Thursday-11:30am

Was a wispy cloud morning yesterday...

That turned gorgeous!

Was a blue sky, cotton cloud, nippy fall day!

This morning.

Karma catching her rays.

Proof she's not always happy to see that darn camera.

But she gets over it quickly.

I switched Karma over last night to her heavier leather "winter" collar. ;)

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Was a strange morning. There had been fog and it was only 26 degrees at 9:30am. And do you see what I see? Frost!

Frost on the garage roofs!!

Something to discuss today.

I have been debating about joining NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) for November. You just try to post every day for an entire month. It used to be on Ning, but is moving to BlogHer.com. I got a notice email because I opened a free account on BlogHer a couple years ago and forgot all about it--LOL!

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I haven't been blogging (almost) every day for a long time now. When I was doing that I would get so far behind on reading other people's blogs and replying to comments on mine that I got overwhelmed. I value my blog family. But I have also, since then, quit facebook, twitter, flickr, and a few other online activities...so...maybe I could do this? Or make an attempt, anyways. They do have daily writing prompts. That would kind of be fun!

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Well then that got me to start wondering if I could combine NaBloPoMo with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). With NaNoWriMo you try to write 50,000 words (about 170 pages) during the month of November. One of my new visitors, Trisha, was the one who reminded me of NaNoWriMo (which I had heard of but had never looked into because of my limited computer time). One of her blogs (here) last year was for NaNoWriMo! I read the entire blog!

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So, I read a little on their site about NaNoWriMo. Quality is not important. Quantity is. That is the most freeing part...and the part that would be hardest for me to get past when it comes to having people reading it. The purpose is to have you just write and write and not worry about anything...grammar, spelling, punctuation, perfect wording, or all the other things that stop writers from writing. It's a kind of jump start, I guess, for trying to write a novel.

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Truth be told. Since college and getting a couple short stories published, I have had it in the back of my mind that maybe my separate memoir short stories could be gathered together if I wrote enough of them to make a book, you know? Wanted to call it Flower Child and have a watercolor painting of a field of Minnesota wildflowers on the cover.

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Secret dream.

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That kind of went by the wayside when my health took such a nosedive. But then...since I got the laptop and have the laptop table and can sit in my comfy chair...I have built up more available computer time most days when my body cooperates...and then recently I've run across some bloggers who paint with words and have been inspirational...

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...but then I read on NaNoWriMo's site that they are talking about fiction. Hummm...Trisha's was memoir? I am not a fiction writer. I write creative nonfiction or memoir--whatever they want to call it. I wrote an email to ask if it had to be fiction. If I could ever, ever in a million years write that much in a month it would be a bummer to be denied my special award button just because I don't write fiction. Not that that would stop me--LOL! ;)

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I'm not sure how the nuts and bolts of this would actually work with NaNoWriMo? Would I have to start a new blog or write on their site or could I use my SoulComfort's Stories blog?

(Help, Trisha!??)

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The more I talk about this, though, the more I realize that it might be hard to combine the two challenges...and I'd probably be in way over my head, physically. But...the writing bug has been nibbling at me lately...hence the magnetic draw to NaNoWriMo. Especially since it doesn't have to be polished, you know, like when I was in college or trying to write for publication (what I call "writing-writing"). But can I get it in my head that it is just a first draft and leave it alone...that is the question--ROFL!

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I never know which stories to write about. In college I had to ask professors to give me prompts. [Well, how about your first memory? Okay, how about an epiphany moment?] That is why I thought having the blogging prompts from NaBloPoMo (can you keep these two straight--LOL!) might actually help me--and why I thought about combining the two groups. But...that's about 1700 words a day! Holy Moly!! How many pages is that a day?

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Well, I am debating...milling...pondering. I need to figure out how this would actually work. The daily blogging one is easy. You just sign up with a blog address and go to town on whatever you want. But I need to try to figure out how the novel writing one works. I might have to actually sign up to be able to get all the information.

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Okay, I just had a school flashback! I copied and pasted this onto a document page to see how many words I had---ROFLMAO!!! 875. Okay--this would have been halfway there.

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Well, I will investigate this further. I'm tentatively thinking of keeping my regular blog here pretty much the same, except for adding a response to the daily blog prompts...with short answers. I could keep all the actual longer story writing on another blog--no pictures. That way, if anyone was interested they could always go there, but it wouldn't bog down my regular blog here for a month, you know? And I'm hoping I can just use my other stories blog for that. (There's a link on the top right side to that blog already.) Anyways, I am just thinking out loud here.

Let me know what you think, okay?

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Oh, and I'd have to set a time limit for myself each day so I didn't overdo it. It really doesn't matter if I came anywhere near the 50,000 words. The point--for me, anyways--is the jump start. And, if you're interested, you'd be able to read some rough drafts of some of my crazy life stories.

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I have eleven days to decide. ;)

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"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

Winston Churchill

Wednesday-11am

The roofers have been working steadily...

...gathering the shingles as they arrive on the crane and scattering them on top of the garage roofs like sprinkles on a cupcake.

Karma listens...

...to the shouting, the music, and the hammering. Doesn't seem to bother her when it is farther away, but she pays attention...well, when she isn't snoozing. LOL!

They seemed to be randomly skipping around to different garage roofs.

Working away every day. We've had no rain.

They finish one...

...and move on down the way to another one...skipping over a few.

Me...I've been puttering away every day. Got the art table cleared off...

...quite a few things moved around in the bookcase next to the craft table...

...and even got everything off the craft table that needed to be removed. Down to specific project stuff, now--tada! Been over a month since I could call all the surfaces in this room my own again--LOL! (I'm ignoring the bedroom for now.)

As I cleaned, the roofers skipped way down to the far end of the garages...

...to choose a couple more to start on.

Yesterday I walked some paperwork down to the office. (For some reason, every two years they need me to swear in writing that I am not a student.) So, I asked about the roofers and why they are skipping half the garages. Found out that it was the insurance company that decided which garages had suffered wind damage to the shingles and they were only re-doing those particular garages. Okay. That makes sense. Mine wasn't one of them...and I am glad of that, I guess. I had no leaking and hope I won't have any in the future, either. Means they'll be finished faster, too. ;)

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Then Caroline came over to clean yesterday afternoon. Right as she got started the UPS man arrived with a really big box!! I was so excited! Caroline helped me open the box later as I told her the story. When I was talking on my blog about my herbs Terah (Cowgirl Red) asked me in the comments if I had a dehydrator. Nope. She said she had one she never uses and she'd mail it to me as a gift!! Wow!!!

This just blows my mind!

Now I will have to read the instruction booklet to find out how to dry my herbs...and other stuff, too! ;)

Thanks so very, very much, Terah!!

People like you restore my faith in humanity!!

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Am feeling overwhelmed with gratitude.

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I just have to say that I have met the most wonderful bloggers! As people, you are shining examples of kindness, heart, talent, honesty, optimism, joy, perseverance, empathy, silliness, generosity, compassion...

brings tears to my eyes.

You lift my days.

I am proud to know you all!!

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"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

Marcel Proust

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"A friend is someone who reaches for your hand, but touches your heart."

Kathleen Grove

Sunday-12:15pm

Was a blue sky day most of yesterday...and so far this morning, too.

Too chilly to lounge on the porch, so Karma catches her ray-naps on the carpet by the porch door in the mornings now.

You'd have to click to enlarge these, but I tried to get pics of how funny the tarpaper looks on a cold morning--LOL!

The roofs are all puckered and rippled. As the sun warms them up during the day they flatten back down. Cracks me up! I know. I know. I am easily entertained. ;)

I started puttering about with organizing the bookcases yesterday. Well, just this one so far. (Karma is happily scooping her "fake" cat treats out of that tea tin.)

