Seeds for Seniors

Okay, second time I post identical posts. Sorry, but this one is important, to me.

I want to suggest an idea to everyone, and since I like to dream big, to everyone in the world. Okay, if it spread in the US, it would make me happy.

I like to garden but have always just planted enough to keep us, in tomatoes, hot peppers and green onions. This year I added my watermelons to the mix and I do have about five but I do not know if they will ever get big enough to eat before the weather gets too cold. When mom moved in with us, I threw in an extra tomato plant or two for her.

Now that she lives in an income based senior’s apartment building, I have been taking a box of tomatoes to her and she picks what she wants out of it. I planned on putting the remainder on the table in the entertainment room. Some stores will bring over breads and such and leave them there, so I figure whoever wanted tomatoes could have some fresh garden ones.

But, I only get as far as the elevator, from mom’s apartment. The ladies on the second floor are all over me for my tomatoes. I never saw them move so fast. It’s almost like Christmas to them. A lot of these seniors are totally alone in the world and they do not eat that balanced of a diet.

So, next year, besides starting seeds indoors, I am going to plant as much as I can take care of and take the extra to their building. Without having a lot of money to give, it’s a way I can feel like I am contributing to society and enriching their lives. Not only does it help them to eat a better diet (and believe me, they need help with that) but it lets them know someone cares.

So, how about it? Do you have income based senior housing in your town? Do you have a garden plot? You will bring joy and nutrition to an elderly person by just planting a couple extra tomato plants and donating the leftovers. And, when you see the delight in their faces and how fast those tomatoes disappear, I bet the next year you add more to your garden too.

So, what can we call this? We need a catchy name, like Seeds for Seniors or Tomatoes – no, never mind, that’s not a good one. Hey, and maybe someone is doing this already. It is along the lines of planting a garden in your front yard for the neighborhood to enjoy, like CrazyAuntPurl: The edible lawn...? talked about.

I'll be back later today

I am trying to post every three days here on Blogger. I am also trying to be more entertaining here. I think my first few posts were dry as sap. No, make that wheat toast without Brummels & Brown or Jam. Sap probably is not dry. It's smooth.

I post daily, almost, on Savanvleck’s Weblog. I usually post first thing in the morning, on both blogs.

Okay, so not exactly first thing. There is a little matter of feeding the rabbit, or she throws her ceramic dish around and makes a fierce racket. And, Irritating little Chihuahua, or she sits and looks at me and pouts. But, blogs are next. Well, unless I get distracted by other people's blogs and then lunch will be next before I get back to mine. (And, I wonder why I'm not finishing my YA edit. Oh, yes, this week it is back to YA and not Middle Grade.)

So, the whole point to this is that tomorrow morning, I am off to take my mother for her protime blood work (that's to find out if the Warfarin is making her blood too thin). This means that I will show up at her apartment, and she will get ready to go and then want to stop for breakfast and then go to the hospital for her test. Then, we will go to WalMart and/or the grocery store. And, then I will fix things that are wrong on her computer and take her garbage out and do all those little things and maybe get home around three.

Okay, so you could have just read the Title of the blog to learn that I'll be back later. But, be honest, that would not have been near as much fun now, would it?

Brains - all of them

Gaffer brought home two of Terry Pratchett's books this past summer and left them for me to read. I thought the first page of The Color of Magic was brilliant, but then I got bogged down by the made-up names.

Somehow my brain seems unable, at times, to wrap itself around foreign words. I did not study a foreign language until college, where they tried me in four different Spanish classes. The last Spanish teacherI had told me that I was speaking it perfectly. My reply was, "But, I don't know what I am saying."

I have finished The Color of Magic and am starting on The Light Fantastic, and I am now a huge Terry Pratchett fan. However, (head bent with shame/frustration/embarrassment) I have to admit that I have only, today, caught "Ankh Morpork," as in MORE-PORK. Geez, am I slow. I laughed out loud today when I finally got it. What a genius he is.

It makes me feel a century behind when I find a whole new world of books, conventions and genius. How did I go so long without discovering this? But, that does make it fun. There is always something new to discover around the corner.

Which brings me to the news I read today. At the end of 2007, Terry Pratchett announced that he has a rare form of early-onset Alzheiemer's, called posterior cortical atrophy. Posterior cortical atrophy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

He feels there is still time to "kill the Demon" Terry Pratchett: I'm slipping away a bit at a time... and all I can do is watch it happen Mail Online and, as us baby boomers age we should all be fighting the same battle. It is not a shame to have. A person has not done anything to have it.

