Airy Share [syw]

Di @ Pensitivity101 continues her Share Your World series with a lightly scented set of questions.

Do you use an ‘air freshener’ in your home/car/office? (solid, gel, spray, pot pourri, etc)

I do not. All of these clinging, cloying scents will eventually trigger a migraine, even if I enjoy them at first. Same goes for most soaps, shampoos, candles, perfumes, etc. I have to avoid heavy florals, musks, and even too much vanilla, which I love. Cinnamon and spice, as well as citrus, are generally OK, but in small doses and not in a confined space. Even fresh flowers, after a couple days, begin to emanate a moldy, nauseating smell that apparently only I notice.

How often do you clean the oven or microwave?

We hardly ever use the oven, and when we do it’s to roast veggies or bake cookies, so nothing spills. I frequently wipe down the microwave, but last week I had to clean it thoroughly because I reheated lasagna (from a restaurant) and it splattered everywhere. Cleaning up the mess took some effort, and I used both baking soda and vinegar. This will motivate me to cover everything!

Do you use a fabric conditioner in your laundry and/or fragranced tumble drier sheets?

Absolutely not. These products will always give me a headache.

If you have the choice, do you prefer to get your laundry dry outside on a line or use a tumble drier?

Well, I don’t have that choice because I live in an apartment-style condo, and we are lucky to have a laundry room inside our unit, so I never even have to schlep to a public laundromat these days. Even if I had a house with a yard, I wouldn’t dry clothes outdoors ~ my back would kill me from all that stretching and bending. I don’t churn my own butter either! I really appreciate modern conveniences.

Gratitude: I’m super thankful that none of my coworkers wear any migraine-inducing aftershaves or perfumes.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TGIF ~ Desert Haiku

Desert carnation

Blooming under restrained gold

Shadow mountain sky

*

Yeah, so it’s been a while since I tossed out a Paint Chip Friday prompt, but I saw some new paint colors and got inspired. If you are so inclined, choose a word or two from my haiku and create your own ~ or go to Lowes and grab new paint color names for yourself. It’s also fine to engage in the usual non-themed TGIF jabber and link back. I’m easy.

Weird wet weather this week again here in SoCal. I’m so tired of dreary days and am ready for some sunshine, but sadly it looks like we’ll be getting drenched again next week. Naturally, the storms have triggered a raft of migraines, and I’ve been diligently managing those. I just discovered this week that the Rx medication I sometimes take for nausea with migraines (ondansetron) can cause headaches. LOL.

Oops, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, isn’t it? I should have used green colors for my ‘ku. Oh well, too late now! If you celebrate, have fun. I probably will just go to the office and come straight home, since my partying days are waaay in the past, and the idea of going out after work and drinking a green beer or whatever is simply too exhausting to contemplate. I didn’t have pie for pi day either. I’m so boring.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Hidden Dawdles

Fandango clued me into the fact that Rory has been hiding his Dawdler questions inside his Aloha posts. Sneaky! That still doesn’t explain why none of Rory’s posts show in my feed now, but as with most WP glitches we just have to accept it and move on.

Update: Stupid WP dumped Rory’s blog from my following list. I’ve put it back on now. This also happened with another blog I follow and probably more that I haven’t discovered yet because they don’t post daily.

Do you think being outside is good for a person’s wellbeing?

Everyone is going to say yes, but in my case it really isn’t. Like other humans, I do need to get some sunshine to create Vitamin D in my body, but I can also take a supplement and avoid getting a migraine from bright light, cold wind, yucky odors, etc. I honestly feel better when I stay indoors, though of course I theoretically enjoy nature ~ a peaceful beach walk, a quiet stroll in the park, etc. But note the keywords peaceful and quiet. Most of the time these places are teeming with other people and are not the least bit peaceful and quiet.

How much of a sensation seeker are you?

Negative 10. I’m almost 62 and have enough “sensations” going on naturally with chronic pain that I have no need to seek out new things to exacerbate it. I’m a huge fan of comfort, familiarity, stability, warmth, and routine. Roller coasters, skydiving, exotic foods, etc., don’t interest me at all.

Do you believe in blind luck?

