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| For a good time, try having covid while caring for your non-ambulatory 84 year old mother with alzheimer's who also has covid...along with everyone in your house...while trying to sell your house with a realtor contacting you daily to set up appointments for showings and asking if the house is cleaned. I might have had a few choice words escape. |
OH, NO! I'M SO SORRY! What a horrible combination of events! I'm so sorry you are going through this! I do hope that things improve quickly, though I can't imagine they will improve quickly enough for your taste.  Please take care of yourself!  |
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| Wow, that is a LOT to deal with. I hope you and your mother are on the mend... |
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| Interesting... donated to a group and got zero acknowledgement. Is that a thing? The points were deducted from my account but no "receipt", email, thank you ... ? maybe they're behind? maybe the points went to la-la land? oh well. someone will use them hopefully. |
| There are 4 things I can think of, but maybe more exist. 1. They are really behind. I know I am.  2. They aren't on here at the moment due to life problems...sick, moving, etc. 3. The group is defunct, but hopefully you would have noticed that. 4. They aren't on as much as you and haven't been around since you donated, though if it's been a week, this isn't likely, but I know some folks are mostly just here on the weekend, so maybe something like that? Good luck and I'm sorry about not hearing back yet, but I do appreciate you donating to others!  |
Ants in my mailbox. It's been raining for two weeks solid here so I guess they moved out of the ground and into the "tower" at the end of the drive.  |
| I find myself at an odd crossroad in writing. One I never thought I'd encounter. After my dad's death I continued to write for awhile. My short stories became intense and I seemed to learn a lot in a short amount of time. But then I quit writing for period other than poetry and the odd tweet or three, lost in grief, I guess. But I "woke up" a few days ago. Realized that somehow it's been 5 years since my dad died and 5 years since I've really written much. I have a whole novel in my head waiting to come out... but I'm finding it difficult to put the words down. I've never had this issue before in my entire life. Writing has always been the most natural process to me. Any tips on how to get through this hump in the road? I feel like I'm starting over on the writing journey in a lot of ways but from an entirely new perspective. |
| The simple answer is to write and allow any thoughts, words, anything to be captured in the words on screen or whatever method works for you. Let it all out, then edit later after you've been away from the writing. Capture the ideas first. Keep them safe. The ideas will take care of themselves. |
Have you seen "Short Stories Newsletter (May 5, 2021)" by Annette  ? Annette was one of the first people on here to encourage me to write. Whatever you decide, just remember to write every day if you can.  |
| Life update ... things are better. Busy prepping our house to sell. Lots of construction work to undertake but once the house is sold we get a break for the first time in 3 1/2 years from taking care of mom 24/7. Going to look at new land to buy in a distant state. We shall see where the journey takes us. |
| *Bit of a rant* (Sorry to be such a downer but I have enough stress in my life taking care of my mom with alzheimer's that I just need to be able to rant somewhere. ) Being harassed by neighbors seems to be my specialty subject ... new neighbors haven't been in two weeks and they are already harassing us. Bunch of snot nosed fraternity boys from another state whose daddy bought them a house in the middle of a family neighborhood. They have no respect for anyone. Come out at midnight playing basketball, drinking, being loud, parking their cars everywhere on the street but not in their 6 car driveway which remains empty, blocking where our trash cans go, throwing trash around, playing loud music all hours of the night... If my mom needed an ambulance, we couldn't even get one parked in front of our own house. What did I ever do in life to get such awful people surrounding me time after time after time? The last neighbors in that house were loud and had no respect for anyone either. And the last place we lived the neighbors were druggies, destroyed our property, would sit on their lawnmower for hours in the driveway between our houses just to make noise. And the neighbors at our farm have destroyed our property, trespassed multiple times, killed our animals, stolen from us, shoots guns off right behind our house, runs heavy equipment in back up mode for 8 hours a day or more, etc... Most of it falls just below criminal levels or can't be proven because I have no video of the acts in progress so law enforcement can't help most of the time. They did a couple of times at our old house when they shot a gun at us and cut down our tree in the middle of our yard. But I really feel harassed to the point of depression and can't make it stop. I honestly understand why people take their own lives when they get in situations like this. Their is no hope and no help. |
| Working on a new southern gothic novel in my spare time... LOLOLOL Funny story, I have never read any southern gothic in my life but I started writing this story and everyone who's read the bits of it have declared it is southern gothic. So, I just bought the entire works of Flannery O'Connor to get a feel of the genre. I've heard of people who have written novels under less than ideal situations that have gone on to be the best thing they've ever written. Maybe this will be mine. Hopeful. |
| Spent the last two days cleaning out the front flower beds and trimming trees. I have sticks in my hair and spiders in my shoes and dirt under my fingernails (which I actually like). Planted some columbines and violas. Tomorrow I go on the quest for hostas and hoping our first round of storms for the season is mild. Spring is springing. |
| Wish me luck. I'm going to try writing again...at least something more than twitter poems and prompts. It's been a loooooooooooooooong time. Never underestimate the power of grief to derail your life. |
| That happened to me, too, when my dad was diagnosed with cancer and died five weeks later (about 7 or 8 years ago.) I quit writing for quite awhile, except for little poems dedicated to my dad I hand wrote in a note book. Completely zapped my writing muse, so I understand. I hope you're healing and I'm sorry for your loss. Your writing will come back, I'm sure of it! |
| I've been on a writing hiatus for quite awhile now. (dealing with mom's alzheimer's on top of everything else going on in our lives) But I'm wanting to write again. I have the urge. But I have no ideas right now. Guess I'll go find a contest or two or ten to give me a goal. |
| Pork chops and fried okra from the garden for supper. Who's hungry? |
MirandaCookies IS IN COLLEGE  The way I fry it it gets nice and crispy ... but I understand not everyone likes it. I grew up eating it. Okra and black eyed peas were the most abundant thing in the garden. |
un: 
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I really appreciate it and all the tickets I've been bought. Life is super crazy stressful right now so I didn't get in on the fun. 