My uncle went in for surgery and came out with severe dementia; who stole knives from restaurants and was scared to death of men with beards. My aunt developed Alzheimer's slowly. This normally sour looking old lady, became quite a happy person, who told us we could go swim in the fish tank and that she had a pet spider, who had babies, on the track her privacy curtain slid on. I missed both of them, while they were here and still do. Was I ashamed of them? Never, not once.

So, that is my soap box for today. Should you have an extra $5.00 in this crashing stock market world, remember that this possibility can strike any of us or our loved ones and Donate to the Alzheimer's Association.

Wednesdays with "The Aspiring Writer's Journal"

Wednesday may become “The Aspiring Writer’s Journal” day.

Today’s assignment is, because all writing is good practice:

“What would you like to never end?”

And, no, you are not allowed to say life. That’s what the book says, anyway. Frankly, I think it's a fair answer.

I would like to look up and see a never ending aurora borealis, or even better all the nebula, etc in outer space. (We don't see aurora borealis in southern Indiana.)

I would like my nighttime hallucinations to go on forever. These were black and white movies I saw when I woke up during the night, while taking certain prescription drugs after surgery, and actually once since I was off of them. They were much nicer than my bloody Melatonin dreams; which I have only had two of, thank goodness.

I wish there was always a baby to cuddle and revel in the smell of it’s hair.

I wish a cool gentle breeze always blew across my body at night

I wish good books would never end: Harry Potter, The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George, all Janet Evanovich’s mysteries,

I wish fall leaves fell from the trees forever. Actually, this year they kind of did all summer.

I wish snowmen never melted and you could always have snowball fights.

And that spring flowers grew up through all of it, always.

I wish there was a never ending supply of watermelon in the fridge.

I wish the feeling of that Halloween, when I fell in love with Zorro (who was also trick or treating) would have lasted forever. That’s the first time I felt that “in love” feeling.

But, if these things never ended, would they be as special? I think so.

"He struck Bob in the face." Holly advised

That little bug-a-boo of mine, (when was the last time you heard that phrase?) is the fight that begins my ending.

Action scenes can be so easily overdone, but I have found the advice of The Literary Assassin: Fiction by Holly Messinger "RULES OF ACTION SCENES", to keep me on track.

1. Fights are short. I know that a whole movie can seem to be one big action scene, but as Holly points out, a fight between experienced fighters, who are seriously trying to do each other in, will last minutes. If it is an experienced fighter and a novice, it can be seconds before your inept hero is lying in the ditch, groaning.

The important thing is writing the tension build-up, which leads up to the fight, extremely well.

2. Her next bullet point is extremely helpful to me.

“Use subject-verb-object construction as often as possible:”He struck Bob in the face.”

She goes on to point out that the pacing of your writing adds to a “punchy quality that shakes up the reader.”

SO, if you are in the midst of writing or editing, or just pondering your action scenes, please check her site out, because this is some seriously good advice.

How I spent my time off of writing.

I have been gone from writing for two whole weeks. That is probably the longest time I have gone without writing in two and a half years. I feel refreshed and ready to tackle line editing. I believe I left off on chapter twelve, but I will start from chapter eight, because I am now looking at it with a fresh eye.

My daughter, the teacher, has the first seven chapters to edit for grammar/punctuation/etc, so I don’t want to mess with that. I actually spent an evening/night, some Bailey’s Irish Crème and a lot of giggles with her the night of the wedding. We do not get to spend enough time together and she rented a motel room for us and mom. Mom was deep in sleep within minutes. I forced myself not to ask my daughter, the question, “How much do you hate it?” (meaning my book, and not her grandmother or her husband). I did not want to ruin the giggles.

I spent twelve hours behind the camera that day and, while I wanted to die by about 10:00 pm, I think I have discovered that, if I can spend twelve hours photographing a wedding, I can push exercise harder. My doctor will be so happy. Of course, it has taken me a few days to catch up.

I have also learned that twelve hours behind a camera equates to days and days and days of editing pictures; crop, color adjust, remove red eye, delete the pictures of the naughty Jr. bridesmaid who insisted on throwing her bouquet and making faces, etc. And, do a major adjust of the pictures in the Haunted Chapel. See here for explanation.
The Case of the Haunted Church « Savanvleck’s Weblog

I am sending off one full disc to the bride today because we took some pictures especially for her thank you cards and she is moving on the eleventh, and now I will take it a little easier with the other 2,143 mb of photos left. Let’s see, I sent 700 mb off—at two days of altering—that means I have like six days left. (That sound you hear is me groaning). But, they are not six full days.

My apologies

I cannot believe it has been so long since I posted. I have been off to a wedding most of the time. And, on top of all that, I am only writing that I am sorry, as someone else is waiting for our totally inefficient dial-up network, so I will post a bit later in the day.