Stream of Consciousness Saturday

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “clean/dirty.” Use one, use both, use ’em any way you like. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

____________________________________________

Clean

Wednesday was my birthday. Tuesday night my spouse decided to hand wash my new (to me) car. 

C L E A N

Not the way I do it, but I haven’t been able to clean it since I got it 2 months ago.

Thank you for your thoughtful birthday surprise!

Lola’s Diner cc.  2008-2019

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

Birthday

The ride to lunch at the The Launching Pad  was about 25 minutes. Not bad. It was actually a pleasant ride. My spouse and I took turns torturing the kids belting out 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s songs.

Dang! My hair flattened out. It’s definitely a Faux Hawk and I love it! Wolf did an amazing job. It was like we had a psychic connection because very few words were exchanged and it’s perfect. Lol!


You’d think they coordinated their outfits. Lol! The food was ok. I think it’s more of a tourist thing for young families. The people there were so friendly. It was like going back in time. There was a very spry senior who greeted everyone, made sure we had what we needed, then he bussed the tables after we had finished. Tully, the owner, even came by to check on us, on everyone. He and his partner, Holly, remodeled the place and opened a couple of months ago. It’s on Route 66 across the street from the smallest Buick dealership I’ve ever seen.

Look at me rockin those skinny jeans and that oversized shirt. Next time I need to tuck it in, or what’s the new thing now? The French Tuck click to see how it’s done on the Queer Eye show on Netflix. Love that show!


Afterwards we drove home, ran an errand, and went for ice cream at Raffy’s. They’ve been in town since 2015. I’ve been there 3 times. First as a lookey lew. Then last time and this time for their Black Cherry Ice Cream. It’s no Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, no chocolate chunks, but it’s chock full of black cherries, and more flavorful.

Then 2 more errands and home. Bubbles and kite flying will have to wait until Friday, when my daughter will be here again.

So that was my birthday. It was a good one!

Back to binge watching Veronica Mars. I love Kristen Bell. Not in a creepy way. She seems to play a lot of characters that are cheerful and quirky. 

Lola’s Diner cc.  2008-2019

Happy Birthday to me

Nice face. The more I look at the photo now, the more I see how much I resemble my Dad. Maybe it’s the hair. Lol! 

So it’s just me and the immediate family. 

Hoping for good weather. I think we’ll save the childish festivities until we return home from our little road trip. Not really even a road trip...it’s only a 30 minute drive. 

I ramble too much. I have too many unrealistic expectations. And that’s really sad because I really don’t have many expectations. Now I’m just hoping to get through the day without an awful tension headache. How silly of me. I’ll have a monster one. There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that everyone will be on their best behavior. 

Wish me luck! And wish me a margarita or JD on the rocks. I’m sure it will be the later after we get home. I’m gonna need it.

Lola’s Diner cc. 2008-2019

Mixed Bag

Daughter’s extended home visit through this morning was good Wednesday-Saturday. Sunday things got tense. Monday morning...not good at all. It seems silly, but I have to get her Tuesday night so she can spend my birthday with us Wednesday. Then possibly back to her house Thursday, then back here Friday. It’s a lot of back and forth. If everyone could get along it could just be another extended home visit. If it goes south, she can’t stay the entire time. Besides, she should be going to day program and doing her chores at her house.

So the festivities start Wednesday with lunch. A short road trip on Route 66 to The Launching Pad in Wilmington, IL, home of the Gemini Giant. We’ve never been there, looks like fun. 

Friday my daughter will be at our village’s Proud American Days. Every year on the Friday of the event they close down for disabled/special needs people that are in area day programs. I think even the carnival rides are free. We can pick her up from there like we did last year, so not so much driving. Friday we will also have lunch or dinner at a sushi place we all enjoy. That’s as far as I know about the birthday festivities, other than going for my birthday freebies...Starbucks, Culver’s...I’ve got a list of at least a dozen birthday freebies. I won’t use them all, I never do. 

I also got the bubble wands for the family...and...I got a butterfly kite at Jewel! It was half price. I didn’t need another trip to Walmart. Yay!!!

I’ve recently participated in a couple of Blog Memes, which I enjoyed very much in the past. “Sunday Stealing” is my favorite. I’ve been looking for others to fill out the week, but an awful lot of them are dead links or people haven’t blogged in years. I’m probably bringing back “Turn Back Time Thursdays”.