Welp, someone has to win the lottery… but they also bought a ticket (or a hundred tickets). That’s the thing about luck: when you dig down into it, you find that it isn’t usually that blind. People put themselves in a position to be lucky, such as having the forethought to be born to wealthy parents. That’s a really good way to get “lucky” in life. Often, it turns out that a “lucky break” consisted of having the right connections at the right time, as opposed to being totally random. I guess I’m a bit cynical about success via luck now that I’m an old, but I’m sure blind luck happens sometimes, somewhere.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TGIF ~ Nothing From Nothing

Happy Friday. It’s been a rather uneventful week, which is how I like them. I’ve just been slogging along, bundling up, and trying to manage my migraines/neck pain/back pain. Last Sunday I visited my three (3!) grandchildren; this weekend I plan to paint. My granddaughter had requested a painting, which I did Saturday and brought to her, and I squished out way too much paint for her picture, so when I was finished I used up the extra paint for backgrounds on new canvases. I did blue, green, and pink ~ and I have a painting in mind for each one. These are the little 8×8 canvases.

I’m taking my own advice regarding the blog follower issue, which was stressing me out. I’ve quit receiving notifications about them now and I’ve quit looking at them. (I will check out a blog after someone new leaves a comment.) It was a mistake to try to police my follower list to get rid of marketers, etc., because it takes so much time, plus they pop back in regardless.

I have a ton of new followers, many without blogs, many in foreign languages, and I’m just done worrying about it. It’s probably because I’ve been participating in the Daily Prompt a few times per week. I think this has also caused an upsurge in the reblogging too, which I also dislike, even when done properly with just an excerpt and linkback. So annoying to have my posts show up on these random sites, but there’s nothing I can do about it when my blog is public. I deleted the reblog/share button a long time ago, but it still happens.

Jim’s Thursday Inspiration prompt yesterday made me think of that 1974 song “Nothing From Nothing” by Billy Preston.

Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’
You gotta have somethin’ if you wanna be with me
Nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’
You gotta have somethin’ if you wanna be with me

That sounds cold, but it’s true, I believe. When we begin a romantic relationship, or even a friendship, we have to get something out of it to motivate us to continue. I was friends with a woman way back when, and our daughters were the same ages, which was convenient, but she dumped me when I couldn’t carpool with her. She found someone who lived closer and had a similar schedule. At the time, I was really hurt, but now I understand. I was getting something out of that friendship ~ playdates for my girls ~ but what she needed from a friendship was someone to help out with driving. I couldn’t do that, so I was of no more use.

I’m not tryna be your hero
‘Cause that zero is too cold for me, brrr
I’m not tryin’ to be your highness
‘Cause that minus is too low to see, yeah

Our needs and wants can change over time. What worked once may no longer be of benefit, and someone who we dismissed way back when could have something to offer now. Of course, we also have to have something to bring to the table ourselves. That’s a given. It’s all just human nature.

Have a good one!

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Can’t Live Without…

What are three objects you couldn’t live without?

Perhaps I’m high maintenance, but there are a lot of things I can’t live without, besides the obvious stuff, like air, water, food, etc. While I enjoy flowers and sunsets as much as any poet, I don’t know how to “rough it” in the wilderness, nor do I want to learn. I am super appreciative of our advancements in hygiene, medicine, food safety, etc., and I don’t casually brush them aside, especially now that I deal with migraines and chronic pain. That said, I will limit my response to actual objects, as opposed to electricity, heat, running water, etc.

My first can’t-live-without object is my iPhone. It’s a way to communicate with my family, friends, and coworkers; it provides a means to write and blog when I’m away from my laptop; it helps me stay organized and make appointments; it gives me easy access to news and information; I can read books on it (though I prefer my Kindle); it generates music and entertainment ~ I could watch movies on my phone, if no larger screens were available; and omg the GPS and maps, which I absolutely cannot live without!

In Southern California, I can’t live without a car. Public transportation is inconvenient and unreliable, so to get to work on time, visit my family, and go to all the other places I need to be, I need to have my own car. I lived without one back in Chicago, and that was great. No worries about maintenance, insurance, parking, etc. I would love to be in that carless situation again, but out here, in coastal SoCal’s mild weather.

Finally, I can’t live without a comfy bed. My days of being able to sleep anywhere are long past ~ I used to be able to snooze on a chair, sofa, bus, plane, and even the floor! But I have so many issues with neck and back pain now that I have to be extremely careful of my sleeping position. What a drag it is getting old… but it beats the alternative (so far).

