My World With Words

Happy Birthday to my sweet babies. The hardest part about you getting older is knowing our time together is getting shorter. I cherish every moment I spend with you.

And Happy Birthday to our feline blogging buddy, Parker, who turns eleven today!

Image Credits: Happy Birthday cats © May Chanikran–stock.adobe.com.

When I was little and the summer days were at their hottest–and most humid–my mom would tell me to run my hands under cold water to cool off. I’d do this repeatedly to no avail. I’m still not sure my mom really believed this would work, despite her insistence at the time that it always helped her when she was my age (which was then about four).

I’ve never cared for summer. I don’t like the heat. Now I have air conditioning, which I’m immensely grateful for, although I’m not thrilled with the electric bill that comes with it. About the only good thing I can say for summer these days is that I do like the fact that the sun is up so early. I leave for work between 6:15-6:30 in the morning, and right now, the sun is up before then. That won’t last much longer, but I’m enjoying it for the duration.

I used to get bored during the summertime, although I wasn’t really excited about the thought of school starting again. I still get bored, or maybe frustrated is more like it, on weekends in July and August. I feel like I should be outside but it’s too hot, and I have little to do inside. Yes, I can write, and I do, but even that gets to me after a time. Writing is hard work, and I can only do it for so long before I need a break.

So I’ve decided to be proactive about summer. And productive. I’m not sure exactly what this will entail, since I already know it will need to be done inside, but I’ve had a few thoughts.

–I’ll re-read some favorite books. If I find re-reading isn’t doing it for me, I’ll get some new ones, but somehow, the thought of re-reading some favorites brings a smile to my face. Especially if they’re (don’t laugh at me) my old Peanuts comic books.

–I’ll text or email some friends I’ve been out of contact with. Yes, this is writing, but it’s a much easier form of writing.

–I’ll pull out some of the fabric I bought years ago to make quilts with and make a few for charity. At least, I’ll piece the tops together. Someone else will have to do the actual quilting.

Anyway, those are some ideas to get me started. Hopefully I can come up with others, because we’re having a heat wave right now!

Image Credits: Sunburst (header) © Lemonsoup14-stock.adobe.com; Quill Pen © Amiko–stock.adobe.com

My God continue to bless America. Show us our shortcomings, Lord, and help us to rise above them.

And those of you lucky enough to have the day off, enjoy it safely. Hope the sun shines down on you but the heat is moderate.

Image Credit: © SKIMP Art–stock.adobe.com

Last Saturday my writer’s group welcomed back one of our favorite members, a man originally from China who’s lived in the United States most of his adult life, which would be about 35 or 40 years. He recently took a three-week trip to his home city of Beijing, and came back enthusiastic about his stay there. We asked him to share some of his thoughts.

What seemed to surprise him the most about the people there was how proud they were of their country and even their government, which, let’s face it, doesn’t share a strong reputation in much of the world. Beijing residents may have some things they didn’t like about the government, but overall, they seemed happy with it.

That surprised some of us, as well. While we attributed it to propaganda, he wasn’t so sure. It was a different way of looking at things in his mind. Another aspect to Beijing living that stood out to him was how safe he felt in the streets, even late at night, because of all the cameras. Personally, I consider that an invasion of privacy, but you have to admit the proliferation of cell phone cameras has helped American justice from time to time. Just look at George Floyd.

So much of how we view the world is cultural. I consider myself lucky to live in a country with freedom of the press, even if that freedom has created its own niche for propaganda. It’s not just freedom of the press, it’s freedom of speech. I fear losing those two things.

I’m sure our friends viewpoint was colored in part by the fact that he was happy to be visiting family he hadn’t seen in five years and by the fact that this was the country he grew up in, which was in a much worse state during his younger years.

Just as not all Chinese citizens have chosen to stay in China, there are many Americans who leave this country on a permanent basis. My uncle has spent the past few years getting set up to live in Portugal. He now has resident status and can take advantage of things like the universal health care there (a good thing, since he’s in his late 70s). He found American life too stressful. I’m guessing that part of the comfort he finds in Portugal comes from not speaking the language so he doesn’t hear the bad things, but that’s perhaps a little cynical on my part. I do believe Portugal is a lovely country.

I’m happy to stay where I am, even though I see both my uncle’s and my friend’s points of view. I just don’t agree with them enough to move somewhere else.

Image Credits: Beijing © Govan; Lisbon © Yasonya. Both stock.adobe.com.

Last night multiple tornadoes ripped through the neighborhoods around me. Seeing the pictures, I recognized many of the sites and landmarks, and was shaken, to say the least, to realize how close they came to me. Especially since I slept through the whole thing.

I didn’t think I was that heavy of a sleeper, and it’s possible a tornado warning that came through my phone woke me. I’m not sure, because I don’t know what time I woke up, but that warning came around 1:45 a.m.

Several trees in my apartment complex were downed or stripped of many of their branches. In the midst of this serious situation I had to laugh at the number of squirrels gathering acorns, which no doubt had been shaken loose. There are always squirrels around, but they all seemed to show up this morning.

We’ve been pretty insulated from the bad weather so far, with much of it happening west and north of us. My only comfort with missing the tornado warning was that had it hit my apartment and killed me, I likely never would have known it was coming. There are very few places for me to take shelter and tornadoes are a huge fear of mine.

But I’m okay, and lucky enough to have power. I got an email from my electric company, which said about half its customers had lost power and they may not have it back for a week. It’s getting hot these days, and I don’t know how well my cats and I would tolerate such a situation. I supposed we’d do what we have to do.

I’m also lucky to have enough food–and cat food–to get me through the next few days, as authorities are asking everyone to stay at home unless it’s absolutely necessary to be on the road. I don’t even know if local stores are open.

Situations like this make you think, although I’m not thinking too much about it because it’s so frightening. Eventually it will hit me. Severe weather can hit anybody. My neck of the woods hasn’t gotten too many tornadoes in the past, and there’s even a Native American legend about why. Not sure what exactly that legend is, but basically it says the gods will protect us.

Take care, and take the risk of severe weather seriously. Even if you’ve been told the gods will protect you.

Image Credit: Header © J.V.G. Ransika–stock.adobe.com