is for reflecting on the past year and planning for the new year. For remembering the good times and the not so good times, family and friends lost and those that remain, for honestly assessing the choices we made and the outcomes those choices merited, and deciding if we want to repeat them or change them. If we are brutally honest with ourselves, we know that we go through life repeating the same choices over and over and over again with the same outcomes as a result. But still each year we come up with our ideas of what will make us better. Our New Years’ Resolutions.
I have come up with a few for myself this year. They are:
Take care of my soul, mind and body.
Treat everyone with respect and kindness.
Work hard and always do my best.
Develop more patience with others and myself.
Remember to do what I love.
I know that I am destined to fail at times, I am human, but instead of those lofty resolutions of my youth, I just want to be the child of God He wants me to be.
Are you more socially or community-minded regarding people, or do you not think there is a difference between the two? I generally am a mix. I love the socialization working in the community gives me and the community service by social groups allow.
On a scale of 1 – 10, how ethically minded do you think you are? What behaviour do you consider to be ethical? I would give myself a 9. Not a 10 because I do not think it’s ethical to lie, but I would rather tell someone they look nice than they look awful. Hurting someone’s feelings serves no purpose except to cause the hurt. The 10 Commandments keep my ethics in line. 🙂
What enrichment do you personally receive from being social? As humans we are social by nature and I find that spending time socially gives me a good perspective on life.
Have you become noticeably more socially isolated or socially interactive after the pandemic and the lockdowns? There may be no difference in your social behaviour; if this is the case, let me know below. All during the pandemic I worked with the public. The only change in my behavior was adding coordinating masks to my wardrobe.
What would be your top sustainability tip? Stay as active as you can.
Do you find it easy or hard to talk to your friends and family about your health? I rarely talk about my health but when I need to I don’t find it difficult.
What will you be doing this weekend? Christmas Eve, I am here blogging. Christmas Day I will be going to Mass, then to a friend’s for a short visit and finally to my daughter’s for supper. I’ll be face timing with my son and granddaughter after supper.
As the writer and author of your blog, how connected do you feel to your audience? I have been absent from my blog for about a year and am just now getting back into it. I hope to reconnect with the bloggers I have gotten to know since I began this blog. Does your blog reveal too much, too little or just the right balance of you to your readers? I guess that would depend on who is reading it. 🙂 Mostly I hope that I don’t bore my readers.
If you were granted a day at being one of your favourite book characters, who would you choose to be and why? I love the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon. I would choose to be Claire Fraser I think it would be cool to time travel.
What do you believe is the greatest threat to our planet today? The greatest threat to our planet in my opinion it nuclear war.
The somber mood in the studio was not surprising, given that the anchorman had just led with a major story that would change our way of life. It seems that our government had developed a new philosophy of law and order. No longer would it be possible to go out without a pass. No longer would it be possible to shop for what you needed or wanted. No longer would it be possible to attend church on Sundays or choose where to live or send out kids to school.
The freedoms we had enjoyed since the beginning were being taken away by those who decided they knew better what we needed. We saw the warning signs, but were convinced it could never happen here. After all we lived in a free land with a government by the people, for the people and of the people. Unfortunately, the people of whom the government consisted were not really who they said they were. Election after election they were voted back in by their constituents choosing not to answer to them but to those who held the purse strings.
A new social order was marching into our beloved country. Everyone should have the same clothes, food, living quarters, and wealth. Or lack of wealth. Society was going to become like a bee hive with the many worker bees tending to the needs of the queen bee. No matter how many times in history the socialist, communist, Marxist ways destroyed countries here was our government falling right into the same trap. Capitalism is despised by these philosophies but the leaders get rich while exploiting the poor.
Looking at each of his coworkers the anchorman had tears in his eyes as he realized what had just happened. He just announced the end of our freedom.
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