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TGIF ~ Freezing!

Happy Friday. This is a pic taken right outside my place, or at least it feels that way. BRRRR! It’s cold. There is hail on the beach and snow on the Hollywood Sign. END TIMES END TIMES! Oh wait. That’s supposed to be fire, right? Whatever. Naturally, my migraines are going nuts from the rain and wind and dry air. I just can’t even.

I had a lot of stuff to say earlier, but I was busy and now I’m tired (writing this on Thursday night). I have more WP glitches to b!tch about, including the fact that they’re shoving a stupid ad in my face for a logo-maker every time I go to the admin page. It’s so unbearably irritating, and the button they gave us to hide it doesn’t work for me.

Did any of you fall madly in love with the book Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid? Welp, I did, and there’s great news for us fans ~ they’ve made the book into a movie and it’ll be on Prime starting March 3, 2023. Also, I haven’t forgotten about Manifest, and I wish they’d give us the final eps of that show already.

OK. More later. I’m going to sleep. Go ahead and write a TGIF post and link back to me. Maybe pingbacks will work and maybe they won’t. That’s the thrill of using WP… you never know when something else is gonna fall apart. Kitty snuggle time!

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Peace of My Heart

Somehow I missed Maggie’s Tranquil Thursday #2 post on Thursday (and Friday), but I saw it today via other blogger’s responses. I am not going to let WordPress’s glitches harsh my mellow state of mind.

How do you define peace on a personal level?

Two things basically. The first is the constant management of my chronic pain because that’s my starting point for feeling calm, which I can’t be when my neck is throbbing, my head is pounding, and my back hurts whether I’m standing, sitting, or lying down. I will never be pain-free, unfortunately, but getting it down to a reasonable level is a baseline for feeling peaceful. The second part of the equation is keeping stress and drama to a minimum, which is also something I work at, since life is always tossing surprises at us, some of which must be dealt with, and trolls and scammers lurk everywhere. This is part of the reason I left Twitter and keep my FB participation minimal. And of course it’s why I quit dating!

What does finding peace mean to you?

Keeping my pain level on the lower side, having work/chores/obligations under control, and avoiding any drama.

What environment (the ocean, the mountains, the desert, etc.) brings you peace?

Unlike everyone else, I prefer to be indoors, in a controlled environment. Sometimes I find walking in a park or at the beach to be peaceful, but often something will bother me, such as wind giving me an earache, bright sun giving me a headache, or big barky dogs giving me a scared. At home, I can control the lighting and the temperature, find a comfy position, keep things quiet if need be, get a cup of tea when I want one, etc. This is my path to calm: sitting on the comfy sofa with a warm cup of tea and a snuggly cat by my side.

Is there a person whose presence puts you at ease and gives you a feeling of peace?

No.

There are people I love to be with aka FAMILY, but I wouldn’t say I feel peaceful around them since we’re usually planning an activity which will involve going somewhere in a car (driving = the least peaceful thing ever) or dealing with even more people or situations that I can’t control 100%.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

TGIF ~ What a Week!

It’s been a kaleidoscope of a week, from seeing my adorable grands, to the joy of getting a new grand, to ordering some fun stuff off Amazon, to dealing with our HORRIBLE work neighbors, to creating a zillion new gmail filters to catch the avalanche of spam they are failing to grab, to waking up with a daily migraine, etc. I’m tired, and I am ready for Friday plus a chill weekend.

I will have some family stuff going on Sunday/ Monday, so I won’t be around as much, though I’ll still schedule all the posts I can on Saturday night. I’ve got a great tune lined up for Jim Adam’s Song Lyric Sunday via John Holton’s suggestion of Sunshine Pop. As usual, I had no idea what that was, but Google helped me out, and now I’m all set with a song I love plus a fab video from one of my favorite TV series. That should give some of you a hint. I will, of course, schedule Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge (until he tells me to stop, lol) and my Monday Peeve. Not sure if I will be able to get to more until later Monday or early Tuesday.