Insomnia is kickin’ my butt. Sunday I didn’t fall asleep until past 5am. I did avoid day napping, so hopefully I can get back on track.

Still can’t find a buyer for the Odyssey, as is, needing the transmission rebuilt. Don’t have the $800+towing to have the work done by our mechanic. With the transmission repaired I’d be able to sell it for double my original asking price. That would definitely get me out of a sticky situation. 

Lola’s Diner cc.  2008-2019

It’s hotter than...

It’s forking hot. 🥵 Not a fan of this weather. I need a place to be on Friday that has air conditioning. My first thought was the library, but there is a concert event at the Commons and that means the library is closed. Walmart in Lockport was not much better than outside on Thursday. It was downright muggy inside.

The shopping cart rear ending incident is still wreaking  havoc on my lower back. Not a very happy camper. It’s really hard to try to not get sooo irritable. I’m trying super hard to model appropriate reactions to all the fights, arguments, and refusals that have made recent home visits highly tension filled. Been taking  the meds, no improvement on the headaches. 🤕 It’s a very small dose, so not likely to see an improvement any time soon.

My daughter had a podiatrist appointment Thursday so she stayed with us Wednesday night. We have the same doctor. Really nice guy. He’s taken care of all of her toe infections. Anyway, we’ve skipped stay overs since the 4th debacle. Tensions are high. After the appointment we all had a nice lunch out. It was part of my daughter’s birthday birthday birthday celebration for me for the rest of the month. If I had a $1 for every time she had mentioned my birthday, or “you know Mom” in the last week I would have no money worries. The “you know Mom” is her code for talking about whatever I’ve told her to drop for awhile. Right now it’s my birthday planning. It’s very sweet, but also kind of...maddening. 

After lunch we went next door to Dollar Tree. I try to like this place, but the locations near me never have the cool stuff. I’m looking for crafting stuff. Specifically vinyl rolls for my Cricut machine. In the past it was tapestry placemats for a holiday project. Anyway, some bubble wands caught my eye. We each picked a color and will be celebrating my birthday with lots of bubbles! And at least 1 kite that I still need to pick up. Shoot! That means another Walmart trip. Ugh! I feel like doing some childhood stuff this year. My spouse wanted water guns, but wow are they expensive! Not in my budget, or my daughter’s. 

After lunch dropped my spouse back home and headed to CVS and Meijer. Thank goodness we did Meijer today! They rearranged the ENTIRE grocery section. I am not exaggerating when I say we were there for 3 hours! I didn’t even buy much. No. Seriously! 

I thought I solved the ‘why am I getting my face badly sunburned every time I get in my Buick’. I went on an owner’s group for the Enclave and asked. I thought I was losing it. Someone else has to be experiencing this. Yup. I got several replies. The first was that the Enclave doesn’t have the blue band at the top of the windshield like my Pilot does. Kind of like sunglasses for your windshield. I learned all windshields have UV protection in the glass, but it’s apparently not that good for this model or model year. I don’t like using sunscreen on my face, mostly because it causes skin issues, but also because I never remember. Since I don’t carry a bag (I rarely do), I can’t carry it to reapply it and I don’t want it boiling in the glovebox. I wanted a lower maintenance solution. Someone replied that they cut a sheet of white paper and slid it between the sunroof and the fabric sunshade. I did one better. I got an extra gray pillowcase and had my spouse slide it between the glass and shade. It works quite well, but not when the sun is beating down through the driver’s side window. Back to applying sunscreen on my face.

It is just to miserably hot. We need to stake our tomato plants and whatever else needs it, but it’s been too hot during the day, or too buggy at night.

Brother in law came over the other night bearing scrapping gifts. A looks like brand new fire pit with mosaic tile around the top and a double cover. And a like new basketball set, which is now on the patio next to the brand new one I bought 3 years ago that he started to assemble but never finished. Seriously? My son wants to shoot hoops for exercise. This needs to get done. 

Ok, last thing for this post. Pet peeve. Are you a member of the grammar police? I’m a card carrying member. I really try to make anything I write be grammatically correct and spellchecked. I don’t always succeed. I don’t have an editor. I read a lot of articles online. I pick and choose my news. It’s aggravating to me to see so many grammatical errors, spelling errors, and use of the wrong word in a sentence. Articles are often repetitive, having the main idea repeated several times throughout the articles. Do the writers think their audience has no attention span and can’t remember the topic after 2 paragraphs? I’m guessing the writers are well educated and paid well. Has all the media eliminated editors?

Lola’s Diner cc. 2008-2019

Tuesday 4 Dream Time - Have You Ever...

Here is this week's Tuesday 4 Meme of four questions. Please copy and paste the questions to your blog and use the Mister Linky Form for me to visit your blog. As always there will only be 4 questions to answer. I post them each Monday mornings at 5:00 AM EST for you. 

Only necessary rule is to link back to this site, thanks. 😊

To participate click here 

            ⬇️

Tuesday 4 Meme

Dream Time ~ Have You Ever...
1.   Danced At A Ball?
No. I have never danced at a ball. 

2.   Flown A Kite?

Yes. When I was a kid, and when my kids were grade school age. I keep seeing awesome kite displays in the stores. I may just pick one up for my birthday next week. For my 50th Birthday Party we ran through a sprinkler in my yard. Next week is 58, not a milestone birthday, but I want to do something from my childhood. Flying a kite sounds good and my 20 something kids will get a kick out of it.

3.   Strolled Hand In Hand Along The Seashore?

Nope. I think I’ve been to the seashore twice in FL, when I was a teen and then when I was a 20 something.

4.   Sat On A Park Bench People Watching?

Yes! I love, love, love people watching. When I worked by the Riverwalk I ate my brown bag lunch on a bench just off the path. I watched the ducks, bicyclists, walkers, runners, and the occasional rare siting of a kayak going down the river. I think I need to find a good people watching spot this week. I definitely need some chill and some laughs. It will likely be very brief because my back is still having sciatica issues from the grocery incident on Saturday. Maybe I could just go to Walmart and people watch from one of their benches inside. Free a/c and 50 cent Deja Blue from the vending machine.

Lola’s Diner cc. 2008-2019

Sunday Stealing

Sad sleepy survey rambles

Hi! I'm your host Bev Sykes of the blog "Funny the World". . Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. (Past hosts include: Our first - Judd Corizan, Mr. L, Kwizgiver and

Bud)  Cheers to all of us thieves!

Questions from Sad Sleepy Survey Rambles

Have you ever been teased because of the things you like? Yes. When I was young I liked Donny Osmond. Apparently Donny wasn’t cool.

Do you hold grudges? Not in a very, very, very long time. It’s just such heavy negativity and not productive. I have way too many more important things to concern myself with.

Were there any classes you enjoyed because of the teacher? Social Studies. Not because the teacher was interesting, or good. The exact opposite. He was dull and boring and didn’t really pay attention to the shenanigans of a certain couple of class clowns. That would be Lola and Carl. We sat in the back and cut up the entire period. Eventually the teacher busted Carl. It was hilarious, just Carl! I was cutting it up as much, if not more than Carl. 

Was there a dress code at your school? No.

Have you ever been a bad friend? No. 

Has a friend ever replaced you with somebody else? All the time.

Have you ever disliked something just because it was popular? Yes. The first Star Wars movie. I just knew I wouldn’t like it because it was popular, and I was right.

Have you ever watched a movie just because it starred an actor you liked? Often.

Are there actors/musicians you have met? Yes. A lesbian folk artist. She makes a point to greet members of the audience after the show, sign autographs, and give out hugs. For awhile she toured very frequently in Chicago and I went to every show and bookstore performance.

Do you ever judge people based on the music they listen to? Not so much anymore. I think the music of the 70’s-90’s was so different it was easier to form stereotypes.

What about your top five music albums? Queen-can’t remember which album, I copied it onto an 

8-track tape and sketched the album cover; Fleetwood Mac Rumours; Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon; Head East Live; Billie Holiday The Best of Billie Holiday.

Do you remember the first album you ever owned? Fleetwood Mac Rumours record album. Elton John Rock of the Westies cassette.

Do you still use an mp3 player, or just your phone? Phone.

Do you like Elton John? Yes, always. My first cassette was Elton John’s Rock of the Westies.

Have any celebrity deaths hit you hard? Which one(s)? Robin Williams. Phil Hartman. He was so funny and his career seemed so promising. 

Lola’s Diner cc. 2008-2019