If you're like me, there will be shifting and tweaking until I am done with the first round. Then as the items are actually used and you find out what you like and don't like...things are moved and adjusted even more later on--LOL! I think it's a neverending process.

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And then there's the sidetracks. Like when I was putting the new papers I purchased on the shelf and decided I should just cut a bunch of it in half right now to be ready for making more bookcards. Gather up some stash, right?

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So--the front section in this box is precut bookcard covers from 12 X 12 scrapbook paper. Behind that are all the new papers that will be used for the insides of the bookcards: Southworth 32 lb. ivory, Southworth parchment, Trophee ivory, and Trophee lilac.

I will still cut some more later, but this is a great start.

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Well, so much for my knee being better--LOL!

Murphy's Law?

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We had the fire alarm go off in the late afternoon. For no reason, of course. This happens about once a year or more...and why I bought Karma her cat stroller. Easier on me once we make it down the stairs so I didn't have to haul her old plastic carrier around anymore. (Remember with my bad arm I can't even switch arms and I already kind of shredded the rotor cuff on my "good" arm.) The stroller is a little easier to hoist up on my hip to carry down the stairs. (Much too jarring and takes way too long to try to roll it down.) But it wasn't good for my touchy knee.

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As usual, Karma and I went and sat in the garage until the fire trucks left. I had a chair stored in the garage that I decided is going to stay there forever just for this very purpose. Karma is used to the fire routine by now and as soon as I park her stroller facing the chair she just settles in to wait. (She cries all the way to the garage, but not as much or as loudly as she used to when it wasn't familiar--this cat can howl!!) She even waits quietly now when I leave to walk to the garage door to see if people are still waiting outside or down to the end of the garages to see if the truck is gone.

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While we were waiting, I decided to call my dad in Florida to see how he was doing. I caught Mom in a Chinese restaurant. She couldn't hear me very well, so she brought the phone out to Dad who was waiting in the car while she picked up egg foo young for dinner. Dad's still wading through the red tape to be approved for the rehab folks to come three times a week. He should find out Monday. He was in good spirits and we laughed a lot. When Mom came with dinner we hung up and I checked to see if the fire trucks were gone. Yup!

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But this time they didn't turn the elevator back on! Arg!! I am used to the big heavy door being closed over the elevator door and dragging Karma's stroller through both the doors, but this time...no working elevator. I carried her back up the three flights of stairs. Up is a lot harder than down. I didn't want to try to call the office for an emergency on a Saturday and I didn't want to sit out in the garage and be going back to the building to check over and over...for who knows how long...plus it was 50 degrees and I only grabbed a sweater. So, up the stairs we went--a first for Karma and she was better than I expected. Talking a bit but not doing her howling protestations. We were both very glad to be back home!

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Iced my knee. It's not as bad as it was the first time I hurt it, so that's a good sign. :)

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I did find out that they have shingled the back side of the roof of that garage right in front of mine. I could easily have done without that certain knowledge--LOL! And besides, I can tell today anyways because the topmost shingles are flying up off the garage roof and flapping back down in the wind. Obviously not nailed down all the way to the peak.

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Anyways, that was the excitement around here yesterday. My knee doesn't have me completely off my feet this time, so it should heal up faster than last time. At least the fibro flare is over with and now I am just dealing with the usual, regular, ordinary, everyday, annoying, painful, tired issues--ROFL!! ;)

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Have fun! Keep laughing! :):)

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"A day without laughter is a day wasted."

Charlie Chaplin

Saturday-10:45am

We had more sun than was predicted. Karma grabs her ray-naps.

She knew I was taking pictures, so she stretched for me. Karma usually either speaks or reacts with some physical movement...or both--LOL! Those are her interaction languages. ;)

We had some sun as the roofers tore apart the other half of the garage roof under my window.

The clouds rolled in and looked like rain, but we didn't get any rain during the daytime and the roofers kept working every day.

They got the first couple garages all done...

...got the big front (to me) garage covered with new tarpaper...

...and started ripping everything off of...

...these other two garages in the back row.

I know it is harder to see, but they skipped over my garage which is directly in back of the one under my window. I wonder why?

They left it Friday with what looks like new tarpaper on those back two...

...and the one under my window. Looked like they may have shingled on the backside of this one, tho.

We had day after day of clouds, but if it rained it was after the roofers left. Chilly. They worked with hoodies and jackets on. I haven't seen them on this sunny morning.

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Feels like the end of fall already--50s in the daytime and 30s at night. I've been just resting up and getting my energy back. Delighted to be sleeping at night and quite well. Funny how feeling miserable is so exhausting--LOL! And am just thrilled to be feeling back to my old normal pain and enjoying some sweet recovery time. Putter...putter...putter. Have a glorious weekend!! :):)

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"I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable...but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."

Agatha Christi

Thursday-1pm: The Pen and I

Yesterday the roofers were hard at it again.

By the time they left very late in the day they had striped half of the big garage below my window...

...and had re-shingled the garages in the back there. Somebody was either moving in or out--see the U-Haul?

I was going to actually go over and visit Dagan and Leah (who were home cleaning last night and invited me over to hang out) but since I haven't used the car again for over 2 months...dead as a doornail. So--it wasn't a fluke last time--LOL! This old car (1992 Paseo) will just lose the juice if I don't at least take it out to drive it around for a few minutes every week or two. *sigh*

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I tell you--honestly--if I don't write things down I forget them anymore. I will have to make a point of marking it on my calendar--"drive the car!" Even if I just drive it around a little bit and drive right home and never even get out of the car. (Seems like such a waste of gas, but I guess it is worth it, eh?) Dagan and Leah told me to do that last time but, apparently, there was a part of me that just didn't believe it...thought it had to be a fluke. Guess not. I believe it now. So, I have to wait until they can stop by and jump her again. May be a while. They're super busy this month. Oh, and if I am feeling awful for weeks like I was, I can call and ask if one of them can come zoom the little red car around for a little bit for me. I'm so sorry guys!

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About 9:30pm a fire truck and police car raced up in all their noisy glory. There was no fire alarm going off, though. I have no idea what that was all about, but you have to wonder. You'd think if it was somebody injured or collapsed it would have been an ambulance and not a fire truck? They weren't here for too long and then off they went. Just a little something to jump start your heart--LOL!

Dee asked me to talk about how I got interested in pens, inks, and paper. Well, I can remember as a child be totally fascinated watching my dad carefully fill his fountain pen. It was one like this...with a lever and a bladder.

Nobody could touch his special pen and there was this whole procedure to fill it from the ink bottle--awesome! Was really disappointed if he didn't let me know so I could watch. I think that was my introduction to the fountain pen. I remember thinking that I just had to have one of those when I grew up!

I remember we got to use some Speedball dip pens with India ink in junior high art class! Well, I begged my folks till they bought me a kit. All the red peeled off the original Speedball holder, but it looked similar to this one.

In my nib box...yes, I do have a lot of nibs...

...I still have those original nibs. I don't know if this was the whole set or not because I can't remember all these years later. I didn't used to take very good care of them when I was a kid. See the old dried India ink in the crevices? (Embarrassed to show you--should probably soak them and clean them decently, even if I haven't used them in probably 35 years--LOL!)

I always loved writing supplies. From the time I needed pencils in school, I had to have certain pencils that had a harder lead. And when we were allowed to have ballpoint pens..whoohoo! I tried several, but the more expensive and refillable Parker T-ball Jotter was the winner. I wouldn't use anything else for years! My original one that I had used throughout high school...well, I lost it when I was waitressing a few years after I graduated. I was heartbroken. But did that mean I'd use some cheap disposable pen that blobbed--no way! I bought two Jotters and kept one at home (the red one that is in the best shape). Obviously never lost either one of them--LOL!

I still think the original pen was stolen. (There was a waitress who had her eye on it--LOL!) I even carried disposable pens in my apron so that if somebody asked to borrow a pen I would never have to lend them my Jotter. Oh yes. I have always been a pen fanatic--ROFL!!

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I've had a fascination with all kinds of pens. My very, very, very favorite dip pen is this beautiful feathered pen with a brass nib holder I happened upon in a little shop in Minneapolis around 15 years ago. I adore it! Love how it feels in my hand. Totally awesome! Whenever I am going to sit down with a dip pen to really take my time and contemplate with a letter...this is what is usually in my hand. Not that I don't have other holders that I use and enjoy, but if I could only keep one...this would be it.

All my life I have actually felt that I have been a scribe in past lives. More than once. There is something ancient I feel inside of me when I have anything in my hand to write with...from back in my crayon days. And--no surprise--I preferred my crayons and pencils unbroken, sharpened, and organized--LOL! (Probably why I wasn't very good with pastels--you are supposed to break them! ROFL!)

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I do have things I have never been able to let go of even though they may be impractical or useless. My set of cobalt blue glass pens that I bought maybe 25 or 30 years ago. Neither of them have ever worked, but they are just so pretty. (My new one from GouletPens does work, by the way!)

I have a real hand carved quill. It is so old and dry that it has many splits. So even if you soak it, it doesn't write well. But it is just cool!

I bought this replica of an old "snail" inkstand that also holds a couple of dip pens on the left there. You put ink in the bottom of the bottles...

...and then tip them up like this when you want to use them.

Trouble is, you can't put very much ink in them (only in the very bottom of the snail belly or they will drip) and they don't have a tight seal to the rubber stoppers so they dry up pretty quickly. And they are a pain to clean out. But--this is just the coolest ink holder! I'll never get rid of it.

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So, anyways...my love of writing and pens led me quite naturally to inks. And if you love to write, you can't help but become very aware of paper quality...especially with the dip and fountain pens!

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I collected this and that here and there over the years. When I would accidentally find paper that was better and didn't feather or bleed through...ahhh! I just buy that until I couldn't find it for sale anymore. But the quality of most paper I would find at Office Max or Target or such...well, it kept me from wanting to use my dip and fountain pens as much. I usually had to use only one side of the paper because of issues and would get so frustrated by feathering on new paper or some pretty journal I bought. So, I stuck with ballpoints for years and then switched over to gel pens. Oh, and before the gel pens--do you remember Flairs!? :)

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As much as I had learned to use the internet it hadn't occurred to me to look for any pens other than my safe gels. I discovered JetPens a few years ago. I'd see and drool over their fountain pens, but I had wasted my money on a beautiful Waterman FP about ten years ago that never worked well and leaks around the nib into the cap--argg! So I had reluctantly avoided buying fountain pens. I used my bottled inks with my dip pens.

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Then I finally broke down a couple years ago and ordered a Cavalier FP from JetPens (half the price of my "on sale" Waterman) and I was in love!! That is what started my searching online for bottled inks and what led me to GouletPens and then WritersBloc. I found Goulet's "Ink Drop" and discovered the cheapie Preppy fountain pens...whoohoo! Seventh heaven!! And then the search naturally widened to find actual fountain pen friendly paper. I have been making my bookcards for about three years and if I was going to use a fountain pen for writing letters in those I needed to be able to write on both sides of the paper.

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So, because of my born love of all things writing (started journaling at nine in pencil) that is why you see me so dang excited over all of my pens, inks, papers, and journals. Ahhhh! It is absolutely glorious! Well worth waiting 60 years to play and search and discover! I do so love the internet! You can learn about and find most anything!! :):)

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Slept really well and long again last night! Sunny day--blue skies and white clouds. The roofers are hammering away. Karma is sleeping right through it. (By today she knows they're not going to be over her head and that is what freaked her out before.)

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Life is good!!

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May you have something that gives you much joy in your days!

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May you have many things, for that matter! :):)

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"Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it."

Fyodor Dostoevsky