Speaking of peeves, I came up with a brilliant idea for April A2Z. If you recall, I said I wasn’t doing it this year because it’s too much pressure, but then I had my brainstorm. Why not do a peeve every day?! I mean, dur. Well, they aren’t all peeves; some are just things I dislike, but why not mention those too? I think everyone will be thrilled to read more of my complaining! I won’t be doing TMP that month because redundant, but peeps can link back to whatever crab I post on Mondays if they feel the need to peeve. THE NEED TO PEEVE. It’s a thing. Anyway, I’m so into my idea that I’ve already scheduled 10 days of April.

Oops, was I supposed to wait to reveal my topic until some specific date? My bad!

Link back here with your TGIF. You know you wanna…

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Sunday Dawdles

Rory @ Earthly Comforts has a fresh set of Morning Dawdler questions for us today.

Should we fear the arrival of more progressive AI [Artificial Intelligence] or embrace it?

I don’t know. Everyone has a strong opinion on this, but who knows what will happen in reality, as opposed to sci-fi? No one. I choose to wait and see how it goes. So far, it doesn’t seem to be too threatening, only amusing, but it’s too early to predict. One thing I might be inclined to worry about is financial fraud. If AI can imitate a voice, a face, and guess all our passwords, then that could be a disaster for everyone, much worse than what we are already dealing with in this area.

How much time do you spend sitting each day?

Most of my waking hours are spent sitting. I suffer with chronic pain and do not exercise much at all. I understand that “they” say I would feel better if I moved around more, but every time I try it, I feel worse.

What is your proudest accomplishment?
[Having Children not included]

I am proud of my recovery from financial and emotional setbacks later in life. Neither recovery was easy to achieve, but I worked hard at both, with my main motivation to avoid being a burden to my daughters (who are both lovely people and I take pride in that too).

Are/Were you the youngest, middle, oldest or only child?

I am the only child of my parents; however, I learned at age 25 that my mother had another daughter 10 years before me, in Ohio, when she was 20 and unmarried. That baby was given up for adoption, and I tried to find her on Ancestry, but so far there has been no response.

I am sad to think I will never meet her or get to talk to her. It would be nice to know what she looks like and if she has any children.

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.

Thursday Morning Dawdles

Rory @ Earthly Comforts posted new Morning Dawdler questions for us yesterday; however, I was busy with my riddle then. I think it’s OK if I answer them now.

On a scale of 1 – 10, how happy are you?

At this moment? Maybe a 7. I had a good day yesterday, but still all the usual aches and pains plague me. Overall it’s more like 5-6, as I find it impossible to feel more than momentary happiness for my good fortune while so many are suffering. Yesterday at the drugstore the woman ahead of me had her credit card declined for her prescriptions ~ which were $1200! Twelve hundred dollars! For one month! My migraine meds were $15, but I can’t stop thinking about that poor woman and our sh!tty healthcare system. I could be her someday.

Why do people ask how we are but do not want to know the truth?

Well, not everyone does this or even a majority. When my family and friends ask, they do want to know the truth. When coworkers ask, they probably would prefer an abbreviated version (as would I). When a store clerk or bank teller asks how I am, obviously they don’t care, and I find it infuriating that they’re instructed to ask. Just say “hello, how can I help you?” What’s wrong with that?

How much meat do you consume in a week, and if you are not a meat eater, have you ever considered meat alternatives, and if so, what are they?

Uh, I dunno… it depends on the week. Some weeks I hardly eat any meat, but other weeks I might have meat daily. Starting from last Sunday, I’ve had fish twice and steak once. That’s probably it for this week, given that tomorrow’s dinner is at a vegan place and I’ll be home Friday and Saturday ~ I don’t cook meat at home. There are times I get a bunch of frozen dinners that contain some chicken and have one for my office lunch daily until I get sick of them and switch back to salads. I went vegetarian for a while (a couple times), which was OK, except I didn’t feel like living on eggs and cheese, and I got tired of carbs. Regarding alt-meat… Tofu? I like it. Seitan? It’s OK. Impossible Burger meat and the like? Only in tacos/burritos.

Are you a slow or fast eater, and which behaviour do you think is best and why?

I don’t know what’s “best.” Whatever makes the person feel good, I guess. I am probably on the fast side, as I just want to finish, not nibble, have my tea, and be done. I don’t care how fast/slow other people eat, unless they’re so slow that they’re holding up the group from leaving a restaurant. I do care that Gatsby sometimes eats too fast and throws up. Annoying!

~*~
©️2023 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted.