Mundane Monday: I got out of my writing rut today

For the past several days, I have felt like I was in a rut. I felt like I was stuck in my writing and daily life, but today I got out of that rut. When I left the house today, I wore red. Normally, I wear neutral colors such as tan or gray. It is amazing how much better wearing a bright color makes you feel.

I also did something different when I went to the service station to buy gas. About once a month, I stop at a full service station in order to have the tires and fluids checked. On these occasions, I usually buy only $20.00 in gas. Today when I stopped at the service station, I had the attendant fill the tanks up. Today I spent $50.00 in cash for a tank of gas.

I have never paid $50.00 for gas before today. The reason I paid so much today was the combination of a nearly empty tank and the high cost of gas. I will not let my tank get that empty again because normally I do not keep that much cash on me. I usually keep $25.00 or less in my wallet, so I cannot get more the $20.00 in gas. It felt so good to go into a full service station and have the tank filled up. It helped get me out of my rut.

Weekly Writer’s Quote: Ideas in the middle of living

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living. ~ Anais Nin

I looked out my window and I saw the neighbor’s cat sitting on their front porch waiting to go into the house. I wrote a poem about the cat waiting for someone to let her in while the wind was blowing. All right, I do not get out of my house much on the weekends, but that does not mean I stop living.

I wish I could get out more on the weekends because I would find more to write about then the living going on in my house. Right now, my mother is sitting on the couch wanting to remove the oxygen tubes from her nose. I know there is a story or a poem in what I call “The Battle of the Oxygen” and it is not a science fiction story.

It is a story about the devastation of Alzheimer’s disease not only to the person who suffers from it, but to the family as well. I have written poems about Mom and Alzheimer’s, but I have not put it in a story yet. I think that is the next phase of my writing. The problem is that it is difficult to write about this disease.

As I write this post, I want to cry. I want to cry because of what is happening to my mother. I also know that I have to write about the Alzheimer’s disease and its affect my mother and me. I am in the midst of living with it; therefore, I must write about it.

Free-write: What do I know about St. Patrick’s Day?

Tomorrow we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The Day we commemorate either the birth or the death of St. Patrick. I am not sure which it is. I have never been sure whether we were celebrating St. Patrick’s birth or commemorating his death. I do not think it matters to any one celebrating on St. Patrick’s Day which one it is. As far as, I have ever been able to tell it is just another excuse to have a party and to wear green.

When I was in grade school, you had to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day because if you did not wear that color, someone would pinch you. Since I never liked getting pinched, I wore green on St. Patrick’s Day. I do not remember learn much about St. Patrick in school. The only thing I know about him is that he chased the snakes out of Ireland.

Another thing I know about St. Patrick’s Day is that many bars sell green beer. Since I do not drink beer, I am not sure why people seem fascinated with beer that has green food coloring added. Do bartenders charge more for green beer?

What else do I know about St. Patrick’s Day? Some places have paradise on that day. When I was in grade school and St. Patrick’s Day occurred during the week, someone always brought cupcakes with green icing. I always liked the chocolate cupcakes with green icing.

Thankful Thursday: March 15, 2012

It is Thankful Thursday again. It is time to give thanks for all of blessing I received over the past week.

1. Coffee the beautiful and delicious hot dark liquid that gets me started every morning.

2. My premium membership on writing.com. This membership level gives me a portfolio size of 1,000 items.

3. The nice weather we had experiences in Las Vegas for the past week. It was warm enough yesterday for me to keep my Wound Care appointment without wearing a coat.

4. That I have a washing machine in the house that does not over flow the pipes during the spin cycles.

5. That I have a microwave, I can use warm up my lunch.

6. That I have leftover in the refrigerator I can fix for my lunch today.

Tuesday Research: Glaucoma

I did not intend to research this subject, but life or fate has a way of changing a person’s plans. On Monday, March 12, I went to an optometrist and he did what all optometrist do when you go for a checkup; he ordered a glaucoma test. It turns out I have glaucoma, so he ordered another appointment in May.

Glaucoma results from damage to the optic nerve. The cause of this damage is increased eye pressure known as intraocular pressure. Now that I know what causes glaucoma, what do I do about it; I do research to find out what questions I need to ask my doctor and then follow his instructions.

The only thing I have notice are “shadows” on the left side of my left eye and right side of my right eye. The shape of these “shadows” (this is what I call them) resemble single quotation marks. I have not noticed any of the listed symptoms, but I am more aware of my sight and anything going on with my eyes.

I hope the doctor caught my glaucoma early enough to treat. I expect my optometrist to prescribe eye drops at my next visit, but I will ask about the other treatments as well. I would like to keep my sight as long as possible because there are so many beautiful things in this world to see.

Mundane Monday: A long and prolific day

This morning I went to have my eyes checked. The appointment was at 9:30 and I did not leave the doctor’s office until about 11:00. After that I made another stop, which it turned out was not necessary, but I did not know this at the time.

Anyway, I did not get home until about 1:00 PM and then I took a nap. I did not start writing until after supper. Despite the fact that I got a late start, I got a lot accomplished. In addition, to writing three blog entries I review several stories on writing.com.

I did not check my e-mail or the bank accounts. Usually I obsess over the unaccomplished tasks, but this evening I am not worried about them. It is nice not to be worried about something.

Right now, I am just passing time until the virus scan starts. It is set to begin about 11:30 PM and I want it to begin tonight. I have tried changing the time, but the program will not let me. Therefore, I will stay up and write until the program begins scanning my computer. Maybe I will check one of my e-mail accounts or say some prayers while I am waiting for the virus scan to begin.

If I turn the computer off before the scan starts, it will run when I turn the machine on tomorrow. However, I would rather this program ran this evening so it does not interfere with my working online tomorrow.

Participating in the March blogging challenge

I am participating in the March blogging challenge on writing.com. I also participated in the January and February blogging challenge. I like the blogging challenge because it stretches my creativity and helps me focus on a specific subject.

Sometimes I have difficulty when it comes to finding subjects to cover in a blog entry. Even when I have a specific theme such as a poetry form, I have problems writing more then 100 words on the subject. It is easier for me to respond to a prompt then to begin writing without a prompt.

When I sit down to respond to a prompt, I start writing and the words come without much of a problem. The biggest issues I have, when it concerns prompt responses concern syntax problems. I stress over commas, colons, and semicolons rather then what to write. I also stress about the words “then” and “than” because I always get them confused.

Some writer’s have trouble with “there”, “their”, and “they’re”, I have few problems with these words, except when it comes to typos. If I get those three words wrong it is because my fingers it the wrong keys. This happens because I think faster then I type and it causes me to strike the wrong letter on the keyboard.